Southern Social Woodbury — Restaurant in Woodbury

Overpriced and underwhelming service and food. Poorly timed food.They took an amazing menu and did it a grand disservice.

Experience: Lunch on a Sunday. Got seated immediately. It appears this is a very new restaurant so it seems safe to assume most of your customers are coming for the first time. Neither the hostess nor the waitress asked if we had been there before, explained any of the 3 menus on the table nor did they make any suggestions. Guess there were no specials either. The waitress (she was nice but somewhat clueless) brought water quickly and we ordered drinks. She didn’t return for a long, long time. It wasn’t super busy.

By the time she came back to take our food orders, we still didn’t have our drinks. We ordered an appetizer, biscuits, soup and main entrees. We got our drinks then waited a very long time for the soup and apps. We then realized we had no plates to share the apps so we had to sit and wait to see our server again to request those. We had just started eating when our entrees came out. The person who brought them out just stared and left it to us to shift everything around to somehow make room for all of these dishes since we were barely started on the first round of food. We had to quickly get through our soup and biscuits and app just to try to get things moved around. It was rushed and cramped and unenjoyable. Our entrees sat there getting cold and in the way. We had finished the apps and reorganized the table before our server came by once to see if our food came out ok. Before then, a sauce had spilled across the table and someone had come to grab the empty app plates and buzzed away without offering to help clean up the large, obvious spill. Our waitress said nothing about it either so we had to ask her for a rag which she clearly had forgotten about when she stopped by again. Never offered to refill waters. Never asked if we wanted to order more drinks.

The food: She crab soup - $10 for the tiniest cup of soup I’ve ever seen, have had she crab soup in Florida from numerous places and this was nothing like that. Very heavy on the celery. Not worth it.

Biscuits - Meh. Fine biscuits. The butter was a massive disappointment. Bourbon honey butter (sounds amazing, right?) that had zero flavor and zero sweetness. Jam was ok, very liquidy.

Cheese curds - couldn’t taste the Cajun seasoning at all. Small. Meh batter. The jalapeño blackberry ketchup (ketchup??? this was liquid too) was very sweet and not at all spicy - and I’m a wimp.

Famous Chicken tenders: Beyond bland. So boring. Kind of dry. Utterly flavorless. (Just go to Raising Cane’s honestly.) Boring dips. Just. So. Boring. Blah. Famously forgettable.

Rosemary truffle fries: These were so bad. My 11 year old son had them and said he’d keep them even though he didn’t like them but I would’ve sent them back. So, over half of these from-frozen, lukewarm fries had no salt, no seasoning, no flavor. We asked if they were the right fries because they were unexpectedly covered in cold Parmesan cheese and there was no sign of the rosemary or truffle. We found the flavor In a pool of nasty oil at the bottom where about four fries were drowning.

Bolo Peach Flatbread: I ate one piece and had to stop because I felt sick. I have never seen such an oily flatbread. It was literally seeping out of the crust. The oil from the pesto and the layer of cheese under the top mozzarella overwhelmed the other ingredients and became the only flavor. The whole plate was a pool of oil. The bites with peach were more tolerable, but barely.

Shrimp and grits: Best of the entrees. This was well-executed. Good flavors. Wish the shrimp didn’t have tails on them. Five shrimp for $20 Side of pimento mac n cheese: My partner enjoyed it. I found the cheese sauce too gritty.

Drinks: I had the Debutant and he had an old fashioned. Both were excellent. Highlights of the whole experience. Unfortunately, we won’t be coming back for disappointing food and $12+ drinks. When I spend over $100 on lunch for two adults and a child, I expect much more...

Came here earlier today with my mom and the experience left a lot to be desired. First of all the waitress helping us brought us water and that was the end of our drinks for the rest of the meal. She never wants brought us refills she never once asked us if we wanted a refill in the water. She also did not ask us if we want drinks If we want soda beer tea whatever she didn't ask anything about us wanting or needing drinks she brought us each a glass of water and that was it never brought us anymore never talked us off even when she came back to the table and my glass was sitting at the end empty I still didn't get more water neither did my mother and neither did my little child who's almost 5 years old. I had the full rack of ribs and I will admit the ribs themselves were pretty good they are very tender but they threw on this giant enormous glob of subpar BBQ sauce that reminded me of something that you could get from Walmart and honestly the sauce was a solid two out of 10 The ribs I would give an eight out of 10 as I am from Southeast Texas and I know barbecue. We also ordered a side of the cornbread which honestly was gross it was way too sweet it was way too soggy had way too much butter Had too much honey and it tasted like some sort of a cake and the fact they put cheddar cheese in there gave it a really off taste The cheese was dark brown and honestly kind of burnt and it made it taste nasty. I also ordered the Rosemary parmesan truffle fries and they were lukewarm at best. The truffle flavor was very artificial and from someone who's had real white and black truffles not the fake stuff I can tell you right now those truffle fries tasted like straight up chemical (artificial truffle flavor aka 2,4-dithiapentane Artificial truffle flavor is created by using chemical compounds, most commonly 2,4-dithiapentane) The parmesan on top was cold The oil they put on them was kind of soaked under the fries that they were just sitting in. My mother also ordered a side of coleslaw and honestly it was very bland very runny Had no flavor and needed some savory in it some saltiness some sweetness and some tangness but this coleslaw tasted like a watered down version of something from KFC with a little bit of flavorless ranch in it. Our waitress never once asked us how our meal was she never asked if there's anything we needed she was very friendly in the beginning and then after that she just kind of ignored us like we weren't there didn't pay any more attention to us we didn't feel wanted or needed nor did we feel like we were customers in this place. The customer service was pretty much non-existent after she sat us and gave us our waters. Why weren't we asked is the food okay do you need anything do you want anything else do you need any drinks how is everything tasting what do you think etc etc etc blah blah blah you know the typical stuff at restaurants do of this supposed caliber. Since this place is so new they should be all about quality control and customer service along with food tasting good hot flavorful delicious. And let me talk about the pricing oh boy is the pricing way off for the type of food that we had tonight and for how it tasted I would expect the prices to be almost the same as Applebee's maybe Olive garden maybe Buffalo wild wings. Honestly I've had better food at cracker barrel and grocery stores. I also went there with the intention of getting the beef short rib and when I went to order the beef short rib the waiter said they no longer carry it and make it they just haven't taken it off the menu yet excuse me really? then take it off all the menus remake the menus that is called false advertisement and the last time I checked false advertisement is a crime. Don't advertise something at your business that you carry and offer to your paying customers if you do not have it or carry it or serve it to me that is lying and that is deceitful. This place is definitely nowhere close to Southern cooking I lived about 20 miles north of Houston in the Woodlands Conroe area. I'll be...

Stopped in for a drink and snack. I have a garlic allergy and it took 40 minutes to find out what I could eat, which was very little. I was to receive a birthday free desert, so I told the server the desert order, when I put in my food order, so she would know, since I was running out of time. She inexplicably brought the desert with ice cream, before the meal. After she brought the food, she did not return again until 20+ minutes later. Meanwhile, the cutlery was dirty, so I used my water and napkin to clean it and asked someone else for a new water and another napkin.

The bacon was good, the biscuits that were said to be made on site tasted like a box and not southern at all. The greens were not too bad, but very seasoned with something hot that obliterated any other taste. The bourbon peach bread pudding was OK, but no bourbon taste and not really peachy In terms of being able to identify the fruit or the taste of it. They do not list a scotch menu and only host doers, Johnny Walker, and Glenfiddich. They list more bourbon and rye brands than one would probably ever think about drinking, along with a long list of whiskeys, including six or more from Japan, which seemed odd with the southern theme.

I later ordered another drink from someone else and when the server finally returned, I said it’s too bad she brought the dessert, before the meal, since it was melting. I said it, because it was so obvious and not with malice, but More as a conversation.But she defensively said, well you were in a hurry. However that understanding did not compel her to bring my bill, which I ended up getting using my phone to call the restaurant from my booth, as well as a to go box for the melting dessert.

The server checked in consistently with the tables near me, but did not ever come back to my table. She came to the table right next to me as I was putting on my coat, but did not say anything to me about getting my bill or even acknowledge I was leaving.

It was probably the worst dismissiveness I’ve ever experienced. The hostess brought the bill and to go box right away and I thanked her again as I was leaving and told her what had happened. She was very nice, but I think I could’ve said I broke my leg and she would’ve still smiled her nice vacuous smile, which never changed, despite me asking three times if she would pass on my experience to a manager.

I have no confidence she did so in a way that would communicate more than a customer complaining and portray me as a bad customer, rather than one who was finally annoyed and out of time after not receiving regard or service in general orin a timely manner. The server was initially very engaging and I was planning on giving a larger than average tip, However, I ended up tipping 10% and wrote, “sorry you lost interest” on the bill with a sad face. What started out as a potentially nice respite and rare treat for myself cost $50 and became very draining.

I would return for the bacon, but will probably throw the rest of the desert away, just because of the reminder of such a frustrating experience. The brown paper bag they gave me for the to go box is very nice and sturdy, so...