Soto — Restaurant in Austin

Rating: 4.6/5 [dine in]

We came for happy hour on a Saturday, and it wasn't busy. The interior is beautifully designed with a low-light, cozy atmosphere. Our server, Shay, was fantastic & provided excellent customer service.

Cherry Blossom ($9): Yuki white peach nigori sake, Tito's vodka, Luxardo cherry, splash of La Marca prosecco. We always associated cherry blossom with a floral note, but that's never really translated in cocktails. Like other cherry blossom cocktails we tried, this one was spirit-forward and lacked that floral flavor we were expecting. It also barely had any sweetness as well.

Fresh Wasabi ($11): Not worth it. It had a grated texture but lacked flavor and heat. This is our first time seeing fresh wasabi in this form, and unfortunately, I wasn't a fan. The price also felt steep.

Softshell Crab Tempura ($12): The crab tempura was huge and crunchy, served with kimchi kobayaki, pan fried egg, & mixed herb salad. However, it lacked flavor. Not for me, though my husband enjoyed it.

Lobster Tempura ($15): Beautifully presented with sweet mustard, microgreens, & edible flowers. It came with 2 pieces and was the standout dish of the night - absolutely delicious and a must try!

Heritage Pork Rib ($16): This is part of their daily specials menu. It comes with two 24 hours sous vide ribs with smoked kabayaki & micro cilantro. Flavor was solid but a bit too salty. However, the meat was tender enough that it easily came off the bone.

Garlic Super White ($9): Generous portion of pan fried escolar served with garlic oil, arugula salad, yuzu peppers. The escolar looked like a firm tofu block and had a similar texture, which I loved. The jammy yuzu peppers underneath paired beautifully with the escolar.

Mini Sushi Tacos ($10): Came with two tacos made of crispy nori shell, rice, tuna, pickled wasabi, sriracha. This description is not accurate since it didn't come with pickled wasabi or sriracha but was topped with microgreen. The crispy nori shell was crispy but had this panko bread crumb layer that I didn't like at all. The tuna was also bland compared to the other nigiri we had. Hard pass for me.

Sake Toro Nigiri ($4): Solid & enjoyable.

King Mushroom Nigiri ($3): Tasteless so I would skip.

Shiitake Mushroom Nigiri ($2): Slightly more flavorful than the king mushroom, but still not worth ordering.

Happy Hour Omakase ($80): This includes 8-10 courses with a lot of the nigiri coming from the happy hour menu. The dishes got better as the meal progressed, and the presentation and culinary techniques were a level above most omakase experiences we've had.

Chef's 5 Piece Nigiri: Wow, an incredible sample of unique texture and flavor combos - one even reminded us of butter!

Truffle Risotto With O-Toro: Wild mushroom risotto, ponzu, shaved truffles. The O-Toro was fatty and melted in your mouth. The risotto was tasty, creamy, yet not heavy. My husband isn't a fan of anything creamy but he loved this!

Kampachi Apple: Amberjack, green apple puree, myoga, yuzu foam, thai chili vinaigrette, micro cilantro. Beautifully plated but the taste fell flat.

Chili Hamachi: Yellowtail, garlic chili ponzu, jalapeno, fried scallions. Delicious! Love the flavors and crispy scallions! Well-balanced but there was no real heat.

Tuna Truffle: Super tasty with a prominent truffle flavor. The texture weirdly reminded me of cheese...but in a good way?

Toro Toast: They gave a thick cut of toro with a surprise burst of seawater flavor that caught me off-guard. I wasn't a fan of the hard white bread it was served on and just didn't pair well with the toro.

Yuzu Sorbet Ball: Mild & refreshing, a nice palette cleanser to...

Alright y'all, my daughter wanted sushi for her 16th birthday. It was late, we made a sporadic decision to go out. I just looked up a random restaurant that was still open. I stumbled upon Soto. I didn't look at reviews or the menu, we just made a reservation online and showed up.

We drive up to a sleak looking entrance, sign not lit up, we have no idea what to expect. Upon entering a friendly host Greets us. The low lights and fragrant delights flood our senses. We are seated and our server Alfredo goes over the menus with us. My daughter and I intently watch the chefs prepare food and we quickly realize we don't know what half the items on the menu are, we're excited about all the "fancy" items.

We get the truffle edamame for a starter: absolutely stellar. Highly recommend this simple dish. The hot green tea was served in a beautiful traditional pot with stoneware, it was a great addition to our meal. We then receive a sushi I don't know the name of and my sweet daughter says "where's the rice and nori???" I smile. We roll up the flat pieces with our chopsticks and eat it, delicious. At this point she's a little nervous as the experience thus far is different than anything she's had before.

Enter the entrees! I ordered the truffle risotto with the A5 Wagyu. Presentation was on point, aromas tantalizing. Y'all, this was beyond delicious. The risotto was seasoned and cooked to perfection while the Wagyu quite literally melted in my mouth. It was one of the most divine dishes I've had in a long time. Absolutely spectacular.

My family and I love to try new things- my sweet daughter got the squid ink pasta. It came out and was gorgeous. She took one bite of it and looked at me with black ink protruding from her lips with wide eyes. Now here's the thing- she said it was cooked well, and she knew good and well it was probably delicious to someone else, but she didn't go further eating it. Our server kept checking on, and when he did this sweet girl kept putting it in her mouth acting like she was eating it. I told her several times I would order get something else for her but she insisted that because the chefs worked so hard on it she didn't want to be rude. We couldn't stop laughing. She tried mine and also very much enjoyed it. When she was asked if she needed a box we declined.

So remember that reservation I made online?? I put that it was my daughter's birthday we were celebrating as they have a spot for comments (which is incredibly helpful for various situations). Alfredo brings out the most elegant passion fruit tart, complete with a fresh raspberry, blueberry, blackberry, and popping boba. On top was a single lit pink candle. Her face lit up with gratitude and surprise. This was INCREDIBLE. The flavors were light and airy, the tart was creamy, and everything was balanced beautifully. Honestly after we ate this we contemplated ordering the other desserts to round out the experience. We look forward to trying them on our next visit.

Now enter the check. The check comes and my daughter's pasta has been comped. We had not mentioned anything to Alfredo that she didn't like it, no faces were made, and I was not going to mention it as it was simply a preference issue. I can't tell you how much I appreciated that gracious act. Alfredo was an extremely good server and we appreciated his calm patient demeanor throughout the meal.

This is an absolutely fantastic restaurant with incredible cuisine and an intensely amazing experience. We highly...

Valentine’s Day Dinner RUINED: My Husband decided to take us out to a Soto for a special Valentine’s dinner, and upon arrival we became very frustrated. It only went downhill from there. Upon entering the lobby, it was entirely filled with angry couples waiting to be seated. Most have been waiting 30mins - 1 hour past their reservation time; We were told a table wasn’t going to be ready for about 45 mins past our 9:15pm reservation. There were no apologies from the Hostesses/Employees considering the restaurant’s inconvenience for overbooking and not having reservations ready upon arrival. Why book a reservation in the first place if you’re going to have to wait? We were told we could “go find somewhere else” and pay about a $100/person cancellation fee, or wait until a table was ready. We have never experienced “fine dining” and decided to wait to not let it damper our evening. We eventually got seated and I was deeply disappointed in the lack of space in the neighboring tables. I could hear every conversation, and everyone around was within half an arms reach. I couldn’t have an enjoyable one-on-one time with my Husband without having to raise my voice. We waited about 20 minutes before a server even came to greet us. Eventually he came to our table and informed us that there was a pre-set menu for the night, which we were disappointed. We received our drinks after the 4th course (out of 10). Some of the dishes were phenomenal, but all in all, was very mediocre. Out of the entire time spent sitting and waiting on more food, we probably spent a total of 10 minutes eating. Portions were extremely minuscule (shared between 2 people that isn’t even enough to feed 1 person satisfyingly) that we ended up getting fast food, since it was the only option after 11pm, after paying damn near $400 for a terrible 2 hour experience. I watched couples laugh at the ridiculous overpriced bill, and saw some storm out of anger. The employees were rushing around in a very chaotic manner. I get that it was extremely busy, but they looked very unprepared. Now I work in the service industry and absolutely can understand a rush and complaints about prices, but what I will not understand is how my server goes to pick up his copy of a receipt off the table right next to us and the first thing he does is look at how much he got tipped, and made a face as if he was upset. I found that absolutely disgusting that it was done in front of customers; You should definitely expect a well tip if you’ve done your job as amazing as possible, but he underperformed for having 4 tables. I did have a nice time staring at my Husband for majority of the night, but in the end, our special night planned felt robbed and we felt scammed. I would’ve expected the establishment to be more courteous considering it’s a special night to celebrate love and life with...