Sophia's — Restaurant in Columbia

My spouse and I stopped in for dinner on our way home from work tonight only to have a disappointing experience. We usually enjoy our experiences at Sophia’s and the food is always great but this time was different. Luke C. was our waiter and he spent most of his time standing at the bar doing nothing with the rest of the staff, which seems odd to me because that would never happen under any restaurant management I know; despite there being snowy weather tonight and slow business, there is always something to do in a restaurant and there is never an excuse for your guests to see you doing nothing. The carbonation machine was out so we couldn’t get Coke and Luke offered us an Arnold Palmer as an alternative to Sweet Tea, which was odd. In my experience, we’ve used soda from the bar when faced with this same scenario and we’d mention sweetener before we’d mention a completely different drink. We look forward to the bread but this time it was cold and dry and the oil seemed watered down and distasteful. Our pasta dishes did not disappoint, thankfully. We always leave with a box of food because the portion sizes are large. We live nearby so it’s extremely disappointing to have this experience at a restaurant we’d frequent more often if only we were confident we’d get the same family friendly, quiet, enjoyable environment and experience we use to get. As of now, we would recommend a dozen other restaurants in town over this one hands down. The staff and the overall experience need reviewed by management because it will never matter how good your food is if you aren’t providing an enjoyable overall experience especially at such a high scale restaurant. As someone in customer service for several years, including restaurants, it is the experience that keeps people coming back and keeps them referring guests, not...

I've eaten at Sophia's before, this was partly a disappointment. A glass of wine for husband a bloodymary for myself, along with the herb and spice plate served with house bread, we've ordered this on previous occasions (previous occasions were probably 18+ months ago) a kind of pesto, a sundried tomato tapenade? fresh grated garlic, red pepper flakes and a hard grated cheese (maybe not freshly grated) red pepper flakes with house bread. Seemed it had an olive or possibly a eggplant tapenade before that was to die for. Maybe it was seasonal? A nice dish. But the bread vehicle to get the yummy kitchen made spreads to your mouth was so so disappointing. Used to be a wonderful yeasty crusty bread. This was a grocery store french loaf with no character, 4 tiny little half pieces, served with this starter. The Sophia salad with the orange ginger dressing did not disappoint. Perfect lettuce, and red onion were good, for out of season tomatoes not bad, on an ice cold plate. Husband had the bolenase with capellini, good but a different pasta may have served the fantastic meat and red wine sauce. Carne ravioli .... the plate was burning, the cheese on top was melted, looked nice. Underneath was watery warm ravioli. The red sauce was nice, the ravioli were tough, wet, and lukewarm. It's an Italian pasta strong restaurant. Been open for many many years. I've had many good meals here. Our meal was 5pm on a Friday. Not the weeds of a Friday busy hour, food should have been better. Server was ok, she was spread out too far from her tables. Says she was filling in from the...

Terrific staff! Max was so polite and helpful, he really is excellent. The steak was cooked perfectly as ordered. The scallops were tender and juicy. They tasted very fresh and were wrapped in crispy bacon. The chips were sprinkled with tasty cheeses and herbs, however they were a little soft and soaking in oil at the bottom of the bowl. A piece of butcher paper in the bottom would fix this. The Gruyère mushroom dip tasting amazing. It was carby and cheesy and salty. This definitely hits all of the comfort food marks. It was a bit awkward and messy, but if you don’t mind, I don’t mind! I had the seafood ravioli and it was like cream of the ocean. I made audible noises of joy while eating this. The pasta was toothsome and the balance of flavors was everything. I want to try the meat ravioli next time. Ally had a ribeye Medium, excellent, with 4 spears of grilled asparagus but no lemon, and a pile of deliciously seasoned potato wedges. The compound butter tied it all together. We were way too full for dessert. I’ll order crème brûlée as an appetizer next time. :) we both had mocktails and they were delicious. I found them overly sweet...