New Restaurant at One Miami - Solymar

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Permalink Reply by Alex (MUL) on August 5, 2009 at 1:56pm

This is great news! I didn't like seeing that place empty. It's truly a good location, but I don't think Prime Blue Grille was a good fit. Crossing my fingers...

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Permalink Reply by Tommy on August 13, 2009 at 12:44pm

SolYMar is open for Business. Went there yesterday for Happy Hour and it was really nice. They have $2.50 appetizers during Happy Hour which is a bargain. We had the Conch Fritters, Shrimp Ceviche, Queso Fundido and some sliders. Everything was very good and for $2.50 it was a steal. We should try to set up a MUL event there. I am sure they need all the publicity they can get.

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Permalink Reply by Alex (MUL) on August 13, 2009 at 1:18pm

Tommy, Thanks for the heads up! I'm going to try it out soon... $2.50 appetizers are hard to resist.

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Permalink Reply by Rachel Pozensky on September 2, 2009 at 2:22pm

You will have to cross more than just your fingers...

My friend and I just tried Solymar for lunch and while I agree that it's a great location, the food was sub-par all around. There is no excuse for a bad meal. We like ambiance and it definitely adds to the meal, but we are food-focused. However, if you are just looking for a happy hour location on the water, this might be what you are looking for.

First of all, our waiter mumbled so badly that I couldn't follow what he was saying. When I asked him about the menu, he pointed out "these are wines," "these are martinis"... Yes, I can read. How about making some recommendations? When I asked him about the favorites he gave me one answer and when my companion asked him, he gave completely different ones!

We started with the pork empandas. The filling was pretty well spiced but the dough probably needed salt. The aji salsa was just OK but needed more spice and we could have left the smoked plantain sauce. We followed with the Solymar Chopped Chicken Salad, which our waiter said was a specialty. Again, there was little flavor. The coriander-brined chicken was good, but the rest of the flavors didn't layer well at all. Finally, we had the Open-faced Crispy Grouper Sandwich. The fish was completely tasteless though the tartar sauce was nice. I hardly think that tartar sauce is enough to make the meal. Dessert was freshly-baked cookies, which were very good and given to us "on the house" because the fire alarms had been going off all through our lunch. Lunch ended with espresso that was way too bitter. This is Miami and good coffee is requisite. The entire bill wasn't too bad -- except for the coffees. Each single espresso was $4! Seriously?!? That makes Starbucks look reasonable.

Just like everyone else here, I want restaurants in Downtown to succeed, but not at the expense of good food. This is one of the most forgettable restaurants. C-.

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Permalink Reply by Alex (MUL) on September 3, 2009 at 12:10pm

Pretty disappointing to hear this. I'm still planning to stop by and check it out, but I'm hoping for a better experience.

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Permalink Reply by Mike Lapointe on September 9, 2009 at 1:09pm

I checked it out for lunch and it's definitely a work in progress from a service/food point of view. I spoke with the owner for a while and he had some good ideas with the place such as potentially adding on to the bar area and expanding it to a more happy hour crowd, which is much needed.

The food I got was OK at best and the service wasn't anything to write home about. I'll give it another chance after a few weeks, but it's tough to compete with all the other choices around

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