Urban Solace & Bar Solace Info
Amenities
From the business
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Identifies as women-owned
Service options
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Outdoor seating
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Takeout
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Dine-in
Highlights
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Live music
Accessibility
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Wheelchair accessible entrance
Offerings
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Alcohol
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Beer
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Cocktails
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Coffee
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Comfort food
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Happy hour drinks
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Happy hour food
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Hard liquor
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Late-night food
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Organic dishes
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Small plates
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Vegetarian options
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Wine
Dining options
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Breakfast
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Brunch
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Lunch
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Dinner
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Catering
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Dessert
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Seating
Amenities
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Bar onsite
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Gender-neutral restroom
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Restroom
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Wi-Fi
Crowd
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Family-friendly
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LGBTQ+ friendly
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Transgender safespace
Planning
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Accepts reservations
Payments
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Debit cards
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Credit cards
Children
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Good for kids
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High chairs
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Kids' menu
Other
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LGBTQ+ friendly
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Identifies as women-owned
Best KPortal Reviews
Everything we had here was incredible. The food was delicious, the cocktails incredible. Small plates, except for the blue plate special which was a roasted pork loin with brocholini and roasted veggies (delish). I recommend everything pictured, and also everything else there since I was with a party of six and I tried everything and there wasn't a single miss among everything we ordered. The grapefruit mule and dark and stormy were both so so good as drinks too.
Within the first five minutes of my first visit to Urban Solace, this place annoyed me. In my head, I was quickly compiling a laundry list of things that annoy me in restaurants: menus dominated by comfort food, communal dining tables in the center of the floor, super-casual/sloppily-attired patrons (and wait staff), "mandatory" carding of anyone who asks for alcohol who looks even a day younger than 84 years old, waiting for a table despite a confirmed reservation, and ugly wall art.
All of these initial annoyances were quickly forgotten and my mind is blown that my initial impression of Urban Solace was so far off.
Put simply, Urban Solace's food and service is phenomenal. My knowledgeable waitress knew all aspects of every dish, responding to my questions with a level of detail that I would expect only someone who is preparing the food to know. Floor manager kept a watchful eye on each table and checked in from time to time to ensure expectations were being met.
It was the food, however, that won me over completely. I had the privilege of devouring the following:
Sweetbreads - small bowl of super-tender, juicy chunks of organ meat served in a buttery mustard broth with swiss chard. With all due respect to Cowboy Star's tremendous lamb sweetbreads, this is now my favorite sweetbread plate in the city. The mustard sauce is intense, and gives the eater a great excuse to finish every bit of swiss chard in the bowl.
Spiced Duck Confit - a thigh and wingette of duck confit served with a sweet corn pudding, sneaky-delicious roasted carrots, haricot verts, and sliced fennel. There was a fair amount going on in this plate, but everything played exceedingly well together. The duck confit itself was rich and soft, the meat nearly melting on my tongue as I ate it. This is described as a "Spiced" dish on the menu, but I did not find it spicy in a hot way, though it was appropriately seasoned and flavorful.
Cheese Biscuit - despite high expectations, I did not find religion in this biscuit -- it's not bad, but it also is not quite the ueber-biscuit that other Yelpers have described it as. That said, I am entirely smitten with the sweet tomato jam the biscuit comes with. I wish they sold jars of this stuff, I would love to take it home and shamelessly eat it by the spoonful when I am by myself.
Cheese & Charcuterie Plate - I had two cheeses and their exceptional lonzino salume (cured slices of pork loin). Accompaniments included spiced honey, candied pecans (which were awesome), coarse-grain mustard, sliced pear, and cornmeal crackers (also superb).
Les S'smore - s'more's dessert with a graham cracker undercrust, topped with chocolate ganache, covered with a homemade marshmallow that has been caramelized with a torch to give it a creme brulee-like outer-crust texture. This is exactly what I expect in a S'more's dessert and more. Other restaurants with S'more's desserts make the mistake of not focusing on the marshmallow element (I'm looking at you, Searsucker), where Urban Solace wisely makes the marshmallow the main focus of the dish and takes it over-the-top. If you're ordering a S'more's dessert, chances are you are a marshmallow person like me and you'll enjoy this.
Cocktails - I had several, and they were all excellent. The one with the gin and the lemon (forgot the name, though I think they call it the "Olaf") was my favorite.
In short, this is a restaurant that is deserving of your time and money. Urban Solace is one of San Diego's top gourmet casual destinations. I vehemently disagree with other reviewers who take issue with their prices. I find this place to be comparatively cheap to similar restaurants around town.
Expensive, and very good. This is my favorite restaurant. It's not cheap. I have dined here many times, and tried many different menu items. They were all very good, and not cheap. I have to stop going here for a while, at least until Google starts paying me for my work. I'm not trying to run a charity here.
I especially love the tomato soup. Get it almost every time. The biscuits here are awesome, and i usually don't really like bread products. WARNING: they undercook the pork (see picture). Not by accident. But you can get your pork well-done by request. Or, you can be a vegetarian. There are lots of good vegetarian options, mostly quinoa-based. Great bathrooms.
Rotating expensive beer selection, and if you want to pay a lot for a really good mixed drink, they have a wide variety of top-shelf liquors.
Had a great brunch here on New Year's Day. Haven't been here in years but the service is good and the food is still delicious, especially their cinnamon roll!
Urban Solace has been one of my most favorite restaurants in the world for many years. Atmosphere plus incredible food and drinks every time plus friendly/attentive staff. They recently changed their vibe to daily breakfasts and small plates all day & night- still serving amazing drinks and the new menu items are amazing! Go have breakfast there, stay for lunch, and come back for bites and drinks later. Love this place.
Every dish is delicious!! Biscuits, paté, meatloaf, jidori chicken, duck commit. All so good!
Came here to celebrate my 30th with family in town while I was on vacation. Had heard great things about it and felt like it could cater a bit to everyone. Didn't disappoint whatsoever. Service was awesome. Food was so amazing. Leftovers were even better ????
From the ambience to the great food, Urban Solace has been my go to place when my wife and I want a savory meal driven by inspiration from around the world. On Sundays they have a special and I recommend asking about it.
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