| rev:text
| - I really wanted to like SOL Cocina, but for me it was a big misfire. I know, I know they've only been open 9 days, but there were rookie errors that should never have occurred with an experience restauranteur or issue that a soft opening should have handled.
We wanted to try this new restaurant for our friend's birthday, so I diligently made reservations a day in advance (they are not yet set up on open table). We arrived on time, but they weren't ready. They tried to set us up on a bar table, but we wanted a regular table which we had to stand and wait for 30 minutes. The three hostesses blamed the problem on a failed computer system, but there seemed to be plenty of tables and they just wouldn't seat us, because they said the computer problem messed up their ordering system. After waiting a half hour I finally demanded they seat us and take our order the old-fashioned way -- by hand.
To their credit, the restaurant decor is lovely. The tables a beautiful real wood rustic hand-hewn tables. The indoor/outdoor vibe is great for this time of year. But they do have an issue in the bar area with the direction their tables are set up. All the tables are set up in an east/west direction so when the sun sets you are literally blinded by the sun. A simple solution would be to turn the tables to that they face north/south. Also, once the sun set the restaurant goes to dark, soft lighting. Not unusual for a restaurant, but with the poor lighting and the thin font on the menu, it is nearly impossible to read the menu. Come prepared -- bring a flashlight and reading glasses because you'll need them.
On to food and drinks. The appetizers were really good. We had the Guacamole Sol which was good, but the Warm Goat Cheese appetizer was really outstanding. I can't say the same for my husband's drink. The waiter recommended the Grande Clase Azul Margarita. We like margaritas, but we did not like the taste of this one which was more of a case of quantity not quality. It was strong -- super strong, but all you tasted was tequila and very little of the margarita flavor that we know and love.
On to dinner, my husband and I ordered the Grilled Fish Zarandeado. In my opinion very average and not much flavor. Plus it was very wet below the tortilla so when I went to pick the taco up to eat it, the whole thing fell apart. The rice was okay, but the black beans were really not to my liking. All together and even with the sauces the flavors were very bland. Which was extremely surprising for Mexican food. One kind of tends to expect spicy and flavorful food. However, our friend had the sweet potato black bean taco and she liked it a lot.
Lastly on to service. While our waiter was nice and a dedicated educator about all the menu items, service was very slow. We had brought in a specialty cake for our friend's birthday which they very graciously served. We all promptly ordered coffee to go with the cake. 20 minutes later we were still staring at our cake waiting for coffee. We finally called the waiter over and asked about the coffee and he said they were out of coffee and it would take another 5-10 minutes to make some more. We promptly ate our cake without coffee and cancelled the order. To the waiter's credit, he brought us 4 cups of coffee right before we were gathering our stuff to leave and said the manager would comp the coffee, but by this time it was 9pm and we were ready to leave. Interestingly, our original reservation was for 6:30 and we didn't leave until after 9pm. We like long and leisurely dining when it is our choice, not when it's because of slow service, computer problems, etc.
I know the restaurant is only 8 days old, but it may be 8 months before we give it another try. Hopefully, by then, they will have worked out all their problems.
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