Sola Bistro & Wine Bar

This is the best restaurant on the beach. The staff is extra friendly, and the menu has fair prices and fantastic food.

Wow. I’m going to start this review with just saying, I feel bad for anyone that has passed up on this restaurant.
We thought this was more of a wine, cheese and cracker place when we first saw it, boy were we wrong.
Sure they have an amazing selection of wine, and probably one of the best cabernet I’ve ever tasted in the Carlitdge and Brown. This place has amazing food! Best food in the strip, hands down, we’ve been to all of them. Wow. I am amazed. Our party had three steaks, Filet Mignon, Skirt Steak special, and Ribeye. I tasted all three as a good Unilocaler, and I gotta say, I am amazed. Wow.
The waitress introduce us to some cheeses from Normandy, France and meats I’ve never heard of. Great with the wine.
The steaks were incredible, with taste not normal for the price of the quality you are getting.
Great ambiance and you don’t feel on top of each other like many places in the area. Good music, good volume.
The service was great, the waitress was very knowledgeable and her attention to us was on point.
We came on a Saturday night and it wasn’t very busy, so I imagine the service may fluctuate when everyone realizes what they have been missing.
We will definitely be coming back. Love this place.

Great food! Had the grouper and it was very flavorful and very fresh! Staff was friendly and attentive. Don’t be fooled by the location. Food is outstanding

Sola a newer restaurant in the old Café Luna spot us a hit. Tig the owner does a great job and the menu is fabulous. The chef does it up right. Great selections on the menu and picks it up a notch on the speacials. If you haven’t tried it yet what are you waiting for!

My wife and I had an excellent dinner. Service was exceptional and friendly. We had the meat and cheese board for an appetizer. It was very good. I had the rabbit cacciatore for my meal. It was like it was home made. My wife had the filet mignon. It was tender and cooked perfectly. John, our server, was great and Tig, the owner, was very friendly.

What a find! We’re always on the lookout for upgrades to our restaurant list for our visits to St. Pete and the beaches. Unilocaled this one as we drove by the other night, and liked what we read. Made a reservation right then, and, since it was midweek and the place is only 3 months old we were assured that seating us would be no problem. We ran late, and got there about 9 pm. We were warmly welcomed, which is one of the things we liked about this place. Our waiter was one of the owners– the other owner cooks– and he was friendly, informative and engaging. The décor was artistic and elegant, for lack of a better term, and the single room, with a small bar at one end, was very comfortable. Maybe 8 – 10 tables or so. Food? Excellent. Both of us had Gaya’s salad, which was a very hearty mix of arugula, kale, lettuce, red peppers, avocado, lemon juice and olive oil. Easily big enough to share, but so good, and with such a terrific mouth feel and flavor that I pigged out and ate all of mine. I had the pork kabob, which was more like chargrilled marinated pork chunks covered with thinly sliced onions, and accompanied with a really outstanding, spicy eggplant-​tomato mélange. The pork was charred nicely, and flavorful. The eggplant was fabulous. My wife had the Grouper Mykonos, which was buttery and delicious, over spinach with tomatoes, feta and risotto. The risotto was rich and very nicely cooked. We stopped there, being very full, so tried no desserts. 5 stars from us, for cooking, service, atmosphere and warmth.

I’ve frequently visited Sola Bistro many times since they have opened, I have NEVER been disappointed. I’ve had nearly everything on the menu and most of the specials that come through. The Sterling Ribeye is absolutely out of this world, the sauce that they put on this is phenomenal, this is my favorite dish. Every time I come in the Owner/​Bartender promptly greets me and introduces me to the daily specials and soup. All the staff is incredibly nice, knowledgeable and very prompt with any needs or questions. The wine selection seems to keep growing and getting larger and more diverse with every visit. I signed up for the mailing list to keep updated on any specials they have going on. I highly recommend you do the same as the specials are truly special, from Lamb Heart to Duck and everything in between. Even if you’re a vegetarian they have awesome salads and delicious pasta dishes. I look forward to my next visit and to see what kind of «foodie» items they will have on special next! And you HAVE to try the home made Honeycomb Cake!

Note to self: if a restaurant located at the beach has only 10 reviews and they are all 5-​star, you might just take the glowing reviews with a grain of salt. Case in point: Sola.
I don’t have horrible things to say about Sola, but there wasn’t really anything special about the restaurant. The establishment fits into a very typical class of places you find all over the beach. This class of restaurant, without a full liquor license and suffering from a limited number of patrons, has to serve upscale menu items to justify the high price they require to make ends meet. However, in our experience, we find that these mom and pop places often don’t have the skill or training to really deliver and outstanding experience.
Unfortunately Sola was really no exception to the above. We had things that sounded good. Country pâté. Large house salad. Ribeye with peppercorn sauce, and shrimp with polenta. It was all good enough to not complain about, but not good enough to want to go back, especially for the price.
The service was also a bit of a weak point. It started off well, but aside from a few seniors around the wine bar, we were the only customers upon arrival. A few more people showed up as we ate, and the person I am guessing is the cook and owner started coming out of the kitchen now and then to help the single server. So our service declined dramatically as our meal wore on, and after delivering our food our server didn’t stop back at our table once. The guy from the back cleared our plates and cashed us out when we were done.
We want very desperately to find a little hidden gem near the beach, but our search goes on. For the same cost it is better to drive downtown for a more polished experience and better food at roughly the same price.

Had the most wonderful evening at this amazing restaurant. My boyfriend
And I started with the cheese & charcuterie, we chose the choice of five cause we were so impressed with the fine selections of meats and cheese they had to offer. Our waiter suggested a bottle of wine that paired extremely well with our selection. Next we split the burrata caprese cause who can resist homemade burrata. This was by far
The most incredible burrata I had ever experienced. The cheese was creamy and the balsamic, olive oil, basil & tomatoes led me into a craving of give me more, more, more!!! Our entrees were next to come, I selected the Grouper Mykonos pan seared with feta and tomatoes very fresh and very tasty. My boyfriend selected the Sterling Rib Eye with a Makers Mark au poivre sauce the steak had a black peppercorn crust that was perfection. Both dishes came with sides but we asked our server if we can have them split between the two of us on a separate plate they were very pleased to accommodate for us. Our night did not end there we closed our evening with some homemade deserts which the the owners wife makes, a combo of both the honeycomb cake and cream puffs both deserts are now in my top 3 most desired. This restaurant is elegant with a casual feel, the staff extremely knowledgeable and very friendly, the food is very fresh with nightly specials and a beautiful selection of wines. We will definitely be back for more. Thank you Sola bistro for the most amazing evening ever.

Great meal, wonderful service, owner greeted us, nothing but good reviews. Love the quaint atmosphere. Highly recommend
We liked it so much we went back the next night for a night cap and had a great bottle of wine.
We had the same waitress both nights and she was incredible.

Staying in St Pete Beach for work and came across this outstanding bistro from fellow Unilocal reviews. Ambience was great for a romantic dinner with your sweetheart or for making new friends at the bar. Either way you’ll have a great time. The locals were super friendly and welcomed me into their conversations. Tig the owner was a great host. No need to look any farther for a meal. This is a must try restaurant. Not your typical chain. Truly a small business that takes pride in what they do. The grouper was delicious! Locally sourced and well prepared to bring out the fresh flavor and it paired very well the risotto and a Shiraz. (Not a wine guy, I know but it tasted good) I’ll be back for sure and they have a good beer selection. Oh if you need recommendations for other places to go while in the area just go to Sola and ask the locals who know best

Awesome food! Great service and Tig was amazing! Catered to us. We had ordered a bottle of Picket Fence and it was great but they ran out so we ordered a glass of the house wine and it tasted like buffalo farts so we told Tig and much to our liking he brought us a half bottle of malbec! Wow… We didn’t want to take advantage but our server told us to finish the bottle… Who does that? Oh and did I mention the food was incredible! Would highly recommend this place.

We come almost every Saturday, never had anything that was not excelent. From chicken wings and shrimp & polenta Starters to Sterling’s rib eye, to the crème brûlée.

Exceptional. I had the pâté and Carbonara my wife the house salad and Hog fish. Everything was great!
We will be back!

Best kept secret on St. Pete Beach! Amazing service and exceptional food. The chorizo and fig appetizer was so delish, and the Burrata Caprese salad is a must! There was a group of 10 of us and everyone loved their entrées.

I love this place! Everything is very fresh and their menu is fantastic. The wine list is impressive, with impressive selections including my favorite Châteauneuf-​du-​Pape, there is something for every budget and palate. For dinner, we usually share the Burrata Caprese (They make their own Burrata!), which is served nice and cold, but I think we would order our own next time. It’s too delicious to share! My usual meal is the Sterlings Rib Eye which is always a fantastic, large Rib Eye with a Makers Mark au poivre sauce, which I usually ask for on the side. My wife enjoys their Filet Mignon with a delicious blue cheese sauce or the Bucatini Alla Carbonara. The Carbonara is made just how it’s supposed to be, there won’t be any cream in this bowl of deliciousness. Tig always takes great care of us. He is always friendly, attentive and answers all of our questions with a warm, genuine smile. We will be back and we’ll bring friends!