Solea Mexican Grill — Restaurant in Menasha

I'll start with a question: Has this Solea changed ownership? The reason I ask is because my wife and I have patronized this Solea at least once a month since it opened, and this visit was diametrically opposite from what has always been an OUTSTANDING dining experience.

We were seated promptly when we came in. However, our table had not been cleaned from the previous diners. No biggie, a lady came right up and cleared/cleaned the table.

First problem was the music. Our table was right underneath a speaker, and the music was uncomfortably loud. We asked the lady cleaning the table if the music could be turned down a little so my wife and I could carry on a conversation without yelling. The same lady I asked if the music could be turned down a little said no. She then gave us menus and silverware and left.

15 minutes after that, a polite gentleman welcomed us, gave us chips, salsa, and bean dip, took our drink orders, and left. After 10 minutes I went up to the bar, and asked the bartender if I could get our drinks. My wife and I requested Pepsi, so it was not a difficult drink request. The bartender said he would get our server to bring our drinks, and our server arrived with our sodas shortly thereafter.

As I said earlier, since my wife and I frequent this Solea location, we have our favorites. However, the menu had changed from the last time we had visited (mid-October), with some additions, some removals, and ALL prices increased.

The tostada chips appeared to have been taken from a bag, because they were all the exact same size, and tasted like cardboard. One of the things we really liked about Solea was that they fried their chips in regular batches, and always come out hot and just a little glistening. These chips were neither.

The bean dip was lukewarm, which was o.k. The salsa looked like it had been poured out from a bottle. In the past, the salsa had always been on the thinner side, and tasted freshly made. Tonight the salsa had the taste and consistency of ketchup.

It may have been a result of it being thermally chilly in the restaurant. I usually have to take off my coat so I don't get too warm while dining. Tonight I left my coat on. Now I know it's winter, and cold outside, but we were one table over from the door, so anytime anybody came in or out, we got a blast of cold.

I have noticed other people have commented on wait time for food. From the time we ordered until the time we got our food was 35 minutes. On previous visits, our order-to-eat times have been ~10 minutes.

My wife had seafood enchiladas, and I had a chicken chimichanga. When our food arrived, the cheesy sauce on my wife's seafood enchiladas had started to congeal. In addition, the vegetables accompanying her enchiladas were not cooked "al dente", as they were almost still raw crunchy.

My chimichanga came sitting in a puddle of grease. In addition, the refried beans had cooled to the point that there was a "skin" on top. The inside of my chimichanga was steaming hot, and the taste was good.

We finished our food, then sat another 15 minutes until our server came back to check on us. I asked for a box to take home my leftover, and the bill, which our server promptly provided.

As I said in the beginning of this review, my wife and I regularly dine at this Solea, to the point where the Solea staff knew us by name. However tonight we did not recognize ANY of the employees.

That's why I asked if this Solea has changed ownership. The staff were friendly, and respectful. However, I noticed there were 2 servers taking orders, and a lady who seemed to be the "utility" person. The restaurant was not terribly busy; there was a table of eight people across from us, but only 4-5 groups of 2-3 people in the dining area.

I hope tonight was an aberration because of the holidays. We've gone to Solea by the Fox River Mall, and the one in Neenah. They all have been good. Tonight was disappointing. We may try this Solea again, but probably not until the spring. We want to try...

Wow where to begin. It started off with the waiter not writing our order down for just myself and my wife. I noticed it as nit usual but who knows he must know what he's doing. NOT...our food came out timely since we were the practically ones there. I our 1 shared drink which was a Pina colada had a red look to it on the base. So when he checked on us I asked if the only Pina colada they offered was a strawberry one? So I then asked if they had the regular flavored coloada to offer. Who knows I thought maybe this was true because why else did he give us a strawberry one when we didn't even know that was a thing. Now back to writing it down......he had nothing to go by so he said he'd change it out. We'll not wanting the Hassel and wait we just took it. But we swear it had no alcohol in it?? After that I took one bite of my supposed "cheese " enchilada and it was actually 🐔 chicken. So I asked him back and I questioned him what kind of enchilada I ordered? To which he turned his head down to my plate and eye balled my enchilada and of course said chicken. My wife was correct I showed my hand too early and I should have covered up my food to elicit a honest response from him. So since he didn't write it down and I have NEVER ordered anything bit a cheese enchilada we had to let it rest. The bill comes and I see an additional $3 on the bill for something we never ordered. I asked him and what it was. He said our second order of chips and sauce was charged to us. My reply was the when it was asked if us if we wanted more chips and bean dip at that time we should have been told it was an extra charge for it. His reply that it is in the menu, we'll since we'd placed our order we didn't have it to check BUT either way should it be buried on the menu anyways ? And if you don't even have menues the disclosure of info is on them. Either way BASICALLY THEY HAD ACHIEVED about 50% of our order which 2 of tge...

If I could give this place zero stars I would. A group of 6 of my friends and I went there on a Thursday evening for happy hour. Our waitress was HORRIBLE. She cut us off when we tried to order, she said "no, you need to wait I am having trouble getting these orders together", referring to other table's orders. She never once checked on us while we ate dinner to ask how our food was. Never refilled our drinks. She lost one girl's debit card when paying and had to search the entire restaurant for it, my friend asked another waitress to help find the card, and once found our waitress accused my friend of having the card the entire time. After the meal I asked to speak with a manager. As I spoke to the manager about our experience our waitress stood behind her and smiled the entire time like everything was fine. The manager never once apologized for our service. Waitress got $0.00 in tips from all of us. Will NEVER go here again. HORRIBLE,...