The Social, 27 Royal Exchange Square, Glasgow G1 3AJ
Gastropub
Opening Times:
Food Served
Mon – Fri: noon - 8pm
Sat – Sun: 11am - 8pm
Bar Open
Sun – Thu: 11am - 2am
Fri – Sat: 11am - 3am
Royal Exchange Square is buzzing with bars and fashionable spots, and from what I gather it is the ‘in’ place to be. As the name suggests the bar is buzzing with people, both inside and out, given the drizzly weather we opted for a table inside.
The interior décor is very upmarket- all dark wood and red walls, the beautiful exotic flowers at the bar gave it a nice touch that made it feel more bistro and less pub. Yet you are very much reminded that The Social is in fact a pub by the slightly stale alcohol smell lingering in the air, a pet hate I have with these types of places- air freshener would not go amiss. However moving on to the clientele, being that it was around 7.30pm there was a good mix of people in the bar, some following up their shopping with a cocktail, groups of young twenty-something’s kicking off their night and others just looking for a chinwag and something to eat.
There was a wide range of food on choice; I was pleasantly surprised to find little gems such as the haggis and sweetcorn pizza on the menu. The prices were not bad either the majority of meals just under the £10 mark. Being a cocktail enthusiast I was very impressed not only by the extensive cocktail menu but also because the majority of them were only £3; including my favourite- the Cosmopolitan, now having just moved from Aberdeen where you are hard pushed to find a cocktail under £5 in most bars I was in my element!
Getting back to the food our table service was good; my presumption that the staff would be pretentious was completely dispelled by our polite waiter who on request even recommended several dishes. Taking his advice we ordered a pizza each, they quickly appeared before us and were thoroughly enjoyed by both- the toppings were very generous.
Overall The Social is (and I hate to use this word, but in this case it is true) a ‘cool’ place to go, both for food and drinks, the clientele is varied and the music is good- at 8 o’clock the lights dimmed and it became very pop, R&B etc which suited myself perfectly. Our bill, considering we also ordered a bottle of wine, was fairly low at £30.
My final note would be that my visit to The Social was on a Wednesday night, so I cannot comment on what it would be like on a Saturday day or night, but I am told that it is super busy and the service is not quite as good as what I received on this occasion. Regardless of this, The Social is in a vibrant area of the city centre that attracts a fashionable crowd, if you enjoy that kind of atmosphere along with good food then this is the place for you, and I would definitely recommend it.
July 2nd, 2009 at 7:01 pm
We went for lunch as a big group of 10, firstly we had trouble booking a table as bookings over 6 people have to be ok’d by the manager, then when we arrived they werent even busy so seems slightly pointless!!
We then had a pleasant but very slow waitress who got orders mixed up, and there was clear lack of communication as the wrong order was brought to our table before being taken away…
The main meals came out a few people had macaronni cheese, the comments made regarding this dish was “seems like they forgot the cheese, its pasta in flour sauce” they also had on the menu that it came with garlic bread there was no garlic bread when it came out also a couple had the soup and sadwich of the day which came out firstly it looked terrible but the sandwiches are CLEARLY made up earlier as they came out stale and the cheese and tomato in them was warm.
The deserts were not much better, melted ice cream and a lump of sponge didnt really go down well.
So would not reccommend it at all!!