solstice kitchen

the fish was perfect. it was so tender that it just fell apart every time my fork touched it. grouper is pretty mild, so having the strong flavored tapenade of top was outstanding. it really just bumped the entire dish up a notch. the cous cous wasn't too strong, so it was a nice complement to the fish. i cleaned my plate, and, had we not been in a restaurant, probably would have asked for seconds. so glad i ordered this because it was definitely my favorite dish of the evening.

the "restaurant in a mall" tag doesn't apply here. the appetizers are enough with a glass of wine from a decent wine list... i will tell you, i m not a mac and cheese kinda guy.... but... this mac and cheese will turn the most stubborn to their culinary knees! the service is impeccable, the bar scene very local and fun.. if your for some reason, you are in the area, definitely give this place a chance for a wonderful evening

my wife and i are always looking for a good date spot where we live. we were very excited to find solstice. the service is great, the chef is always giving something to the table to pilot some new option the restaurant is considering. the wait staff recommendations are always on point. lastly there are multiple great options to choose from. i usually have one dish at a given restaurant that i always come back to but at solstice i enjoy trying something new on the menu each time. i highly recommend it and hope you enjoy it. my wife and i certainly do.

mac and cheese. best mac and cheese i've ever had. i actually laughed the first time i tried it because i didn't know food could be that good.
we try to go every time we pass through. one of the most consistent all around restaurants i know of. decent beer menu, which is hard to find. number 2 favorite place to go on date night.

ate at solstice last night with hubby. we had the fried green tomato starter, which i give a mixed review to. the top tomato on the stack, which had no pimiento cheese on top, was very plain and could use a healthy dose of at least salt and pepper. it by itself was incredibly bland. the tomatoes underneath had the pimiento cheese covering them which gave them much needed spice. prob won't order again. the short rib entree was divine!!!! one of the best i ever had. fork tender and well seasoned - i could die happy! omg! hubby had the fried chicken. great breading and moist. overall great experience!

love this place! one of the best in columbia. food is always great and great drink selection!

instrinsically delightful!. i have a l ot to say about this place.. first let me say amazing.. a true gem of a restaurant in a culinary wasteland called columbia sc. now maybe thats not fair to say about the culinary landscape of south carolina's capital city but for the most part it's true. you find many good restaurants in the city scattered abroad in sandhills, harbison, five points, vista area's of columbia.

this place is amazing. first of all if you go ask for tyler as your server the guy could sell you a plate of half eaten chicken nuggets and you wouldn't even know the difference, he is that good. service was phenomenal..

if you have a taste for something wonderful might i make a few suggestions. the chef in the back is phenomenal, got a lot of creativity with low country cuisine mixed with classy food. try the foie gras it is a bit steep price wise for an appetite but tastes like this side of heaven let me tell you. also we got the duck breast special i wanted to cry.

i ordered the halibut over the jasmine almond rice with asparagus and we got a side of the smoked gouda mac and cheese. .you can't imagine you have eaten anything until you have eaten that. no mac and cheese can put a finger to it.. phenomenal,, and we were told by the waiter to go there if we wanted a burger instead of pawley's downtown, he said the burgers are way better.

anyway you have a gem here, anyone who gives it bad reviews has zero taste.

get there early and call for a table too!

the bacon man. i'm sure that this post will be removed very quickly, as it's in reference to wayne r's post below, but what the heck!
wayne seems perplexed why a tomato sandwich would come with more tomato, but he doesn't tell you that all our sandwiches are served with an extra slice of red vine ripe tomato and lettuce on the side. if he didn't want to eat it, he certainly didn't have to.
wayne also doesn't understand the concept of sheet-cooking bacon. he did mention that his bacon on his burger at wendy's was always hot, so he didn't understand why ours wasn't. well, just like many very good restaurants, we cook our applewood bacon on large sheet pans in the oven at a low temperature so they remain flat and in tact. two nice pieces are a compliment to our fried green tomato based blt, that, it seems mr wayne r didn't care for.
he also fails to mention that upon being sat, he very loudly said "i'll try to order something they can't screw up". hmmmm?? sound like someone was just looking for a reason to complain to anyone else? yeah, i think so.

no one has to love solstice. no one has to dine with us. but we are a very good restaurant, and wayne's petty insults, all because he demanding his two tiny strips of bacon be made hot, after eating half of his lunch, well, its obvious that someone was either having a bad day, or is just out to stir things up.

and for all restaurants where wayne ventures from here on out...you better make sure that bacon is hotttttt!!!


-----19 mar, 2012-----

dear michael below.... perhaps the reason we didn't honor your groupon was because a) it expired almost one year ago b) you were irate and threatened legal action against us after our gm explained to you that your groupon expired almost one year ago. maybe had you been nice, while understanding that some deals do in fact expire at some point in time, things would've turned out differently. but that didn't happen did it. regardless, send me your address and i'll throw a check in the mail, but only if you remove your ridiculous post about how awful we are for not honoring year-old promos.

tomatoes on a tomato sandwich?. i took a group of folks from work to lunch at solstice. most everyone enjoyed the hamburgers that are made from fresh ground steak and cooked to order. having ordered a burger from solstice on a previous occasion that was over-cooked, i tried something different from the menu, a “fried green tomato blt”.

expecting a bacon, lettuce, and tomato (a “blt”) sandwich made with fried green tomatoes instead of ripe red tomatoes, i was disappointed. what came on the plate was basically an order of fried green tomatoes served on a large kaiser roll. on the side was a piece of lettuce, two red tomato slices (of all things) and two small pieces of bacon. already disappointed with the entrée, i proceeded to rake off the stack of green tomatoes from the bun and try to make a sandwich. when i picked up the two slices of bacon (really looked like one slice cut in half), they were what could only be described as “refrigerator” cold.

at this point i stopped trying to make an edible sandwich and waited for the waitress to come back to the table. when she stopped by, i complained about the bacon (both the temperature and quantity) and handed her the two strips from my plate. she of course apologized and offered to bring out more bacon with which to make a sandwich. what came out next was a small plate (three half slices this time) of burnt bacon. at this point, i stopped trying to create anything out of my meal and just waited for everyone else at the table to finish.
when the waitress finally came back to bring a check, she noticed i had not eaten the sandwich and asked if anything was wrong. i looked at the small plate of burnt pork flesh and asked if the kitchen had sent that out as a joke. she assured me they had not.

not wanting to make a scene and discuss the situation in front of my guests, i paid the bill and left the restaurant. i called back later to express my displeasure with the meal.

tonight the owner calls me to “get to the bottom of the situation”. after i explained, he told me i was being unreasonable and no restaurant would actually cook bacon to order for a blt sandwich. he said it was normal practice to cook the bacon at the beginning of a shift and leave it out on a sandwich station until it was ordered. as far as the side of tomatoes on what could only be described as a tomato sandwich, he said that was the way all sandwiches were plated.

if you want a quiet place for lunch, i would recommend solstice. the place only had one other table with people at it (i wonder why?). if you want a good blt, i would recommend going somewhere else.

love love love this place! great place for drinks & appetizers, or for a special night with your sweetie. extensive wine selection with excellent entrees. staff very friendly & knowledgeable.

good eating!!!!. have eaten here several times. can't say enough about the cable car drink and the krispy kreme bread pudding and everything inbetween was completely yummy as well...

avoid!. i’ve been waiting for several months to write this review as i was so thoroughly turned off by my experience in this so-called restaurant.

i've had more than a few bottles of wine in my time and when i think it's turned i say so politely. not something that happens often (first in quite a few years that i sent back). management arguing with me that's it's simply "earthy" and insinuating that i am clueless, "you know, we don't make the wine," is insulting. i couldn't get the check fast enough. and the fact that everyone on staff was incredulous that i don’t enjoy being treated poorly was icing on the proverbial cake.

the waitress was actually very nice and tried to be attentive. management didn’t even tell her that we cancelled our order. she was still bringing silverware over to the table as we were leaving. and no, i didn't take it out on her. i tipped as if it were a michelin star establishment.

all i required was a simple, "what can we do to make this right," from the management. all they had to do was turn the bottle back to the purveyor and get their money back. i suppose disdainful argument is one way to go, but not on my dime.

truly one of the most unpleasant dining experiences that i have ever suffered through. hard to believe these are the same folks that operate mr. friendly's.

pretentious and contemptuous is no way to run a railroad. won't. be. back. ever!

we just had a delightful lunch!! great food and great service!

excellent southern food with a twist. have never had a bad meal or service here. only wish it was in lexington.

very good!. new to columbia, have eaten here three times. each time, the service and food was great. inspired us to try out mr. friendly's which was also great (sister restaurant i believe). there is only a handful of good restaurants in the columbia area, this is one of them!

i'll address some of the previous reviews: good for solstice staff for not caving to the attitude that the customer is always right. stand your ground, and the next time i eat there i'll enjoy my meal even more knowing that this type of customer won't be there.

maybe the previous poster can pull that act at some chain restaurant where they bend over backwards to those who feel entitled. i'm sure this restaurant won't miss your business or your attitude! notice the guy complaining about the groupon has one review and signed up for urbanspoon that day. notice the same about the author of the "to the solstice dude" comment. coincidence? maybe. i'm sure it's possible that a complete stranger felt the need to defend their cause. that comment should be deleted per the urbanspoon tos.

i'm not affiliated with this or any other restaurant in any way.