society eatery & craft bar

enjoyed a fantastic evening at society last night for a foodie meetup with zomato. we were treated to all the starters on themenuand can report back that they are all winners! for mains i ordered the pulled pork tortilla which was very yummy and a generous portion. we were also treated to all the desserts on themenu- i would highly recommend their homemade ice cream. it's worth mentioning that their society g&t is also well worth the order :)

tip: if you catch uber to society and show them your receipt your first drink is on the house!

tip: ask for their table power bank to charge your phone.

enjoy!

first visit for a late lunch, excellent service and food! look forward to going back to try more of themenuand different range of drinks. recommend for a casual relaxed outing.

rather disappointed. the sirloin steak was full of sinew which is difficult to understand because sirloin is renowned for a fat-cap and no sinew. the steak had no browning on the exterior so had more of a boiled beef flavour than a steak and unfortunately had zero seasoning. bland, boiled, tough, overpriced beef is the best way to describe it. the crispy smashed potatoes have a distinct re-heated potato flavour which i suppose is understandable given how they need to be prepared for service in the manner in which they're served, however there are a plethora of other preparations or ways to serve them to avoid this problem. texture is fine, but flavour will remind you of eating the roast potatoes on monday evening after a sunday lunch. at home that's fine. in a restaurant, not so much. as for the the butternut gratin, well... the butternut gratin is not gratinated whatsoever. in fact it's not a gratin. it doesn't even resemble a gratin. i'm not sure how they can call a purée a gratin and get away with it. it is quite literally a dollop of purée, and a rather bland one at that. i did call the restaurant to query this with them directly before posting this review as i assumed they must have made a mistake, and that's fine. we all make them on occasion. however the manager said that's how they interpret a gratin: it's a purée. he did promise to "look at this issue" and i sincerely hope that they change theirmenucopywrite to more accurately describe what it is that they're selling. i suspect that the issue they face (and why it's called a gratin) is because they can't get away with charging r32 for a smear of butternut purée on the plate and calling it a side dish. it's not a side dish at all in its current form. it's a purée and is likely to upset a lot of people who don't like to eat baby-food. it's also particularly condescending to your patrons to tell us that we just have different interpretations of what a gratin is. both a gratin and a purée are two widely understood and accepted french culinary terms for vastly different dishes or techniques. one has the texture of baby-food and is somewhere between a soup and a sauce. the other is layered and set with a crispy top under a broiler/salamander after baking. there is no interpretation wiggle-room here. this is simply blatant and intentional misrepresentation.

the only positive from this experience was the triple mushroom sauce. one of the few restaurants that doesn't inflict a white sauce with mushrooms on their patrons. society manage to get great flavour and texture into the sauce and it would make a great accompaniment to better mains and sides. i had a previous bad experience at society where everything was slathered in uncooked and unmelted butter which ruined the burgers we'd ordered. i opted not to write about it then assuming it was just a bad day at the office. this is the second time i've ordered and the second bad experience.

you guys have a great location and a great vibe. you really can do better with your food. what you're serving (and what you're charging) are not commensurate with each other.

nice place to meet up with your friends for dinner. themenuoffers a great range of pub-like dishes with a rustic touch. selection of craft beer is impressive. the vibe was a bit more chilled and less exciting than expected, but i would give it a try in the day... if only the location was in a bit more of an exciting hub, than an open shopping centre. otherwise enjoyable.

society eatery and craft bar is the perfect place to wind down after a long day at work. the vibe is young and energetic but not as noisy as some of the other hip hop and happening places around joburg. they have a huge selection of craft beers, g & t’s and a lovely wine list. themenuis very trendy with a nice variety of meat and fish options, however for the veggie folks there isn’t a huge selection. they are a bit on the pricey side, but you are paying for “craft-style” food.

for starters we shared a couple of boards; the highlights were definitely the chicken livers, the “charred” lamb riblets, the zucchini fries, and the salt & pepper calamari. i didn’t really enjoy the pulled pork stacks the fritters were really doughy, the pork was flavoured with dried thyme which tasted like dirt, wouldn’t recommend them.

for mains i ordered the lamb rib roast with red wine jus, crispy roast potatoes and veg. the lamb was cooked to perfection; however the red wine jus was very oily. others at the table had the pistachio crusted salmon with salad, it looked absolutely delicious.

i got to try all the desserts, majority were delicious but the caramelized panna cotta tasted awful. the flavours were extremely unbalanced, it tasted burnt and bitter. but the chocolate fondant was delicious and the homemade ice cream was out of this world.

society is a popular after-hours watering hole for joburg north's slaving corporates, priding themselves on a wide range of craft beers. as the name suggests however, they do have a greatmenuthat puts an interesting spin on your everyday pub cuisine.

what i generally felt was lacking with society's food was consistency. i tried a number of starters, and most of them were good. i especially recommend the deep fried zucchini and chicken livers. the calamari and chicken nuggets were nothing to write home about, but more than edible.

for my main, i ordered the deconstructed pulled pork tortilla. the irony of this is that i feel deconstructing the meal did more harm than good. the pulled pork, in its deconstructed state, was very salty and quite unexceptional. but when combined with the plum sauce, salsa and other ingredients it was a whole different story. the plum sauce, in my opinion, was what held the whole meal together. that stuff is goooood.

dessert is where my heart breaks. i ordered the caramelized panacotta and it was awful. probably one of the worst desserts i can recently recall (even worse than the miserable custard tarts i made a few weeks ago - and those were bad). i don't know what happened. the panacotta was sour, bitter and rubbery. i'm not sure what the chocolate crumbs on top were, but they weren't a great addition either. the only saving grace was the mousse which was also, at best, mediocre. i will say that the dish was beautifully presented though. i will also say that my boyfriend ordered the chocolate fondant, and that was pretty darn spectacular. so it's not all bad news.

(but please, society. do something about that panacotta)

ambience is young and vibey, which i liked. service was very good.

in conclusion, a fairly balanced combination of delights and disappointments. though i'd like to go back one day and give it another chance.

just had a veggie burger delivered. the veggie burger was delicious, the only thing i would change is adding more sauce and some pickles, without, it was quite dry. the crispy potatoes were really great, especially with the salad. loved the dressing, it was ‘pickley’ enough that i ended up adding it with some lettuce to my burger. really glad i found this place overall. wish the dessertmenuwas available on ubereats though!

this is my go-to spot for lunch or dinner with drinks. everything i’ve tried on themenuhas been amazing but the chicken prego and asian calamari starter are top notch. seriously, best prego roll i’ve ever had. the staff are always great and they’re super friendly and attentive.

interesting little place tucked away in a centre i never knew existed. very nice decor. i ordered the double mushroom risotto which was very oily. themenuseemed to have a lot of interesting meals so i may go back and try again.

i went to visit this restaurant on the recommendation of lucian

what i can say is.. thanks society eatery and craft for ruining my perception of other burgers.. i can honestly not think of a better burger now.

i tried both the ribeye and wagyu burgers, the simple combinations of flavors were perfect (for lack of a better word), not overpowering and complimented each other well, the meats flavor was the leader on these burgers..the way it should be.

these guys have set the bar so high that even the staple "well known burger franchise that puts mayo on everything" are now just mediocre.

judging from the care taken with my burger, i'd like to try some of the other items on themenuasap.

my one single concern has to do with the comfort of the restaurant, should you wish to sit outside in the warm sun, you are forced to sit in a smoking section, i suppose you cant really help this. so the best we could do was move to a lesser populated area on the deck. i could imagine this place when its bustling would be rather uncomfortable for non-smokers.

great service, simplemenuand fantastic selection of craft beer, this is now one of my favorite lunch spots when i visit fourways

well, well, well.... so after have not ever trying this place for a hell of a long time my best mate thought let's try this spot

i glanced at themenuand one thing caught my eye.... the tacos, man o man the platter comes with fish, pork and something else i didn't really care about since i ate and ate all the fish tacos and then ordered more

best ever, the drinks were good the service outstanding and to think this was at 12.30pm
i was told this place is off the hook later that evening

i was a little weary about this place being a little pretentious (since i was in shorts) but nothing remotely close

will def go back there tapas are the best ever

thanks team society

final thought:

one may think why if everything was good only 4.5 and not a 5 well because first impression wow i need to go back one more time and if it's the same (which i hear will be) then bada bing bada boom we change

my husband and i have been to society a few times now and i have to say that i am impressed every single time. i am amazed at how good the food is; one tends to make the assumption that you will presented with pub food but this is not the case. they have quite a variety on their menu, ranging from boards to share to full on main meals that you would expect at an upmarket restaurant. we have eaten a fair bit off themenuand everything we have had has been absolutely delicious. my personal favourite is the gnocchi; so light and airy but still doughy. it doesn't stick to the roof of your mouth and the sauce it comes in is an italian's dream! my only wish is that it came in a bigger portion! :-)

the churros are also fabulous! very crispy on the outside but soft in the middle with the most divine chocolate dipping sauce on the side.

they have a great drinks menu, not to mention their bottomless bubbly special that they run.

great place, great vibe, great service, great food!

02.09.2016 i finally made a booking to try this spot. themenulooked interesting and had a good combination of flavours.

i appreciated that the manager called me on the day to confirm my booking and let me know they going to be really busy. i told him as long as the food is good and he didn't double book me (i.e. cancel my booking) and my table is still available i don't mind if it's busy.

we arrived and the place was packed and had quite a vibe.

they also have a few good gin options which i tried. i can't for the life of me remember the cocktails i had but they were delicious and definitely didn't skimp on the alcohol. the one however was definitely not what i had ordered (had cardomon in it) but drank it anyway as it was still gin and it's always a mission sending drinks back.

we ordered the charred lamb riblets and spicy prawns for starters. loved it. just my prawns needed some more sauce with the dry ciabatta that was served with it.

for mains we took the fillet with garlic buttered black mushrooms, butternut gratin and crispy potatoes and the mushroom risotto. enjoyed it but my fillet was slightly dry and the rissoto was good.

dessert options were a trio of ice cream and churros. now ive been on a churro hunt of late so i had to try them. the chocolate sauce was good, but the actual churro didn't deliver. it was very heavy and doughy. as for the ice cream sadly i also wasn't a fan. it was very icy and the flavours - vanilla, salted caramel and salted chocolate were not to my liking at all. the management did ask what we thought and we told them and i liked that they were hands on and going around checking up on the patrons.

i still think it's a funky place with some goodmenuoptions and will definitely go back and try some other items which i couldn't try on this ocasion.

cosy society eatery & craft bar is a wonderfully warm and inviting craft eatery.

the roaring fireplace, trendy decor and free glass of vino (if you uber there) is a fantastic way to start an evening off. in summer their deck must be a hit!

the chic pub grubmenuoffers something for everyone including...

society eatery is a great spot for cocktails or craft beer with delicious tapas or chic pub grub. with a location that's not on a main road or inside a shopping center, the outside area is great for jozi's sunny days. the service is friendly and efficient. themenuoffers a good variety. you have to order the churros - worth the calories!