Overall: 
Service: The service was the best thing about SOUL. The restaurant is a mesh of full service and plate lunch get it yourself service. You are seated by a waitress and given menus, water and a very pleasant smile! then once you decide what you want to eat you need to go and order at the counter, pay and then be re-seated. Once your order is complete the waitress brings it out to you and also clears the table. Both waitresses where absolutely jewels. Both exceptionally friendly and helpful – to bad the food was crap!
Food: We where soooooo very excited to try this place as the menu was mouth watering… sadly it was some of the worst food we have had in a while! they should name the restaurant Soul – Cuisine with Salt & Frozen Ingredients! The cuisine menu is a mixture (as promised) of Southern food and Hawaiian comfort food. Staple items on the menu include Seafood Gumbo & Grits, Pulled Pork, BBQ Ribs, Fried Chicken, Feta & Crab Mac & Cheese (sounds delicious), Jambalaya etc. The food was all pretty bad, the ribs where fatty and chewy – everything was kind of old tasting and very salty. The trout was fishy, the salad was over dressed and the mash potato’s where even cold… they tasted like glue….. everything was pretty disgusting! The salad we ordered was the best thing and lets face it, it is pretty hard to screw up mixed greens! that being said, the salad was named “Avocado and Papaya Salad” which would indicate more than 1 piece of papaya and 1 little piece of avocado. False advertising 4 sure! and overall the restaurant is pretty darn expensive for the shabby quality of ingredients served.
Favorite Dishes: To put it bluntly – we didn’t like anything. The best thing was the wine we brought with us!! The Avacado & Papaya Salad was the best thing we ate (see Food above). The Fried Chicken did look delicious, but we didn’t try it this time around. Our waitress did say her favorite thing was Shrimp and Grits but – again…. can’t recommend anything from this visit!
Atmosphere: We enjoyed the atmosphere at Soul very much. It is a cute little dive with a fun personality and was pretty clean. You can site either outside (about 3 tables) or inside (about 10 tables) which is nice for variety. They had interesting art and the overall place feels pleasant once inside. They also had great music – not loud at all and very easy going Island style beats.
Consistency: Well we have only been once and after such terrible food it will be extremely hard to go back and give this restaurant another shot. In the spirit of fairness and for the benefit of our readers we will go again and update this review at that time….. so stay tuned!
Parking: Well as all restaurants in this little mini mecca of Kaimuki there is very limited free parking for the 6 restaurants guests. If you go early and are lucky you can snag a spot (no more than 20 in front and back). If you are unlucky or go after 6:30 you can park for $5 at the lot across the street and hope you don’t get a ticket (which has happened to us before). Good luck!
Price Range: Medium ($12-$22) per Entree
No Corkage Fee!
Reservations Not Accepted
Take Out Available
Address:
St Louis Dr & Waialae Ave
Honolulu, HI 96822
Tel: (808) 735-7685.
Hours of Operation:
Monday-Thursday: 11 a.m. – 9:30 p.m.
Friday: 11 a.m. – 10:30 p.m.
Saturday: 12 p.m. – 10:30 p.m. .
Sunday: Brunch – 9:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Dinner – 4 p.m. – 7 p.m.
 Spare Ribs |
 Soul Location |
