At long last the
Mark's List gang found ourselves in Soyka. With the near
completion of the Biscayne Corridor improvements we are drawn
into neighborhoods that for the past few years have been a
little hard to get to. That includes 55th Street Station, home
of clothing store
U.D./Style Lab and
restaurants
Soyka,
Andiamo and Susihi Siam.
Everything at Soyka is just as we
expected, absolutely perfect. The food is a gastronomical delight. The service
is incredible. The people are beautiful.
Let's get down to business. We
ordered several things and ate off each others plates so that we could try as
much as possible. For starters we had French Onion soup and gazpacho. Both
delicious. In fact, the gazpacho was possibly one of the best I've ever had.
Typical gazpacho can become acidy tasting while being chilled. The Soyka soup
was heavier on cucumber than others, lighter on spices and came with Soyka
spelled out in sour cream on top. Quite tasty. The Caesar Salad with croutons
and shaved pecorino was a huge hit. Pecorino is a very dry flavorful cheese and
it's quite frankly the perfect addition to what would otherwise be a rather
ordinary salad. We also ate a wonderful vegetable quiche. Again, not too heavy
and possibly the best quiche ever. I'm not kidding.
Next up were BBQ ribs, sweet potato
fries and onion rings. The ribs were so tender that when we pulled the meat off
of the first bone, the next bone pulled away. The meat continued to fall off the
ribs in succession. I'm not a big fan of orange potatoes (a.k.a. sweet
potatoes), but there were other people at the table that were, and they were
very satisfied. The onion rings were freshly made, not at all greasy and very
crunchy.
If our great meal wasn't enough, we
overheard the folks at the table next to us raving about the crab cakes. We
weren't the only group that was impressed. The menu also includes pizza,
burgers, steaks, pasta, several salads and a nice well rounded vegetarian menu.
Something for just about everyone.
The decor is mid 20th century
industrial, in keeping with the fact that this is in a renovated group of
warehouses. Soyka has huge windows, concrete walls and an open kitchen that
becomes part of the show.
Our server had a habit of dropping
another glass of soda or water off just as we were about to take the final sip.
In fact it got to the point where we were sucking down our soft drinks faster
and faster just to see of he could keep up. When he choked, the server of the
table next to us filled in for him. And I'm not making this up!
The manager made the rounds, asking
how things were at table after table and someone remarked that he must be very
confident. And why not? What a wonderful restaurant. Soyka now comes with Mark's
List highest recommendation.
