I have been to Salt no less than a dozen times over the last year and have been consistently disappointed with the end result of dishes that seem so promising in menu form. Why do I keep going back, you ask? Well, Baltimore is a bit of a culinary back water and it's in my 'hood. Though, after last night I will be less lazy, as I am never returning there. The food is usually of high quality, yet the dishes are without fail bland, lackluster and amateurish. BBQ pork cheeks with coleslaw of foie gras and sweet potato? Could have been amazing, but the meat was dry and tasteless and covered in clearly bottled BBQ sauce. Octopus salad? Very little octopus and certainly no pieces to sink your teeth into and the flavor was mediocre, at best. Even the cocktails disappoint: on a recent evening my dining companion ordered a ""Painkiller,"" which was meant to be a concoction of Jamaican rum and fresh squeezed juice. It came in a pint glass and tasted like a sub par pina colada, causing us to remember things that we even tried to avoid in college. Furthermore, the hostess/owner is a witch, something that other writers have noted. I've often waited over an hour at the bar, sometimes standing, only to be told that, no, she won't have a table for me, as she thought that I intended to just stay in the bar area. It is a dance we've done numerous times and is not ameliorated by my explaining upon entering that I will wait at the bar, but I would like a table. Like the food, it is simply stupid, annoying and faux-haughty. She knows me and yet still treats me like a complete fool. This restaurant is to be avoided at all costs.
Pros: Good wine list
Cons: Everything else
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