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| - After a number of friends recommended Soul, I decided to give it a try. Atmosphere is good, especially if you're lucky enough to sit inside at one of the "living room"-like areas. We sat outside, but no problems there -- the weather was great and the view of the city was nice.
Service was below average. Sure, it was busy, but that's not my problem, is it? Our waitress seemed exasperated when we asked questions about the menu -- to the point that on her first engagement with us she simply walked away when it was apparent we didn't know what we wanted yet. I would have left at that moment, but I didn't want to ruin the evening for everyone else.
On to the food:
They should either remove the sushi from the menu or hire someone that knows how to make it. We had yellowtail with scallions and hamachi with jalepenos. Both were unremarkable, bland and the plating was just wrong.
The white bean and goat cheese dip was mainly white beans (did they even put any goat cheese in it?). Bland, boring and criminal given that it was unseasoned and lacking goat cheese. I can open a can of white beans at home and won't forget to doctor it up so at least it tastes somewhat interesting.
Anchovy fries were OK. Saganaki -- same. Mediterranean wings were nicely done. The lone excellent dish was the fried oysters -- lightly battered, delicately fried and juicy inside.
My main advice to the operators of Soul would be to hire waiters that can handle stress and that at least try to pretend they like their customers. Good, personable service can cure a lot of ills.
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