SpaHa Soul
“Very cozy, laid back and feel-home atmosphere with full of hospitality by the owner, Artist.”
“Anyway, I would give five stars based on the quality of the food and the fact that this lovely, little establishment is BYOB.”
“The restaurant is a little storefront in Spanish Harlem (hence the "SpaHa.")”
SpaHa Soul
Takes Reservations: Yes
Delivery: Yes
Take-out: Yes
Good for Kids: Yes
Good for Groups: Yes
Waiter Service: Yes
Caters: Yes
Price range.
$$ Price range $11-30
2 reviews
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My boyfriend and I came here on a very chilly night. We were the only ones in the restaurant, likely because no one else wanted frost bite.
Artist, the owner and chef, made us feel very welcome. It is quite clear he loves food and people and that he loves giving people wholesome food to eat.
The chicken with gravy was incredible. It was perfectly seasoned and though it is a traditional southern dish, it still had creative and interesting notes to the flavor.
The food took a while to come out and it is clear that they made everything to order/from scratch.
High end food in a low key environment and the prices are super great for the quality.
So, I stopped by here approximately 8 weeks ago with a friend of mine, who enjoys accompanying me on these food adventures. I kept telling him about the overwhelmingly positive reviews about this place and I really had been dying to give it a try, but lived on west 108th at the time and really was struggling to get my butt over to East Harlem somehow. Also, Lolo's is closer.
Anyway, I would give five stars based on the quality of the food and the fact that this lovely, little establishment is BYOB. However, as many Yelpers before me have written, the service is unbearably slow. And for that reason, I brought the overall experience to a 4 (but would truly round it out at 3.5). While the owner/chef/artist, Artis, was very amicable and came out to introduce himself, he also seemed frazzled despite the fact that my friend and I were the only patrons in the restaurant, at that time.
I understand that they are working in a super small kitchen space and that it is difficult to make meals to order when everything is done from scratch in that workspace. That said, I also would have appreciated maybe more accurate estimates of when the food would be ready, but enjoyed our conversation in the meantime.
My friend and I arrived, sat at a table, and ordered the same meal. I believe it was called "The Betty" and included fried chicken breast, garlic mashed potatoes with gravy, candied yams, silver dollar cornbread pancakes and collard greens. We were told that because everything is made fresh and to order, etc. that it would take approximately 35 minutes and Artis recommended that we walk over to the closest liquor store and grab our beverage.
We bought two bottles of wine and returned to the restaurant. We were able to store the extra bottle in the restaurant refrigerator, which was great and returned with what should have been 20 minutes before our food was out. Now, this is a tiny place, with just three small tables and NO AIR CONDITIONING. It was extremely hot that day and the tap water here is not served iced, so we were sweating like no tomorrow when we returned from the liquor store, had no cold beverages and could feel the heat from the open kitchen.
We kept receiving updates on our food long after it should have been digested, and ultimately waited a total of about 75 minutes from time we ordered to the time we took our first bites of our entrees. We had some complimentary watermelon slices to munch on, but the updates were not accurate. He kept saying, "Food'll be out any minute", "10 more minutes" and we'd wait an eternity.
With these things in mind, it's hard to believe that I rated them so highly, but I cleaned every crumb of food and drop of gravy off of that plate and so did my friend! It was the most delicious, well-done, perfectly seasoned meal and it wanted for nothing. I was impressed with the other things on the chef's menu, which has more to offer than just a traditional Southern menu, but given the wait time, I think all future visits would have to be takeout and I would call at the time they open, to pick it up at closing!
Seriously, great food,wonderful people, but if they could somehow put a little more pep in the kitchen step (and purchase a fan or two) I would trek over to 1st Ave more often. Overall, delicious. And that cornbread was…well, the entire meal was everything.