Soledad — Restaurant in New York

It almost pains me to write this review but the food in this place is rubbish. I've been meaning to go to this place since I saw it was under construction and replaced the prior spot (I think it was a French Bistro), it looked really cute and I was pretty excited but I don't know if I caught the chef on a bad day but everything that could go wrong with the meal went wrong.

I ordered the Milanesa (attached photo) which is a chicken dish with a poached egg on top with a side of the cheesy rice (think a bit like risotto). The chicken was overcooked and dry and unfortunately the poached egg couldn't help it because that too was overcooked, the yolk was completely cooked through. There was basically no seasoning, I needed to add both hot sauce, salt and pepper to make the dish somewhat edible. The best thing on the plate was the side of greens. The cheesy rice was just a solid glop of rice, also not enough seasoning/salt, just bland cheesy glop.

The friend I had dinner with ordered the Enchiladas Soledad. The salsa verde on top was somewhat decent, but once again the chicken was dry and definitely not worth the price for the dish at $28.

The venue is cute, the service was good and I cannot comment on the drinks because we didn't have any so I must assume most of the reviews for this place has to be for ambience and cocktails because I have never been more disappointed in a meal than the one I had at this restaurant. If I come back it would strictly be for drinks, hopefully that is at least good though also...

I pretty much never write negative reviews, but I have also never been charged a cancellation fee after calling to say that one of the family members who was joining our dinner party was being emergency hospitalized and we therefore could not make our reservation. It was a couple of weeks ago, and I am only getting to this review now because my grandfather just finally got out of the hospital. He got horribly sick out of nowhere and we had to take him to the emergency room about 20 minutes before we were due at Soledad. My husband, who himself has worked in restaurants in New York for decades, called them to explain and was flippantly told we would be charged anyway. I understand the financial pressure restaurants are under. I know some people call and lie about emergencies to get out of cancellation fees. I also know that any restaurant who cares about hospitality will waive that fee anyway, because things happen and often the person calling did in fact have a very sad emergency out of their control, like I did. I live a block from Soledad and was excited to make it our neighborhood go-to, but I won't be returning unless management makes this right.

Still giving the food a four because we had been here prior to this incident and the food was quite good. But poor hospitality ruins...

Despite being a NY’er I'm not unclear on the value of a dollar. Soledad will require many dollars, are you ready? There are creative mezcal and tequila cocktails, some better than others. Our favorite of the four we ordered was the Soledad with fig puree- @ $20/ea about market rate. For apps we had the mushroom tamal $16 (with a singular, lonely piece of maitake shroom- I mean come on) and 4 tuna taquitos (“ito” means tiny and these fulfill that) at a whopping $30. Both tasty, I very much enjoyed the red sauce and texture of the tamal. We ordered carne asada and lomo saltado for entrees. At $42 for the carne I’d say there’s nothing here exceptional to justify. But the lomo saltado was a delightful blend of short ribs, rice, veggies and shoestring fries that made every bite inspire the kind eating that finishes a plate all too soon. Churro sunday for dessert, shared for 2 was OK. Service was friendly, helpful and not too pushy. Water refresh could have been more on point. Is it worth $300 for 2 people? Indulgent dining experiences are abundant in NYC and it seems very few restaurants position themselves on value anymore. Doesn’t it make more sense to turn your locals into repeat clients rather...