Social Eatery — Restaurant in Millbrae

Social Eatery food hall is a gem located in Millbrae offering a variety of Chinese cuisine all in one easy-to-reach location. Social Eatery has a parking lot for patrons, which makes dining in easy. Upon entering the food hall, patrons will be guided to a table, and provided with a tablet on which they can place their orders from a variety of establishments contained within Social Eatery. After the order is placed, a staff member will bring the food and beverages straight to your table! When it's time to check out, you can either do so via their app/online or request a staff member to come and help you close out your bill.

Social Eatery has the following 3 restaurants within: (1) Noodleosophy - a local Bay Area chain focusing on hand-pulled noodle dishes; (2) Rice Monster - specializing in Catonese claypot rice; and (3) Grapeholic - a tea shop with grape-centered drinks to round it out.

We came here on a Saturday afternoon looking for a one-stop shop for our weekend lunch and decided to try something from each one of the establishments - after all, isn't that the beauty of food halls? We got the beef tendon noodle soup and prok and shrimp dumplings from Noodleosophy, the cha siu and steamed egg claypot rice from Rice Monster, and finished up our meal with two drinks from Grapeholic - cotton candy grape slush, and grape and lemon tea.

(1) Noodleosophy - the beef tendon noodle soup was rich and flavorful, while the accompanying noodles were perfectly cooked and chewy - providing a great mouth feel to the dish. The dumplings were delicious as well, and were a nice addition to the meal as a whole.

(2) Rice Monster - the cha siu and steamed egg clay pot rice was in a single word - satisfying. The salty-slightly-sweet cha siu paired well with the mild flavors of the egg, and the salty soy sauce you pour over the rice. I will say the rice could have been a little more scorched to provide the accompanying crunch that you expect from this dish; however, if you're really craving claypot rice and are in the area, then Rice Monster will definitely help satisfy that craving for you.

(3) Grapeholic - the cotton candy grape slush was amazing - true to it's name it captured the cotton candy grape flavor in a delicious slush form that was both sweet and refreshing. The grape and lemon tea was also good; however, the lemon flavor was a bit overpowering and made it difficult to truly enjoy the grape that was in the drink. If you want grape to be the star of the show, then I'd recommend getting one of their grape-centered drinks instead.

If you're ever in the Millbrae area and are looking for a great lunch spot, then Social Eatery has to be the next place...

6/26/22 - Ordered the spicy cumin lamb, sizzling garlic noodles and fried dumpling. Bowl size is a good amount unless you have a large appetite. Price wise I would say it's a bit on the higher end than compared to a typical noodle restaurant. The vibe is nice though with jazzy version of popular songs.

4* - the cumin lamb was pleasantly flavored and not over powering or overly salty. The biang biang noodles were al dente which is how I like these types of noodles. The only complaint would be the lamb was a bit on the tougher side and a little chewy. Other than that I would definitely order this dish again. $15.49

3* - sizzling garlic noodles was good but not great. It didn't really stand out as a dish as it's basically garlic noodles with biang biang noodles. The garlic flavor was subtle, I would probably order this again only if I was craving something garlicy but not buttery like other garlic noodle dishes at other places. $11.99

4* - fried dumplings...they actually do a good job as they are actually crispy and hold their crunch. The mayo dipping sauce also paired well with it. Only complaint would be that it only comes with 4 pieces. Would order again. $5.99

Service wise you seat yourself and order from the qr code at the table. There are staff wandering around of you have questions, but I could see it being difficult if it got busy. When we came here it was about half full so flagging someone down...

Social Eatery is a space that has 2 restaurants and 1 boba place all in one - Noodleosophy, Rice Monster, and Grapeholic. It’s very close to the Millbrae BART/Caltrain station (a 3-minute walk) and also has a pretty big parking lot👍🏻. There’s a screen near the entrance for people that are just ordering boba to-go. If you’re there for dine-in, they’ll lead you to some seats and you can order from all three places at the same time. Lots of seats for dine-in and there’s even a foosball table⚽️. Our table had a QR code for you to see the menu and order but they brought a tablet over for us to order. Not sure why but I have no issues with that🤷🏻‍♀️. We ordered Beef Stew & Tendon (公公半筋半腩) and Pickled & Sliced Beef (知府酸湯肥牛). Took a little while for the orders to arrive (almost thought that they were preparing everything from scratch and cutting a whole cow open on the spot😂), and there were kids running around in the place so it was pretty loud😫. But after tasting the food, I have to say that the wait was worth it! The servings were pretty big, and the broth was very flavorful. Wasn’t too overly seasoned and the texture of the...