Sole Mio

This space brought back quite the memory since I spent my high school days in this strip mall. It used to be an Mexican chain for the longest time, then a few more attempt for Mexican restaurant here, with a few vacant period, and finally Sole Mio moved in here. The interior color theme retained some the memories from the «fiesta» days.
Their food tends to be on the bland side here, the few times I visited here, they have been inconsistent in the flavors. From their appetizers to dessert, I do not recalling finding any of it particularly interesting. Arancini had an interesting presentation being a large fried rice ball, but flavors were still on the bland side. If you want a fun dish, get the Fettuccine Alla Franco, it comes wrapped in aluminum foil shaped duck. Flavors suffered similar problem despite a nice presentation. Tiramisu and cannoli were just ok as well.
Sole Mio was definitely better than Oliver Gardens, but when you compared with other Italian joints in town, they were just so-​so on the shortlist. For now, I am still not convinced by their food, maybe they will get better in a few years like that one other Italian place in Quarry Blend. Service was a bit slow, even on a slow night with few tables.

This is probably the best Italian I’ve had in a long time. Nothing better than authentic. Listening to Italian coming from the servers and the kitchen. Haven’t found anything better in Utah. Service was a little slow but once I got my food I was in heaven. Enjoy.

An addition to the kitchen, in the form of an experienced chef from Palermo, brings some new twists. A fantastic off-​the-​menu special featured shrimp and snapper in a delicious cream sauce over pasta. One of the new chef’s talents is baking… and a wonderful amaretto-​infused cake with fruit topping capped the meal.
Great service… friendly, attentive and helpful.
Not fancy… but a dependable and enjoyable dinner each and every time we visit.

Pleasantly surprised at this restaurant. The wait staff was excellent, the atmosphere welcoming, and the food far exceeded my expectations. I’m pretty picky about restaurants that I choose to frequent but this just made the list of my «regulars». I will be back many times.

Yummy food and amazing service! I really do love the service here and I also like their desserts.

Let’s start by stating, I wish I could give the restaurant 3.5 stars, as its much better than 3 but not quit at a true 4 yet.
First the good: friendly, clean, fun atmosphere. And really great food!
Not so good: staff all seem very helpful and friendly, but needs a routine to run by. This has been true each of the 3 times we’ve come here. Example: greeted, seated fast. But, then several minutes before your server sees you, usually with, «I’ll be right there.» Finally a drink order. Then along comes a water filler, all after being seated for 15 – 20 minutes. Appetizer order, come quick and friendly, by another sever. Enjoy apps, very good, and another awkward 20 minutes go by before we are noticed that drinks are gone, apps are gone and the haven’t taken dinner order yet. Just very disjointed like that. Then the long wait for dinner, begins another 20 minutes wait.
Be it friendly, my pet peeve, drop and go. They delivered dinner with out asking if we needed anything. In this case we needed, basics all around, utensils, as they were pick up by busser. We also wanted cheese and peeper flake and drink refills… but, I found it very easy to find all these things myself.
Now, I enjoy a lingering meal, if there is water, wine, and other touches, that keep the conversation steady, and not becoming, «wow, we have been here over an hour,“but, we have no drinks, or promised breAd to keep our minds off the delay.
Now, that’s really not a bad thing, they can just tie it together with a routine. The friendliness and food make up for glitch in the service.
One other complaint, the lamps over the tables are obnoxiously bright. This is a great atmosphere for an Italian restaurant, and little touches, in a big space goes a long way. Perhaps dim the lights, and even offer candles on each table for more authentic and memorable feel.
A lot of time spent on the «not so good.“But, the «good» is a lot more, than I can type, and speaks for itself.
Update. 1÷15÷2016. They have really picked up on service and quality. 4.5 star is more like it, as they still are a bit disorganized. Bud, good is authentic and service is so very friendly! So glad they are close by and really have become our number 1 non chain restaurant in Sandy!

I had a great meal the first time I came. The second time, the steak was bland and thoughtlessly put on a plate with a continuation of blandness with the potatoes. The first time I had the same dish there were EXCELLENT mixed veggies. Sadly something went very wrong tonight. The steak was horridly flavorless. The taste made me feel like the meat was boiled — it obviously was grilled but the flavors suggested otherwise.

Pleasantly surprised by this restaurant. The outside immediately reminded hubby and me of Casa Bonita in Denver, Colorado due to the clock tower which is part of the building not really their fault. But to be honest I kind of expected a kitschy Olive Garden type place. Not at all what we got. If you want Olive Garden, go there. If you want an Italian experience? Go to Sole Mio.
I went as part of a work party, so we had 18 with us. And I don’t know if it was because of that they were so attentive to us or if it is just their personality. We were waited on quite a bit by the Italian manager and his mother who are amazing people. They seriously made it more than just food — it was an experience. Incredibly friendly, joking, attentive… It was great. But let me get on to the food.
For appetizers we had the gnocchi in Alfredo sauce, arancini (rice) balls, and bruschetta. All of it was amazing. Seriously I could have just eaten the appetizers alone and been completely satisfied. The arancini balls are particularly divine — don’t pass those puppies up.
The appetizers were followed by spaghetti with meat sauce. We had one vegetarian in our group and they catered to her and her plate of spaghetti also looked amazing with its marinated vegetables. The sauce with the spaghetti was the best part — savory but not over complicated. Even if our meal ended here I would have been completely satisfied. But no!
Next they brought out breaded chicken in a tomato sauce with capers and olives. Not gunna lie, this wasn’t my favorite part of the meal. I love chicken, I love capers but this just lacked a certain oomph that I was getting from the rest of the meal. Many of the people at the table agreed. I wouldn’t order it again. The vegetarian had the eggplant Parmesan and raved about it. I tried some and agreed it was definitely more of a star dish than the chicken.
And lastly (wondering how we could keep eating and to-​go boxes piling up) we had tiramisu for dessert. Wow. Party in my mouth. It was moist and fresh and just melted in my mouth. I’m not a connosoire
(Sp) of tiramisu but others at the table declared it the best they’ve ever had. For those non coffee drinkers they made profitterals (sp) and those people said it was also amazing.
In short, we all loved everything but the chicken. And seriously don’t pass up the arancini balls.

The score should be 3.5, but there isn’t an option for that. The food and service were very good. Everyone was very friendly and responsive when asked. The only issue was the time we waited for the food to arrive. It took over 35 minutes, but they did give us a complementary appetizer. Overall a positive experience.

First timer! Great food and great staff! My only beef… too much waiting.
We were promply greeted, the hostess immediately went to clear and set a table for us. We were provided with water amost right after being seated. Ok, nothing special or unexpected yet. Then it was well over 5 minutes before our server greeted us, although he passed our table at least 3 times previously. I was honestly surprised when he came to our table because I was sure he wasn’t our server. However, in the end, he turned out to be a really nice guy, very personable. We were comped an appetizer which was really good. I was very hopeful but then it took over 30 mins to be served our meal. So thank goodness for the bread and comped appetizer. They did mention the chef personally prepared each dish, so we should not have expected to get our meal quickly. Well, the food was great! I didn’t have a traditional Italian fish but my fish was prepared perfectly. I wish I had taken a photo ok my plate. Beautiful! Thank you, I will come again.

Went to Sole Mio for a very large birthday party. Food took awhile to come, but that is to be expected for a party of over 15. Thus, I have to say that the service was excellent and the server, Guiseppe, was memorable. I ordered the Arancini, which is a fried rice ball with tomato, bolognese, and mozzarella, and the Penne Matriciana, which was with pancetta, basil, and spicy tomato sausce. Arancini was really good and rich and most definitely should be shared so you won’t be too full for the main meal. Penne Matriciana was good but nothing too special. I’d give the food three and a half stars but the service was so accommodating that I’ll definitely bump it up to a four.

Went there for the first time a couple of weeks ago. The food was all generally very enjoyable but not even close to the best Italian I have had in Salt Lake. We had a pretty decent pizza, a fresh salad, a really interesting but quite good Meatball Soup, and a cheese, olive, and meats appetizer. We had the tiramisu for dessert. The server was obviously Italian and was pleasant and attentive enough though the wait for the server to come to us was too long. The price suited the quality pretty well in my opinion. I had nothing spectacular but also nothing I didn’t enjoy either. If you are looking for really fine dining, this isn’t it, but if you are looking for a pleasant night out and an enjoyable dinner I can recommend this place.

I have not had such a awesome surprise in many years as the one I am currently experiencing here. The food here at Sole. Mio is some of the best Italian I have had in my life! I do not know any one here. This is not a phony friends plug for their restaurant. I was treated so well as a single diner, Epic Beers, calamari, and a pizza, yes, a pizza, that I will be returning many more times. I hesitate to post such a great review as I would like to keep this place a secret but that would not be fair to the people here that have made such an impression on me.
I have read some of the negative reviews and I cannot understand why. I was obviously impressed!

Ate at Sole Mio for the first time tonight. What a great experience! Food was authentic and well prepared. Service was impeccable. Value is awesome. I felt like I was eating Italian in the north end in Boston!
I give 5 stars for quality of entrees, value, and service.
Go there! Plan time to sit back, relax and enjoy the food at this comfortable family run restaurant!

Bruschetta was not great. It only had 2 small pieces of mozzarella and was made with dried basil instead of fresh.
The pasta was not bad.
The spinach salad was the best thing we ordered.
We got the bean soup. My 8 year old daughter was the only one that liked it though.
The Margherita pizza was odd. Totally inauthentic which is odd because these guys are clearly Italian. It didn’t even have basil on it. It wasn’t great but the kids liked it.
The salmon had muted flavor. I think it was frozen.
Overall they take a lot of shortcuts so the food is not what it could be.

After a couple of visits, I think it’s safe to say that this place is just fine. I could get my own feelings about Italian food, its place in history, its place in the culture of food here in SLC, and pontificate up to the character limit, but I’ll spare you the baggage.
Here’s the good – it’s a big space, and they have an equally big menu. Pizzas, pastas, entrees, apps; there are a lot of menu items to choose from.
I still haven’t tried any knockout item and if there’s a signature dish, I have yet to find it. But nothing was bad, either, although I think I’d recommend you go elsewhere if you’re in the mood for panna cotta.
The entrees have a generous portion, the service can be a bit sluggish, but it’s a different place, and a surprise to find in this little strip mall (which shall forever be called Fiesta Village in my mind, as this was its original name). I’d say go with the pasta dishes (save for maybe the gnocchi dish), as they were the strongest. The pizza was fine, and perhaps, if you’re feeling more hungry, grab a chicken dish.

We enjoyed it so much, if your worried about speed and being served quickly go somewhere else. enjoy the traditional Italian ways, slow and go and enjoy Mamas food. Homemade and very traditional and yummy
We had a sample appetizers that was recommended by the server yummy! We followed it up with pasta and enjoyed all of it.

The food wasn’t too bad, the service was horrible. A dinner that should have taken less than 45 minutes took over 2 hours.
After we left the restaurant was quickly filling up and it looked like they had 2 servers for the whole restaurant.
Don’t think I will be back anytime soon unless they can figure out how to properly staff the place.

I was surprised. Having spent some time in Italy, this was authentic. These folks are actually from Sicily. The staff was passionate and enthusiastic and certainly went out of their way to make you feel welcome.
The focal point of the restaurant is a pizza oven, front and center. The cook tosses the dough in the air, puts on a little show — nice. A comfortable place for dinner, we started with a margarita pizza today and then had four different main dishes, all were a hit. Portions were large and three of us took home leftovers. We accompanied our meal with a reasonably priced Sangiovaise bottle of wine.
We will be going back there to eat again. It was a wonderful experience. Give them a try — it’s time to venture out and move away from the national chains.
Bön appetito!

Perfect place for a Thursday evening girls night out. We shared some wine, delicious dishes and enjoyed the ambiance. Service was friendly and our server, Giuseppe, was so handsome and funny.
We started with the caponata alla siciliana and a mixed green salad. The caponata was a delicious mix of eggplants, capers, pine nuts, olives, basil and tomato sauce in a sweet vinegar base. It was a very tasty way to start the meal. The mixed green salad was not memorable and was not dressed very well with the olive oil and balsamic. I would skip the green salad since there are many more exciting things to try here.
I got the pollo alla siciliana for my secondi piati. The tender chicken came in a tomato sauce with olives capers and pine nuts. A very good chicken dish but… It was really similar to the caponata and in hindsight I should have ordered something different. It was served with some sauteed zucchini.
We also ordered the patate alla Franco. This was the stand out dish of the night. How can something simple be so good? Potatoes, rosemary, garlic and pancetta were a sublime combination that made everyone happy.
The ravioli spinaci were tender and light. No doubt they were made fresh that day!
My only wish is to serve some bread with the meal so you enjoy every last bit of these amazing sauces.
We finished with a not to heavy tiramisu to share. It was a great meal. I would love to come back and try the pizza!