SOCIAL — Restaurant in San Juan

Before our trip to San Juan, we extensively researched restaurants to celebrate my sister's 30th birthday. Although three of our excursion tour guides said that we should not do it at Social because the service was poor, we still chose to experience it for ourselves.

When we arrived, we were dressed up and ready for a fabulous Beachfront dinner at a beautiful restaurant. My sister and I are both social media influencers and food bloggers, so we were taking pictures, videos, etc. When we walked in, Jasmine (a waitress) looked at us and asked if we had a reservation; when we responded no, she did not respond and began looking around awkwardly (as if there were no available tables when, in fact, there were only four tables of guest), after standing there in silence I then asked whether we need to have a reservation or membership to Dine here she then said no. Once she seated us, she took about 10 minutes to come and ask if we would like drinks; when we finally got the drinks, Jasmine did not return to take our order until I went inside to get her (38 minutes after being seated), she spent the majority of her time inside. However, she did tend to a different table of customers regularly… We were still determined to celebrate my sister's 30th birthday in excellent spirits; after we received the food, we did not see Jasmine anymore, which was very close to an hour, if not more. We were able to receive the check because we walked inside and asked another gentleman if we pay our bills inside. he responded Jasmine gave me your guys' check I had to apologize for my response to him because how do you pass off your customers to someone else with no mention of it; not to mention the gentleman that had our check also delivered our food as Jasmine did not. Once the gentleman gave us the check, Jasmine, out of nowhere, rang us out. I was annoyed with her service, not to mention I ordered a mixed drink, I was charged for the liquor, and then an additional charge for the soda to make the mixed drink, which was not the drink I asked for, not to mention it was very watered down.

Now, on the more positive side, although we were disappointed with our service, the dining experience was superb, from the decor and the atmosphere to the sound of the ocean and the food. Oh my goodness, it was delicious. My seabass was cooked to perfection, and the mashed potatoes, if I had an attentive waiter, I would have indeed ordered three orders of the mash to take with me as I've never tasted any as good as those were. While I did not receive my appetizer after ordering it twice, I just gave up on it. Still, our experience at SOCIAL would've been 10s across the board without Jasmine being our server, which trickled the score, which we would give to about a 5/10, as customer service plays a big part in good dining.

In a nutshell, the restaurant, in my opinion, is A1; just be sure not to have Jasmine as your waitress, or you will not have a great experience; you can always be your own waiter/tress and have a better experience than you would with having her, the individual that was cleaning the restaurant was more friendly than she...

Everything about our experience from the moment we were rudely greeted by the host until we left was awful. Upon entering, we were asked if we had a reservation and the host seemed almost annoyed that we didn’t, when their restaurant was clearly not even busy when we arrived. We sat outside which was beautiful, but the ocean view was not worth it. Our food was very bland and tasteless, not to mention it took about 45 minutes for it to be served to us after we ordered. The food is extremely overpriced, especially considering the lack luster taste and overall quality. I ordered sliders, plantains and roasted veggies and nothing was good and everything lacked flavor. The sliders were extremely dry and had no flavor and the roasted veggies tasted like salt and were over cooked and soggy. They also had some of the smallest tapas dishes we have ever seen. For example, my friend ordered the lobster tacos, and what was served to her was basically the equivalent to 4 potato chips with lobster covered in mayo on them. You had to see the tapas dish to believe it, we literally laughed about how small it was. When my friend questioned the staff about these unusually small tapas, one of the servers rudely and condescendingly questioned my friend and asked her if she’s ever seen tapas before. Overall, none of us were happy with our food. Later on, one of the servers had placed our empty glasses on the table next to us and it was pretty windy that evening, causing one of the glasses to fly off of the table next to us and shatter all over the floor around us. It took about 10 minutes for a staff member to even acknowledge what happened and when someone finally came over to us, my friend politely let the waitress know what happened and the waitress rudely responded by saying that she was cleaning it up and said nothing else. One would think the waitress would have at least asked us if we were okay or apologized for that happening, NOPE, nothing. She swept up the glass(very poorly because huge pieces of glass were still all around us) and walked away from our table never to be seen again. Then when the check came they charged us for food that was ordered, BUT they never even brought those items to our table and we again had to speak to waitstaff to get the items removed from our bill because they never served those items to us. Later that evening I ended up with food poisoning and it was most definitely due to that restaurant because it was all I had eaten that evening. The next day we ordered some food by the pool at the connected hotel which turned out to come from the same kitchen. That was also a huge mistake because one of my friends ended up with food poisoning right after eating their nachos. Needless to say, all 4 of us swore off getting any food from that place again throughout it he remainder of our trip. Not only was the food awful and made 2 of us sick, the staff were very rude and lacked professional customer service. Don’t waste your time going here. There are plenty of other great restaurants we went to while staying and San Juan that were great! This...

A Dreadful Experience at Social

If you’re looking for a restaurant that serves up disappointment with a side of unprofessionalism, Social is your place. Our recent visit was a masterclass in how not to run a dining establishment. Here’s the rundown:

To start, the food took an excruciating two hours to arrive. Two hours! During that time, it became painfully clear that the staff prioritized pushing overpriced drinks on us instead of actually delivering what we came for: the food. And yes, we ended up indulging in the drinks—what else can you do when you’re held hostage by hunger?

When the food finally arrived, it wasn’t just late—it was brought out on hospital food carts. Yes, you read that correctly. The same kind of carts you’d expect to see in a medical ward, not a waterfront restaurant. It was laughably unprofessional and completely shattered any semblance of atmosphere they might have been trying to create.

The service? Borderline nonexistent. It took over 35 minutes to get a single bottle of wine. Thirty-five minutes for something that should have been a quick grab from their bar. And before you assume the place was swamped—nope. The restaurant wasn’t even busy. Lazy service, plain and simple.

Now, let’s talk about the bill. As a large group, we ended up spending over $2,000—a figure you’d think would buy some level of care or attentiveness. Instead, they slapped on an automatic 20% gratuity, which apparently gave them a free pass to completely ignore us. The kicker? They wouldn’t even split the bill. Somehow, they’re fine with taking a hefty tip but can’t manage basic billing accommodations. Make it make sense.

And the food? Cold. Mediocre. Utterly disappointing. At that price point, you’d expect something memorable, and it was—just for all the wrong reasons. Puerto Rico is full of great food options. Not here.

The only redeeming quality of Social is its waterfront location. The waves and view are fantastic, but if you’re considering dining here, save yourself the trouble and pack a picnic. At least that way, you won’t feel scammed out of your time and money.

Final Verdict: 1/5. Social needs to take a hard look at its priorities—because right now, hospitality and quality are nowhere on the...