Sol Y Luna Tapas and Tequila — Restaurant in Mountain Brook

My husband and I have dined here many times and love the place, so we decided to invite my brother and sister-in-law to celebrate her birthday. It was just excellent!!

First, the restaurant is beyond beautiful with the murals, decor, tiny ceiling lights, etc. We started with cocktails - Paloma (I always order this and it's the best in town), Ranch Water and a tequila neat. We shared the Sol y Luna Sampler, which is guacamole & pico de gallo w/ interesting assortment of chips - so fresh and delicious!

For dinner, I ordered the grilled salmon w/ garlic mashed potatoes while my brother got the cantina house salad topped w/ grilled salmon. Both were excellent. The salmon was cooked perfectly with a wonderful sear on the outside and so moist inside. My husband and SIL shared the Gambas al Ajillo (the cooked garlic in olive oil w/ red pepper is outstanding!), Shrimp Diabla on a bed of mashed sweet potatoes w/ crispy potatoes, and Red Snapper al Mojo de Ajo w/ shrimp and an amazing tomato & onion sauce and all this came with baskets of bread to soak up all those flavors. As you can see from the pictures, each dish was just beautiful. And, each of them tasted amazing (I was lucky enough to get to sample their dishes). The seafood was not overcooked and each tapa was so unique and flavorful. In addition to the delicious drinks and food, the service was excellent. The hostess made her rounds throughout the night to check on customers and our server took great care of us. The owner, Jorge, was also very attentive, periodically checking on us and helping to make my SIL's birthday very special.

So, based on this as well as our previous visits, I highly recommend this place. You won't be disappointed. We will be...

Unfortunately, I cannot give 0 stars. This was one of my worst culinary experiences yet. We had to wait more than one hour to sit outside in loose metal chairs. This was during the pandemic, though there was a tiny and symbolic sign to use masks, no one used masks in the cramped; also unsanitary waiting area was, that was also divided with the place where people would eat. The table we sat at (and the ones around) was(were) uncleaned, and everything looked utterly unsanitary (please see the picture of the menu itself). After ordering, the waiters were utterly unaware of the correct orders, they would forget to bring specific meals and drinks, and whenever new requests were to be given to them, they would completely ignore the client. Additionally, our group was in eight, and waiters did not provide us with napkins or enough silverware to eat our food (e.g., only three were handed out). The food was a complete letdown - very salty and lacking its main ingredients (the chicken taco did not have any chicken in it) - the price is not worth it. A DJ was putting the same beats over and over again, making the atmosphere tedious. They made us pay a service charge (without specifying how much), which also did not reflect the quality that was employed. I would not recommend anyone attending...

In a word, disappointing.

We were huge fans of the original Sol Y Luna, of Chef Castro and the relaxed atmosphere at his restaurant that was everything tapas stands for. Even though we'd heard good things about his son's revival of the name after it opened, we hadn't ever tried it until recently.

We had a reservation at 6:30 on a Friday night and even though the restaurant wasn't full, it felt like we were on a conveyor belt. Tapas is supposed to be relaxing, but there was nothing relaxing about this place! Our server had obviously had one too many Red Bulls, he was selling beers when ours were half-empty, picking up plates before they were finished, and before we decided what plate to order next, he was pushing the check at me! As far as I'm concerned, "turn and burn" and tapas are diametrically opposed concepts. This place is the former.

As for the food, it wasn't much better. The duck empanadas were OK but pretty skimpy and had little duck flavor. The big disappointment was the iron skillet mussels-at Castro's, it was a wonderfully simply poaching in wine, garlic and a little sea salt. Here, they were drowned with adobo and seasoning to the point that the flavor of the mussels was buried.

Noisy, rushed and marginal food don't warrant a second...