Socialite Rooftop Bar & Terrace — Restaurant in Canterbury

After much hype about the launch of Socialite in Canterbury I decided to treat my friend for a special birthday gift - what a mistake!

I’d like to add neither of us are fussy, we enjoy eating out at a variety of places and rarely complain but this was pretty terrible. And a waste of £40! Here are the things that ruined the experience:

there is currently no one working down the stairs at reception so you feel as though you’re walking somewhere you shouldn’t be

while the bar staff are dressed smartly the waiting staff in the restaurant were really not at all, still wearing a coat while serving - we thought she was a customer

Socialite have vegan options on their menu but when I asked for dairy free alternatives for a coffee I was told they didn’t offer any… even easy jet offer soya milk now! And what a half hearted attempt at an inclusive menu.

lots of drinks were out of stock, which is fine, but would have been nice to know on arrival rather than every time we tried to order one

the worst thing was the food! If you’re paying £14 for a vegan breakfast you expect something that tastes … well of something! the sausage was a Linda McCartney vegan sausage, which was extremely dry the ‘garlic and Thyme mushrooms’ actually meant one unseasoned fried mushroom - and no not a portobello one the beans are tinned beans, which is fine but was hoping for something homemade for £14 the hash browns were deep fried from frozen and the ‘scrambled’ tofu was .. 2 chunks of fried unseasoned tofu. When I questioned this I was told the tofu they had in couldn’t be scrambled. As someone who cooks with tofu a lot I know this to be incorrect, they just needed to crumble it. And anyone who cooks tofu would tell you it HAS to be seasoned, otherwise you may as well be eating rubber. So this was uneaten the only thing with any flavour was the toast, which was burnt and inedible. They offered no dairy free butter or even olive oil so once again another dry part of the meal. overall we ate very little as it was dry, and bland - and being totally honest I could buy all of the ingredients from Iceland!

we were never once asked ‘how is your meal’, ‘would you like any condiments’, ‘can I get you another drink’ and there were only 3 tables in use!

Honestly I have no idea what my £40 went on and I am so embarrassed that I had taken a friend as gift. Plus the cheek of service charge!

socialite is marketed and priced as an upmarket place to eat and drink and I can honestly say I’ve eaten better breakfasts at a travel lodge.

if you’d like to visit for drinks on a rooftop, go for it. But if you want good food with a view, grab a picnic from M&S and head to the university hill, you’ll spend less and it’ll taste better!

Canterbury is full of great places to eat and drink, and St.Margrets street itself has a few, so I don’t think socialite will be able to retain customers at this rate. On the plus side after our food we went across the road to no.35 for coffee and a cake (as we’d barely eaten) and they told us that they heard lots of bad things about socialite, so I fear this is...

I attended with 3 friends on Saturday 5th April for the Kisstory vs UK Garage Bottomless Brunch.

Firstly, when we got to the venue at 12:40 we were told we could order a drink but this was not allowed to be a cocktail, only wine, bottled beer or prosecco. However, at the same time other customers were being served cocktails. Then we were led to our table which was extremely close to other tables, all tables had less than a foot space between them and guests were struggling to get past other tables when they needed to go to the toilet.

My friends and I asked for a glass of water on 5 separate occasions over the course of an hour, before it finally was given to us. When customers are drinking "bottomless" alcohol, it would be prudent to give them water when requested with haste, not after 5 times asking and one hour later.

The food was appalling, my three friends had the pizza and they could physically not cut it it was so dry and hard, they tried to tear it with their hands, their teeth, and cut it with two different knives - to no avail. My burger was just as dry and unappetising, and the fact that burgers were served without chips at a £39.50 brunch is shocking.

The only cocktails on the menu for the standard brunch both contained orange juice - the bar ran out of orange juice less than an hour into the brunch. This shows a distinct lack of planning for the event. The event was supposed to be "Bottomless" brunch however my friends and I saw the bottom of our glasses on many occasions and had to go to great effort to get staffs attention to have them refilled.

The event was described as Kisstory vs UK Garage, and we were advised to dress up "retro" and there would be a prize for best dressed. However, there was no winner announced and there was no mention of such competition on the day, when I asked staff about this they said they had no idea what I was talking about.

The "entertainment" was abysmal - a man stood at a laptop playing music from Spotify and not interacting with the crowd is not a DJ. This is not what we expected from an event which was £39 (the pricier end of bottomless brunches available in the area) and advertised as music being the main theme of the event.

Finally, once the "entertainment" was finished we were all abruptly kicked out. My friend and I were waiting at the bar, and had been for ten minutes, to purchase a drink. However, we were told that everyone had to leave and the event was over despite the fact we had stood for ten minutes queuing.

The fact that an approx. £3 admin fee was charged per guest when booking should have been warning enough. We typed our own details into the computer system - there was no admin for you to do. However, we attended anyway excited for the entertainment, competition, good food and bottomless drinks. However we received absolutely none of them. This was the biggest disappointment I have ever experienced. I reached out to the Socialite directly about this experience but they made no attempt to rectify the situation and instead blamed it on...

Visited Socialite last night and had booked a table for the evening for drinks. Overall experience was disappointing and overpriced for what it was. Nice view and the cocktail tasted nice when we eventually got it.. but the rest is a massive let down. I rang in the day and booked a table for the evening. When booking I was told outside areas couldn't be reserved due to the great British weather, which is absolutely fair enough. We arrived - noone greeted us so we went up to the bar. A lady, I presume to be a manager as she was dressed differently, spoke to us and confirmed our reservation and told us we could sit anywhere inside or out, but not on the sofas outside as they have been reserved... Not sure how as we were told outside spaces couldn't be reserved?! We found a seat inside by the window and the view of the cathedral was lovely. We waited for 15 minutes and not one member of staff acknowledged us or gave us a drinks menu or food (small plates) menu, we asked at the bar twice to order drinks and was told someone would come over. Noone did. At one point there was around 6/7 people behind the bar, and on a Tuesday evening I would expect that to be plenty of staff to deal with the minimal amount of people in the bar as it was not very busy, but still noone came. We ended up stopping a member of staff as she walked by us and when asked if we could order drinks she said "yep, what do you want?". I understand she was probably in the middle of something but service was really substandard. After this the manager walked past again and said "are you being looked after?" I said not really and explained. She said "oh sorry that was my fault I forgot to get someone to bring menus over to you" and that was basically it for the interaction. Our 2 espresso martinis arrived and were served onto the table, one had been spilt a bit when being carried over on the tray (obviously noone's fault as this happens) but no napkins or anything were placed down. The drinks tasted nice, however at £28 for 2 drinks it was steep. The overall vibe of the place was let down by the lack of customer service and attention to detail. I'm more than happy to pay higher prices but expect a certain level of service if I do. The service we received absolutely did not match up to the prices and the look/vibe it is trying to create. A real shame. We left as soon as we...