Social — Restaurant in Vancouver

I was so genuinely disappointed with the way that this evening went as I had been to Social quite a few times and had enjoyed it before.

I came in with a group of friends for my 22nd birthday and we loved the style of the restaurant and the food was good, but I ordered the peach fuzz and the issues started with that.

I and a friend of mine are both allergic to pineapple so we are always cautious and check the ingredients in cocktails on the menu before ordering. Nothing on the menu indicated pineapple juice in the peach fuzz, but it listed all the other fruits in the drink so I figured it was safe and ordered it. When it came to my table I took a sip and it was extremely strong, and I started coughing and my friend who is also allergic tried a sip and was coughing as well. When the waitress came by, I asked her if she could bring me a bit of the mix used for the cocktail and she said she would bring a glass of pineapple juice and was there and back before I could stop her. After confirming that there was pineapple juice in the drink, I told her that we are allergic and she was very apologetic and immediately brought us both water and offered to remake the drink with orange juice instead of pineapple. I appreciated that they were apologizing but it was concerning when the waitstaff came over and told us that they had informed the owner that pineapple wasn't on the ingredient list for the cocktail a few weeks ago but they had not fixed it yet. I know for certain that we two are not the only people who are allergic to pineapples and it's very lucky that neither of us had a more adverse reaction.

After this incident we sat and had the rest of our food and hung out for another 30-60 minutes before asking for our bills. When the bill came, I was surprised to see that I was charged for the drink. Although they reacted quickly and replaced my drink, I found it odd that they would charge me for it given the circumstances. On top of that, after handing us our bills, we watched as our waitress and 3 other employees stood by their light-up rainbow wall decor taking photos and selfies with each other for somewhere between 10-15 minutes, never once looking over at us to check if we were ready. During that time, I saw a couple waiting at the host desk for what I would guess is 5-10 minutes before one of them walked in to where the girls were standing and had to ask to be seated. One of the staff seated them but our waitress still did not come over to us and continued taking photos.

When she did come over, she said "Sorry for the wait, I was having some technical difficulties". While I would be completely understanding of that, I think that it's unlikely that she expected us not to see her and her coworkers taking pictures and selfies 10 feet away from us. My friend had to ask her if it was possible for them to comp the drink, which then took her 5 minutes to come back with the adjusted bill for.

Throughout the night, friends who got the same drinks would taste each others and they not once tasted the same as someone else's; some were unbearably strong and others were mostly mixer.

Overall, the lack of consistency and service was disappointing as I've really enjoyed my time at this bar in the past. I hope that the owner will take this incident seriously and fix the menu as soon as possible before it affects anyone any worse than it did us, and that the service can be improved for...

Waitress was great efficient and friendly. Very personable. I was 100% pleased with our table. I am 5'5 and the chairs were small enough that my feet touched the floor and close enough to the table but my upper back was supported. It was a welcome change from the Mini-Me feeling I get in most restaurant chairs. The music is loud, which is to be expected in this type of place. However our table was in a window alcove and away from the house speakers (which need to be properly equalized). Thankfully the music did not contain vocals ... I don't know if this was intentional but it was welcome. My tastes are different from most people in that if one must have additional sound in an eatery, I would prefer a harp in the background. Maybe flute and acoustic guitar, jazz or classical. This is not that type of place nor does it pretend to be which is a basis for the way I rate and establishment. These are subjective Google stars, not Michelin stars lol.

The two people I was with were not pleased with the seating arrangement because they did not fit so easily. It was adjacent to an open door to the toilets. On the subject of the restrooms. They were poorly planned. The men's has no door and the sink is visible to the room. At right angles to the sink, while out of view to the diners, is the urinal. There is no privacy screen. On the other side of the sink a shoulder width over is the door to the toilet cubicle. The women I was with were not thrilled with the view which probably was more of an issue due to the discomfort of the table. They asked the waitress if we could sit several feet away where there was a section of unused tables. The manager told her no because they were reserved for a party that would be arriving an hour and a half or two later. My friends assured the waitress we would be gone before the others arrived but it was a no-go. The preferred seats remained empty throughout our meal and no one was sitting at them by the time we paid and left. It wasn't a big deal to me because I was happy where we were, but I could see where my friends were coming from. Food was good. Price is in keeping with similar places in the neighborhood. I would prefer to pay a dollar more and have a slightly larger portion. If you're going with the idea that it's a place to drink and eat versus a place to eat and drink you'll...

Unfriendly staff and bad drinks.

Went with a party of 9 people. When we arrived the place was completely empty. We put our drink orders in, when our drinks arrived my friend tried their Aperol spritz and it did not taste right. We informed the server, they ended up taking the drink back and my friend got a different drink. However the server was hesitant to take the drink back. There was one other server/employee who was on their phone (in the restaurant area) the whole time we were there. When it came time to ask for the bill, I had to flag down the employee who was STILL on their phone. When the employee came over I asked nicely if we could have the bill and if it could be split, their response was ‘yeah, let me get your server’. Their response made it seem as if I was inconveniencing them by asking for the bill?! When we received the bill the server informed my friend that restaurants don’t take drinks back when people don’t like them. I have been to many restaurants where they happily take the drink back if it is made wrong or not to your liking (of course up to a certain extent)

I also felt our server was gossiping about our table to the other server, when I would look over both servers would be looking at our table and laughing.

I also saw a group of 4 people waiting at the front to be seated. When the group realized no one was coming over to seat them the group end up sitting at the bar. The group of 4 sat at the bar for 10-20 minutes and ended up leaving because no one came over to say hi or give them water. I could tell the group of 4 were not happy upon leaving.

Overall I felt like our table was inconveniencing the worker of the restaurant, even though we were the only table in the place for a majority...