Solun

Ok, being from this area, there's not a heck of a lot of places to go. I've tried giving this place a chance for improvement a few times, hoping the next time it will be better....I'm done waiting. Waiting being the operative word. Sure the tapas are good, but the service is horrible. Their staff is in constant change, which should be the first warning. The manager really doesn't seem to care what goes on with his service staff and here are the examples why:
My first experience there with friends we sat at a table in the bar area and it took aprox. 15 minutes for anyone to even acknowledge that we were there, crowd size was minimal at best. After flagging someone down, they sent a waiter over to take our order. We ordered a few different tapas, a cheese sample for $9 the slices of cheese were so tiny it was enough for one taste, artisan bread and a salad. We placed our wine order, selection is good, but we didn't get the drinks served for another 10 minutes which didn't make sense since the bartender wasn't busy filling any orders. We dropped over $120 on Tapas and wine? What??
The second time I arrived was on a Thursday eve at 8pm to meet a friend for a glass of wine, there were only two other couples there at the bar, and the dining room was empty,.While sitting at the bar awaiting her arrival, the female bartender was into cleaning the bar and ignored me, When she did come over I mentioned that i was waiting for a my friend, and ordered a glass of wine. She asked, "Well do you think you're friend is going to want beer, because I'm going to close up the taps.  Uhhh it's 8pm?
My friend arrived, she ignored her also, she was more preoccupied in closing at 8pm then working. I paid for my wine and told my friend, forget the drink here, lets go someplace else.
And so it goes, same stories, different days hoping this time they'll get their act together. But I will NOT be giving them one more penny, especially after the last visit.
Saturday night, dining room was busy, bar tables were not. We chose to sit in the bar. The table was dirty, after 15 minutes of no acknowledgement, we got up to get a rag to clean the table, someone finally came over. We placed our drink order, 2 martinis and a margarita, 20 minutes later the drinks were delivered. At this time the bartender was slightly busy so we let it go. When the waiter delivered it he plunked them down and left. After a while we ordered a second round, the restaurant was now empty except for a few tables, 20 minutes later when they were delivered i said to the waiter,"We thought you forgot about us" He abruptly stopped putting the drinks down in mid air and said, "oh, do you want me to just return these then?"  He then tried to recover by blaming the bartender by saying, well if i were making these you would have gotten them sooner"....
I did a lot of waitress work when i was younger and service like this is unacceptable. No apologies, just threw the bartender under the bus. I said yes, return them and we need out bill. The kicker is, the owner/manager, in a t-shirt,  saw the whole thing and didn't even try to approach us. We got the bill, and guess what, yep, the drinks we sent back were on the bill. We called the waiter back over and asked him to please remove them, he did, we paid, we left, and we won't be back. Strike three. they're out. We left and went across the street to Antonio's restaurant, which was busy, and yet they acknowledged us immediately, the waitress was extremely pleasant.
Next time you want Tapas, make the drive to go somewhere else. Don't compromise yourself, even if you have a coupon!

A couple next to us at a wine dinner recently was from Woodbridge.  Since we had a voucher for Solun, we asked if they had been there.  They had and said it was just ok.  If you want great tapas, they said, you should go to Ibiza in Hamden, which I can say is quite good.

Since we did have that voucher and were in the area, we decided to try Solun anyway.  There was a bit of a crowd at the bar and we were quickly seated by the friendly hostess.  We sat in the dining area closer to the bar, which is nicely decorated with primary colors with black trim (kind of like Ibiza).  Instead of plain tables, there are table cloths and a leather table cover.  That's different, but it works.

Before we get to the meal, a few quick things.  I asked the waiter if he had any recommendations or any favorites.  He said something like if you want to know what's good, just point to anything on the menu.  I'm being picky, but I think the wait staff should be able to come up with some suggestions or diners' favorites instead of the 'everything is wonderful' line.  

After asking for bread, a saucer was filled with olive oil on the table and one small, cold slice of cracker-sized bread was dramatically served to each of us from a basket with tongs.  The bread was actually fine, but it would have been much better warmed up.  Plus, we had to ask for salt to put in the olive oil.  Warm a bunch up, put it in a basket on the table with salt and skip the whole presentation thing.

Our first tapas was a salad with frisee lettuce, white truffle oil, dried figs and cranberries, goat cheese, and a Parmesan crisp.  It's very nicely presented and all the ingredients taste great together.  

The second tapas was grilled shrimp served atop a guacamole and sliced beets (a bit of a riff on one of my favorite Ibiza tapas).  The shrimp was excellent and again all the ingredients came together nicely.

So far, so good, but maybe we should have stuck with the tapas.  Lamb chops were a special tonight and were ordered medium.  Instead they arrived fairly well done. The waiter did offer a new serving, but we declined.  To make matters worse, the mashed yucca and berry puree did not taste nearly as good as we imagined.  Sea bass, however, was nicely presented and tasted fine.  

Based on our experience, I would recommend Solun for its tapas, which would rate four out out of five stars, instead of the entrees, which would probably rate about two stars.  Service was helpful and very friendly and the bottled wine prices were quite reasonable.  With the design and presentation of many of the tapas and other dishes, clearly there is talent in the kitchen.  With a bit of tweaking, Solun could become a solid choice in the area.

Absolutely wonderful dining experience!

Moms had been raving about this place for a few months, so it seemed like the obvious choice for her birthday dinner on Saturday.

Four of us rolled up right around dinner time and were seated immediately in the dining room closest to the bar. Service was attentive from the get-go: from Carlos (the owner) inviting us inside and welcoming us warmly, to Neil the multi-tasker, to Edwin (apparently mom's favorite waiter) to everyone in between, we were treated like very special customers.

It turned out that mom loved this place so much she didn't even have to open the menu. We ordered a full gauntlet of tapas (albondigas, empanadas, potatoes & pork just to name a few) and every dish was better than the last. Our entrees, too, (two paellas: one seafood, one meat, lamb, and chicken) were delicious. To end the meal, we ordered dessert (tres leches cake and the fondue bites) which was the perfect end to our incredible meal. Everything was prepared and presented with care. Flavorful, satisfying, and just about anything you could want in a tapas experience.

It's disappointing to hear other diners' experiences were not so stellar because as I said before, the service was out out of this world. Everyone was so accommodating and each special request was granted with a smile.

If I didn't live so darn far away, I'd be back to Solun in a heartbeat.

Highly recommended.