Whenever my husband and I have a special occasions to celebrate, we always dine at Soby's. The menu is varied and the food is always prepared well. We especially like the sea bass with lobster sauce. Sometimes the noise level inside can be slightly loud but the overall atmosphere is enjoyable. On summer evenings, it's especially nice to dine on the outdoor terrace and "people watch" while you have dinner.

My husband and I are a young couple living in Greenville with over 20 years of combined restaurant experience, from bussing to waiting to cooking, and we enjoy our weekly date nights very much. Except for our service last night at Soby's.

We walked in well-dressed about 8PM on a Monday night, when there were a few scattered tables still eating dinner. As our first time at Soby's, we stood in the doorway for several minutes as servers, managers, and the hostess herself walked by us, smiled, and kept on walking before we realized we should walk down the small ramp to the hostess station. Couldn't one of them offered to seat us?

We were taken to a very nice booth, overall very nice atmosphere for the restaurant. It was a little tricky getting up the stair into the booth in heels and a short dress, but I managed. We then waited about 2 minutes for water, and another 5 minutes after that for our server. Really? If I did this in my restaurant I would have been fired and another server would have been waiting on my table for me. Our server then preceded to lean on her forearms on the table and act very casual (too much for a nice restaurant).

You should have seen the look on her face when we told her that we were kind of in a hurry, and only doing appetizers. So, after a muddled description of some sort about the tuna flatbread (which we decided not to order), we put in our drink and food orders. Approximately 5 minutes later our shrimp and grits (B, pretty good- good use just a tad more seasoning) and pork sliders (A, wonderful!) arrived with fabulous presentations. No drinks. Halfway through our appetizers my husband pulled aside a manager, repeated our drink orders, and she brought them to us. We didn't see our server again until a busser had cleared our plates and drinks (which we would have each ordered another one) about 10 minutes after we were done. By this point, we're pretty upset. We order a chocolate honey cake (B+), wait another 10 minutes for our check and walk up front to pay. The manager seemed to care even less than the server that we were not happy with the service. We will not be back to Soby's.

Soby's is a really popular restaurant in Greenville, and the reason is because of its great location, and nice atmosphere. They serve American Southern food, at somewhat of an overpriced point for the quality of food that is served. The fried green tomatoes were the best thing I ate and the meatloaf was not bad, but I've had much better. Our server was inexperienced, unable to recommend a wine to complement my entree, and spilling water on the table twice. Our bill was over $100 for two, after gratuity. I could find many better restaurants to spend this amount of money at, but I could also find many worse. I have dined here several times, but have yet to be excited about their food.

I love the location and atmosphere of the restaurant. There are large glass doors that open to the sidewalk, nice decor, good service, and there's always a crowd. In fact, it can be very noisy in the large open dining room. That said, the food is way overdone. I believe simple food with quality ingredients creates the best meal. Soby's likes to throw in a million ingredients, deep fry everything, and smother the dish in sauce and garnish. The multiple flavors compete instead of enhance. I recommend going here for drinks or maybe appetizers in the bar, but don't expect a really fine dining experience.