The Social Bar and Grill

I went to this restaurant awhile back with my boyfriend who used to work in the area. He really liked the location and wanted to take me there for a nice dinner date. When we went to the restaurant we were all dressed up and waited for the table we wanted. We ended up waiting almost two hours before we decided to give up and take another table that opened up. Finally, we sat down and waited to have our drink orders taken. Well, that took over 10 minutes and then another 15 minutes to even get our drinks. The man ended up brining me the wrong drink and was not happy about having to go back to fix it. Took another few minutes to get my drink and then the man wasn’t ready to take our order? Okay. So we waited a total of 45 minutes. The man finally came back and told us we had to leave since I was not yet 21 and that was there policy. Are you serious? We waited almost three hours to be told that we couldn’t eat there. They should have told us when we first got there and saw us waiting. They also should have told us that before we sat down and ordered our drinks. The man who served us was also extremely rude and seemed to enjoy coming back to tell us we couldn’t stay. Wow.
We ended up calling the management to tell them what happened and they just wanted to make excuses for the mans actions before saying they’d give us a free appetizer to apologize. Needless to say, we didn’t even go back for the free appetizer. There’s nicer places, with better service, who actually care about for your business.

What’s not to like? Awesome happy all day Sunday. Super good appetizer menu too. Only been once but definitely good to come to on Tuesday night.

Love this place. Live up stairs. Not the best food in tacoma. Its kind of fancy food but at a good price. Love the drinks and garlic rice balls. For the price the food and convince it is way worth money. All the servers are women and pretty good scenery. Definitely a good place to check out

Ordered two small appetizers that took 40 minutes to arrive yet the gentlemen next to us get their food before us when they ordered 20 minutes after us just because they are vendors promoting for some breweries. Piss poor service and will never be back.

I had made reservations for 15 people on the patio for a Monday evening. We were attending the Paint Night even that was being held there later that night. I got there right on time and they didn’t have any tables set up for us. I stood there for 5 minutes while 3 employees walked right past us without asking if we needed help. They finally showed us where we would be sitting and it was not set up so we had to wait.
The staff are not friendly at all.
* I ordered the chicken tacos. There was a bone in one of the that was 2 inches long. I told the employee who came to the table and she barely apologized then took it away without another word. The tacos came with 3 options and my sister and I both chose refried beans. However, we were served them with Quinoa. We told her that mix up and she said she never heard us. So, we asked her if we could get the beans. Another employee brought them to the table and placed them in front of another person in our group along with the salad she ordered. We assumed it came with her food so she ate it. When we got the bill, she had charged us for extra refried beans (2 orders at $ 4.00 each) and then argued with us when we tried to dispute it. She also charged me for the tacos (even though there was a 2 inch bone in them) and I told her I didn’t want to pay for them. She asked why and I told her. Turns out the employee who took away the tacos never even told our waitress about the bone.
* My friend ordered a salad and mushrooms. Her salad was brought out in a timely fashion. However, after 30 minutes she asked about the mushrooms and the gal said she heard they were out. Our waitress never came to tell us that. Then when our waitress came back, we told her about the mushrooms and 10 minutes later she came out with them. Remind you this is 40 minutes for mushrooms. So, obviously they were not out. Miscommunication can be the failure of a business.
* After we ate we ordered bread pudding with 2 spoons (we were sharing). After 35 minutes we had to ask the status of our bread pudding; it came out 10 minutes later with 1 spoon. We asked for another spoon all while our bread pudding was sitting there getting cold with the ice cream melting. It took 5 minutes to get a spoon; 5 minutes!!!
The staff was not attentive at all. We ended up having 19 in our party and she could have made good tips off of us. My sister and I ended up leaving without paying a tip.
The only positive; great outdoor seating with fire pits and tables for the evening time. Oh and they have really good Sangria that is $ 10 for a pitcher during happy hour.

Meh, just okay. They allow children in the restaurant until 10pm, then it’s 21+. The food and service is not the best but it’s also not terrible. Small portions but that’s expected with the price. The waitress was kinda rude and it took them forever to take our empty plates. Don’t think I’ll go back to eat but if it’s a nice day, I may get a drink since they have an outdoor patio.

I hate leaving bad reviews, but I have given this place 5 attempts. I love the outdoor seating and sangria happy hour special, but the service and food are sub par. The pink sangria and ahi wontons are great if you want to go for apps and drinks, but expect few and far apart visits from your waiter. We were hoping to order another pitcher of sangria, but after a 15 minute wait (with completely empty beers/​sangria/​water) we decided to close our tab. I would always bring visitors here because of the great atmosphere, but time and time again we have been let down.

I’ve been to this place a few times and you would think since it’s called the social it would be just that but it’s not! I’ve sat at the bar and the bartender literally said two words to me. It wasn’t even busy. So I tried it another day and it was a really busy And of course it was horrible. I didn’t get service for quite a while and no one even employee noticed that I was waiting and when I did try to stop people they are always too busy to help. They don’t even knowledge you and the food is not that great!

Ahi wontons. That’s all I have to say. Ok never mind let me just add bourbon street burger and ahi poke… oh ya, its like food porn.
Ok let’s go back to the ahi wontons, no joke my new favorite. These things are so bad ass. And did I mention happy hour.
Mmm mmmmm mmm
Update: I should mention the service. It’s a good time with all the staff we’ve met. We love to go in when Jerid is working. He is fun, attentive and makes great recommendations. He knows the menu and pays attention to our group. Seriously, where else are we going to get that service??? Did I mention the bloody Mary’s? Yum

Mediocre food and service. Waitress was sweet but didn’t seem to be enthusiastic at all until the very end of our evening. I was excited to try the place but not sure if I’ll be back for the food. Maybe for drinks in the summer bc of the outside seating option. Otherwise nothing to miss out on.

I’m really not sure what it is about the Social.
They have a large menu, but the food is neither great nor terrible. The drink list is average (not a large draft selection)… and they have average drink specials during their happy hour. The service is great and the timeliness is, too. I come here fairly often more because of convenience, but I really could come here more. It has the potential to be a great place – great location, great view, possibility to attract a clientele that lives in the surrounding buildings who could easily walk there, but it isn’t.
I do have to point out – their outdoor seating is the best in the city.

A good place to grab a beer, eat bar food (small menu), and relax by the water. Many of the Unilocal reviews implies staff are non-​existent or worse, but we found the opposite to be true: constant refills on water, stop-​bys asking whether we wanted another round, and check-​ins to see how we were enjoying the meal.
The chicken wings are served BBq’d, not fried, so it takes a bit longer but it’s worth it. Chicken burger is fair, and the fish and chips – while certainly not the best ever – is still an OK value.
May return if in the area. Recommend.

Stopped in here with my friend after work. We wanted drinks. The happy hour specials cant be beat. I started with Prawns with my cocktails. And then the Pork Belly sandwich peaked my interest and I switched to a Glass of wine. And it was $ 10 for the sandwich which was reasonably priced. Feels like you are getting way more than you paid for. The coleslaw that accompanied it was delicious as well.
I like how you can see into the kitchen as well.
My coworker/​friend drank a manhattan and a drink that had berries in it. And she enjoyed it.
I definitely plan on going back when the weather is nice to sit out on the patio. Preferably on a Sunday and Drink Sangria.

Today was my first time eating at The Social. We tried it for lunch because our company is moving into a space in the marina. I was really trying to like it the entire time, but the only thing they got right was my soda water with lime.
The wings were lack luster in regards to the sauce, very little spice and they were so gristly, I couldn’t even eat them. And I am REALLY good at eating wings.
I asked for a side salad and the waiter told me I’d like the romaine salad better, but didn’t tell me it was a grilled caesar. Then when I asked for a true side salad instead he argued with me that that’s what I had ordered, but it was him who suggested it. Definitely the wrong answer.
Overall the service staff seemed like they couldn’t be bothered by myself or my credit card and I won’t be back even if it’s 700ft from my new office.

Located right on the Tacoma waterfront, and next to the Glass Museum, it’s a trendy modern spot for locals. It’s nowhere I’d bring visiting out of towners to, but definitely a place my friends and I go to on a Friday night when we’re too lazy to drive all the way to Seattle from Federal way. Their happy hour menu is decent, I like their tuna poke and sangria pitchers from their HH menu. I would never go here as my first choice to eat as its more of a relaxed, bar vibe.
I’ve gotten oysters here a few times and they were always pretty fresh. I’ve had several entrees from here– tacos, pasta, burgers, etc. THey were all pretty good. It’s a good local bar with a pretty view. THey have a good outdoor patio seating for the summertime and it outlooks the water and all of the boats so it’s nice. and at night, the patio is lighted with pretty Christmas lights.
service is always good I can’t complain and the restaurant is always clean.

Tried this place out for lunch today and the food was great. Getting to the location is a different story. It’s tucked in the marina which once you arrive is beautiful, but was hard to get to and the parking situation was with one block of fee parking or paying to park. No thanks.
When we entered it was 1:00pm, well into lunch time and there were no servers or hostess in sight. We waited for at least 5 minutes before anyone even acknowledged we were there.
I orders the grilled salad and the fried rice balls with chicken and slaw. I just say the food was great. Original and full of flavor. I would recommend trying this place out. Would be grad during a nice summer day. Maybe the service was just an off day?

Nice hidden little spot in Tacoma. The view is spectacular on a clear night. We chose to sit outside since inside was very dark and gloomy in the bar, I feel like I would’ve had troubles finding my food on the table it was so dark.
I met up with a girlfriend around 7 and we were seated right away. The service itself was good, not great, but she did her job. Refilled our waters when they were low and had small talk when we tried to engage with her. I asked about a couple items on the menu and she didn’t seem to know much about it so maybe she was new.
I got an appetizer, the chicken bowl. The slaw and the chicken were great. The chicken was cooked perfectly and the slaw flavor a complimented it very well. What I didn’t like was the deep fried sticky rice balls. They were disgusting. Once you bit into it, all you tasted was grease. I would stay away from those at all costs.
All in all, the experience was nice. I would go back again to try more from their menu. I mainly loved the view, but now that it’s getting colder I probably won’t be back until the weather gets nicer.

Great little place by the marina. We sat outside on the very large patio. Great view of the water and right next to the glass museum.
It was Sunday so happy hour is ALL day there! We had the blackened rockfish tacos and grilled steak tacos. Great price. Only $ 7 and $ 6. (See pics)
The grilled steak tacos had a some kind of sweet sauce. These were NOT Mexican tacos but very good regardless. Both dishes came with a quinoa black bean salad. I liked it but my husband didn’t like it because it was cold.
Our server was nice and friendly. We will be back.

I’d highly suggest not coming here until they figure out where they’re going so wrong. For years I’ve recommended this place to all of my friends for any occasion especially anniversary’s or special occasions; I’ve received mostly negative feedback from my friends about their experiences, I assured them that the Social Bar and Grill just must have been having an off night, however after reading recent posts I’m realizing that we’re not alone in being dissatisfied with service and food quality.
We just went in for our anniversary dinner, the wait was really long for service, there were a few groups, but nothing that should’ve meant such long waits, they weren’t that busy, I loved this place, so I didn’t care about the wait, but then when our food finally came it was burnt, we ordered coconut shrimp and the coconut was BLACK, coconut shouldn’t be charcoal black nor should the shrimp have been so tough to eat, we sent it back only for them to serve it the same way that it had been served the first time. When the dessert was served we had to pick burnt coconut off of the ice cream, and my husbands dessert didn’t taste right either.
I wrote them a week ago explaining the situation, and never even got any kind of response back, if someone takes time out of their day to reach out and tell you how their experiences were, the least you can do is respond back, even just a simple sorry works wonders.
I’m heartbroken as this used to be my favorite restaurant in Tacoma.
Whatever changed from before needs to be fixed.

The food is about 4.5 stars, but their server misinformed me (basically misled me) to believe that the oysters raw were also happy hour. When I told her I was going to order the cooked oysters, and said I wish they were raw, she goes «oh you can order them uncooked as well».
I’ve been here a handful of times, and I haven’t been tricked like that ever. Servers are clear about what is happy hour and isn’t, even with drinks. I don’t think it was right to be charged $ 18 for 5 raw oysters… When I would not have ordered them at all if they were not happy hour priced.
Will update my review later.