The Contented Sole - We are closed for the season, see you in 2026! — Restaurant in Bristol

Truly one of the most disrespectful and condescending experiences we have ever lived. The manager aggressively raised his tone, saying US QUEBECERS were classless, to my friend as she was trying to describe our experience and reasoning to him. This is the first time I take the time to leave a bad review, but the manager left us no choice. Upon our arrival, the hostess was sweet trying to accommodate us because we did not have a reservation and we were 8 people. She told us we could wait at the lounge and order some drinks/snacks, saying it should take around an hour to seat us. After 2 hours of waiting, they seated us at a table that was free all along, but we didn’t know the details of how they work their reservations so we gave them a chance. Our waitress did not present any of the items and prices of today’s specials, neither did she or anyone warn us about a 20% tipping policy for groups of 8. When the time came to distribute de bills, she asked how we wanted to split them and as soon as my friend and her son answered “our bills will be together”, she rolled her eyes and said “Oh goddd”. Then, when we saw our bills with a 45$ charge we were unaware of for the lobster rigatoni (that was not worth that much in our opinion), we were shook. During our 3 hour visit, our waitress did not seem to want to consider us and kept making us feel like we were bothering her service. With the sneaky comments and the rude service, we were still willing to tip because us Quebecers DO have manners, but between 12-15% and not 20% for an experience this bad. When she came back with the bills and said “oh I might have a hard time distributing them” and I proposed to help her, she answered “I don’t need YOUR help”. As a waitress, I completely understand what a rush is like, what dealing with clients who do have valid complaints is like while you have other things to handle, what giving your tip out to the restaurant is like, but this does not justify rudeness like that. And as a MANAGER, it is not at all appropriate to treat your clients in this degrading, disgusting and...

Tried lunch yesterday and want to advise people to beware of a slick little scam they have going on there. When I attempted to pay with a credit card, the handheld scanning device I was handed, not only had the bill for the meal, but the server had already PRE-SELECTED a 20% tip for himself. The tip amount was in very small print, almost undetectable. When I attempted to adjust the tip scale lower, it would not go any lower, only higher ! I selected "No Tip" and processed the payment, then left a cash tip. Checking my credit card statement the following day, lo and behold, my credit card was charged for the additional 20% tip that I declined. So not only did the server give himself a 20% tip, but he then got an additional cash tip, brining his total take to over 30% !!

We've seen this scam before, in restaurants using those mobile payment devices, where they count on people not looking at the screen too closely, to see that they are being scammed by having a tip automatically added without customer authorization.

Then guess what happened when I telephoned to speak to management...they only have an automated answering machine that does not have an option to speak to a live person, only to leave a voice message. Interested to see today if anyone will call back and correct this, before I contact my credit card company.

On a side note concerning the menu, this was our first visit to this restaurant and we were very disappointed to find that a Maine waterfront restaurant had such a lousy menu selection of Maine seafood. What Maine waterfront restaurant doesn't have lobster ? Or lobster stew/bisque ? No shrimp, no scallops, no clams,...

This was our first time at The Sole's new location. The view is magnificent, but because we didn't have a reservation (and there was nothing on The Sole's website to indicate that a reservation was suggested), we could not get a table outside. We were seated and not told who our wait person was. We waited for more than 20 minutes for someone to show up to bring us water. Finally, a young man showed up and apologized for the wait. He did not introduce himself and seemed a little disoriented as we watched him later on. Not efficient at all. He rattled off several specials for the night. I told him it would make his job easier and take less time if the specials (with the prices) were listed on a separate piece of paper. He agreed. The party next to us was more than half way thru their meals before their drink orders arrived. My companion and I each ordered a drink and our meals. We waited more than half an hour for our meals to arrive which were delivered by a young lady. We had now been there for 55 minutes. Our drink orders were delivered shortly after our meals arrived by our wait person. I noticed that most or all of the wait staff was waiting on customers inside and out which also seemed inefficient. I waited tables years ago and I had to wonder who makes up the schedule for which tables the wait staff have. There is definitely room for improvement. Our meals and drinks were good and we were out of there within 20 minutes of getting our food. Also, I noticed the prices on-line are about $1 or $2 less than on the current menu. Perhaps, we will come back next year to see if things...