annieb wrote:

we wanted our manchamanteles and our flan:-)

As well you should! I am definitely in the camp that says one should never be rushed away from one's table--it was just an unfortunate convergence of large parties. Given how sporadic business has been for them, they probably had no idea that there wouldn't be plenty of room for us all.

If I had known you were in that party I would have thanked you personally for finding this great place!

HI,

What a convergence of people: I was there last night also along with Josephine and another friend. I arrived around 7:45 to find the place packed, though as we approached the bar a table cleared.

Getting menus was a do-it-myself project, water came after 15 minutes and our order was taken 45 minutes after seating. Knowing this is a start-up operation with great food, I knew it was worth the wait. We could also see Carlos in the kitchen working his tush off. Once we placed our order, I told the waitress to not serve according to convention. Serve us as food is ready in any order, which she greatly appreciated.

Later Carlos commented Wednesday night had been especially busy, though Monday and Tuesday were relatively slow. He advised today two new cooks were beginning today, it would be a while before they were up to speed though they could at least assist him. He wanted to make sure they prepared food to this recipes, which takes time.

Two weeks ago, this was a sleepy start-up until Annie B wrote her wonderful report. Only last week Carlos quit his bartending job. He is going through the pains of an overnight success, but he has a firm grip on what he needs to do. He'll weather this storm.

I know I plan my next visit for a weekday lunch to avoid the crowds.

Regards,

Cathy2 wrote: He is going through the pains of an overnight success, but he has a firm grip on what he needs to do. He'll weather this storm.

I believe you are right.

What I'm wondering (not that it's any of my damn business) is what happened to the other chefs. Maybe it got too hot in the kitchen.

There was another cook in the kitchen until at least 8 or so Wednesday night. Senora Bahena is in Texas, where one of her children lives, I believe. She will be back early next week. While she sometimes works, I believe, as a sort of line cook, her role is listed on the restaurant's card as "chef consultant," and really the moles are her job.

Busboy, that's the missing role. It will allow the servers to concentrate on the food and bringing the whole meal together.

By the way, each of the four moles we sampled was the favorite of at least one member of our party. My chef brother-in-law would not let them remove the bowl with what creamy chipotle sauce couldn't be scooped up with a fork in it until more tortillas arrived. My sister used her fingers to finish off the mole verde. But the dish that got near unanimous praise was the calabacitas.

Get there now. Sol de Mexico is on the Chicago Tribune radar. We had lunch there today and I am not sure how they are going to handle an influx of customers. The foodies greeted by Carlos who arrived after we had got their food sooner and more attentive service. Order that was not very complicated took a long time. An order of 3 different tacos came out one at a time with the first coming long before anything for my guests. Food was fine, but it will be interesting to see how the place is going to make it in that location.

Griffin and I will be out of town tomorrow, but we didn't want to miss the fun at the sun, so we had a late lunch at SdM today.

The moles were exquisite. On any other occaision, the mole negro that coated the lamb would have been sopped up completely before the bowl would have been allowed to leave the table -- but that fantastic negro sauce was eclipsed by the even more wonderful manchamanteles.

We had the Borrego (lamb in mole negro), the pork in manchamanteles, the chicken sopes in red mole, and a new menu item, tamales with pork (one red and one with salsa verde). (All appetizer and tapas portions -- what a great idea!)

The sopes were filled with chicken, mole and some broth. Which presented the same issues as eating soup dumplings -- the need to let it cool and then slurp.

The best meat was by far the lamb (if you are still trying to identify the cut, some of our chunks came with little rib bones in them).

Both the pork and chicken were boneless, lily white and a little dry. Although the owner was very friendly, we didn't get the courage to chat him up about the absence of dark meat in the pork and chicken. But, we will see if we can ask for darker meat next time (they might only have chicken breast, but they should have some darker pork chunks I would think! you might try this tomorrow night if any of you share dark meat preferences).

He did say the menu was brand new. (The tacos, tortas, and burritos previously mentioned as being at the top of the menu are gone). But, a spanish speaking family ordered them anyway so they still seem to be available.

The fresh made tortillas were fantastic and lovely with the moles. Combined with a trip to A & G Market (near Central and Belmont), it was a fooderific afternoon!

(Chicago Meats was a let down after A&G, although we did get to see a pig get freshly butchered.) I wouldn't mind knowing if there are other market destinations in the area that others know of that can be combined into the pilgramage SdM!

griffin's wife wrote: I wouldn't mind knowing if there are other market destinations in the area that others know of that can be combined into the pilgramage SdM!

There's a pretty good sized Tony's Supermercado around the corner just east on Belmont.

bigbunny wrote:Get there now. Sol de Mexico is on the Chicago Tribune radar. We had lunch there today and I am not sure how they are going to handle an influx of customers. The foodies greeted by Carlos who arrived after we had got their food sooner and more attentive service. Order that was not very complicated took a long time. An order of 3 different tacos came out one at a time with the first coming long before anything for my guests. Food was fine, but it will be interesting to see how the place is going to make it in that location.

The rush has not come to pass, or it has subsided already. We made our first visit to SdM tonight and things were quite quiet. We arrived just before seven and the only other occupied table left while we were looking over the menu, and when we left a little after eight, they had only just seated two other tables. Awfully empty for a Saturday night.

Our food was very good; we started with an order of tamales de elotes, which were just a bit dry but tasty. We had the tilapia en mole verde and camarones al mojo de ajo, and finished with coconut sorbet. The staff were extremely nice.

Anyway, if you love it, go on back, they're ready to seat you.

Antonius, Lucantonius, Erik M and I had a fantastic dinner at Sol de Mexico last week: L had his "usual", the tapas size portion of carne asada, hold the molcajete salsa. The rest of us shared enchiladas potosinas and the surtido de sopecitos for appetizers, then had lamb chops in salsa de chile cascabel, quail in a guajillo sauce, and halibut cooked in a banana leaf with hoja santa, chiles gueros, slices of plantain, and tomato. Everything was excellent. And their fresh, housemade tortillas have got to be some of the best in town.

The place was about half full on Thursday evening when we arrived, but we were the only patrons by the time we left.

Sol de Mexico deserves more customers. In my opinion, the food is at least as good as the offerings at Frontera, and the experience is so much more relaxed and pleasant.

Sol de Mexico's menu is not available on menupages, unfortunately. Of course, they do regularly change the offerings (e.g. the lamb chops now with chile cascabel instead of the black mole they had in the winter). But they ought to get themselves a website and post the current list.

To remedy the menu situation a bit, I've scanned in the menu from last week. Please remember that the specifics may change in the future.

The menu is here

I didn't get a copy of last week's dessert menu, but as I recall the choices were the pineapple upside-down cake (discussed elsewhere on LTH, and which I loved on a previous visit), volcan de chocolate, flan, natillas, perhaps crepas con cajeta, and ice cream.

If you've never been to Sol de Mexico, check it out. (Remember that it is BYOB.)

I could not agree more that SdM deserves more customers. It's a terrific place.

Very nice of you to scan in the menu. Hopefully, it will inspire more people to check it out. The menu does change rather frequently, but I'm always pleased with the changes.

Best,
Michael

Amata,

Thanks for the reminder. It's been a while since I've been to SdM. I'll have to plan a visit sooner rather than later.

i eat here more regularly than any place else. i carry some of their business cards in my purse and hand them out to friends and acquaintances whenever we talk restaurants.

Thanks, Amata, for the reminder. Beth and I had an outstanding-as-ever meal tonight.

Every time we go, we ask ourselves why its been so many months since our last trip. I never have a good answer, other than our own forgetfulness.

We followed it up with a trip to the brand new (I'd guess open less than a week) Kerasotes theater at Central and Grand, where we and about 12 other people saw Ratatouille in a theater with a clean floor and brand new seats. And yes, the film is as fantastic as everyone says.

gleam wrote:We followed it up with a trip to the brand new (I'd guess open less than a week) Kerasotes theater at Central and Grand, where we and about 12 other people saw Ratatouille in a theater with a clean floor and brand new seats. And yes, the film is as fantastic as everyone says.

I haven't gotten to see Ratatouille as of yet, but the Kerasotes Showplace 14 (Galewood Crossings... AKA the Austin neighborhood?) apparently opened last Friday, June the 29th. Check out the Showtimes page with a blurb about it here:

Opens on Friday! Grand Opening Special!
FREE MOVIES June 29th through July 5th!
All shows before noon are FREE!
Click here for details.

I luckily got to see a free movie on the last day of the promotion, but people supposedly waited in line at 7 A.M. for access to the free flicks. The Kerasotes venue in Golf Mill in Niles might be relatively fresh in terms of seats and floors as well.

Gotta see me some more movies,
Dan

I was awfully close

They're clearly still working out opening kinks, and I've never been a fan of Kerasotes, but it sure was nice having that nearly empty theater for the film.

I don't know what more can be said about Sol de Mexico, but I just wanted to tell the world I had a great dinner there tonight. I think it actually keeps getting better each time I go (which unfortunately is not often enough). Tonight I went there with two business clients, one of them was from Rhode Island, and the other was a big fan of Rick Bayless' places. Both of them were very impressed. The place was pretty busy tonight, especially for a wednesday, and the food more than lived up to my expectations. I am so glad I resisted the knee-jerk business dinner at a steakhouse fallback.

I had the lamb en cascabel. My dog, what an exquisite sauce. My business partner wanted to try the Mole Negro, but didn't want chicken. The waiter suggested a rib eye steak in the sauce. She ordered one rare . Luckily we filled up on apps so she left a little (very little) for me to try. Next time, that is what I am getting. That has to be one of the best things I have tasted in my recent life. Hmmm, I wonder what a rib-eye in the cascabel sauce might taste like?

d4v3,

I drove by SdM about 7:15 or so tonight, and my heart sank because it looked dark and empty (if I didn't have a backseat full of Filipino food, I might've had to have stopped). Glad to hear they're still turning out the good stuff.

Hammond

David Hammond wrote:I drove by SdM about 7:15 or so tonight, and my heart sank because it looked dark and empty (if I didn't have a backseat full of Filipino food, I might've had to have stopped). Glad to hear they're still turning out the good stuff.

Hammond,

Ellen was chatting with a neighbor who's in her early 80's's, an active pleasant woman, volunteers at the hospital, enjoys the theater, likes to go out to dinner, gets about, but is not exactly a gadabout.

So (point of the story) as I come up to say hello she is telling Ellen about this Fabulous Mexican restaurant. I expect to hear Wholly Frijoles, instead, much to my pleasant surprise, Sol de Mexico.

SdM has trickled deep into the dining consciousness of Chicago though still, unfortunately, nowhere near as busy as Wholly Frijoles.

Enjoy,
Gary

I had a recent meal at SdM with several other LTHers. The meal was as good as ever but sadly, the menu has been somewhat evescerated of many of the small plates and some of my personal favorites that made SdM such a joy to visit. For example, there was no cochinita pibil, tamales or tacos on the menu.

I was also there on Wednesday night, purely by chance, had no idea it was an LTH favorite, just passing by looking for a place to take someone out to dinner after a meeting not far away. Wow, what a surprise! I had a truly excellent tamale with (I believe) salsa verde and goat cheese, and a scrumptious watercress salad on the side. It was obvious immediately that we had stumbled onto a wonderful place. I imagine it was Carlos who was so attentive, asking how we liked our food, and so on; we didn't ask his name, as we were immersed in post meeting talk.

We must have arrived not long before 9pm, and the place was packed, there were only two tables available. I was a little annoyed that we had stopped at such a busy place, because I didn't want to spend a long time, but our food was delivered very promptly, and any delay was occasioned by the fact that we were savoring excellent food, not wolfing down routine chow. (The two tables must have just been vacated because Carlos asked us to wait for a minute at the bar while the tables were wiped and reset.)

I took a business card to share with my brother who lives not too far away and will really like this place.

And then I came here to tell everyone about it, but I should have known that LTHers would already have found a place of this quality! And I didn't even have to search, it was toward the top of the first page of postings.

Based on my experience on Weds, I'd say the place looks like it is doing well; has anyone asked Carlos how business is recently?

Tamale or no tamale?

Judy H wrote:I had a truly excellent tamale with (I believe) salsa verde and goat cheese, and a scrumptious watercress salad on the side. .

stevez wrote:The meal was as good as ever but sadly, the menu has been somewhat evescerated of many of the small plates and some of my personal favorites that made SdM such a joy to visit. For example, there was no cochinita pibil, tamales or tacos on the menu.

A few weeks back we had a tamale with poblano and goat cheese, a watercress salad, and a nice vinaigrette. It was on the entree list, though, and was $12+ for a few big, very tasty tamales.

gleam wrote:A few weeks back we had a tamale with poblano and goat cheese, a watercress salad, and a nice vinaigrette. It was on the entree list, though, and was $12+ for a few big, very tasty tamales.

I suppose that it is possible that the tamale was on the menu in the entree section. If I came across a $12 tamale when I visited, I probably would have skipped by it so quickly that I might not have noticed.

Ate at SdM last week, i have been meaning to try the tamal noted above, but other things have lured me away on my last couple of visits. This time it was the halibut cooked in a banana leaf with hoja santa that Amata describes. This was truly a sublime dish, it came with a small dish of serrano chile salsa, and was excellent both with and without the salsa. If, as I did a couple of times, you managed to catch a bit of the poblano, tomato, onion, and chile guero with a piece of fish, it was just an amazing combination.

Hoja santa is very difficult to procure in these parts. On a previous visit Carlos had described his search for this ingredient, in order to make this dish that was swimming around in his mind. I'm glad he found it, and urge people to try it while he's able to get the hoja santa.

Stevez,

If you're missing the smaller plates, you should try the tamale untado that is still listed. This is moorish Spain meets masa, and is one excellent tamale--best I'd had in a long time.

annieb wrote:Stevez,

If you're missing the smaller plates, you should try the tamale untado that is still listed. This is moorish Spain meets masa, and is one excellent tamale--best I'd had in a long time.

I'll have to give that a try next time. Although the food is still very well prepared and always delicious, the fact that the small plates and antojitos, not to mention two of their best dishes (cochinita pibil and the excellent chile rellenos) are off the menu will probably keep me from visiting as often as I used to.

Steve,
I was also a little upset that some of my favorite small-plates went missing, especially after talking them up to my friends. They were a good way to sample a lot of different sauces. I suspect it was a marketing decision. Some items probably didn't sell well enough to justify keeping them on hand. I also suspect that many customers are just more comfortable with the one app, one entree per person paradigm. When faced with "small plates", I am always confused by how much to order. Of course, when dining with LTHers, that is never a problem. Then the answer is always one of everything.

SdM has added some more appetizers. The ceviche tosadas were delicious. Anyhow, the new entress are so good at SdM, I quickly forgot about the absence of my favorite tapas. I think the selection of entrees changed for the better. When I expressed disappointment that the Mole Negro only comes with chicken breast now, the waiter quickly let me know I could still get the lamb chops in black mole or even lomo (rib eye). However, I went with the new cascabel sauce, and was glad I did. If anything, the new menu will keep me coming back more often.

dave

Don't get me wrong. I still think SdM is a top tier place. I'm just not as happy with the direction the menu has taken as some.

gleam wrote:A few weeks back we had a tamale with poblano and goat cheese, a watercress salad, and a nice vinaigrette. It was on the entree list, though, and was $12+ for a few big, very tasty tamales.

Yep, this is what I had. It was fabulous. Another time, perhaps, I might have been annoyed to pay $12 for it, but a) it was on someone else's tab and b) it was so exactly what I wanted and c) I was so enchanted with the whole place, the price did not seem excessive.

stevez wrote:Don't get me wrong. I still think SdM is a top tier place. I'm just not as happy with the direction the menu has taken as some.

Steve,

I'm right there with you. I love SdM, but since their menu has veered away from the botanas we find ourselves visiting much less often. A big part of the allure was the ability for the two of us to experience 5 or 6 completely different tastes in one meal. It was always exciting.

Now, I'm perfectly happy to visit there for a top-tier mole every now and again, but they don't pop up nearly as frequently in my rotation as they used to.

Best,
Michael