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Serving: Monday-Thursday, 11:30 a.m. to 10 p.m.; Friday-Saturday, 11:30 a.m. to 11 p.m.; Sunday, Noon to 10 p.m. Cuisine: Asian Prices: Dinner entrees average $10-20. Scoring: Our Gourmet and The Dining Companion each grade a restaurant on a scale of 1 to 10 in five categories, for a combined total score of up to 100 points. Visit the Dining section of NewHampshire.com to read previous Our Gourmet reviews listed by town. |
Ambiance: 17/20
Our Gourmet: SoHo has a nice dining room. It’s wide open, with dark wood tables, booths with forest green upholstery and earth tones on the walls. Jazzy music played in the background on our visit. A very comfortable ambiance. Score: 8.5
The Dining Companion: SoHo was airy, with nice ceiling height, pleasant décor, comfortable seating and pleasant music in the air. Score: 8.5
Appetizers: 20/20
OG: SoHo’s menu goes beyond egg drop soup and pu-pu platters. While you can find traditional Chinese fare, there are also a couple of gems. I opted for the spicy and salty soft shell crab ($8.50), soft shell crab being a favorite of mine. In this case it was perfectly seasoned and the batter was just right. Score: 10
TDC: When I saw the appetizers on the menu, I zeroed in on the Kaki fry ($8.95). Six oysters were lightly breaded in panko bread crumbs and deep-fried. They were very moist and the oysters, when bitten, squirted in my mouth. These were two of the best appetizers I have had recently. Score: 10.
Entrée: 17.5/20
OG: In my opinion, there are two things that make a good meal. One, the food should be something I can’t make at home. For instance, I rarely order steak, because there are few steaks that can compete with the ones I make on the grill at home. And by me, I mean my husband, who actually does all the cooking.
Two, fun food is good food. What could be more fun than a meal served in a pineapple such as the SoHo volcano ($17.95)? Answer: A flaming meal served in a pineapple. The dish consisted of battered chicken, shrimp and scallops served in a pineapple with a flaming sweet and sour sauce. The scallops were a bit tough, but overall, the food was well cooked and the sauce, while very sweet, surpassed other sweet and sours I’ve had. Must be the alcohol they added to make it flame. Definitely lots more fun than 14 days of beach volleyball. Score: 8.5
TDC: I decided to look at the other side of the menu and went for the sushi. I love good and different sushi and SoHo’s is both. I initially ordered ikura (salmon roe) and quail egg ($5.75) sushi, a kamikaze hoso roll ($6.50), and a caterpillar chu maki roll ($8). Before they were able to deliver my meal, the manager came out to let me know they were out of quail eggs and asked if I would like to order something different, so I ordered a hokkigai sushi ($4.25). The hokkigai is surf clam, which is a stiff clam a lot like quahog. It was wonderful.
The kamakaze maki roll is a thin roll sushi with spicy tuna, yellowtail, and avocado. It was delicious, but I could have done without what I would call spicy BBQ rub spices dusted on the outside, which took away from the delicate flavors of the sushi. The Caterpillar maki roll was a medium roll sushi with eel, cucumber and flying fish roe with thinly sliced avocado rolled on the outside. IThese are strange ingredients to many people, but for me, it was delicious. Score: 9
Service: 18/20
OG: Our service was excellent. Our waiter (according to our bill, server “1”) was friendly and competent. When TDC ordered the quail egg and they had run out, two more staff people came to apologize and take an alternate order. Restaurants shouldn’t run out of things on their regular menu, but when they do, that little extra bit of service makes up for it. Score: 9
TDC: Our server and the rest of the staff was attentive, but didn’t hover. When I had the issue with the quail egg not being available, they took care of the issue quickly and came back to check to see if the alternate met my expectations. Score: 9
Other: 17.75/20
OG: Unfortunately, as with many Asian restaurants, dessert offerings are a bit limited: green tea ice cream, lychees and pineapple. Been there, done that. We passed this time. But being an Olympic week, we decided to substitute the regular dessert score for a more Olympic-type originality score. At SoHo, you can get all the traditional dishes, but they have several nice, unique offerings as well. 8.5 with an extra .25 for the flaming pineapple. I’m awarding a gold medal to this one. Score: 8.75
TDC: As desserts usually aren’t the strong suits of these kind of restaurants, I too will go with the OG’s idea of awarding on originality. I will also award gold. Score: 9
Total score: 90.25
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