Social Resto-Lounge Review

I dont even know where to begin. My first and last experience at this restaurant was 2 weeks ago when my partner surprised me for my 30th birthday and it was a complete nightmare. I am not one to write reviews, but after having spoke to many people about our experience I was told it was the right thing to do. First off my partner had reserved a 'private room', when we got there we were seated in the dining room and did not get the room that we had reserved for. Then, the menu they gave us was not the one we had reserved for. We were then told that there was nothing they can do and only accommodated a few of us at the table for a menu swap. THEN, when ordering our steaks we were told we COULD NOT choose the cook and that they all came medium-rare. This seems completely outrageous considering we are paying 65$ for a steak and we have no control over the cook. All the steaks that came to the table were RARE, no one managed to finish their steak and the rest of the meals were cold. Not to mention we received our food hours later, and we were not given bread. I had to ask the waitress for bread and asked her twice to come around and refill our drinks. The night was a complete horror show and the cherry on the sundae was the 18% tip we all had to give that was included on our +100$ bills per person. I was embarrassed that my guests were brought to such a terrible and yet expensive restaurant with terrible service and mediocre food. Very disappointing...

The place was almost empty on a Friday night. The service is bad. Unfortunately this is not the place so plugged before ... sad.

The service was def Excellent, food was okay! Not the best.
A bit pricing foe the size of its portions

Fabulous, high end restaurant. You pay more, but the food and cocktails are special.

Food was good, service great, room (lower lounge) was excellent and away from the restaurant

Best restaurant in Ottawa. Atmosphere, service and food is all top quality. 10/10 recommend!!

Went there 2 years ago. Food was ok but service was very rude.

Had snacks from the social afternoon menu. Had some oysters, beef sliders, a meat and cheese platter, and a brulee and coffee at the end. The food was good, I quite enjoyed the platter. The service was very good too and it was nice to sit outside at the terrace on a sunny day.

Terrible dinning experience!! The waitress spilled the whole hot coffee on my friend s sweatshirt. But the waitress didn t show any apologies about this accident. The most terrible thing is that the manager s attitude is even worse and she just said what do you guys want and asked us to leave the restaurant right away rudely. We were so disappointed for the racial discrimination.
After we got home, we found that my friend s phone is damaged in many ways. The sound is not working, the vibration is not working, the screen is glitching. It is a brand new iPhone 12 which my friend saved up for months for.
We went back to the restaurant to solve the problem but she refused to apologize for the situation with a severely BAD ATTITUDE.
My friend was really sad but she s holding her temper just to solve the problem. The manager said we do not have the footage of the coffee being split on the phone!!!! Can t believe she s denying everything!!!
Worst experience ever!!!!!

For our second arrival, what we want is to discuss with the problem of phone peacefully. What we had been through is incredibly unbelievable! The manager Lauren Topley denied everything about my friend s phone after showing her the recording of the phone s problem and accused us for no reason. And she refused to go over the footage with us. For my friend s phone, after she got spilled coffee all over her, do u think we still have time to check our phone right away? The manager Lauren Topley is absolutely liar. She didn t say nothing about going to the mall and buy us a CHAMPION sweater!!!!!!! And she got back to us about our slander? Go ask all the witnesses if Lauren Topley ever said that. What she showed on here is TOTALLY opposite with what we went through. I can t believe this kind of person still serve people with such attitude as a manager in a restaurant!!!!!!!!! It is absolutely discrimination.

Social, so shall we go back... nope. Service was slower than a bill going through the Senate and the excuse we were given was a number of tables showed up without a reservation, so kitchen was overwhelmed are you kidding me you re a restaurant and should welcome that additional business. Food was ok, but won t go back or recommend.

Delicious food, incredible ambiance and the cocktails are just incredible! The staff is amazing and the patio is beautiful!

Social is one of the most vibrant and enticing atmospheres in the city. The food is tantalizing, the cocktail list is full of fun plays on classics as well as unique creations, and the staff strikes the perfect balance between professional and personable. Lauren Topley, the GM, went above and beyond on more than one occasion that I ve been at the restaurant to make our group s experiences seamless and hitch-less. You can tell there s a great deal of care that goes into creating such a memorable and tasteful atmosphere. Thank you Social!

Very good food and nice setting. Service was great.
Would go again with friends or family.

The patio has a nice European vibe. The servers were very friendly. The food didn't arrive super fast but the relaxing mood made it fine. My wife had the salmon and loved it. I had the Social burger which was fine. Daughter-in-law really liked the daily pasta. Pretty expensive but nice for a special occasion.

great place and Todd our waiter originalky from NFLD was perfect

service and atmosphere 5 stars but food and drinks 1 star. Food was so salty that I am sure we will stones and the first drinks ordered tasted like water. Very very disappointed

By far and away the best patio in Ottawa. The food is spectacular, the service is friendly and fast, the drinks are amazing. Ask for a Mojito made the old way!

Best experience i have in regard to food and customer service no complains i highly recommended

Went on a Saturday night, place was pretty empty. Had a fantastic DJ playing some slow rap. Rotating cocktail was priced well, tasted great, bit too much ice though. That being said, the service was not great. Sat at the not so busy bar with an empty glass for a good 15 minutes.

Came here for dinner, and I ordered their pasta of the day, and my partner ordered their steak frites. The service was kind of slow, but I guess it's the type of restaurant that likes to give the customer space, so I won't judge too harshly on that.

My partner said the steak was quite good and cooked just to her liking, and the fries were nice and crispy.

The pasta wasn't quite what I was expecting. I was supposed to be a pistachio pesto pasta with tomatoes and kale, and chicken. I couldn't taste any pistachio in it, and the chicken looked and tasted like leftover from a roast chicken you would by at Loblaws. The noodles themselves were homemade and cooked perfectly al-dente.

Overall, it was a pretty good meal, but I don't think I'd bother ordering the pasta again.

Too classy and too expensive. Service was slow and it wasn't event rush time.

Nothing that special about this place. Typical menu with nothing to bee too excited over. Not worth the price they charge either and the vibe isn't really "social". It's decent nonetheless.

Great vibes, great food! One of the lightest cheesecakes I've had anywhere - it was delicious!

Food is good. The service was great. Perfect place for a night out with your significant other.

Beautiful restaurant and good service but the food isn't great and it is expensive, poor value in my opinion.

Hit and miss service and food. Luxe is better for the price.

Came in on a hot day when service was changing from lunch to supper. The team was great and we got a meal of soup and salad anyway. Very helpful for my friends who were hot tired and hungry.
Thank you for such kind and thoughtful service. We will return!

Always a wonderful experience! Great service and lovely atmosphere! A true gem in the market.

ONE OF MY FAVORITES IN THE MARKET. SEAFOOD LINGUINE IS AWESOME

Good service but OK food. I celebrated a good friends birthday, the service was good with a nice server who was nice to even take a picture of all of us. I found the appetizers a little big and the meal was small. For the price I was paying, i would expect a little bit more for my money. The crowd at the front was just annoying for getting in and out of the restaurant, and i almost tripped over while walking in my heels due to SO many people just not moving. The atmosphere was good and liked the scenery a lot.

We had a valentines dinner there. Service and ambience were pretty good, and we had a great time. The only point I would say customers couldn t order anything else except from valentine s menu. The food were pretty good, but a bit overpriced.

I liked the place but the food it is not wow! You can eat in another cheap restaurant and the same tast or maybe better.

how do you know i didn't come
wow your tracking system so useful.
the owner delete my review.
wonderful job

One of my friends celebrated birthday here last year and i have visited this place 20 times ever after highly recommended because people working here have pride and work with all their dignity , their heart is at the right place and goes above and beyond , their spicy Cesar with homemade salt rim and green bean pickle was one of the best cesar i had in a long long time kudos to the bar team and the front end team , never to leave the back of house plating things with utter perfection

The duck confit was delicious and the service was great. Decent sized portions and would definitely recommend trying the restaurant.

Unfortunately our meal was really underwhelming. The hen and blue potatoe mash was flavourless and uninspired. The pasta of the day had more flavour but the cream based sauce was very heavy. Desert was better but at that point I just wanted to leave, Disappointing and I wouldn't recommend it given how pricey the menu is.

Nice place and pretty good food. The staff is quite friendly as well.

Expensive, small portions, pasta was tasteless, one of our orders came out after all the other orders had been eaten. Ambience in the patio is very nice, though. They gave us the late portion for free, which was also nice.

Comfortable casual surroundings with good variety of seafood and seasonal offerings. Vegan dishes available and some nice wines for pairings. My wife loved the cauliflower steak and roasted beets. Excellent coffee. Staff was very attentive and friendly - even kitchen staff asked us for feedback.

Awesome food and service :) Very nice atmosphere too!

Big shout out to those who need a passive aggressive convo with the waiting staff. You will find one here. Food is ok. Proper distancing the tables too.

Great atmosphere. Service was very good. Enjoyed food and meals are very tasty. Great drinks also. Definitely must go again.

The atmosphere and the decor are great, however, the service and the food can be improved.
We got a daily pasta, that came with dry pieces of duck confit. We also got a duck confit separately and it was on the dry side as well. They offered to exchange the pasta for something else, so we got the pork tenderloin, which was tasteless and overcooked. Service was slow and not very attentive.

I had stopped in after Good Friday mass at the Basilica, looking for a non-meat item, like fish and chips, and in the process, discovered that they have the best frites I can ever recall trying.

They were herbed just right, with some grated cheese sprinkled on top, and served with a very tasty aoli.

The best part? Considering where I was, the portions were generous, and inexpensive. The frites were done well, not soggy nor hard, and NOT salted to death.

Acclaimed chef, Antony Bourdain, once commented in an interview that he was surprised at the self-realization that another restaurant had come up with better frites than his own.

I guess that's how I felt.

The coffee was rather good, too, and came with a small tray of milk, cream, and raw sugar that was also presented by a very pleasant and friendly server.

I'm going back. Not just for the food but because, in part, of the quiet atmosphere, non-intrusive staff, and for the chair by the window, which allowed me lots of natural light for reading, and for watching life go by.

All in all, a very positive experience. And by the relaxed tenor of my fellow guests, I would like to think that they, too, enjoyed their time here!

Mario

Meh! It's described as a French restaurant but, having eaten in other French restaurants here and abroad, I can safely say I've never seen a burger on the menu. In fact, there was little on the menu that would be regarded as "french cuisine". Nice enough interior, slow but courteous service. I'd call it overpriced but given it's location (Sussex Avenue), it was expected. Overall, all our meals were good, just not outstanding or memorable.

Pulled pork sandwich was good. Try to sit outside, very nice.

My favorite spot in Ottawa! Amazing food, drinks and atmosphere

Exceptional service. Professional staff, confident and capable at ensuring your evening is problem free. Very impressed. Attended a dinner with 25 guests for a 50th birthday celebration. Wonderful and attentive staff. Food was very good.

Always a pleasure to eat here. Peter knows how to run a tight ship, and this place is a real treat. Lovely to sit outside in the summer too!

Service - 5/5 super friendly and awesome staff
Venue - 4/5 very nice and sophisticated
Drinks - 5/5 yummy cocktails, great bartenders
Food 1/5 -
- oysters were good
- had to send the yellowfin tuna appetizer back, it was cut into incredibly thick pieces not sashimi style, and had a very very fishy aftertaste when swallowing it.
- the scallops themselves were good, but all of the sides were inedible, the wild boar belly was so coarse, you had to chew forever and it had no taste, the compressed apples were inedible too.
- the cod main was okay, the fish itself tasted nice but a little bland, once again sides super boring and tasteless.

Overall great place to go for just drinks and oysters, but would never go there for a lunch or dinner again.

Crispy squid was very bad. Looked bad, tasted bad. Didn't even need to take a bite to say it's bad. My stake was overcooked. I asked for medium, but it was more like a medium-well stake. Awesome atmosphere and service.

The fried squid is so damn ugly ... you don't need to taste it to taste it. A knife is even more "surprise". At the end of the cut, the squid was separated from the batter outside and rotted on the plate. The dipping sauce is too tasteless, not only that it is not salty, it can't taste anything at all. The steak is getting old. My order is at least seven points. However, the service and environment are still very good, which can give this shop a point.

Wouldnt really recommend it for lunch. Although the ambiance is really nice on a warm day sitting on the patio but the lunch menu was lacking. The service was good. I would try it out again maybe more for dinner though. The food was good but it was only a cheese plate along with other simple apps. Like I said I would go back again to give it another shot but I dont know how excited I would be about it.

The restaurant is divided into two sections. We had reservations for a friends birthday. The four of us were put in the back next to a very loud group of 25 people for a 50 th birthday and a while later another large group were seated next to us. Between the loud groups and loud music we found it very difficult to carry on a conversation.
The staff were nice, however we felt forgotten as service was minimum. We skipped appetizers and ordered our entree which was very good and the only positive of the evening. The restaurant brought the birthday girl a complimentary desert. However we got our desert menus after she was finished. We skipped desert.
We were the only group sitting in the back with the two large groups. It was the worst experience in a restaurant of this rating. I apologized to my friend for choosing the restaurant as it was a most unpleasant atmosphere and ruined our evening.
The restaurant should have extended the courtesy of notifying us of the seating situation prior to confirming the reservation. If I had been informed that our table would be next to such a large group I would have thanked the restaurant and not made the reservation for this evening.

Excellent service!! They accommodated my meal according to my allergies and did not charge me extra. Food was very good. Very clean cozy upscale restaurant. Definitely recommend and I will be going back!

Always have a good time here. Great service, good food and drinks, and a charming atmosphere.

After the reno, I'll be sticking to the outdoor courtyard terrace and wine list. Popular place for groups.

One of the hidden gems in the market. A great place for a patio beer or outdoor snacks in the summer months and a cozy dining room for cocktails and dinner in the winter. Fully stacked bar and creative takes on a number of culinary dishes. Would recommend.

The food is incredible and the servers have a never ending knowledge of their extensive wine and cocktail menu

Social is a great place to head to. Both a friend and I were here for brunch on a Saturday. When we arrived at 1130, we were greeted with a warm welcome and a smile. The location wasn t busy, even for a Saturday. The server was very professional and didn t rush us. The atmosphere is amazing, with the separated rooms and the room with the wine wall.
I recommend visiting Social. I had the Eggs Benedict with Avocado and tomato. It was accompanied with a fresh side salad and home fries. I recommend this item.
I will visit again.

Amazing place! We were 5 which was difficult to place with the covid restriction but they managed to give us two tables close to each other (we didn't even realize we were separated, it was perfect). The waitress Chelsea was amazing gave us a free shot and free desert. Love that place and our waitress. Ambiance was immaculate.

I went at Social for lunch last friday. I am usually very pleased with the food but was very disappointed this week. I ordered the fish of the day. When the plate was put in front of me it was a heavily breaded fish in between two humongous hamburger buns. Actually, after removing the buns and some breading, there was about 3 mouthful of fish. what a disappointment. If I wanted to eat breaded fish (which I do not want) I would not go to Social, I would rather go to one of those chain restaurants. I hope never to have this kind of food in front of me again. This is not acceptable or warranted of your restaurant.

Reliable Duck Confit here. Excellent flourless chocolate cake with peanut butter mousse and pistachio ice cream. Paid for 5 oz glass of wine, but definitely didn't get anywhere close to 5. Pretty chintzy move for a place of this calibre. If that wasn't chintzy enough, you now have to pay $2 for tiny portion of bread with butter/olive oil. Worst of all bread was of better quality when it was free. Sadly, have to deal with frequent stong smell of marijuana on the lovely summer patio now as Canada has normalized pot usage and there are public benches close by.

Beautiful decor, great music and servers. The group I went with loved their dishes (charcuterie, oysters, gnocchi, duck, lamb) but the cauliflower steak that I ordered was a little tough to chew and lacked flavour.

Sat at the bar for drinks and snacks. Bar manager Shannon was entertaining and makes decadent cocktails! Would definitely recommend this place for a fancy night out.

Delicious food in the most friendly place. A varied menu from where every pick is an amazing food experience. The host is very friendly and will make sure you're a happy...

Nice atmosphere, the food was ok, but a bit expensive for the portion sizes.

We had such great service last night! And the food oh my!! I loved my juicy burger and my friend really enjoyed her jerk chicken. Dont forget to order a dessert (chocolate one) as it may have been the best desert ive eaten in while!!

Came in for happy hour. The oysters we had were nice and meaty, shucked very well, but did not compare taste wise to the ones we d had at Shore Club for buck-a-shuck - nice and salty, with cocktail sauce on the side as well as mignonette. The flatbread was pretty ridiculous... 8 bucks for four tiny crackers with aioli and some tomatoes. Did not stick around for dinner, but for buck-a-shuck there are better options. Good service though and nice patio.

Sitting at the social for the last 10 minutes, and no one has come by. Some restaurants have done a great job post covid since they fought to be open but others do not seem to care. I should have left 6 minutes ago.

One if the best restaurants in Ottawa where you can always try something fun and unique. We had the seafood platter and steak tartare, so good and fresh. Would recommend for any celebration or couples night.

The kitchen is good but we have been waiting too long. The waitress brought wrong order and she forgot to bring another one, then we have been waiting about half an hour until she comes back to remind her. Then another half an hour until she brings just a small portion of fritters. More waiting for her to bring the dessert menu, then 20 more minutes to come back to take our dessert order, and another 20 minutes until we get out dessert.
Also, it is a bit pricy for this service.