solstice kitchen

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 therestaurantis 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 givenrestaurantthat 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.

instrinsically delightful!. i have a l ot to say about this place.. first let me say amazing.. a true gem of arestaurantin 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!

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 norestaurantwould 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.

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 (sisterrestauranti 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 chainrestaurantwhere they bend over backwards to those who feel entitled. i'm sure thisrestaurantwon'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 otherrestaurantin any way.

unique, but worth a try. i'm honestly not very experienced in "fine dining," as i'm a college student who prefers to save money for textbooks rather than steaks. but i dated a guy who wanted me to meet his parents, and they suggested solstice. i felt a little out of my element there--therestaurantis very nice, and the waiters were dressed up more than i was. (i wore skinny jeans, a pretty top, and heels, and still felt underdressed.) i knew right away that this was going to be a very expensive restaurant. boy, was i right. talk about sticker shock! still, my boyfriend's parents were paying, and they told me to order whatever i wanted. here's where i further admit my lack of culture: i'm not an extremely adventurous eater. my sister has a digestion disorder, so i've grown up in a house that "did without" foods she could not have: beef, all red meat, game, and fruit. i just don't have a taste for these foods. so i could literally find only one entree on the menu that sounded appealing, and i was nervous about it: the blueberry bbq chicken with bacon macaroni and cheese on the side. but it was actually delicious! i was pleasantly surprised. not only was the food good, but the service and atmosphere were great, too. it was formal enough to remind me to mind my manners but cozy enough that my boyfriend's parents ended up feeling comfortable with me and they loved me by the end of the night. i would recommend solstice, but be warned of a few things:
1.) dress nicely--slacks for men, and either dress slacks, a skirt, or a dress for women.
2.) don't expect to find plain grilled chicken or plain fried shrimp. you may have to step a little out of your comfort zone for this restaurant, because it's definitely unique.
3.) be prepared to pay a lot. my entree was more than i spend in a week.

the atmosphere was decent for arestaurantin a strip mall. that said, the wine list leaves a lot to be desired. the fransiscan cab that i has was extremely tannic and unbalanced. cassis?? no. only coppery and metallic finish. steak tartare fell short of the mark though the quail's egg was a decent addition otherwise, too many capers, underseasoned, worstersire was weak. this recipe needs to be revamped. check out tony bourdain's recipe as a start. the steak in the steak and fries was excellent as was the spinach that came with it. the fries were overdone and poorly executed - if you are going to do a bistro dish, cook your potatoes properly. blanch them in oil then fry them after they've rested. they were also cut unevenly and way to crunchy. along with the steak frites, what in the hell was a side of hispanic adobo doing there? inapropriate addition to a french meal. the foie butter was excellent. bread was terrible. if you are reading this, do not waste your money at thisrestaurant- go to hampton vineyard...

one of my favorite restaurants with one large flaw. solstice kitchen is one of three restaurants in the columbia area that i consider truly worthy of "five stars" (the other two being mr. friendly's and ristorante divino). i've dined there about ten times since their opening a few years ago, and have never had a bad experience. as far as i know, they have the largest wine selection in columbia, with a list of over 650 wines by the bottle. the food is always amazing and their menu changes frequently to adjust to seasonal vegetables and availability (much of their product comes from local farms). the atmosphere is fairly casual and laid back (but not "shorts and t-shirt casual), and the dining room is accentuated with comfortable seating and a great atmosphere. i would suggest joining their mailing list, as therestaurantregularly offers some incredible wine discounts and specials for members of the list. we're always treated to an amuse-bouche from the chef before our meal, which looks like it was prepared with a lot of thought, rather than just throwing something together quickly like some other restaurants do. i realize restaurants don't make a profit by giving out an amuse-bouche, which is why it's so nice to see quality ingredients being used in their preparation.

diners should make sure to try the gouda mac and cheese, the table side beef or tuna tartare (if offered that night), and any seafood selection, especially with mussels or scallops. the only flaw with thisrestaurantis its location in northeast columbia. although it's really not much more than a 15 minute drive from downtown columbia, i would definitely appreciate it if it was closer. given therestaurantscene in charleston and even greenville, it is amazing that columbia lucked out with such an incrediblerestaurantnearby.