This past weekend I had the pleasure of joining some of my family on a trip to the Pocono Mountains. After spending a whole day attempting to ski we headed back home and on the way, I had the pleasure of dining at Sol Mexican Cantina in Branchburg, NJ.
I LOVE Mexican food to say the least and unfortunately, I was not as impressed as I had hoped to be. We ended up going to Sol after a few of our regular places had long wait times. That should have been our first clue, only a 10 minute wait at 6:45 PM on a Saturday night? When we arrived, we entered through the back entrance which doubled as an entrance to their bar area. Even with a reservation, we were seated some 20 minutes after our arrival. Finally, five of us were seated at an abnormally large round table in the front corner of the restaurant.
It may have been our placement in the restaurant or the crowds but our waiter was less than attentive. Drinks took 10 minutes to get to the table, nothing complicated - a few beers, sodas and juices for the kids, and then our waiter was no where to be found. We ended up flagging down bus boys to get things as simple as chips and salsa. Though it took a while to get these, they were worth the wait. Homemade salsa which just enough kick that you wanted to eat it right out of the dish and warm homemade blue and white corn tortilla chips that I could have eaten all day.
We ordered their Guacamole "Live" which was a nice treat for the kids. The woman making the dish, I assume was either a manager or the owner, was very interactive and let our five year old help out. At the same time we had ordered the Chicken Tortilla Soup. When it arrived at the table, the tortilla chips were soggy and the soup itself was very gamey. The chicken was not cleaned well and there were just too many ingredients. Everything was also chopped very rough and sometimes was hard to pick up with my soup spoon. Others at my table were in agreement that this soup was just to "rustic" for our Tex-Mex seasoned palates.
Dinner was much better. The chicken and steak fajitas were the perfect choice. The chicken was seasoned and cooked well, the steak was good as well. There were a few pieces of steak which were a bit chewy and maybe should not have been put on the skillet but none the less, they did not ruin the dish. Tortillas were hot and all the fixings came right away. The only downside to the dinner was that the side of rice and beans that I had ordered, didn't show up till half way through dinner. I don't know if our waiter forgot to put our order in or we weren't a primary concern to him but the service was just terrible at that point.
Last but not least was desert. This was the best and my most favorite part of the meal. We ordered their fried ice cream. What I was expecting were two balls of vanilla ice cream coated in some crumb mixture. To my surprise when the two large sized portions came out, they were chocolate (!!!) and they were fried to perfection. Though we had rough start to the meal and few road bumps during it, this was the perfect ending to a mediocre meal.
Maybe we went about placing our order incorrectly or we had different intentions on what our meal was going to be but I was not impressed. Their bar area seemed very popular so maybe I will get a chance to check that out at some point, but this restaurant's attempt to create an authentic Mexican meal truly fell short.
I LOVE Mexican food to say the least and unfortunately, I was not as impressed as I had hoped to be. We ended up going to Sol after a few of our regular places had long wait times. That should have been our first clue, only a 10 minute wait at 6:45 PM on a Saturday night? When we arrived, we entered through the back entrance which doubled as an entrance to their bar area. Even with a reservation, we were seated some 20 minutes after our arrival. Finally, five of us were seated at an abnormally large round table in the front corner of the restaurant.
It may have been our placement in the restaurant or the crowds but our waiter was less than attentive. Drinks took 10 minutes to get to the table, nothing complicated - a few beers, sodas and juices for the kids, and then our waiter was no where to be found. We ended up flagging down bus boys to get things as simple as chips and salsa. Though it took a while to get these, they were worth the wait. Homemade salsa which just enough kick that you wanted to eat it right out of the dish and warm homemade blue and white corn tortilla chips that I could have eaten all day.
We ordered their Guacamole "Live" which was a nice treat for the kids. The woman making the dish, I assume was either a manager or the owner, was very interactive and let our five year old help out. At the same time we had ordered the Chicken Tortilla Soup. When it arrived at the table, the tortilla chips were soggy and the soup itself was very gamey. The chicken was not cleaned well and there were just too many ingredients. Everything was also chopped very rough and sometimes was hard to pick up with my soup spoon. Others at my table were in agreement that this soup was just to "rustic" for our Tex-Mex seasoned palates.
Dinner was much better. The chicken and steak fajitas were the perfect choice. The chicken was seasoned and cooked well, the steak was good as well. There were a few pieces of steak which were a bit chewy and maybe should not have been put on the skillet but none the less, they did not ruin the dish. Tortillas were hot and all the fixings came right away. The only downside to the dinner was that the side of rice and beans that I had ordered, didn't show up till half way through dinner. I don't know if our waiter forgot to put our order in or we weren't a primary concern to him but the service was just terrible at that point.
Last but not least was desert. This was the best and my most favorite part of the meal. We ordered their fried ice cream. What I was expecting were two balls of vanilla ice cream coated in some crumb mixture. To my surprise when the two large sized portions came out, they were chocolate (!!!) and they were fried to perfection. Though we had rough start to the meal and few road bumps during it, this was the perfect ending to a mediocre meal.
Maybe we went about placing our order incorrectly or we had different intentions on what our meal was going to be but I was not impressed. Their bar area seemed very popular so maybe I will get a chance to check that out at some point, but this restaurant's attempt to create an authentic Mexican meal truly fell short.
