The Social Cork — Restaurant in Fort Mill

It's one thing to wait almost 45 minutes for your first item on your pre fixed 90 minutes menu, it's one thing to have to repeat to the owners daughter that was our and two other tables next to us server (a total of 3 couples all together) what we had ordered over 8 times before we were given our first item of food (it's so easy to just write it, down and could've prevented the back and forth), it's one thing to receive your pre fixed menu items out of order, it's one thing to deal with this all night and be gracious with our server because she just seemed so out of it, we took pity on her because she seemed so clueless, we were then approached by the owner that we could get more drinks but needed to move to the bar and at that point my boyfriend asked "really? We haven't even received the rest of our food? We've literally just been waiting on y'all" and she explained that yea, but it's a table only reserved for 90 minutes which is completely fine but atleast be aware enough to acknowledge your tables haven't received all their food at that point the table next to us stepped in because they were just as frustrated with the night they were there maybe 10 minutes after us and only received a bottle of Prosecco and one pear martini that took the bar 30 minutes to make. The owners daughter then chimes in behind her seeing we are all visible frustrated and goes "I don't know why that guy is getting involved" it was extremely unprofessional, no one was speaking to her just like how she had barley spoken to us all night. Her mother (the owner) as equally on the defense got snappy and asked what we didn't receive and we told her and then she turned to the table next to us and was like I can just offer you a refund and basically encouraged them to leave which they didn't mind at all. She finally came back to check in on us and my boyfriend simply explained it's not so much that 150 dollars for dinner + 25 add bottomless mimosas is expensive at all, we even would've been okay if food was bad (which is absolutely was) that at-least the service was good then it becomes a that's on us thing, but they not only didn't acknowledge us most of the night, the food was cold and out of order and the owner absolutely took no accountability for the awful service her bar provided she doubled down that us and the other two couples were the only ones complaining what she didn't know is we had a friend do this event earlier and they had the SAME complaints and before I wrote my review I saw another couple have the same complaints about poor service, food and no accountability for owners side. The only people she seemed to accommodate were a group of her buddies that came in she gave them hugs got them seated right away. I'm sure that's how they receive some of their good reviews is from friends/family but I absolutely do not recommend this place. The owner has zero customer service skills and put the blame on her small kitchen (which isn't fair to the kitchen staff, she was ill prepared and so in turn so where they). This also seems to be a reoccurring thing based on some reviews so I'm not sure why after two years this hasn't improved I suggest maybe not biting off more than you can truly accommodate for crowd your establishment can handle. She only offered a refund for us because a new couple sat next to us as we were about to leave and she didn't want us ruining the experience for them which is understandable you don't want them going in with a opinion based on other guests and we had no intention of saying anything because we knew the restaurant would do it own their own. It was an unorganized mess there's no way that we could've ruined it for them because this bar did that on their own.

I do think instead of going on the defense and an owner and blaming your shortcomings on your lower staff that you should own it and FIX IT. No reason the big holiday events that you host are constantly getting bad reviews and you've had yet...

My friends and I were excited to get away and have a mom’s night together at this hip new place in town. The experience, however, was definitely not what we were hoping for.

The Scenario: We were a party of 5. Each of us ordered 2 drinks and an appetizer and spent approximately $50-$80 per person. Looking around, there were only 2-3 other occupied tables while we were there.

Unfortunately, we only made it to the drinks and appetizers. Based on the food and the service up to that point, we decided a main course would be a mistake.

I’ll break our experience down into the good, the bad and the ugly.

THE GOOD, • Décor - The restaurant décor was well thought out, although not particularly upscale. • Presentation - The presentation of the martini flights and appetizers were on point (except for the artichoke dip that was paired with baby carrots and looked like a Lunchable). The martini flights were yummy & fun.

THE BAD • Flavor – In general, the flavor was lackluster. The crab dip, grilled cheese and quesadilla were essentially flavorless. • Price - The prices were definitely on the high, upscale side – roughly $20 a drink, which seems excessive for a strip mall restaurant in Ft. Mill, South Carolina. I could understand if we were in Manhattan, but Fort Mill? • No accommodation for food allergies. One of the women in our party had a chocolate allergy. When she asked the manager if they could substitute the chocolate martini in the flights, she was told tough cookies. All the drinks were made from scratch, so for $28, they should have been able to do something to help her.

THE UGLY • Where’s My Order? - Half the table received their drinks in a reasonable time after ordering. The other half, however, didn’t receive their drinks for nearly 30 minutes. Remember that we were only one of 2-3 tables sat in the restaurant – what could the staff be doing during this time? Whatever they were doing, they were not busy serving the patrons. • The Grilled Cheese Incident - When we ordered appetizers, they trickled in over the next 30 minutes. One of the women ordered a grilled cheese (at the same time as the appetizers), however, it didn’t arrive for nearly an hour into our experience. Oddly, only half of the grilled cheese made it to the table, the other half took an additional 10 minutes to show. Just weird. • Triple Threat - The waitress was having trouble with the POS and charged my friend three times for her meal. Unfortunately, the restaurant didn’t realize the error, and my friend had to call and request a correction.

After over an hour in the restaurant, we paid our tab (some of us more than once) and left. We were all very excited about the experience coming in, but left feeling like we were stepping out of the twilight zone. We paid Manhattan prices for tasteless food, bizarre timing and missing drinks.

I contacted the owner on Facebook that night to let them know about the experience. The owner (or owner’s husband) messaged that they would call me the next day at noon to discuss. He called at 10:30, and I broke away from an appointment to review with him. He offered an apology and encouraged us to come back and give it another try, saying that he would “take better care of us”. When the first impression is that bad, however, another try is not on the table – kind of like the mysterious missing half of the...

I decided to come here for my birthday— I found this place online and it looked so cute and the food looked delicious. We made a reservation for the time they opened, and arrived on time only for the entire place to not be ready to accommodate two people. We ordered two cocktails, the Lavender Limoncello, and it not only took nearly 20 minutes, but it had zero Lavender in it, which is the whole reason we ordered the drinks. As someone who has been a server and bartender for over a decade, I cannot comprehend why service took SO long when we were literally the only people in the restaurant. No other patrons, just us. And then, we ordered the mini flight for an appetizer, with olives, spinach artichoke dip and pretzels with mustard. It was TINY, and could have been considered a side instead of an appetizer. Plus, this is served in tiny little plastic champagne flutes that broke because of our server dropped them all over our table. Now, hear me out, I know servers make mistakes and things happen, so I am not even complaining about this, but it just adds to the overall terrible experience. We didn’t even get to order our second round of drinks or our entrees with our server, the owner is the one who took care of us (barely) and we didn’t know if our actual server knew our order or not. I will say, the portions comparable to the price is insane. I’m paying $12 for the Brie and Shallot crostini appetizer for literally two pieces of bread with barely any brie and COPIOUS amounts of honey. We also ordered the Autumn flatbread, which also was drenched in honey, and it wasn’t even the size of a normal sized plate. It was a sad excuse for an entree that was $14 and looked nothing like the pictures. There was hardly any brie or prosciutto on either things. Overall, our bill for TWO people was $122 for food and drinks that were mediocre at best. They did provide a slice of cheesecake free for my birthday, but it was drenched in caramel and it was WARM, so I barely took two bites.

I am not impressed with this place at all. They need to hire an extra server, at least, and a bartender that has any type of urgency at all. I won’t be...