42 North Social House — Restaurant in Dexter

Excited to try out this new venue in Downtown Dexter. They have done a nice job renovating and seemed to have plenty of staff.

They had a good selection of food and the menu had some great sounding dishes.

We started by sharing the Smoked Old Fashion which was quite good, albeit a bit skimpy for the price ($17), then the trouble started.

Our food came relatively quickly and looked appetizing, however one of the entrees was missing one ingredient and had one not requested added to it. Unfortunately, our server did not come back to check on us so my spouse was half way through their meal before we could get someone to correct that error. My spouse had also ordered a side vegetable which did not arrive.

We alerted our server and a manager brought out a replacement for the entree. It was still missing an ingredient. It was taken back again. It finally came back with the correct ingredients by which time my spouse had finished their meal and still not received their vegetable.

After my meal was delivered we were told my spouse’s vegetable would be right out. They were well done with the meal at this point. At no time did we receive an appropriate apology from the server or management.

All the food was fine but nothing special.

We then began an almost 15 minute wait for our bill. Our server had disappeared and numerous members of staff and management walked past while my spouse sat tapping the card on the table. We finally wrangled a staff member to ask our server to bring our check. She came back some minutes later and told us our server was busy but would be with us in a minute. Another 5 minutes passed. We finally received our bill, again with no apology and no discount on the bill.

I don’t ‘put pen to paper’ often to discuss a bad experience, but this was exceptionally bad.

Made us miss Red...

Wanted to share our experience, as we waited a few weeks as the previous reviews were telling but we had to see for ourselves- the reviews all have a common theme. Planned to go there for drinks and dinner but left after the appetizer for another local restaurant. The service was good, we waited for a table as we came at the end of their social hour. You could tell the social hour drove the crowd as it seemed to clear out after the discounted prices. The communicated 45 minute wait was 10 minutes so we were happy to have a seat.

Anyways, we ordered a poutine appetizer to start and few drinks. When the food arrived, it was quite strange. The cheese curds included in the poutine were ice cold, mixed with a brown gravy and French fries. Being as polite as I can, this looked very unappealing upon delivery, very little effort/care into the dish. Garnish it or do something vs. a big plop of brown gravy on top fries. At this point, we could tell we were going to close the bill and find somewhere else nearby. I felt bad for the waitress as it felt like she had similar experiences with guests.

Venue has the charm, nice finishes. The food needs some attention, menu is unappealing. Digital menus for us distracted from experience, clicking all through tabs to find what you need wasn’t really effective. Sometimes simple is better.

If they address this quickly, hopefully this will be around to try out again. The concept, location and idea fits a need...

As a first time guest and fellow Restaurateur I felt inclined to share our dining experience with you. My wife and I dined at your establishment today and I want to start by saying the food and service were spectacular. The one downside of our evening was how hot it was in the restaurant. We were sat in the room nearest to the patio door and the heat was pretty unbearable if I'm being honest. So much so that my wife and I felt like we couldn't fully enjoy our evening because we were both literally dripping in sweat while trying to eat our meal. When we mentioned it to our server, her response felt evident that this was something the staff is used to dealing with, which is truly unfortunate. We had to chug our drinks because the ice was melting so fast they were getting watered down. We are typically the type to order a second cocktail and take our time, maybe order a dessert but we were so uncomfortable we just boxed our food and decided to leave. I will say, our food was fantastic, we had the crab toast and wings to start, my wife had the scallops and I had the steak frites, which were all so good. It's a shame our experience was cut short due to the atmosphere. As someone who has managed restaurants for a long time, and always views everything from the guest perspective, I highly recommend finding a solution to ensure the comfort of your guests. We will definitely be back to try it again, but maybe not until the fall when the...