| rev:text
| - Have long heard the lore of the Wine Bar at Solaire. Never knew it was more than a myth until recently.
While there's a fair share of reviews on other sites, there seems to be a void here on Yelp. Kinda surprised because they've reached out to the Yelp generation with offers on Groupon to generate traffic to both the spa and the four bedroom inn housed in the same building.
The wine bar is above Solaire's salon and spa, in the First and Main complex. It's across from Heinen's and Tomato Grill.
I agree with the other reviewer that it's kinda sorta like Disneyland's Club 33, minus the $36,000, first year fees, and minus 33's first class service. It's not exactly the easiest place to find, but when you do it's a modern, clean ambiance. The glass enclosed wine cellar catches your eyes. Though, tucked in behind it is the one single bathroom for the restaurant.
My lovely wife was adamant about making reservations, but once we arrived it appeared to be quite obvious that we didn't need one. In fact, we could have sat anywhere we wanted. That was the great thing about this place. It was never too loud, it was very comfortable and allowed for a romantic night out. There was a lot of foot traffic in/out to the bar. Seems folks would do some shopping, pop in for a drink and then be on their merry way. Please folks, stay, have dinner, it's not bad, I swear.
Our server was very nice, very knowledgeable about the menu, and in particular knew his wines. This was a complete 180 from our recent experiences at Downtown 140, where the servers seemed to know nothing about the food and had a pre-teen knowledge of wine.
This is where it gets difficult. On one hand all the servers seemed to know their stuff, but on the other hand, it seemed as if the servers ruled the roost at this establishment. At one point during dinner service I noticed a server sit at a bar stool, just like a customer, and sip on wine. Then two servers plated an empty table and had dinner. It resembled a scene straight out of a restaurant stakeout show. As much as this may have lacked professionalism, at the very least they knew their wines and they were comfortable with their food menu. It's a trade off from being ticked at other restaurants where the staff are clueless about their food and drink offerings.
Bottom line: we liked our server's wine suggestion, and we loved our entrees and desserts.
Only negatives were some dirty dishware. That's one pet peeve. When I'm dropping over $100 on a meal, I expect all the place settings, cutlery and drink glasses to be clean, sanitized and appear spotless. Water glasses shouldn't appear to have a booger on the inside.
(Edit)
Originally I gave the place three-stars. In my original edit, I forgot to note that my wife didn't like her cheesecake dessert. It tasted like it was frozen. I knew I recognized it from somewhere...low and behold I found it sitting on a shelf at Costco #625. Solaire's $10/slice of cheesecake sells for $14.99/whole at Costco. What's it take to find a pastry chef? What's it take to even walk across the street to Heinen's and buy a real slice. I'm downgrading my review from 3-stars to 2-stars as "meh, I've experienced better."
Tip:Park on the upper level of the parking deck and enter from there, this way you avoid the giant staircase, especially dangerous after a few bottles of wine.
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