Jenkins and I went for brunch one weekend with some friends at So.cial at Le Magasin in Gastown. I had gone to So.cial quite a while ago for dinner and had mixed reviews of my meal there. However, I wasn’t sure if my less than satisfactory meal was due to the fact that the restaurant had just opened. I was also tempted to give it another try because I heard that the brunch at So.cial was quite tasty. It was with these thoughts in mind that I suggested So.cial for our brunch outing.
We were the first to arrive so we decided to start with something to drink. Jenkins went for his usual morning drink of orange juice. He thought it was a bit small but other than that, he didn’t have any other comments.
I decided to have a latte, which came in a nice big cup. It was pretty hot and I thought the ratio of milk to espresso was just right.
While we perused the menu and tried to decide what to have, we were presented with a small dish of freshly made scones. The scones were warm and were slightly crispy on the outside. They went great with the accompanying butter and blackberry jam.
I decided to order the salmon benny, which also came with a side of home fries. My eggs benny were ok but I would have liked my eggs to be a bit more runny and I felt that the salmon was a bit overcooked. The home fries were coked with a bit of rosemary and theoretically, should have been quite tasty, but instead had a hard and chewy shell and was quite hard to eat. Everything was also a bit cold, which may have added to the overall poor quality of my dish.
Jenkins decided to have the chorizo and spinach omelette, which also came with home fries. He wasn’t too impressed with his omelette and thought it was pretty run of the mill. His home fries weren’t very tasty either and were also quite cold.
I have to say that I was quite disappointed with our brunch. If only one of our dishes didn’t turn out, I could have marked it up to poor luck but since both my and Jenkins’ dishes were not really good, I’m not sure what to believe. I do feel a bit duped because I’ve been here for both brunch and dinner now and both times did not work out. That being said, I’ve heard that the sandwiches at the So.cial butcher shop next door to the restaurant are excellent so I’m tempted to give that a try. But I may wait a bit before playing the part of a fool again. 
Details:
200-332 Water Street, Vancouver
Tel: 604-669-4488
Summary:
Food: 
Service:
Price: $$
Really impressed with the dim sum at Red Star today 
Twitter
Facebook
{ 1 trackback }
{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
Wow, that _is_ disappointing. I hear this restaurant is owned by Kirk McLean, one of my all time favourite Canucks…
Hi Samantha – I had no idea it was owned by Kirk McLean. But yes, our meal there was quite disappointing unfortunately.
i’ve been there for dinner before during dineout vancouver. their dinner was mediocre also, nothing to write home about. i’ve always heard good things about so.cial though, so i was pretty disappointed when i had a so-so dinner.
I went there for dinner during Dineout Vancouver also, and I was pretty disappointed. The drink were sub-standard (they made my whiskey sour with the pre-made margarita mix you can buy from the supermarket and it was a flourescent green colour), the food was served lukewarm, and the only thing that saved dinner was the panna cotta. Service was really bad – it was a constant hassle in trying to waive down our server who kept disappearing on us. My friend had ordered the 3 wine pairings to go with her dinner and it didn’t show up until we asked for it. The waiter said that he was just about to come back with it but my friend had gotten tired of waiting and just ate her appetizer.
All in all, I wasn’t too impressed and would not be making a repeat visit back. I had also heard good things about So.Cial but after having experienced it for myself, I was sorely disappointed. And I wanted so much to like it too, and it’s so nice inside.
Heard good things at So.Cial and had breakfast there as well – it was completely deserted in the mornings. Sad