Conway Social Club — Restaurant in Lancaster

(Repeat guest review)

My utmost thanks to Francesca (our hostess) and Steve (our chef) for making a rare night out exceed expectations for my wife and myself!! Steve, please show this to your manager and the head chef when he returns and collect your high-fives!

The lamb loin dinner was a bucket-list item that I did not know I had and was prepared flawlessly. The lamb, sauce, and vegetables were a spot on hit!!! I paired dinner with an Other Worlds cocktail, a gin sour style cocktail, that cut nicely through the lamb and kept the meal feeling light.

My wife has the Genovese Rigatoni, which she found tasty, and paired that with a Cruz del Mar creme sherry. A solid dish with excellently prepared ingredients but it did not shine like the lamb loin.

For appetizers we had the bone marrow with sourdough bread and onion jam that was delicious, but a word of warning that you will desperately want a alcohol napkin afterwards to cut the grease off you hands and be found wanting.

The deviled egg appetizer was something my wife was looking forward to but she did not like them due to the heavy fishy, I presume anchovies, flavor in the piped egg portion. I found them to be ok but it was the weakest appetizer.

Appetizers were paired with the Strawberry & Gunpowder cocktail (the peppercorns are a big plus) that cut nicely through the bone marrow while my wife had a Against the Wind cocktail that was a strong winner.

Reservations are pretty much required through their reservation app provider.

The social club is not clearly marked so of you are looking at the main red door's for Annie Bailey, look to your right slightly and you will see a black door with a brass knocker that you must use to get access to the club. A menu is posted to the right of the door.

To see the full menu and cocktail/liquor listings you need to use your phone to scan a QR code and bring up the menu. Earlier reviewers had posted pics of the menu and cocktails but these are no longer valid.

I look forward to another visit in the future!!

09/17/22 update: Over the last two months I have been back to the club about five times and each visit reinforces that this is a great restaurant. One of the new menu items is their riff on Korean fried chicken which was good along with the tempura leaves with a creamy cheese center.

The owner and staff all go out of their way to both make patrons feel welcome but also share their knowledge about cocktails to help you find a great new...

Totally not worth the hype. This place tries a little too hard to act like some high-end, elitist bar but just ended up an annoying lounge with a wait staff that needs an attitude adjustment. The star is solely for the decor inside. I’ve been to some really high-end places (former NYC resident here) with exceptional cocktails and excellent service, and this isn’t one.

Details if you’d like to indulge…

We made a reservation for 4, arriving in time. You have to use this brass ring to knock on the door to get someone from this place to know you’ve arrived. It took us several times to get a response, and they weren’t even ready for us. They sent us to the bar next door to wait, claiming their bar was currently full and they’d seat us soon, which was a lie. We got up there, and there weren’t many people there at all.

They let us in, taking us up this staircase to a random spot up top with zero direction of where to go. One way was the kitchen, another was these curtains. I get blown past by some rude waitress, who blazes through the curtains, so I assumed behind there is where the seating was. We stand waiting and I walk through the curtains to see if anyone could tell us where to go, and Ms. Rude Waitress tells us to wait behind the curtains.

We wait another 10 mins and are finally seated. Our waiter takes forever to come by and ask what we want to drink with little understanding of the menu. We order and wait a solid hour for our drinks, and not every table was taken up in the place. The drinks were creative but overpowered with so much sugar, I felt they were all a dessert.

Oh, can’t forget Ms. Rude Waitress blazing past us the whole time, clearly wishing she was anywhere else in the world.

If you want a high-end cocktail lounge experience, this place isn’t worth the...

EDIT: The staff, the vibe, and the menu have all taken a nose dive at CSC, sadly. Since Ben left the whole place has changed for the worse in a major way. No more waiting for the light, and no more fancy hand crafted menus. This is just another overpriced bar now.

I surprised my wife with the experience of visiting the Conway Social Club for a quiet evening out. We had to knock on the inconspicuous door nestled in next to the Annie baley bar and wait approximately 5-10 minutes before the door was answered, but we didn't mind. A line of "bro-dudes" suddenly formed behind us and we were worried they would ruin our evening but the doorman turned them away with a curt" Sorry, reservations only".

We went up a long flight of steps and through a curtain into a dimly lit and BEAUTIFUL bar. The bartenders were great, and helpful with cocktail selections and watching them create the drinks was entertaining. Furthermore, every cocktail was a fantastic work of art with a flavor to match. The best part is that the man behind the bar was supremely proud of his cocktail menu and it showed. When the server arrived and said a table wanted a non-sweet cocktail with a sugared him he simply stated "No. I'm not going to do that. If they want a sweet drink then they can order a lemon drop". While some may find this rude, it really isn't. Its being honest. The man was proud of what he made and I can respect that.

Dinner was tuna tartar($19) and rigatoni($20). Both meals were on point, and my wife couldn't get enough of the pasta. If i could have I would have stayed there until closing. It was the perfect...