Social Republic — Restaurant in Hartford

My fiance and I have visited your establishment once before with a couple and enjoyed it very much to say the least. We chose to celebrate NYE and my fiance's birthday, 12/31/18 to mark the celebration of his bday dinner with close friends and family. We were seated with general menus and a draft list. The waitress (Ashley) not sure if she was new to your restaurant or just had a bad day visited the table within the first minute or so while we were waiting for others. She asked us if we were ready for any drinks, but again we were waiting for the last 2 people. Time passed and she came by and asked us if we were interested in ordering apps, we still hadn't ordered our drinks, heard any specials for the night, nor did we receive a cocktail menu. I had to ask the server for specials (separate time), drink menu (separate time), straws (separate time), amongst other things. She would leave and take a long time to return. After 45 minutes of being in your establishment I think we finally received bread (I think she forgot) and we ordered.

Moving along, we had our apps and dinner. Everything tasted delicious, per usual and what we expected. I received a drink (Grapefruit Coctel) great by the way, but was a broken glass. At time didn't get to tell waiter, she was around rarely and I was to caught up with celebrating my fiances special day, I'm not one to complain obviously. She was very inattentive to our table, needs, and wants overall. I was disappointed to say the least, including our guests, but we made it a good time because of the occasion and good company. I hope in the future if management decides on the NYE crew and waitstaff that they think long and hard. She definitely put a damper in our night for the time that we were there.

Lastly upon paying my bill, she was unsure how to use an American Express Gift Card, that made things worse. I didn't end up using it because it was just too much at the time. Later I believe management told her how to use it, but by then I was over it all. We hope to return, but better customer service would be much appreciated for ALL paying...

Was a big fan of Republic at the Linden however Social Republic is nothing like it in terms of food and service.

Made a reservation several days ahead for 14 ppl for an early lunch before a Wolf Pack game. We arrived and were forced to wait for staff to hastily throw tables together in some awkward L shape resulting in some of our party facing the backs of others. There was no kids menu at all so we ordered some penne with butter for the kiddos that the "cook" agreed to make first. Several adults ordered cheesesteak that used to be fantastic before the business changed hands. Main orders started to arrive about 1 hour later for only two people at our table. The entrees were then brought out in 15 minute intervals for the others. This continues for about 1 hour!!! To top things off...at no point were we told that they were out of about half of the ingredients for any dish that was requested. Three of the four people who ordered cheesesteak were brought beef and cheese on brioche hamburger buns with waitress having audacity "and here are the cheesesteak BURGERS you ordered". Apparently they ran out of the regular rolls so they decided to substitute. All of the cheesesteaks were missing mushrooms onions and peppers and were maybe the most disgusting attempt at a cheesesteak we ever tried. Certainly wasn't shaved ribeye like menu stated. And what restaurant runs out of French Fries within an hour of opening for business on that particular day?? The orange juice for one of the kids tasted like an MRE from 1960. The kids penne arrived last, close to two hours after we sat down with mostly everyone having been disappointed and disgusted with what was already served. Received the bill and found 20% gratuity already included. Smart on their part I guess because given the choice there would be zero gratuity by anyone from our group. Whoever is running the place now has zero experience in dining. A "culinary voyage" to hell. Run in the...

We made reservations for 11am on a Sunday to meet friends for brunch before catching a show at 1. We assumed that 2 hours would be plenty of time. The first red flag should've been that this place was dead when we walked in. Our server introduced himself as the manager and said that he was serving everyone in our area. I think he was the only server for the whole place. It took about 20 minutes for our drinks to come out, then another 10 before he came back to take our food order. I ordered the mimosa flight which was very good but I wouldn't have ordered so much alcohol had I known where things were going. Half of our table had their food served at about 1215. By 1240 my husband and I still didn't have our food and we needed to leave to catch our show. After returning from the restroom I learned that the 3 other tables near us decided to cancel their food orders and leave because they'd also been waiting for way too long. As we were paying for the food that did come out, the meals that my husband and I had ordered were brought to our table and the manager yelled at the runner to take it back. Then he yelled at him as he was walking away, something about the food taking too long. It was pretty ironic to me that the manager himself was yelling at the staff like that when it's clear he doesn't have a handle on the place. I overheard another table say as they were leaving that they left money on the table for the meal but that it wasn't worth the money. The manager told them to take the money with them.

I wish I could comment on the food but I left their only having had the 4 mimosas and I was pretty tipsy having not had any food to soak them up. The mimosas were good but I absolutely do not recommend this place. Wish we'd checked the reviews first. I can't imagine they'll be open...