Kaldi’s Social House Silver Spring — Restaurant in Silver Spring

Consumer BEWARE, If you have allergies DO NOT eat here. My partner & I had the disappointing experience of trying this restaurant for the first time today (02/08/25). Before we made our order, I went to the bar to ask a question about the Chicken & Waffles. At the bar there was a man at the main register (the manager), a woman making coffee, & a woman on the secondary register. I walked up to the woman in the middle & told her that I had a question about the chicken & waffles … it says it comes w/ spiced maple syrup, do they know what the syrup is spiced w/. The woman looked confused & was like it’s spiced? I didnt know it was spiced & instead of turning to her left to ask the manager, she turned to her right & asked the other woman. The other woman was like spiced? Oh it’s the apple spices & I clarified that my girlfriend has a red chili pepper allergy, are they sure it doesn’t have chili powder & they were like ya just apple spices.

Being assured that dish is allergen free, we ordered the chicken & waffles. My partner tried the food & immediately noticed a strange tingling feeling on her tongue. The syrup was just plain maple syrup & the chicken had a spice flavor to it that wasn’t “apple spices”, concerned my partner walked up to the same lady I walked up to & asked if she could speak w/ the manager to get some clarification & the woman pointed to the man. My partner asked if there were any red chili pepper spices on the chicken & he said yes. My partner was surprised & responded that her partner asked about the spices in this dish & he said, no she just asked about the syrup.

My partner came back to the table upset, saying we needed to leave & that the food actually had her allergen in it. I was confused bc I asked if there was Chili powder in it.

I tried to seek clarification, I called over the manager & told him I asked if this had chili powder in it & he said I asked if there are spices in the maple syrup. I responded that only the maple syrup had the “spicy” descriptor on it & the manager replied, well it says the item is glazed & I was like okay, but my girlfriend is allergic to chili powder … which is why I asked. He said bc of this misunderstanding, he can either refund or replace this item. I asked my partner what she wanted. She didn’t want a replacement bc she did not trust that they’ll take allergies seriously & that she wanted to be completely refunded bc they were being too cavalier about inadvertently poisoning her.

I went back to the register & told the manager that I was sorry but we would like a full refund bc my girlfriend is allergic to the chicken you served us even though we asked if there were allergens. I told him he should talk to his employees about whenever a customer asks about an ingredient on a menu item, they should seek clarification from a manager. He argued that I didn’t ask about the right thing, bc I only asked about the maple syrup & the spice is in the glaze. I was clearly asking about an allergen - it doesn’t matter if you thought I was just asking about the syrup or the glaze or the breading on the chicken. I responded that this is a preventable situation but now my girlfriend is going to get sick & we would like a full refund. When I told my partner what happened, she was annoyed that the manager was victim blaming us by telling me we didn’t ask the right questions & that we were misunderstood the menu. My partner took a second glance at the online menu, & wanted to show the manager that it would be easy for a customer to misinterpret that the spices are in maple syrup & that nobody would know to ask if it was in the glaze & the manager was like you’re being too much, I already refunded you, you’re being too much. My partner tried to reiterate that she has an allergy & it’s dangerous to not take allergies seriously. He cut her off saying if she actually had an allergy she would have an EpiPen. To which my partner cursed &...

I love this place. The coffee is amazing and so is the atmosphere. I’ve been coming here for coffee since they opened but it had been a couple of years since I’ve eaten a meal there. I just wanted to give a heads up to anyone who has a food allergy or lactose intolerance. Double check your food. To order food now you have to order through Toast Tab. The food descriptions and contents aren’t the greatest, but you can modify your order to accommodate most food sensitivities. Before I ordered, I made sure to talk to a staff member at the bar to ensure I wasn’t going to be ordering something that would make me sick and then I ordered accordingly. When my food came out, it came out with a side that I was told had butter, despite putting in a note at the bottom that I am lactose intolerant. The waitress kept saying that I ordered it even when I showed her the the itemized receipt. She eventually said that it came with it automatically. I told her that the people at the bar said there was butter in it, and pointed to the note that said I am lactose intolerant. She did bring the food back and dumped the side that had butter, and just brought my breakfast sandwich back. I asked her again if the sandwich had butter on it and she said no. I was concerned because it looked like it had been grilled in butter or oil. I thanked her for checking, and told her that I appreciate it because I would have been very sick shortly after I ate it. She nodded and walked away. Just as I was about to eat it, she came running back and said that the kitchen wanted to remake it “just in case.” The second sandwich came out dry toasted instead of grilled. This just tells me that they’re did not read my special instructions and there was probably dairy in the first sandwich. The second sandwich was delicious so no complaints there.

This part is not really a big deal but annoying is the reason it came with the buttery side is because it comes automatically with them, the waitress said. As I said above, that is not written on the menu. So there’s no place where you can make a substitution even for an up charge in toast tab. But also, when she realized the mistake, she didn’t offer me an alternative even though I specifically asked about the possibility. So I guess I did pay for a side but wasn’t even offered one. But that’s minor relative to the other issue.

None of this will stop me from going back, but I just wanted to make sure that anyone with dietary...

Music: Went on a Sunday, June 9th for the Afro Caribbean day party which was in the upstairs patio bar. Event started a 4:00, I got there about 5:00 pm. DJ and entourage arrived about 6:00. I asked when the DJ would start his set and was told anytime. I think he started between 7:30 - 8:00. Great music, once he got going, but not what was advertised.

Seating: Since I arrived early, I had a choice of seating, so I chose a lounge chair setup with coffee table. There are no reserved seating signs and no-one said anything. After spending an extraordinary amount for some drinks, un-measured, and very small shots, we were told someone “bought our table” and we would have to get up. When I asked for an explanation, I was told “never mind” they chose another table...”you’re good” I was told. We then ordered some food and more drinks. Still not overly impressed, but decided to make the best of the situation since I drove 30 miles to get there. Between food and drinks we spent about $125.00, not a lot, but I thought enough to keep our seats since we were already there and spending money. How wrong I was! We were just getting ready to order some more drinks when we were again approached (about 9:00 pm), they rudely cleared our table and told “someone had bought our table and we had to get up”. We decided to leave.

Overall: I should have prefaced this review with I have personally spent about 5 years in the bar/nightlife industry as a DJ and Manager. I understand the profit margins of VIP treatment in reserved tables and bottle service. My suggestions to the establishment would be to place reserved signs on seating eligible to be purchased. Start a waiting list. If your table is not purchased before a certain time open it up to someone on the list; a paying customer who is already there. Also remember, a guest that spends $100 is just as important as the VIP who spends $200-400 on a bottle for everyone at the table. I know for a fact that there were other tables that could have been purchased, but were occupied with groups of “friends” who were not spending anymore than we were.

PS: I wouldn’t have any of the staff working for me! They are rude and have terrible customer...