Soul is always crowded. For good reason. But I have avoided Soul because of that. I do not however, avoid this fine place. Recently I have gone to Soul for food before concerts at Midwood Guitars. The early crowd is not so bad. The service is always great early. But tonight I hit it at prime big crowd time. I hovered at the first come bar for a while. I ordered wine (Chardonnay not so great) and told the bartender I really wanted to just get a stool and order dinner. Next thing I knew he spotted a couple who was about to leave and he asked them to make sure they gave a seat to me. Way cool. So my take = service is great whenever you come. Just be patient. Oh and BTW when I started enjoying my sushi the sushi chef looked over at me. We made eye contact and I gave her the thumbs up.