Sola, and how it compares to Volo, Naha, Boka, Koda and Nobu

I have to admit I was amused to read a little dustup the other day over whether it was proper to describe Cafe Selmarie as being more appealing to women or men. Politically incorrect or not, the first word that comes to my mind about the place is "girly." Maybe not as much as Angel Food Bakery, or American Girl Place, but it is the kind of a place that a guy leaves after Sunday breakfast wishing for two extra sides of bacon and some hot sauce. Things may be fairly good, but they're subtle, they're quiet, they're just too polite.

I can think of three meals I've had at upscale places where I had something of the same feeling-- they were excellent in certain ways, but they were subtle, delicate in their effects, well-behaved and harmonious, and at some point I just felt like my taste-o-meter wasn't getting a tryout beyond about 3, no matter that I was impressed by certain aspects of the meal. And now two of them were by prominent female chefs, Susan Crofton at Crofton on Wells and self-described "surfer girl" Carol Wallack at Sola-- a statistically significant proportion of total meals I've eaten in female-chef'd high end establishments in Chicago. On the other hand, the third was Shawn McClain's cooking at Spring, and he went on to open a steakhouse; and on the other other hand, there's Hot Chocolate, which ought to scream girly, from the name to the dessert focus, and yet my one meal there was robust and hearty.



So what's my conclusion, as I skate on ever thinner ice about the alleged differences between the alleged sexes? All I can say is, Sola was a very well-crafted meal, but a polite one, where even a chocolate dessert with "wasabi vanilla bean sauce" didn't disturb the peace. Only one ingredient in the entire restaurant seems to be allowed to get all heavy metal and rock out-- walking through the room, you could tell which tables had ordered the truffle-parmesan french fries without even looking, and the fried artichoke hearts that came with a truffle whip to dip in also gave off whiffs of truffleized excess and intoxication that no other ingredient was allowed to aim for.

Part of that, I recognize, comes with Sola's Asian minimalist influence, and that's fine as a governing philosophy, but the problem came in something like the appetizer pictured above, which combined chunks of eel, avocado and banana-- the others being so mild that banana successfully overpowered them; it might as well have been some banana and sticky rice dessert.

For an entree, I had what was described as "Nobu's famous miso black cod" (in retrospect, I probably shouldn't have ordered something that gives credit to another chef and restaurant). The texture of the fish was beautifully flaky, delectably tender, couldn't be bettered. But there was little flavor in the fish (unless you dipped it in the mustard-like sauce around the edge-- I guess that's the miso?), even less in the "bamboo risotto," and there were just too damn many of the harsh, wet-cardboardy curry-flavored sunchoke chips it was sitting on. It was like eating a bento box meal down to the box itself.

Every restaurant like this of course has the obligatory meat and potatoes dish for the guy stuck eating at a girly place. That's what my wife ordered, and this too may simply have been an ordering mistake, maybe if she had gone for something like the short ribs there would have been more excitement at play there. The small filet was admirably charred and exactly the right texture, but the potatoes and portobello mushrooms in a wine reduction were gummy and uninteresting. It shouldn't be quite so obvious that the meat-and-potatoes standby is being tossed off.



Now, so far it seems like I'm slamming Sola pretty hard. Yet while I was there I didn't quite feel that way. In fact, my attitude toward my meal was very different-- I was looking at my fish, going, "Come on! You can do it! You're exquisitely cooked, you're a nice high-quality piece of fish, if you just push that extra little bit you can have some really outstanding flavor and we'll be blown away by you." But up through this part of the meal, it just didn't happen.

Dessert was the meal's last chance to wow us. The gooey chocolate cake with the alleged wasabi vanilla bean sauce (well, it was green, if not hot) was pleasant like those gooey chocolate things always are, and the "sesame brittle" ice cream was quite good, if a bit lost next to so much dark chocolate.



Much more impressive was a special of a strawberry shortcake with a ginger-tinged sauce. Here at last was a combination where fresh produce bursting with seasonal flavor met exactly the strong accent note that would sharpen it up beyond the usual.

We live near enough to Sola that we will probably try it again, and the execution of the dishes was so good as to encourage that, and I kind of feel that it was one of those meals where, as far as entrees went, we ordered the wrong things to match its strengths with our likes. But I will try to order from the dishes that seem to push harder, and I hope the restaurant will evolve over time toward bolder flavors, toward more pop on the plate-- Wallack clearly has the sense of balance to do that well, it just takes the will to blast a few more trumpet notes. Be bold, surfer girl! Hang 10! Well-behaved food rarely makes history.

Sola
3868 N Lincoln Ave
Chicago, IL 60613
(773) 327-3868

Excellent analysis. May I also add that all these places fall into that confusing miasma of "consonant-vowel-consonant-vowel" named Chicago restaurants that has plagued me and my lousy memory for the past decade? Throw Nomi in there for good measure. What's up with that? Based on names alone, I would be the world's worst witness:

GOOD COP: So, Mr. Mitchell, you enjoyed your meal at ... was it BoBo?

JiLS: Yes, Officer Good Cop, the foie gras was delicious (and served prior to 8/22/06).

BAD COP: Funny, didn't you tell me you ate that foie gras at NoNo?

JiLS: No, no! I mean ... no, not NoNo, BoBo.

GOOD COP: Don't get him angry. He's just like that. I know you said HoJo.

[Brief pause off the record]

GOOD COP: So, how was the Coho you had at ... it was SoSo, right?

JiLS: So-so? I mean ... BoBo! Or NoNo? The Coho was so-so, wherever it was I ate it. Which was BoBo, I think.

BAD COP: I think I've heard enough. But wait, I've got one last question. Was it right before, or after, you were served the Coho at PoMo that the shooting began?

JiLS: I want my mommy.

GOOD COP: MaMi? Excellent charcutterie.

[Scene]

I've been to Sola twice, and I while I think the food is good, I can't yet get very excited about this place. It still seems like it needs seasoning in terms of finding dishes that work and eliminating the losers on the menu, particularly when it comes to dessert.

As for winners on the appetizer portion of the menu, I really like Sola's crispy and perfectly fried artichoke fritters, which are served with a thin soy-lime sauce and a very creamy truffle-honey sauce. I also enjoyed the heirloom tomatoes, which are served with Jonah crab, mint, ginger vinegar and cucumber water, although the mint might be a little too strong for the dish. As for the unagi timbale, I have to agree with Mike that the banana slightly overwhelmed the flavors and the unagi did not stand out as it should have.

As for main courses, the porcini-crusted salmon was very good. I also really liked the grilled pork tenderloin with a pomegranate demi, although the bacon tempura that was served with the dish sounded so interesting but the bacon was overcooked beyond belief and lacked flavor. The pan roasted, five spice-crusted duck, was just ok. The flavors were good and I enjoyed the corn fritters on the side, but I was not very impressed with the quality of the duck (and it was also a little too fatty). I also thought that the breaded and stuffed lamb chops were very good (and huge). I thought the black cod was very good, but why offer a dish in the style of Nobu? Make it your own.

The one side dish that I love is the macaroni and cheese, which is one of the best versions I have had. It's so creamy but with a light breading and made with cheddar, gruyere and parmesan.

Desserts have been perhaps the most disappointing course at Sola. The banana bread pudding was not very moist and really offered little in the way of banana flavor. The highly recommended pecan molasses cake was way too dry. The soft center chocolate cake was tasty enough, but the sesame brittle ice cream was bland and the wasabi-vanilla sauce hardly apparent (much less than what I expected based upon Mike's picture). A special chocolate cake filled with chocolate mousse offered a rather dry cake and very little mousse filling (although the mousse was quite good).

Complaints aside, this is a pretty good addition to the North Center/Lincoln Square/Roscoe Village dining scene. It's conversation friendly yet stylish, and offers some more upscale presentations than I've seen recently in the area.

We went to Sola last night and had a wonderful meal. We arrived for our 8:30 reservation to an absolutely packed house, but were seated immediately.

For my appetizer I started with the artichoke fritters. I thought the fritters themselves were a bit on the bland side, but the two dipping sauces (white truffle-honey and soy-lime) really elevated the dish. The girlfriend (who, since Friday night will now be referred to as the fiance ) has the trio of tartares. I enjoyed that appetizer more than the fritters. The trio included cured salmon, a sesame crusted tuna, and a fennel crusted tuna. All were wonderful.

For mains, I had the "duck, duck, goose". Five spice crusted breast cooked to a perfect medium-rare, with confit filled ravioli, and gooseberries. This was a great dish, but the portion was maybe just a hair to big (the duck was not at all overly fatty). The fiance had the ginger-glazed salmon, which was also wonderful. It was served with tempura green beans, which were crunchy and delicious. Dessert was banana bread pudding with banana ice cream, which was a great way to end the meal (again, I think this has improved since BR had it last, the pudding was perfectly moist).

Although the food at Sola is quite good, what makes the restaurant even more attractive is the value proposition. The wine list is exceptionally reasonably priced, with most selections ranging between $30-$45. Our check for two of us after tax but before tip which included a nice bottle of Chablis, two appetizers, two mains and one dessert was $125. A tremendous value given the skill of the kitchen and the quality of ingredients being used. We will definitely go back.

jesteinf wrote:The girlfriend (who, since Friday night will now be referred to as the fiance )

Mazel tov. May you enjoy many fine meals together.

LAZ wrote:

jesteinf wrote:The girlfriend (who, since Friday night will now be referred to as the fiance )

Mazel tov. May you enjoy many fine meals together.

Thanks LAZ, we're definitely off to a good start on that front

Now, the impossible quest, good food at the wedding...

I have to agree with your assessment of Sola. I've eaten there just a couple times but have had excellent meals both times.

Now, the impossible quest, good food at the wedding...

I suggest looking at Spiaggia. My brother and sister-in-law had their reception there last year and the food was fantastic. After pricing various locations and caterers in the city, my brother and sister-in-law looked at Spiaggia on a whim and found their wedding packages to be on par with what the cost of renting a location and hiring caterers would have been.

We had our wedding reception there-- admittedly, this was 15 years ago, but it seems likely not to have changed that much-- and were very happy with quality food, pleasant setting (though the rooms aren't as distinctive as the restaurant and cafe), and comparable cost to rubber-chicken alternatives. One thing we did to control costs, by the way, was skip the expensive, architectural-more-than-delectable cake and have Spiaggia serve dessert. No one missed cake.

By the way, here's an old old wedding thread that I always liked for, if nothing else, Antonius calling me a beast for my heretical opinions of the current state of American weddings....

Went to Sola Saturday night. We went pre-theater, 6 pm, and it was pretty open then, but was packed when we left at 7:45. We had several appetizers and mains, and everyone was very pleased with the food. It was quite good. I wasn't so crazy about it the first time we went, maybe a year ago, but it's really good now. The chef was in the house, and came out to ask how things were at a few tables.

What about Moto and Nola?

I wrote about a recent visit to Sola here.

Santander wrote:What about Moto and Nola?

I think a comparison to Moto isn't really fair as they're so far afield of eachother in terms of cooking.

Correct. It only compares in the four letter, two vowel category.

Santander wrote:Correct. It only compares in the four letter, two vowel category.

That's the next web ranking to come out of restaurants. Moto. Naha. Sola. Boka.

There could be restaurants named Sota and Rega, but those are already turntables.