Everyone who knows me knows that I love food and Brunch might possibly be my favorite meal. I love that it’s a combination of breakfast and lunch. Pretty much everything is acceptable including drinks. I love checking out new restaurants but I also have some favorites that I just have to visit often. I recently partnered up again with Sol in Willoughby, Ohio. We eat here often for brunch, lunch and dinner. They have Burger Mondays, Taco Tuesdays, Perfect Match Thursdays, as well as some other specials they run through out the year. Last summer we attended there Sunday morning yoga and brunch and reviewed what dishes we had that morning. This time around we met with the Chef to discuss the menu and try some of the brunch menu staples. They have added new items as well to the menu that I will also review but these items are a main stay on the menu for a reason.
Atmosphere:
Sol has two bars with some tables, a back dining room area and a gorgeous relaxing patio. I can honestly say I have spent many hours on this patio. When your back there it’s so easy to forget your in the middle of Downtown Willoughby. They put up a wall that separates you from the parking lot and makes it even easier with the beautiful flowers, trees and the small waterfall to forget where you’re at. The back dining area inside is on the quieter side even when Sol is super busy. The front area where you walk in at has two bars and some tables. From most of the tables and the one bar you have a perfect view of the kitchen, which I am always a fan of. The other bar is on the other side of the restaurant and has garage doors around it that open up so you can still enjoy the gorgeous weather even if your not outside.
Drinks:
I don’t think you can go wrong with any drink you pick on this menu. Sol has a huge selection of tequila as well as a good selection of bourbons and other liquors. You have your choice of different flavored margaritas, mimosas, a Bloody Mary, martinis, beer, wine, tequila flights and craft cocktails. On this particular morning we got the Avocado margarita and the Sol’d Fashioned. The Avocado Margarita has actual avocado in it, along with tequila, triple sec, simple syrup, coconut milk, lime juice and a cinnamon sugar rum. This does have a bit of a kick but the cinnamon and sugar rim balances out the spiciness. We both really like this margarita but if texture of drinks or food gets you this may not be your favorite due to it having a thicker consistence. The Sol’d Fashioned is another really good drink on Sol’s menu. It has Bulleit Bourbon, simple, bitters, orange rind, and a bada bing cherry. This drink tastes like a traditional old fashioned with a little bit of sweetness to it and is done really well. I will give some shout outs to the Herbin’ bourbon, the flavored mimosas, and the Jalapeño margarita. These are some of my other favorites on the menu. The mimosas you can do bottomless for 26 or a flight of 4 for 20 if you want to try multiple flavors.
Food:
Let me start by saying I did go way out of my comfort zone with some of the dishes we tried and they were all fabulous. We tried some staples that have been on the brunch menu for awhile and they plan on keeping them because they are favorites. Let’s start with the chicken and waffles, which is one dish that I tend to be super picky about. At Sol they bread the chicken in Panko bread crumbs and some spices and then deep fry the chicken. The batter for the waffles is a 3 part batter. The eggs are whipped into a meringue which allows for the waffles to be airy on the inside and crispy on the outside. I love the texture of the waffle with the chicken. You get that extra crisp from both. It comes with maple syrup, agave whipped cream and mine came with a side of hot sauce made with habanero peppers and carrots, the dish now comes with fresh berries. The sweetness from the carrots mixed with the habanero cuts the spiciness and makes for a fabulous sauce. I asked if there would ever be a chance they will bottle this because I would use it on everything. The butter, syrup and hot sauce are great additions to this dish. It doesn’t need them and tastes great on its own but the additions take it to another level.
Next up was the Huevos Rancheros. This dish normally comes with blue corn arepas, which due to shortages we had regular arepas but they were just as good and still added a good amount of color to the dish. The arepas come with sunny side up eggs, avocado, corn salsa, pico de gallo, cotija cheese, and paprika aioli. The arepa is like cornbread in a pancake form with a sweet flavor. The avocado and corn salsa was very fresh and added to the flavor of this dish. The sunny side egg was cooked perfectly with the right amount of yummy yolk to just add to the flavor.
Sol always has a couple egg Benedict options on their menu that mostly stay the same. Or if they do switch up it’s for a seasonal option. We tried all four that were on the menu. For starters this was something that was totally out of my comfort zone. I had never had a poached egg or a Benedict ever but I’m always willing to try new things. We will start with the top two in the above picture. The first one is the Carne Asade Bennie, which comes on an English muffin, with a poached egg, jalapeño relish and hollandaise sauce. The carne asade had great flavor and really worked well with the egg and sauces. Next we have the crab cake Bennie, with a poached egg, pico de Gallo and hollandaise. This was my favorite for many reasons. The crab cake stood well on it’s own, had great flavor by itself and with the poached egg and hollandaise it only brought out more of that flavor. Now on to the bottom two, the house Bennie with Canadian bacon, a poached egg and hollandaise and the Lox which is smoked salmon, a poached egg, sriracha cream cheese, fresh dill and hollandaise. Both of these came on an English muffin. The House Bennie was fabulous and had great flavor. I am typically not a fan of smoked salmon so the Lox was not something I preferred but my husband loved it and said he thought it had tons of flavor. If you like smoked salmon this is the Bennie for you.
These staples on Sol’s menu are all must tries and staples for a reason. With that being said I have also tried many of their new items and was just blown away by how good they were. I can’t wait to share all the new items I tried so look out for that review. What are some of your favorites at Sol? What else should I try?