Greg H.
Yelp
We had enjoyed our meals at Sopra in their earliest days, 5 stars. Well crafted, tasty food, and we always left happy and satisfied. They then set their menu, with very little changes other than switching out seasonal vegetables. They also had a terrific Salad Lyonnaise at the beginning, easily their best salad, and moules frites on their appetizer menu. I had both of those a few times as my meal. Those disappeared from the menu, although the mussels without the fries occasionally pops up as a special. Now I felt they were resting on their laurels as the only semi-innovate restaurant in the area without Hotel overpricing and impersonal service. Four stars.
We had some friends in visiting us from South Carolina, and we had really played up how wonderful Sopra is. We had four very mediocre dishes that evening, from pasta, Bolognese, with numerous pieces of gristle to a medium rare steak being served medium well. The restaurant was exceptionally busy that evening, so we just chalked it up as a bad night for the kitchen.
Covid hit before we had a chance to come back and last night was our first time since 2019 upon seeing the menu, and the first thing we noticed was that they no longer offered bread and butter gratis, but offer half and whole portions for a nominal fee. This felt a bit like "nickel and dime" treatment. Perhaps people were gorging on the brea and fleur de sel butter and not ordering entrees, but why not offer bread with a note that there will be a nominal charge for extra bread and butter? On the plus side, we were pleased to see that they finally put a vegetable with the scallops, as previously we were paying entrée prices for what was basically an appetizer at other area restaurants, both notably Jonathan's. I ordered the duck, even though I was disappointed that it was a half duck as opposed to the breast that they used to serve. Both dishes were fine, above average versions, but nothing extraordinary.
The biggest downer came when they could not redeem our open table reward. The manager came over, and defensively said that it wasn't their problem as it was a third-party vendor we were a little upset, since the only way you can make a reservation is through OpenTable for this restaurant granted, $10 is a paltry amount when you're spending three figures for a dinner, but it was the lack of respect for the customer that really bothered us. The manager did come back at the end of the night to apologize yet no adjustment was made to the bill. I suspect this occurred because the waitress overlooked me tapping on my Yelp app on my phone after she said it wouldn't be redeemed. It is unfortunate that Sopra's "forced" to only take reservations through OpenTable. In reality, this review would be 3.5 stars for Sopra, 1 star for Open Table.
I cannot see any reason to return to Sopra. We will stick to supper clubs, Sweet Aroma and Jonathan's for our date nights.