Reviews for The Social in Montpelier, VT
This place a few months ago was very decent. However, while the wait staff was super kind and cordial, it took about 20 minutes... to get water and an hour and a half to get mains. I dined with two others and they ordered scallops with brussel sprouts. Aftera very long wait, they both received small hockey pucks covered in balsamic (sad excuses for scallops, wildly overcookeddrenched in cheap balsamic), paired with what we're essentially raw brussel sprouts with cheese melted on top. I ordered thechicken and the nicest thing I can say was that it was fine. Frankly, Costco's rotisseries are better cooked. A LOT of potentialhere if they cook more competently, though the only thing that saved them from being a one star review was the beer selectionand wine special. Good deal. Read more
We planned a wedding celebration for family members who live abroad and were visiting briefly in Vermont. We reserved the porch... and had a lovely dinner with an attentive and excellent waitress. Everyone loved the food and the drinks and the outdoorsetting was Covid safe and beautiful. The event was topped off by a fireworks display that we enjoyed from the porch. Thingswent very smoothly and I was delighted. We had 13 guests who all ordered different main dishes and side dishes and all were veryhappy with their choices. The serving sizes were more than ample and we took left overs home to enjoy the next day. I highlyrecommend this wonderful local option for dinner or family/community events. The porch makes for a very special afternoon orevening setting. Read more
This was our second visit. Our first was soon after it it opened and we were disappointed but were willing to go for a second... time. We were equally, if not more, disappointed. Our waitress was very good...pleasant, attentive and accommodating. Ourmeals however, were underwhelming. It was as Sunday Brunch. We ordered the waffles with fruit and Nutella and Eggs Benedict.Presentation was Connecticut diner style. Two huge waffles were served dry with strawberries and the spread and syrup separatein a do-it-yourself style. The Eggs Benedict had maybe a teaspoon of Hollandaise sauce and the eggs were poached to a hard yokestage so no smooth flowing yolk to savor. It's disappointing to have such a lovely location, beautiful historical building andpotentially perfect dining experience seem more like a quick stop off I95. Read more
The afternoon tea has the potential to be great but was lacking in a lot of ways. According to their menu, the afternoon tea is... $16.00 per person and includes your selection of one hot tea blend out of four, scone with clotted cream and strawberry jam, anassortment of macarons, petite fours, and mandolins and your choice of 2 sandwiches out of 5 options all to be served on whitebread. My sister and I were seated at a plain white table clothed table, no condiments or floral arrangements. After about tenminutes we ordered. We each got a different tea and 2 different sandwiches. The teas each came in their own pots of vintagedbroken pots, teacups had permanent faint tea rings. The teas were exceptional! We loved the flavors so much. My sister order anappetizer of stuffed dates wrapped in bacon for $7.50 they came out first. 4 pieces on a salad sized plate bedded in anexcessive amount of watercress. The waitress told us an order was five not four and from the size of the plate, 5 or 6 wouldhave made sense. We anticipated your traditional 3 tier tower but we’re surprised a little to receive it all in a big birdcagelooking tier in a lackluster way. The scones we plain freshly cooked biscuits and came with whip cream and blackberry jam ( notas advertised) no petite fours either, just some macaroons that tasted fresh and 2 Madeline’s cold from a fridge that tasteddry and no real flavor. The biggest disappointment was the sandwiches. A traditional cucumber cream cheese sandwich has peeledcucumber sliced very thin and layered, the cream cheese is blended with fresh dill and lemon, these were thick unpeeled slicesof cucumber on just plain cream cheese. The brie and ham had thick sliced ham and some old browning brie, not fresh or creamy.The avocado toast had so much lime in it to keep it from browning it overpowered the avocado taste. The goat cheese with appleand walnut were just that but tasted good. All the sandwiches had dry stale edged bread with no butter Read more
I wanted to love The Social. It's adorable and looked vegan-friendly, and I love to support local businesses. The Social gets... three stars for service, atmosphere, and three good main dishes. First, we had the nicest, most helpful server I can imagine.And sitting outdoors on the restaurant's porch is absolutely lovely. We could have sat there all night, except I needed to gohome to have dinner (more about that later). Though very few tables were occupied, the food took a long time to arrive. Two ofour orders arrived with errors, and our very nice server brought the right things. My three companions liked their main dishes,though one main dish arrived barely lukewarm and presented unappealingly (we wouldn't notice presentation unless it was reallygood or just plain off). Two of the delicious-sounding veggie side dishes were just barely okay. The mashed potatoes were good,but the corn was tough and starchy, and the Brussels sprouts were too oily, tough, and bland, and the cheese on them didn'twork. Many menu items were unavailable, including the only vegan main dish. I'm vegan. I asked our server, as I often do inadvance or in the moment, at restaurants where nothing fully vegan is on the menu: Would the kitchen please make me anything atall with vegetables? I told them that I love all vegetables, beans, nuts, grains, whatever, and I would be grateful for whateverthey made. She came back and said that the kitchen said no, the only vegan item was the plain salad on the menu. My salad wasexpensive. It was just okay-tasting; I did like the roasted cherry tomatoes. The dressing contained a shocking amount of sugar.I don't much care about bread, and I rarely eat it at restaurants. But I asked if I could have a piece of bread with my salad soI wasn't grinding with hunger. Our server brought one slice of wheat bread that was tasteless and stale. I ate dinner when I gothome. There are way more GF items on the menu than vegan ones, so even if they run out of Read more
Finally got a chance to visit this past weekend. My Mom and sister were in town for a night and stayed at a super cute room at... The Inn. We were hoping to take advantage of the porch but it was little too chilly so we sat inside. Really spacious, relaxingatmosphere. Our server was so lovely, helpful, patient and fun! She was quick to greet us and grab us drinks (mimosas weregreat!) and the food came quickly too. I had a Benedict and it was awesome! Looking forward to going back and sitting outside. Read more
We worked with the staff at The Social to host a celebration of my sister in-laws life. The staff made the whole process... painless, and they went out of their way to make sure that everything was thought of. The food was excellent, and the waitstaff did a great job of making sure we had drinks etc, without being obtrusive. The ambiance was great, with the variousprivate rooms. We will definitely be going back! Thanks again!! Read more
We had The Social as the caterer for our wedding in Vermont. We went with a buffet style dinner and full bar. The food was... amazing! We had many dietary restrictions (GF, non-dairy, etc.) and The Social was able to accommodate all of our requests. Thebar had plenty of variety and somehow offered Heady Topper (still in shock that we had Heady Topper at the wedding!). The barmanager also helped us develop signature cocktails which all our guests loved. Special thanks to Thomas for coordinating andhelping us pull everything together! Read more