Sol Food Cafe

732 4th St., San Rafael

Brightly colourful Puerto Rican restaurant at the corner of 4th and Lincoln in San Rafael, this eye-catching place has been packed since it opened this year. I don't even remember what was there before, but I certainly took notice when Sol Food went up instead. It is a tiny place, and it can only seat 8 people in counters inside, if everybody squeezed tight, and 4 people comfortably. They have seatings outside in the parking lot; three tiny tables and a bar on the side of the restaurant.
We had chicken + rice + beans + a salad ($7.95) and a chicken sandwich (&7.50). Chickens were marinated in garlics (lots of them) and Puerto Rican spices, then grilled, white rice was topped with cooked brown beans, and I couldn't tell what the salad leaves were but they were dressed in lemony dressing. Chicken sandwich was a better choice. It came with French-style bread that was pressed and grilled lightly, had the above-mentioned chicken, iceberg lettuce, which was amazingly refreshing (I hadn't had iceberg lettuce for a long time), tomatoes, and mayo. No haute cuisine, but it is a fun, colourful place right in downtown San Rafael.