Inside Sol de Quito on Irving Avenue. — Photos by Scarlett Lindeman
It is easy to confuse Sol de Quito, an Ecuadoran restaurant on Irving Avenue, with a nightclub. The windows are covered in maroon velvet obscuring the interior, and the yellow, blue, and red colors of the nation’s flag stretches the length of their sign, with an orange sun whose flames glow as brightly as the neon beer signs below. Groups of young Ecuadoran men trail in at dusk for Heinekens cloaked in paper napkins and card games. Inside, the yellow walls and dark wood paneling seem much older than their three years and the checkerboard floor and unframed mirrors are worn with years of familial dining and tipsy dancing.
Impenetrable as it may seem, pleasant service extends to everyone inside. Our waitress, Rosa, gave us a welcoming handshake and offered a table. She showed us her name, on her forearm, complete with a blooming, inky, rose and brought glasses for our beer.
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The menu offers the bedrock of Ecuadoran cuisine — mounds of rice, lots of plantains, platters of goat and tripe, everything crowned with a fried egg. A plato montañero comes with a fried porkchop, grilled beef, beans, rice, two fried eggs, and a hot dog, grilled and butterflied into what looks like an exploding firecracker. The enormous platters are a good way to try a little bit of everything and stuff yourself in the process.
If you look around, everyone is hunched over steaming bowls of soup, with fish or crab, potato or cow’s foot, adding squirts of lime to suit their preference. Sol de Quito specializes in seafood, and it is the sopa marinera that showcases that skill. An aquarium of fish — conch, squid, shrimp, mussels, meaty fish, and crab — are cooked in an oceany stock so rich and nutty it tastes like Jiff. As with soup, Ecuadorans are fond of peanuts, which are used to silken stews and sauces, including the sopa marinera. Though fish and peanut butter may not sound like a heavenly match, the soup is dynamite. With the size of the bowl, even after twenty minutes of straight slurping, you’ll hardly make a dent.
Sol de Quito
160 Irving Avenue (at Stockholm) | 718-417-4174
Entrees: $7-$14
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mimi September 11th, 2009 at 11:18 am
like this culinary adventure
Chika September 12th, 2009 at 1:33 am
Ooohhhh! Rice and plaintains sound goooddd! I will be down for that. Definitely check it out.
Elmeeky September 12th, 2009 at 4:09 pm
Thanks for the review. I had the soup and it was awesome. Viva Ecuador!
Kiki September 14th, 2009 at 11:21 am
soul is alma, not sol.
Jeremy Sapienza September 14th, 2009 at 12:45 pm
Your point being?
Pati September 18th, 2009 at 10:28 am
I know what you mean, for a moment I thought the title was an incorrect translation, too. But it isn’t..or she would have said, “Sol del Quito, Soul of Quito.” But she didn’t, she said it’s the soul of ECUADOR. She just meant that the restaurant is representative of the soul of Ecuador–it’s food.
sweetser January 13th, 2010 at 10:41 am
My experience here was drastically different from that of the reviewer. The waitress did not speak any English and was not particularly interested in helping us out during my visit. The food was edible, but obviously of very cheap quality. Literally the pork in my “pork and rice” plate was little slices of hot dog. Considering all this I found the meal to be seriously overpriced, and I have no interest in visiting this place again.