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| - As always when I come home to visit my folks in Charlotte I am faced with the dilemma of finding restaurants to eat out at that not only tease my palate with some new flavors but also manage to not scare them off in the process. It's usually just my mom dining with me, so that relieves some of the pressure of pleasing all 3 of us, which is truly an unenviable task. This time around I solicited the feedback of a few fellow Yelpers in Charlotte for some new places and decided Soul Gastrolounge offered up so many options on their menu that surely I could find something to satisfy us both.
It seemed to me that most of the complaints people had with this place revolved around the wait to get in, or just poor service in general, but I can definitely assure you we had neither of these problems (although mom likes to eat dinner early, so we got there a little after 6PM). In fact our server Marlon was one of the most attentive I've ever had, and constantly updated us on the progress of our items, since we ordered so many different plates. The pace of the food was all done well, and only at one point was our table completely overflowing with dishes, to which we just stole some space from the one next to us for a few minutes. All of the drinks came out within just a few minutes of ordering as well. Maybe we just got lucky, but this service was on point the whole night.
At first glance the huge menu here seems to be a total mishmash of things from all over the globe, prepared in every way imaginable, the kind of thing that Gordon Ramsay would come into a restaurant and blow a gasket over. After a little further examination though you can see some of the connections, although I still think they should do away with a few sections altogether and focus more on the remaining dishes. The pricing of everything here (with the exception of the $18 lamb lollipops) is all pretty fair though, so you can try just about anything on the menu without a huge investment, a nice departure from the "small plate" pricing schemes in DC.
We began with their spicy feta dip, which had a nice thick texture but I couldn't get past the strong Pimento cheese flavor, something that quickly reminded me I was back in NC. I did like it, but not sure I would recommend it. Next out were the Boursin cheese stuffed piquillo peppers served over mini-bruschettas. The flavors here were a bit muted for me, something my mom was a fan of, but I guess that's due to my inexperience with piquillos and expecting them to be spicy rather than sweet. So, if that's more your style then this dish is definitely done properly. The last of our teaser bites was easily my favorite, the French fries with garlic-herb salt and truffle oil, and we wound up snacking on them throughout the whole meal as a nice base point for flavors when we wanted to alternate back and forth. The truffle presence is pretty potent here but the herb flavors do a good job balancing it...definitely request some of the spicy mayo for dipping!
Our first meat dish to come out was the chimichurri beef skewers, really well cooked cubes of beef with a hint of pink and a side of dipping sauce. Thankfully the chimichurri was for dipping, because it was a big disappointment compared to other versions I've had, but at least the meat was good. The sticky veal shortribs with the five spice honey glaze though were superb. The meat falls right off the bone as it should and maintains tenderness throughout. I really loved the traditional Asian flavor combo of hoisin and five spice here too. The lamb lollipops are clearly the star of the show here, although I wish the rosemary flavor was a bit more pronounced...and I hardly ever say this, but they cooked have been cooked just a bit longer to get a nice sear on the outside. My favorite dish came next, the pork belly tacos with watermelon salsa. We were worried they wouldn't be available, as our waiter told us there was currently a watermelon shortage, but someone managed to find some and deliver it to the restaurant just in time, whew. Glad they did, as this was a unique flavor combination for me that really worked brilliantly. The high didn't last long though, as I was thoroughly disappointed with the shrimp ceviche, mainly due to the coconut milk base which was entirely too sweet.
Dessert was a mixed bag, with the eggnog cupcake being OK, thanks in part to a heavy dose of rum-spiked frosting, and the pistachio ice cream being much better. There are nice big pieces of whole pistachios mixed into the ice cream which not only enhanced the flavor but added a nice textural element.
I really appreciated the effort they're putting into the cocktail menu here as well. At just $10 a piece you can get some pretty creative combinations, such as the Dark N' Spicy using dark rum, ginger liqueur, Saranac ginger beer and fresh lime juice, much better than the "Stormy" version. Basil Smash was also good, but the Sweet Heat had too much syrup and not enough kick.
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