Social House Kitchen & Tap — Restaurant in Virginia

Today was probably one of the worst experiences I have had a restaurant. And it makes it even worse that it is Father’s Day. We went for brunch at 10:30 to celebrate the fathers in our family and from the moment we sat down it was bad. The server asked for drinks from half the table, then walked away. The rest of us had to wait until he came back to put in our order. My mother in law asked for orange juice and was told there wasn’t any but in 10 minutes they would have some. She asked if they had other juices and the response was “I don’t think so”. I asked the server if you had sweet tea. He said yes. (Come to find out you don’t). Two coffees were ordered, we had to wait 25 minutes for those. It took just as long to order. 5 omelets were ordered, all came to the table with each of the 4 servers not even knowing which omelet they were holding. Yes 4. Cause the 5th omelet didn’t come out so we had to wait over 10 minutes for the 5th. I ordered the French toast with the banana fosters sauce with 3 slices of French toast. What I got was 2 slices of French toast, nothing else. It took another 10 minutes for me to get the right French toast and when it did, the sauce and French toast was cold and tasted like baby mush, the hasbrowns for the entire table came out cold and under cooked. At this point we finally got a glass of orange juice. (40 minutes later after they told us that it would be 10 minutes). I am guessing that the person in red is a manager, she delivered the 5th omelet and my mother in law asked for jelly for her cold toast. She said she would be right back. Never came back. We asked for the check and after we got the check, someone brought toast. My mother in law said she didn’t ask for toast she asked for jelly. We were told you don’t have jelly. Then 5 minutes later someone comes to the table with 2 jelly packs. To this moment I have no clue who our server was as 6 different people dropped stuff off. (Either it was wrong or cold) We wanted to talk to a manager but it was impossible to get anyone’s attention near the end cause no one would make eye contact with our table. The whole time we were there, 3 tables were occupied. It wasn’t slammed at all. I have never posted a bad review in my life but this experience was so bad I don’t think I will ever go back. And the funny thing is, we are the most laid back people who don’t bother servers as much as others since some of us have been in the industry. It ruined a morning brunch on such a special day.

(In the end the French toast and omelet were removed from check but so much went wrong that I don’t think it is worth going back. At one point I thought we were being punked. Maybe sitting at the bar would have been better but we had our 4 year old with us. And by the way her meal was wrong as well but it wasn’t worth it to even say anything...

I visited the Ashburn location the day before and I had a really good experience. The food was really good; everything was freshly served (hot and flavorful) and even the 1/2 portions were more than you expected. Unable to get a reservation for this location on the very next day (Father's Day), I made a reservation at the Chantilly location believing that I would have the same experience. Talk about polar opposites - wow! I'm not one to give negative reviews, however, there is much to be noted about this location. The food was so unsavory and just plain boring- little to no flavor and over-cooked. As we arrived at our table, I had to request that the floor and seats to be cleaned. Whoever sat at the booth before us made a MESS on the floor and this was completely overlooked with no intentions on it being cleaned up before we were seated. There were no place settings (we were told they ran out-??-how do you run out of silverware??) and they weren't provided until just before the food came out. Before finishing our first dish, we placed an order for our second dish from the "all you can eat brunch menu". I'm not sure what happened but there was a nearly 30-minute delay before that came out. We only received it after a nice lady who appeared to be in the management chain stopped by our table and noticed the disgruntled look on my face. As other diners were leaving, there tables were cleared, but the floors were left an absolute mess - how do you eat with trash around your feet?? I'm not sure if it's the summer hires or purely a lack of training on bussing tables and etiquette, additionally due to the lackluster food items the chances of dining at this restaurant are - I won't! The hostess, manager, and wait staff were all pleasant however, for the amount paid, the food should have been SO much better and again, proper training on clearing and CLEANING areas needs SO much...

On January 3, for his last meal in Virginia before returning to Florida, I took my adult son to Social House for lunch. He'd wanted to go there for the past year or so during visits here but we'd never managed to get there. On this visit, we finally did go. I certainly don't want to disparage a local business, and I'm sure there were many satisfied customers that day. Indeed, there was a very large party (12 or so) seated at a long table near us, so perhaps that affected our service negatively; nonetheless, our appetizer was very late in appearing (15-20 minutes) and we had to inquire twice about it. Finally the hostess brought it. We finished the appetizer and waited again, 30 minutes--we noticed the time-from when we finished the appetizer until our server returned to tell us that regretfully our order had been "lost." So, he took our order again and resubmitted it. He did apologize a lot, and we were understanding, didn't complain at all, were very polite, and left him a more than adequate tip in the end. The management did comp our appetizer which was very nice, and much appreciated; however, money was not the issue, time was. I'm sure this was an anomalous event and not the usual kind of service that one would expect at Social House. It's just that it was the first time either I (a resident of South Riding) or my son had ever been there, so we were disappointed. It was not a particularly pleasant lunch which, to make this very long story short, is why I rated it 3 stars. Had you not asked, I wouldn't have said anything because truly, I don't like to criticize local restaurants. You have enough problems as it is, so please don't think I'm trying to harm your business. I wish you much success...