The Sole Proprietor

Shoot man, I’ve been coming here since the days of old. ha. If you’ve lived in Worcester your whole life and never been here you could possibly be accused of being an imposter. I wont repeat what’s already been said for rants, raves or disgust. Only because I’ve never had a truly poor or truly outstanding experience at Sole. I give the 4 starts based on the generally very attentive and high quality service from the wait staff/​bartends and hosts (management tries but my goodness can they be unfoundedly snooty at times). The food quality is right where it should be — at the top quality available in Worcester and arguably in the county as well. I’ve had shrimp cocktail everywhere that offers it up and I’ve yet to find a better version of the classic. Seriously, even Legal Seafood doesn’t have fish this fresh. It took me courage to make that statement-​Cause Legals will always have a place within he fibrous walls of my heart. But wouldn’t say it t’were it not true.
There’s no doubt about it, this place is popular. Almost always a challenge to get a seat during the lunch or dinner rush any day of the week and on weekends without a reservation is near impossible. Large parties are also a bit of a struggle here and especially at short notice. The space in itself is small for such a longstanding favorite I am surprised and almost happy they haven’t expanded. Space is sacrificed for a intimate dining experience where yes there are lots of other people filling the place and shoving shellfish, cocktails and lava cakes down their gullets, and doing so very loudly, but you feel like you and your guests are the only ones in the place at times. Bar menu is limited in my opinion with strange items I really don’t think belong on a late night menu but the bar area and scene is always very cool. High back booths and leather seats match the nautical but not corny décor. In fact the interior here I find is tasteful and calming. I can surely see why a lot of people schedule business lunches here. One would not be thrown out for dressing ultra casual here but you’d surely feel out of place if you did.
Above all else the uniqueness and nostalgia of this place will always keep me coming back.

What a great experience! Dispute the packed house, service from our two waitresses was impecible tag teaming us on drink orders for our party of 5 certainly sped things up. We had the freshest most tasty oysters. Also shucked to perfection… not one stray shell. We were celebrating a birthdays and when we requested that we enjoy our appetizers first before ordering dinner our wait staff smiled as agreed.
We ordered the artic char stuffed flounder, salmon Oscar, black and blue swordfish and fish tacos off the app menu. Every dish was beautifully plated and tasted better than it looked!
We live in groton ma and said as we walked out «we really need to come here more often»!

Sole Proprietor offers seafood, sushi, and raw bar. I visited this spot a few times in the past, and I always had a good experience with food and service. BUT, sometimes, good things end… or, you simply get unlucky.
The server was very friendly, which was nice, but overly talkative, to the point he was just talking and talking instead of working… It also took forever to get our orders taken, we had to ask for a staff to get our server.
I ordered Blackened Tuna Steak Sahshimi. The sashimi was nice, but for the amount of rather thin slices of tuna I received, I would say it is over priced. Especially, the sushi rice was HORRIBLE. The small amount of rice was really, very sweet, and it seems like it has been sitting out there for too long, since half (or more) of the rice was already dried up and super hard, making it non-​edible. I think it should have been called «dried up, old sugar rice» instead of sushi rice. It was that bad.
Other entrees delivered to the table in a less professional way, it was all shifted to one corner of a square plate. We believe the whole thing was shifted because of the way the server took the plate from the kitchen.
So, how bad was our experience? It was so bad that we had to get another server to help us, and she offered free cheesecake (to share). It really was too late to turn it all around at that point, but at lease someone made an effort to make us feel a bit better.
At the end, we were all disappointed for the first time, as I mentioned, we have dined here a few times in the past, and we always enjoyed the food and service. Hopefully, it was just a one-​time thing, and that we just had a really bad luck. Read my full review of this restaurant and food on my food blog, foodlovergirl.

Getting to Sole Proprietor and finding parking proved to be a challenge. We were a couple minutes late for our reservation and it was a busy Friday night, so we crowded into the doorway and waited. As I am not the most patient person, we weren’t starting off on the best foot, so Sole Proprietor had some ground to make up.
The first thing to hit our table was the crab cakes and they were excellent. I also liked the slaw served with it. Following that was salad for me and clam chowder for the girls. I tried the clam chowder and wasn’t disappointed. For the main course I had the blackened swordfish. It was good, but there wasn’t much zing for blackened which is what holds me back from giving them five stars.
The service was very good and the beer menu was passable. In spite of the challenges getting there, and with Caroline’s love of the crab legs, I’m guessing we’ll be back.