42 North Social House — Restaurant in Dexter

Edited after a 4th experience here: I hate writing these types of reviews, but I hope it helps improve the restaurant experience for others. We really wanted this to be our place in Dexter...we've been multiple times in the past and thought that the food had improved significantly so we came back. We went for the New Years Eve celebration with a prior reservation for dinner, which was a 4- course set menu ($70/person), although they offered the regular menu as an option if you wanted. We opted for the 4-course menu as we were really excited about some of the options, such as the halibut and the creme brulee. Now, we understand they were extremely busy, and our dessert came first. The server apologized and we laughed it off as an honest mistake - no harm done. Our server then said they were out of halibut, which was disappointing as it was one of the things I was most excited about. Then we got our appetizers, which was a corn cake, along with a side of hot bread, which was quite good. It was followed by the next course, which was a soup and salad. Then when the main course came, they forgot one of the sides, but promptly fixed it once we let them know. To top it off, they had run out of the dessert - they had miscounted, per their report. They had actually run out of 2 of their desserts, so we were left with 3 options, 2 of which we had tried before. At this point, we felt bad for the server because he had literally apologized before every course because of some sort of mishap. We told him it wasn't his fault. Interestingly, the manager never came by to talk to us to see how we were doing or to apologize himself. He had pretty much stayed by the host station and was at the bar talking to people when we left. Again, everyone was nice, but to charge the full price for the menu we thought we were paying for, with no apology from management, no comp'ed cocktails even, it was just a little shocking. I've been in the restaurant business for years in the past and this shouldn't be acceptable or up to standards of any quality restaurant. You should really care about each and every customer that walks in to the restaurant, and the servers shouldn't have to apologize for poor management. There was a mishap with every course, and I understand that it was 4 courses for $70, but if we had known in advance they were going to run out of the main course and dessert, we would have gone somewhere...

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...