Solaire Restaurant + Bar — Restaurant in Santa Cruz

This was, by far, the worst experience I've ever had at any restaurant in my lifetime.

Other reviews indicate that the experience here can be hit or miss. When my family and I came here on Christmas Day, we were met with systemic disorganization and frankly some of the most abhorrent attitude any of us have ever seen.

We arrived at 6:30pm for a 6:45pm reservation through OpenTable, and were told that it would be a thirty minute wait, regardless of the reservation. No problem, we took some seats at the bar as instructed by the host and began to wait.

As the attached photo suggests, nobody approached to seat us nor to take an order for food or drinks. Rather, we were ignored by the bartender until 6:56pm, when he finally offered us some drinks at a bar that we had been sitting at for, again, an entire half hour.

Of course, it became clear after yet another half an hour of sipping/waiting (and many other patrons leaving) that the restaurant was in complete disarray and that the staff was unable to service our reservation. I was literally forced to leave my seat at the bar and walk about ten feet to the adjacent well to get our bartender's attention, where I said, "Hey, boss, would you mind closing me out?"

To which he replied, "Sure, just give me a minute."

I watched him approach, take, and make, three entire different orders from start to finish while I stood at the end of the bar waiting for him.

Now, Chris P., I'm going to speak directly to you now in the hopes that either you read this or perhaps management passes this review along to you.

I also have many years in the service industry, albeit as a barista rather than a bartender. Your attitude today was completely unacceptable, and markedly spineless, too. I gathered from your mumblings and grumblings today that you and your coworkers were understaffed, and possibly that your bar manager did not show up today. I understand that this kind of situation, especially on Christmas Day, is not one that you want to be in.

This does not, in any capacity, give you the right to treat me or your coworkers in the manner that you did today. Our party was able to discern that things were not working as intended, and I attempted to do you a favor by politely asking for the check so that we could get out of your hair as soon as possible.

Instead of meeting me halfway, you made me stand there like a dunce for nearly fifteen minutes while the other patrons watched on, possibly because you saw in my eyes a younger individual who was sympathetic to your situation. Notwithstanding this behavior, the mistake you made that will probably stick with you for years is the fact that you chose to treat me like this in front of my father, who then proceeded to stand up and yell at you to force you to close me out. I think the most valuable point of learning here is that not one of the other customers at the bar stood up for you like normal people would have done for a berated service worker on Christmas Day. If not from my words here, then from their reactions - I want you to understand that how you treated me was actually really, really mean, dude.

But really, that's not the real lesson I think is worth learning. Rather, it's within the way you spoke of and to your coworkers. I watched you reply to their questions with snide remarks, poor attitude, and an unwillingness to collaborate during what was also one of the most frustrating days in their professional lives.

You answered customers' questions as if the restaurant's disorganization was their fault, and that you had no idea what was going on. Your tone was that of, "Not my fault, don't ask me, I won't help you."

As service workers, treating customers fairly is one thing, but what I watched you do today on shift was nothing short of complete abandonment of your own fellow service workers when they needed you most. When things go sideways in the absence of effective leadership, you should step up, take initiative, and help out. Instead, you checked out, and that was infinitely more painful to watch than how...

Okay, I've known of Solaire for a while now but not about them, boy was I missing out. Located in the Hotel Paradox a former Holiday Inn that did a stint as dorms for UC Santa Cruz when dorm building failed to keep up with student admissions before a take over and complete rehab/restoration turned it into a boutique hotel with sophisticated eco meets mid-century modern aesthetic—the hotels front desk is a 40' length of a fallen 4' diameter redwood salvaged from a nearby forest floor.

So, what kept me from trying it sooner, after all, they opened over a year ago? I mentioned it was a former Holiday Inn right? Then there's the fact that I've generally found restaurants co-located in hotels to be on the pricy end of satisfactory. Finally, it's on Ocean Street, a stretch of pavement many here view as the entrance to the Beach Boardwalk or on ramp to Highway 17 depending which way we're driving.

The menu a is small but inspired selection of American Comfort meets California Cuisine at the beach then re-imagined and manifested from fresh, locally sourced, largely organic ingredients... Divers scallops with chanterelle and celeriac puree, caramelized fennel & apple jus; Thick cut, medium cooked, pork chop with coriander glazed carrots and potato pancakes; Gnocchi, butternut squash, kale, brown butter, sage, & grana padano... Cooked to perfection with a presentation that complemented the decor, everything is wonderful!

Throw in some flavor-forward original cocktails, attentively curated wine list and micro-brew assortment, all too tempting small plates and appetizers, and a health/diet-choice conscious menu that highlighs not only vegetarian dishes but also dairy and gluten free ones as well, and you've got nearly everything you need for a great dining experience save one, that bugaboo of Santa Cruz restaurants for as long as I've lived here and bane of both restaurant owners and diners alike... service.

Well, I saved the best for last, this is possibly the only time in Santa Cruz I've had truly outstanding service. Living here for over 30 years I've grown accustomed to the fact that our service staff is often under-trained, over-qualified university students or graduates— I know of at least two long time servers with graduate degrees in literature—working multiple jobs to afford the ridiculous rents in the area. Here, each of the staff we came in contact hosts, wait, bus and kitchen staff were friendly, to both diners and each other, well trained, and present... I'd say "bright eyed and bushy tailed" but does anyone say that anymore?

It was the sort of service you normally get only in a few big city restaurants or in Asia or Europe... The type where no one is hovering, or asking how things are just as you take a bite, but who magically appear just before you realized they were needed; The type where my plate is not whisked away before I've finished savoring the last bite and my companion isn't asked whether she's "done with that" with half a plate left as she's just moving a bite from plate to mouth; the type of service where many of the staff not only knew some regulars by name, but remembered their pet's name and asked about them out of sincere concern not obsequious...

I don’t tend to write reviews, but our experience here was very bad. To be fair, I was at the restaurant with a large party (around 10 people) on Christmas morning. It’s Christmas, so we were already expecting short staffing and longer than usual wait times. We arrived at 10am, and the hostess let us know it would be about a fifteen minute wait. The restaurant was not full, about half the tables were open. The hostess seated us and gave us menus. She told us that our server would be with us shortly. No one came by for a half hour. There was one server on the floor who greeted every other table except ours. She seemed to be deliberately ignoring us. There was a party who came in from the back without seeing the hostess first, and the server just gave them a menu and started serving them. One member of our party had to leave the table to ask the bartender where our server was. The hostess ended up coming over to take our orders. We waited another 45 minutes. Nothing. No acknowledgement from staff either. Multiple other tables were seated and served already by this point. A member from our party went to find the manager to ask about our order. She asked in a polite way, while empathizing with the fact that it’s Christmas and she understands things must be hectic (she worked in the restaurant business for 30 years). The manager brushed her off, did not even look at her, said “yeah, merry Christmas” in a sarcastic tone, and left. At this point we have been here for 2 hours. When the food finally comes out, the hostess is serving and the manager comes out to talk. People in my party were understandably frustrated, and complained, while keeping an assertive tone and acknowledging that it is Christmas, and we understand…However, waiting for 2 hours with NO acknowledgment from the server, being dismissed by the manager, watching every other table get served (even a large party who came after us) was so unreasonable! Even when we outlined all the facts of the situation, the manager did not offer an apology and instead told us that we could go somewhere else. A member of our party literally had to ask for an apology from the manager and from the server who ignored us the whole time. We ended up taking the food to go and that was another half hour wait…overall, 2.5 hours of lousy service. While this was a bad experience, I really want to give a shout out to the hostess. She was the only one who acknowledged us and went out of her way to help us despite being swamped at the front. We ended the day on a cordial note. Multiple people in our group have experience working in the service industry, so we empathized with the difficult staffing situation. That being said, since many of us worked in the service industry, we all agree that the service provided here was shockingly poor, despite staffing issues. The lack of communication, being deliberately ignored, and the combative attitude from management was...