Solea Restaurant & Tapas Bar

Inviting, spacious dining rooms.Great menu with a variety of veggie, seafood, and meat choices. Quality ingredients.Friendly and efficient service.But... all the food that should've been served hot was lukewarm at best.

Really nice service last night. A good quiet place to hang out, grab some food and watch Champions League on my iPad early on a Wednesday night. I got tapas and enjoyed the patates braves the spicy cauliflower and beans and rice.

Great service and very good food. The lamb meatballs were a highlight for me, but everything was delicious from sangria (I'm picky) to chocolate lava cake. Standout: mussels. Very much recommend

A favorite restaurant to celebrate a birthday in our family. The atmosphere is festive. Tables spread out just enough that you can easily talk. Half circle booths are always fun and the decorations are casual and pretty. Our meal is always centered around a large platter of paella full of sausage, shrimp, mussels and of course saffron rice. It's delicious. I almost wish there was a greater rice to other ingredient ratio (I love rice). Along with the paella we usually get about 5 tapas plates for 4 people. My absolute favorite item is their Camarones a la plancha- sizzling shrimp in garlic oil. We often order two. The albondigas de Cordero, lamb meat balls, is in a creamy sauce with a strong (but great) lamb flavor. Since you have to eat some veggies we got the Brussels sprouts- a very easy way to get some green in as they were quite tasty. For dessert the flan was good, nothing special, just good creamy flan but the churros were especially good with crunch outsides and a soft inside, accompanied by a dish of dark chocolate sauce for dipping. Solea has been consistently good over the many years we've eaten there.

Solid 3.5 restaurant had just opened an hour before we got there for lunch so there was plenty of seats to choose from. Our waitress was sweet and although she was the only server on the floor, she got to every table without missing a beat.Everything was seasoned nicely and portions were perfect for the price and to share. The only thing I had to send back was the shrimp in garlic sauce... I'm fairly familiar with traditional tapas and shrimp in garlic sauce is usually flavorful and packed with garlicky goodness. Their version wasn't even sauteed, just swimming in oil and the garlic didn't even look like they tried to date it one bit. Took a flan to go and that was delicious as well. Definitely a solid spot to stop in for a good meal.

We went here for drinks on a friends birthday and sat at the bar. I had the blueberry ginger mojito. I really enjoyed it is was very refreshing and different than other drinks I've had. My friend had gotten the cucumber lime gimlet which I was not a fan of, but I also don't like martinis so it may be right up your ally. The place was really cute and our service was great. I would like to go back for dinner.

Always delicious tapas in a classy, low-key atmosphere. This time around, I got the albondigas (so tender!), the patatas bravas (always a solid pick), the tortilla espanola (surprisingly delicious, and the cream fraiche put it over the top!), the chorizo (quite good), and the buñuelos (pretty good but a bit dry for me). The waiter did get us the rice and beans (plain, but what do you expect?) when we ordered the ravioli, but it was no big deal.

I used to love Solea. The Good: Nice staff. Paella was good. The cauliflower fritters were good too.Could have been better: Asparagus stalks needed to be cut better as the hard fibrous were still on. The shrimp was so so. Chicken also so so.

So I have a 15 year history with Solea and at one point when The Boston Bookend herself, Hope E Alvarez (now Karma Asian Bistro is fortunate to have the grande dame of Boston GMs, presently )was on point there, it simply revolutionized Spanish styled tapas in Greater Boston. The ambiance with the colorful and warm stained glass lights, the preponderance of wood tones, and convivial servers make intimate dining. Let's just say that the present iteration isn't as interesting, consistent and outstanding as the Iconic Hope/Carlos/Fernado Tripod of Deliciousness.

Decor, vibe and overall ambiance of restaurant was really nice, similar to Dali in Somerville. However food was not up to par. Some of the dishes were very salty including the spinach and garlic tapas. Desert was good. Service was slow.