Soho Asian Bar and Grill — Restaurant in Aventura

We go to Florida very rarely, like maybe four times in the last 19 years. One thing we do every time though is eat at SOHO. It’s been two years since we last visited and there have been a lot of changes at Soho. The decor was upgraded. The whole vibe is more upscale, a bigger bar, a fancier look, yet with the same amazing food with an even bigger menu. Naturally, I started off with drinks. Mine was called Solomon's Wisdom and consisted of tequila, uzu and pineapple and my wife took the Lechee Sour. Both were amazingly sweet and not too heavy on the alcohol, just the way we like them. Instead of trying and ordering a bunch or menu items, we actually ordered their top 5 entrees called The Fifth Element by Chef Sean. It consists of SOHO’s best 5 starters in one. It consists of Beef Eggrolls, Roasted Cabbage, Truffle Chicken Pops, Corn Ribs and Truffle Carpaccio. The first was the Truffle Pops and they didn't last long. Truth is they were so delicious, we should have ordered two orders. Then we tried the Truffle Carpaccio and the Roasted Cabbage. The flavor profile of these two dishes showed that Chef Sean has some unique flavors that you won't find anywhere else. The char on the cabbage with the sauce really opened my eye to the cabbage. Same with the Carpaccio. It was unlike any I have tried in any other restaurant. The corn ribs were hot and sweet. They also didn’t last long between the five of us. Next we moved on to the Soho Crispy Cauliflower with sweet chili sauce, cilantro sauce with a little spice. We get this dish every time and we just love it more and more. Now it was time for the Asian part of Soho. We tried some Kung Pao chicken with peanuts, green beans, and peppers. We also tried the sweet and sour chicken with some pineapple. Each dish comes with fresh fried rice. It’s been a long time since I have had Chinese that good. We also got a delicious won ton soup. When I asked to taste one more unique dish, the chef brought out the Beef Lo Mein with beef, mushrooms, scallions and noodles. It was amazing. Chef Sean really has worked hard to cultivate a wide array of flavors and taste profiles. For dessert we HAD to order a soufflé. Now usually a soufflé take like 25 min to bake etc. Theirs was out in half that time and better. We also got another dessert, the widely popular churros. Our meal took about an hour and a half. The staff is always communicating and the service is top notch. Also, every few minutes the music volume was raised and some servers approached a table singing with some sparklers. It definitely is a happening place and everyone was having fun. I...

I've been going to Soho on and off since they first opened. The experience has gone down tremendously. When the food arrived I was shocked to see how much the dishes shrunk in size. The soup has maybe 4oz of liquid, the main dishes we ordered (General Tzo’s Chicken and Mongolian Beef) had at most 3oz of Beef/Poultry. The rice portions was maybe half a cup in size, and the Mongolian Beef was much too salty but the Chicken was perfect in flavor. Soho has never been a cheap restaurant. The food was always decent especially when there aren't too many good kosher restaurants. It looks like they changed the dishes to make the portions look larger but it cannot cover the fact that things have shrunk so much. They started adding an 18% service charge like many places are now doing. I no longer have an option to let them know the service was bad by not tipping. They used to ask if everything was ok but they don't do that. They have so many waiters and waitresses, but it's near impossible to find someone to help you or request your bill which still takes a long time to get. Additionally, they no longer offer a physical or digital menu but have a QR code on the table. I spent 5 minutes waiting for a menu before asking one of the staff for one. Only then did they point out the QR code. The QR code doesn't take you to a menu. It takes you to a VERY cluttered website that has a link hidden. The link then asks you to download the menu which is not in any way suitable for cell phone viewing. The waitress we had was in no way aware of much of anything on the menu. She gave wrong info and then exchanged her answer once the food arrived different then what was ordered. She was also unable to answer some simple questions about food differences. The lighting was so bad that I couldn’t find the beef in between the scallions and onions on its black plate. Over time I have been able to convince myself that even though it is expensive it's still with it. After this experience I can no longer do that. It is safe to say that I will do my best to avoid going to this venue...

This review is primarily directed to the owner of the establishment. I usually avoid leaving negative feedback for restaurant, because it’s not an easy job, but I feel I can’t let this go. The food was good, but considering our tab was $350 for just two people, I kind of expected better overall experience, steak was great, but not $200 great. That said, I did enjoy my time, and the server was great

Until the end, when it came time to pay, I noticed a 20% which total $60 service charge on the bill. I have no issue with service charges in general, but what bothered me was how the server explained it. He mentioned that most, if not all, of the service charge doesn’t go to the staffs, and only a small portion is given to them. He also shared that this has caused many staff members to quit. This comment made me feel guilty for not tipping more on top of the $60 service charge.

As a business owner, I’m sure you’re doing well, so I urge you to take better care of your staffs. A service charge should be 100% distributed among your teams (NOT YOU) in order to support and retain them. If the staff is well-compensated, they wouldn’t feel compelled to share such uncomfortable comment with customers. Especially from someone been working there for 9 years.

In response to your comment, you didn't respond that 100% of the service charge goes to staffs!! But if you did, at least please be transparent to all you staffs where all the service charge allocated, so your servers will know, and will not make customers feel uncomfortable with such comment. I totally understand servers work for tips, but isn't it the point of 20%...