Don Sol Mexican Grill — Restaurant in Marion

They have relocated to the old Asian Bistro. The new digs are great. Upon entry you are greated with a great mexican ambiance. The expectations soar. But as you stand at the hostess desk and wait for 10min and actually have to walk around the corner to find the hostess to busy talking to what appeared to be friends or family your expectations begin to nose dive. We were seated, finally, and given menus, it was about 2pm so the expectation of service was high. This too took a nose dive as we ordered and looked around the dining room and seen no food at several tables. So to the food. If you like cheese sauce this is your place. Not sure why everything must have cheese drizzled over it. Not authentic. Speaking to a server who seemed to not have a firm grasp of English proved to be a merry go round I did not want to be on. The menu needs some freshening more selections without cheese sauce, more use of verde sauce would be a plus. The biggest issue to be honest was the wait. A simple order from the lunch menu became a lesson in patience. 20 minutes after ordering we finally recieved our food. I asked for something with corn tortillas and chicken and verde sauce. It was fairly bland and was not hot at all temperature wise. We have always enjoyed the food here but if this is an indication of the future, investment in the digs was not wise. I hope to give them another try at a different time to see if it is better. Please update the menu, something authentic without the cheese sauce you drown everything in.

7/28/19 Have them a second try in their new location. Still not impressed. The waitress could barely speak English and this made ordering difficult. The food arrived accompanied with a fly under a tomatoe. They replaced the dish but thier food is not the same as the old location. I wonder if there was a cook staff change or something else. Very disappointed. I hope they get it fixed used to love eating here but now looking for...

We eat here probably 2-4 times a month. So, not constantly but consistently. During our last lunch visit we ordered queso to eat with our chips, like we always do. The queso came out with a film across it (not uncommon if it's been sitting for awhile but it was brought out like this) and was very chunky and almost gray looking. I tried it anyway and it was definitely spoiled. Unfortunately for me I didn't learn my lesson a first time and tried it again to be sure. Definitely spoiled. My lunch companion smelled it and agreed. A waiter, not ours, brought out our meals and i explained that the dip was spoiled. He stared blankly at me. I told him to take it back and let the kitchen know. He took it without saying anything. Our waitress stopped by about 10 minutes later and I let her know as well that the cheese dip is bad. Again, no response. She brought our check five minutes later and I had a $4.50 charge for the dip. I told her we did not eat it, but sent it back because it was spoiled and we wouldn't pay for spoiled dip. She tried to take my card from my hand three times during this interaction. We finally walked up front to yet ANOTHER server to pay at the register. Again, informed him that the dip was spoiled and would make people sick. Again, very little concern expressed but he called for a manager to talk to me (I didn't ask for one). After waiting around five minutes, we left. The restaurant was almost empty except two other tables. Sure enough, I was sick all night after my dubious decision to taste test the spoiled queso. I know these things happen sometimes but the lack of concern from the staff and zero interest in correcting it was a liiiiiitttle annoying. This will make the second time I've had food poisoning from this...

This place is absolutely fabulous! Who would have thunked there'd be such a great Mexican restaurant in southern Illinois? We were on our way back south on the I-57 and decided to spend the night in Marion. Thanks to our dinner at Don Sol, the stay ranks as one of the highlights of our trip. We had the quesadillas with grilled vegetables and chiles poblanos, followed by deep-fried ice cream. Sublime. The vegetables were grilled and seasoned to perfection--if we weren't veggie lovers already, we'd have converted immediately. The night was pleasant enough to sit outside and we really enjoyed the atmosphere. The staff was friendly and attentive, not only during our dinner but for days afterwards. I was already 350 miles away back at home when I realized I had left my sweater behind. I PM'ed them of FB and they were very courteous and accommodating of my inquiry to please send it to me. So shortly after they received my postage-paid envelope, they mailed it to my house. Thank you! All the best to the owners and staff at Don Sol, and to those of you who live close by, patronize their restaurant often...