Sodo on Jasper — Restaurant in Central Core

“An Evening of Cocktails, Currents, and Chromatic Confusion at Sodo”

It was a wind-whipped evening of the most disagreeable variety—the sort of meteorological torment that makes one question both one’s life choices and one’s choice of scarf. With the city howling like a spurned lover, our modest assembly of five sought solace in the warm embrace of a downtown bar known as Sodo, its name evoking either a hidden society or a discontinued IKEA line. Hard to say.

The first thing one notices upon entry—aside from the immediate relief of being somewhere not actively trying to exfoliate your skin via wind—is a rather grandiose painting of Marilyn Monroe, her iconic gaze fixed eternally upon the clientele, as if to say, “Darling, you could’ve tried harder with that coat.” It’s a bold piece. Disarming, really. I felt both judged and welcomed.

As we settled into our booth—mercifully without delay—I became aware of the lighting. Dim, of course, as is fashionable, but tinged overwhelmingly in red. Not quite bordello, not quite dystopian jazz lounge. The kind of lighting that makes you wonder whether your drink is garnished with a cherry or your own sense of doubt. I wished, foolishly, that it might feel warm. It did not. I remained distinctly cold. Have I mentioned the wind?

Our waitress, however, was a beacon of actual warmth—cheerful, attentive, and possessed of the kind of sincere friendliness that makes you momentarily forget the existential chill slowly colonizing your spine. She handed us menus—tomes, really—featuring a drinks list as long and ambitious as the collected works of Hemingway, and a food menu discreetly exiled to the final page like a guilty secret. We did not test its contents. Curiosity has limits.

Drinks were ordered, arriving at a pace I can only describe as emotionally neutral. Not slow enough to complain, nor fast enough to applaud. Just… there. The sort of arrival that makes you question whether you had in fact ordered them, or whether they simply manifested out of social obligation. I looked up, dazed, and noticed one of the ceiling bulbs was out. No, two. A pity—they were, blessedly, not red.

I continued to be cold. Did I say that already?

A neighboring table had a battery-powered lamp—small, unassuming, and glowing in (you guessed it) red. I felt no desire for more red in my life at that point, and yet... envy stirred. Our table's matching lamp lay dark and useless, like a dormant relic of better-lit times. I picked it up on a whim, and behold—it flickered to life in green. A moment of triumph! A chromatic reprieve! I nearly wept.

At some point, one of our party ordered a smoked whiskey cocktail. Our delightful waitress returned wielding a blowtorch—yes, truly—a small pyrotechnic flourish to ignite a scented fuse, infusing the drink with theatrical plumes of smoke. It dissipated quickly, as all magic does, but the spectacle lingered in our conversation. We even revisited the subject of my previous magnum opus, “A Dreadful Sojourn to Emgees”—a review so scathing it may have permanently altered the tectonic plates beneath that unfortunate establishment. Emgees deserved every syllable. Sodo, however, fared far better.

The drinks? Quite good, once the visual effects had subsided. The waitress? Marvelous. The atmosphere? Red. Just… so much red. And outside? Still windy. Devastatingly so.

We paid our dues and returned to the gale. My lamp had turned green. My cheeks had not. But my soul, perhaps, had warmed—slightly.

Would I return? Certainly. Preferably with a thicker coat and a...

I was very excited to try SoDo because of the instagram photos and reviews, but unfortunately I was pretty disappointed - apparently there is new ownership, making the past reviews irrelevant.

We came in at about 6pm and it was already pretty awkward because who we later realized were the owners were all sitting at the bar with their backs to the door and there was kinda of a back and forth before one of them got up and pointed to where we should sit. The music was pretty loud, especially since we were one of two tables. I also didn’t think the decor matched what we were expecting for an upscale cocktail bar.

The only reason why this review has 2 stars instead of 1 was the cocktails were pretty good for a decent price.

We started with the charcuterie board that was advertised as having crostinis when it was actually supermarket crackers that we could see through the window to the kitchen. It was served with ranch, what honestly seemed like the Safeway charcuterie packages of the 3 cured meats and pickles which did taste like jarred pickles. When we didn’t finish the charcuterie board, one of the owners came by and was very insistent asking if we were sure we were done multiple times, if we wanted to keep the sauce (ranch) and that so many people love the house made pickles And we should really finish them. She insisted people loved them many times and it was just awkward.

We then got the chorizo Mac and cheese and candied bacon Brie. The mac and cheese was subpar and didn’t look like any of the photos we had seen. When we got the candied bacon Brie there was maybe 5 tiny pieces of bacon which were cold. I was pretty surprised by that because the description said it was caramelized. The owners must have noticed my face because both of them came over and asked me about it. When I mentioned it was cold, one of the owners said that’s how it was supposed to be, since they cooked the bacon, and then put it in maple syrup (so not caramelized). To their credit, one of the owners offered to take it off the bill which I accepted, however the other owner argued with him while he tried to tell her it was fine. The owner that was arguing proceed to talk about us to all the other staff working, in front of us.

All in all, I wouldn’t order any of the food. If we didn’t have such an uncomfortable experience, maybe we would come...

IMPORTANT EDIT**

So it looks like the restaurant has had their friends and families write reviews right after this was posted specifically about what was mentioned in this review. I’m really baffled as they do not seem to take into account the validity of the commentary rather save face. Huge disappointment.

Unfortunately my latest experience here was disappointing. ( first time in since the change in ownership)

The food was extremely disappointing. We ordered a chorizo Mac and cheese that had bechemel. What we received was a very tiny portion of Mac and cheese with a Ukrainian sausage cut up in small bits- there was no chorizo. It was over peppered and slightly warm, it quite literally was noodles with cheese melted into them- it didn’t have any breadcrumbs as stated on the menu. This was a $20 dish and the portion was not reflective. It was not what was shown/advertised on the menu. We also tried the teriyaki chicken bowl ($26) and were extremely disappointed. It was some sort of dry spiced chicken, a scoop of dry white rice and some broccoli. There was no sauce or teriyaki. It was really dry even the chicken didn’t have any sauce, and was not a teriyaki bowl.

Touching on service and staff- whilst I was using the washroom the staff were on the phone taking reservations. This was extremely uncomfortable and odd as their bathroom is very tiny. The bar staff were lovely and in terms of service when getting drinks it was decent.

Lastly to touch on atmosphere. The lighting was very intrusive. The front door is left open and the bar is dimly lit. As they are a cocktail bar some sort of ambiance or collected feel is expected. As we pulled the chairs out they were getting caught on their broken floorboards. Music ranged from Indian songs to Eminem and modern hits- it was all over the place. The classy glasses they used to have were replaced with stainless steel.

Unfortunately I wouldn’t recommend this place to anyone under this new ownership. They seem to have cut costs in every way possible. They are falsely advertising their menu, and there was no cultivated feel or ambiance.

(Our bill was around $150- 4 cocktails and 2 small plates mentioned as...