Sol Food Restaurant

What Sol Food Restaurant does

Sol Food Restaurant is a privately held, for-profit Puerto Rican and Caribbean cuisine operator founded in 2003 and headquartered at 901 & 903 Lincoln Avenue in San Rafael, California. The company runs three storefronts across Northern California (San Rafael, Mill Valley, and Petaluma), serving traditional dishes including mofongo and plantains. Beyond dine-in, the operator offers takeout from all locations, delivery via DoorDash (Petaluma) and ToastTab, event catering from the San Rafael flagship, an e-commerce sub-brand (Sol Shop) selling signature hot sauce and merchandise, and electronic gift cards. Customer segments are primarily individual consumers (dine-in, takeout, delivery) with a secondary catering use case for events and group gatherings.

The business model is direct-to-consumer across physical and digital channels. Revenue is generated through dine-in and takeout sales across the three locations, transaction-fee based delivery via DoorDash and ToastTab, and professional-services-style catering bookings. The technology stack is fully third-party — no proprietary technology is described in source material — relying on ToastTab for online ordering and gift card fulfillment, DoorDash for third-party delivery at Petaluma, Squarespace for web, and Paycom for hiring. Pricing is not publicly disclosed; menu prices are listed per location through the online ordering platforms. The San Rafael headquarters is Green Building certified, and the company's operations remain geographically concentrated in Marin and Sonoma counties with no disclosed expansion beyond the existing three storefronts.

Investment-relevant operating signals include a stable multi-location footprint since at least the three-store buildout, no disclosed funding rounds, M&A activity, patents, trademarks, or leadership changes in the source material, and no customer concentration beyond an individual-consumer base. The Sol Shop sub-brand and catering line represent modest product-surface extensions beyond the core restaurant offering.

Name

Sol Food Restaurant

Website

https://solfoodrestaurant.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

2003

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

101–250 employees

Short description

Sol Food Restaurant is a privately held Puerto Rican cuisine operator founded in 2003 with three California locations (San Rafael, Mill Valley, Petaluma). It serves local diners through dine-in, takeout, delivery, catering, and an online hot sauce storefront.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Puerto Rican Restaurant

NAICS

Full-Service Restaurants (722511), Caterers (722320), Restaurants and Other Eating Places (72251)

SIC

Retail-Eating & Drinking Places (5810), Retail-Eating Places (5812)

akta.pro primary industry

Brasseries, Bistros & Trattorias (THAFACAI)

akta.pro secondary industry

Corporate & Office Catering (THAFAIAA)

Keywords

• Puerto Rican cuisine
• Caribbean restaurant
• Restaurant catering
• Food takeout delivery
• California dining

Headquarters

HQ city

San Rafael

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices3 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Supply Chain, Operations, Infrastructure, Marketing or Sales, Technology or R&D

Revenue model

1. Dine-in and takeout sales: Revenue from customers dining in or taking out food at restaurant locations in San Rafael, Mill Valley, and Petaluma.
2. Delivery services: Revenue from food delivery orders placed through DoorDash and online ordering platforms.
3. Catering services: Revenue from catering orders for events and gatherings, with dedicated catering menu available.

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels4 records

Marketing channels3 records

Core offering

Sol Food Restaurant is a Puerto Rican and Caribbean cuisine restaurant chain operating three locations in the San Francisco Bay Area (San Rafael flagship, Mill Valley, and Petaluma). The company offers dine-in, takeout, delivery, and event catering services, complemented by branded retail merchandise such as hot sauce through its Sol Shop.

Product overview

Sol Food Restaurant operates as a single-brand Puerto Rican and Caribbean cuisine restaurant with three California locations (San Rafael, Mill Valley, Petaluma). The core offering includes dine-in service, takeout, and delivery across all locations. The product portfolio consists of the main restaurant service (dine-in/takeout/delivery), a catering service add-on at the San Rafael flagship, the Sol Shop sub-brand selling signature hot sauces online, and gift cards for the San Rafael location. The restaurant uses Toast Tab as its primary online ordering platform and DoorDash for third-party delivery integration.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Dine-In Restaurant Service Sit-down restaurant service offering authentic Puerto Rican and Caribbean menu items at the San Rafael flagship and Petaluma locations, with menu items such as Mofongo, Pernil, and Tostones.
• Takeout Service Takeout ordering service available at all three Sol Food locations, allowing customers to order Puerto Rican and Caribbean dishes for pickup via online ordering platform or by phone.
• Delivery Service Delivery of Sol Food's Puerto Rican and Caribbean menu items through third-party delivery partners such as DoorDash (currently available at the Petaluma location).
• Catering Service Event catering service offering Sol Food's Puerto Rican and Caribbean cuisine for private events and group gatherings, ordered directly through the company.
• Sol Shop Hot Sauce Branded retail merchandise product — Sol Food's signature hot sauce — sold through the company's Sol Shop sub-brand for at-home consumption by fans of the restaurant.
• Gift Cards Sol Food branded gift cards that can be purchased and redeemed at the company's restaurant locations.

Segments2 records

Ideal customer profiles2 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration2 records

Partnerships

Two partnerships are on record, tiered core and minor.

• ToastTabcoreTechnology or IntegrationToastTab provides the online ordering platform for all Sol Food Restaurant locations, enabling customers to place takeout and delivery orders online. Gift card services also provided through ToastTab platform.
• DoorDashminorChannel Partner/ Reseller/ DistributorDoorDash provides third-party delivery services for the Petaluma location, extending delivery reach to customers who prefer using the DoorDash platform.

Scale indicators1 record

Recent moves5 records

Expansion highlights4 records

Direct peers

• Cuba Libre Restaurant & Rum Bar: Multi-unit Caribbean/Latin casual-dining chain. Comparable themed full-service format and Latin-Caribbean cuisine adjacency; larger scale provides a benchmark for what Sol Food could become.
• Versailles Restaurant: Iconic Cuban restaurant in Miami with multiple on-site dining formats. Strong cuisine family adjacency (Caribbean/Latin) and similar full-service casual model serving a local community.
• Sazon Restaurant: Multi-location Puerto Rican restaurant in NYC, the most directly comparable cuisine-and-format peer in the U.S. Comparable family-style menu, casual sit-down model, and similar diaspora-driven customer base.
• Caña Restaurant: Caribbean/Latin casual full-service restaurant. Closest cuisine family peer to Sol Food's Puerto Rican-Caribbean menu positioning with a similar sit-down dining format.
• Mofongo's Coma Rico: Established Puerto Rican restaurant group with multiple locations in the New York area. Closest direct cuisine peer; comparable casual full-service dining and Puerto Rican menu emphasis.

Broad incumbents

• Pollo Campero: Latin American chicken chain with U.S. footprint. Broad incumbent in the Latin casual-dining space, comparable in cuisine family (Latin) and dine-in/takeout/delivery mix.
• Jollibee: Large global Filipino quick-service chain with growing U.S. presence. Comparable diaspora-driven ethnic cuisine operator at much greater scale, illustrating the multi-unit opportunity an ethnic niche can unlock.

Regional players

• Burma Superstar: Bay Area-based ethnic casual restaurant group with multiple locations. Comparable regional multi-unit ethnic cuisine operator with similar dine-in/takeout footprint in Marin and San Francisco.
• El Farolito: Long-running, multi-location Mexican taqueria in the San Francisco Bay Area. Closest geographic and format peer; comparable Latin casual cuisine and dine-in/takeout/delivery mix in the same labor and real estate market.
• La Taqueria: Single-location, cult-favorite Mexican restaurant in San Francisco. Comparable Bay Area casual Latin operator with strong local brand loyalty and counter-service model.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat2 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/solfoodca
• Facebookfacebook.com/solfoodrestaurant
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/solfood-puerto-rican-cuisine

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Sol Food Restaurant