Sopa - Highwood

There's a top new chef at one of Highwood's stylish eateries: Sopa. William Alexander, who until recently taught the Fine Dining course at Kendall College, took over the kitchen at this north Highwood restaurant. Dishes we tried last night and highly recommend were: Crab - a crabcake appetizer served with tiny heirloom grape tomatoes, Mussels - an appetizer portion - more than a dozen mussels in flavorful broth; Beet Carpaccio appetizer: thinly sliced red beets with cylinders of golden beets, Halibut - a great presentation: Amish chicken. Top dessert: Chocolate Terrine with raspberry coulis.

Sopa
752 Sheridan Rd.
Highwood, IL 60040
847-433-3434

Well, Chef William Alexander is gone from Sopa and friends of mine who dined there recently came back with a negative review. My prior recommendation no longer applies. LJVICK

ljvick wrote:Well, Chef William Alexander is gone from Sopa and friends of mine who dined there recently came back with a negative review. My prior recommendation no longer applies. LJVICK

So, that makes at least 3 chefs since they opened back in early 2008, which is generally not a good sign.

Thanks, for the update.

=R=

Grandma Bobbi and I stopped by Sopa Cucina Italiana tonight for the first time. We actually started out for Clucker's, but change our minds. I'm glad that i hadn't seen the above reviews before we went or it might have discouraged us.

We found our experience at Sopa to be enjoyable. The decor is quite nice for a strip mall restaurant.

Grandma Bobbi ordered the tilapia "early bird special", which came with a nice salad (no iceberg lettuce in sight), fresh green beans and a scoop of vanilla ice cream for dessert. The portion of fish was almost more than she could eat. I enjoyed the gnocchi with vodka sauce. A salad was included but due to dietary restrictions, I asked if I could have soup instead. They were happy to accommodate me and I was served a lovely chicken, orzo and fresh veggie soup (carrots, diced tomatoes and parsley).

We had arrived just after 5 pm so we had a chance to talk to the owner, Angelo. He tells me he has had several restaurants in the space over the past four years and has tried to change the style and menu to fit the market. The first was a fine dining establishment, they then tried Mediterranean and finally settled on more moderately priced Italian.

Our waiter, Henry, was attentive and the chef, Moises, stopped by our table to ask how we were enjoying ourselves. The dining experience was very nice and I highly recommend the restaurant. Angelo told me that all of the food is made from scratch. My gnocchi in vodka sauce certainly was.

They have a website at http://www.soparestaurant.com. We'll definitely return since I noticed on their website they have one of my favorite dishes, giambatta.

By the time we left at around 6:30, the place was beginning to fill up.

Best regards,
Grandpa Bob

We too were there on Saturday night (arrived at about 5:30 and didn't see anyone else in the restaurant) and our experience was somewhat different, perhaps we were at a different Sopa in Highwood.

We found it to be nice contemporary decor (I agree better than one would expect form a strip mall restaurant), which was soon spoiled by the use of paper napkins (we thought this was very tacky). We have never seen shredded carrots in a Caesar Salad, the dressing was flavorful but there was a definite over-dose of parmesan. Both of our meals were very bland and without flavor. When the Chef came out and asked how our dinner was and we told him and he became defensive and said, "that's not possible".

I had the Giambatta (Sausage and Peppers) and I found the sausage without flavor and the peppers were over cooked and seemed to be sitting in a steam table for awhile. The presentation was in a bowl with about 3/4" or juice in the bottom leaving the potatoes swimming. Princess had the Linguini with Shrimp and Broccoli which too was lacking in flavor other than the garlic/oil in the linguini. The Tiramisu had so much Cocoa on the top you would inhale and choke on the powder with every bite.

Perhaps we should have opted for the chicken a few doors down. On a bright side we stopped at the little ice cream place in the same strip mall I believe it was called Sweet Peas) and found some of (if not the best) the best ice cream we have ever had!

Needless to say, we won't be returning to Sopa in Highwood.

BAT

BAT1800 wrote:We too were there on Saturday night (arrived at about 5:30 and didn't see anyone else in the restaurant) and our experience was somewhat different, perhaps we were at a different Sopa in Highwood.

We must have gotten there a bit later. There was only one couple there when we arrived. It must have been you.
You're absolutely right about the paper napkins. Thanks for the update on their sausage, green pepper and potato dish.

The ice cream place is indeed called Sweet Pea http://www.sweetpeasicecream.com/. They get their ice cream from the Chocolate Shoppe operation in Wisconsin. http://www.chocolateshoppeicecream.com/index.cfm For my money the Chocolate Shoppe ice cream is the best around.

Best regards,
Grandpa Bob