Solstice Kitchen

We visited this place last week, I loved it! I had a nice glass of red wine recommended by the waiter and the Duck Bog it was AWESOME! the fried livers were the perfect addition to this dish, and my duck was cooked perfect! The others at the table all had the French onion steak and were all done very well, all in all it was awesome and I would recommend this place!

Excellent quality and variety. I have never not enjoyed my entrée at lunch or dinner. Gest desserts.

Excellent meal and service. Don’t sit in the elevated alcove in the back. One of our party of seven adjusted her chair, and the chair leg slipped off the step and she tumbled to the floor. The manager was nonchalant about it and declined our request to document the incident in case there were future repercussions. This was 3 weeks ago. Fortunately, there were only bruises and no lasting injuries. I will enjoy future outings at this fine restaurant, but I will not sit in the elevated alcove.

Best way I can describe Solstice Kitchen is ‘modern southern cuisine’. The place is off of Sparkleberry and the competition is Mexican, Bojangles, Mickey Ds, and a Waffle House. After a few nights of that, this was a very welcome change (yes, in the area on biz-​ness). Our girl, Ali, was very informative, very helpful, and super nice. A little off that night only because her dog had a bunch of puppies! Anyway, I ordered the fish. Sooo good! It was just the perfect amount since we had a huge lunch earlier. The rest of the table had oysters on the half shell, pretty amazing since it was a southern take on an oyster chowder, shrimp and grits, a big salad, and some other delicious things. Very well presented. There was a flank steak done rare (heaven!). I didn’t see what the rest of the group had since I was so enamored with my fish. If you’re in the area, go check it out!

Glad we tried it. We were tired after traveling all day and dressed casually but found this beautiful restaurant. Bloody Mary’s and bread tray were both very good and I liked that they added Boursin cheese to the bread tray. I got the fried green tomatoes which were good but could be better. They needed a little spice to the breading and they needed to be fried longer. My Mother loved the fried oysters. My Dad got the short rib. It was delicious but a little fatty. The sweet potatoes that accompanied the short ribs were over the top good. We got an order of buttermilk potatoes that were light and whipped. I will definitely come back to Solstice Kitchen I was very happy.

This is the second time I have been to Solstice Kitchen. I had the fried oysters and the ribeye steak. Both were pretty good but nothing special. For example I ate at Poogan’s Porch the night before and also had the fried oysters and they were far superior.
Solstice did have a special on a bottle of wine for $ 20.00 and that was special, excellent value. One beef that I had here was the martinis. The martinis come in a martini glass which was half full or half empty depending on one’s outlook. I don’t get it, either fill the glass and charge me for it or get a smaller glass. The server said it was a different bartender who was keeping a closer look on the number of shots but I don’t care, give me a glass that is full, I’ll pay.

Wonderful! Great atmosphere, wonderful food, excellent wine! Portions are large, well worth the cost!

Be prepared to be surprised as to whether the restaurant is open or not. Is business so bad that they need to close the restaurant to hold a private party on a Thursday evening? And could they not have made that information available on their social media accounts? I had made plans to meet to friends for dinner, and upon learning we were not welcome this evening (at the door), the hostess insisted we shut the entrance door because we were letting all of the hot air in. Very rude!

Saturday night, spur of the moment, we sat in the bar area. Wife likes the girlie drinks and they had the watermelon splash with jalapeño. Lights out, she had two and loved it. Perfect for summer. Pork belly tacos give you savory with a touch of sweet and then the main dish. Hawaiian wahu described perfectly by a server and highly recommended and Pork steak with bacon mashed potatoes. A little comfort food and a little something you don’t find everyday. Both home runs. Big comfortable booths in the bar area and a server who was spot on with wine rec’s and dinner choices. Had the special butterscotch pudding/​chocolate cake dessert that was excellent as well. By far our favorite place in Columbia (Terra is 1a). Highly recommended.

Always a great choice for last minute late evening or a planned dinner date or even with clients. Food is excellent, drinks are great, service is always great. A very consistent experience. The chef isn’t afraid to take chances, so try it all. Highly recommended.

We are so thankful to have such a wonderful restaurant just .5 miles from our new home! It definitely makes the suburbs more palatable, dining-​wise. We’ve had several wonderful meals and look forward to many more. Standouts include the skirt steak and pomme frites, all desserts and the wine list and cocktail specials. We’ve had good luck with some fish specials/​entrees too, but I’m blanking on what we loved most (bad Unilocaler). Awesome bread and butter goodies too.
I’m taking off a star for the service: it’s been a little spotty. My main issue was just feeling too rushed! This despite saying really clearly upfront that we wanted a bit of space between courses… and the place was ½ empty so we weren’t hogging a table or being ridiculously slow or anything. For $ 200 for dinner for two (bottle of wine, appetizers, 2 entrees and usually 2 desserts boxed to go), I just don’t want to be done in an hour flat. But we love it and will be back soon!

One of my absolute favorite places to eat in Columbia. The Gouda Mac & cheese is to die for. You also must have the Krispy Kreme bread pudding.

This restaurant is fairly new, but I definitely enjoyed dinner. The steak was cooked perfectly, so much so, that I ate it as slowly as possible to savor every little piece:)

My boyfriend and I tried Solstice for the first time tonight and we loved it! We will definitely be returning. (And we’re coming from 30 min away). Our server’s name was Kyle B, and he was great at explaining the menu to us and suggestive selling. I had the flat iron, the boyfriend had the vegetarian meal of the day, and we shared the bananakopita. It was all amazing!

Sat, 815, Hubby and I had mahi, scallops, garden salad, bread, diet coke and hot tea. Salad and bread were delish! The entrees were very good. My hubby and I don’t eat a lot, but cleared our plates, which means the portions are small compared to most places, but probably closer to what they «should» be. Atmosphere is nice, nothing special.
Service was average. We emptied our drinks without an offer for another. Server brought our food to table when he knew we were outside smoking (he did tell us it was there), not much «teamwork» by the waitstaff, which is unfortunate but common.
In sum, we weren’t «wowed» and would probably go back… after we’ve sampled the many other spots we haven’t tried.

After reading a number of reviews, I felt well prepared for what to expect here. I can happily say that none of worst things that I read happened to me. In fact, it was a pretty good experience. The only bad that I can report is that the food wasn’t up to the quality level that I would expect of a really nice restaurant like this. With that said, I must say that I haven’t even heard of another place in the area that is as good as this.
This place holds great promise as the atmosphere and concept is excellent, but just not very polished on the delivery. One of the odd things that I heard during my dinner was that they ran out of one of their standard menu items, the scallops, at about 7:10p, which seemed very early to be running out of anything on the menu, much less a standard item. An unexpectedly popular special item, I could understand, but not a standard. I personally hate scallops and wasn’t going to order them anyway, so it didn’t really bother me other than to strike me as very odd.
Their wine list was average for a very nice restaurant. A better than average offering of wines by the glass, but average variety overall and certainly no top shelf selections. I did find a decent Chilean Pinot Noir by the glass that was to my liking. As a business traveller that often eats alone, I appreciated more extensive than average by the glass options.
I selected an appetizer and entrée off their daily specials list, so they weren’t something that appears on their regular menu. For an appetizer I had their interpretation of fried calamari. The calamari was not bad, decently tender, but just a tad on the chewy side. It was served with a medly of sauteed herbs and vegetables, including artichoke hearts, over a slightly over-​astringent chunky tomato sauce. The preparation was slightly off on several levels, including the breading, which abandoned the calamari at the slightest touch, but it was better than average. The over astringency of the tomatoes combined with the natural bitterness of the artichoke hearts to bring out some licorice flavors in the pinot noir, which didn’t thrill me. Certainly not a problem with their dish, but I’m not a fan of licorice or the overall bitterness of the dish. Also, the excessive accent flavors really detracted from the natural flavor of the calamari instead of enhancing it. Again, it wasn’t bad, but I can’t say it was amazing or even great. It was well presented and looked very appetizing, but had substantial room for improvment.
For an entrée, I ordered the roasted duck with a hash of andouille sausage, onions, and yams, and something else that I forgot. This dish was also well presented, and quite tastely, but still some technical flaws that detracted from the whole of the dish. The duck was brilliantly prepared with crispy skin and med. rare flesh that was nice and moist and resting on a pinot noir/​merlot (if memory serves) reduction that had a pleasantly sweet and herbal accent. Now, the duck is a very strong flavor and fought with the equally strong flavor of the andouille sausage in the hash. The yams had a nice mellow and complimentary starchy sweetness to the overall profile, but something in the hash was very harshly salted and provided occasionaly bursts of hyper saltiness. Again, a much better than average dish, bordering on great, with some a few serious flaws in overall execution.
For dessert I tried their home made chocolate truffles: champagne milk chocolate, mocha dark chocolate, and ammaretto milk chocolate. To accent them, I selected their best port wine, a ’77 Quarles Harris, with wonderful cherry and chocolate notes. Absolutely no complaints here. It was a divine pairing. The truffles were perfectly blended to be not overly sweet and not overly bitter, and very satisfying to the most hard-​core chocolate craving.
Being by myself, I ate at the bar and the service was pleasant and friendly and I didn’t find myself wanting anything for more than about 30 — 60 seconds once or twice only. The atmosphere and ambiance was very relaxing and some extremely pleasant jazz was playing throughout the evening to enhance the mood.
All in all, a very good dining experience, and I wouldn’t hessitate in going here again or heartily recommending Solstice to any of my best friends.

Really nice restaurant. It doesn’t look like its going to be as good as it is from the outside either. They had $ 20 wine bottle specials going on that night too. We tried one of the bottles and it was decent, not great (and we tried it BEFORE the other more expensive bottle) but good. The food was great!
We started off with BBQ pull pork spring rolls. perfect texture (Not as good as Lexington BBQ, but certainly well constructed as was the gnocchi bolognese! They also certainly know how to cook a steak, a perfect med rare. We also ordered the pork shank and it was surprisingly good, moist and great flavor.
Definitely was a great night out when so far away from home. If you are in the Eastern Columbia, SC area this is a definite stop for you.

I visit this area of Columbia every year or two and it used to be a dead zone if you were in search for a great restaurant. Once Solstice Kitchen gained some Unilocal love I tried it a couple of years ago and loved it. No surprise the next time I came to Columbia 1.5 years later this was on my must visit list. It’s easily the best restaurant in the area, but it’s also a restaurant that would be great anywhere, not just here.
The menu has choices for everyone, a lot of fresh local fish and some great meat choices as well. I’ve had different preparations of short ribs on the 2 visits I’ve been here and they are always fantastic. Fork tender and belly warming. A standout on our last visit was one of the fresh fish specials with an artichoke pesto. The pesto itself was delicious and a great complement to the fish. The fried oyster app is good and gives you tons of oysters for the price. All Dishes are generous in portion, and very high quality. Now I’m just counting down the days until I come back to Columbia (and Solstice).

Food was delicious. Everything is fresh and cooked perfectly. Even their salad tastes like they were made with home grown veggies. The green vinaigrette dressing they made there was really good and unlike anything I have had before. Took one star off because their fries are too limpy/​mushy, greasy and fried in old oil. Lunch prices are good but dinner prices are 2x higher. Recommend for lunch only.

I had 8:15 reservations…8:20 still waiting…8:25 still waiting. I’m thinking to myself what’s the point in having a reservation if you will not be seated at the time of your reservation? 8:35 the hostess came over and apologized for out wait and sat us in the private dining area and I was pleased with that.
Our waiter for the night was very attentive and nice. We placed our orders and it took a while for the food to come. However, we had a steady supply of fresh bread being brought over by our waiter while we waited for our entrée’s. Due to the long wait time our waiter surprised us with a small complimentary dessert. I thought it was considerate of him because at that point I honestly was tired of eating bread and butter.
Finally out entrées arrived and I must say it was worth the wait. The salmon, grits, and spinach I ordered was absolutely delicious. Every thing was cooked to perfection in my opinion. The food was perfect! — I cannot think of anything that I did not like about the food. This was my first time visiting this restaurant but I feel pretty confident that I will return.