#header-inner {background-position: center !important; width: 100% !important;}

Saturday, January 28, 2012

2012: Eat and Repeat - Salt

For our first 2012: Eat and Repeat challenge of the year, I found myself at one of my all-time favorite restaurants in St. Louis. Yes, we’ve been there before. I’ve even gone so far as to recreate one my favorite dishes from last summer’s menu (asparagus goat cheese gratin). But Salt still made the list, for a few reasons. I wanted to introduce my parents, in town for a weekend in January, to the restaurant I’d been raving about. I also knew Ryan and I had limited time to hit up a restaurant this month, given our travel schedules. Finally, I know some St. Louisans use my restaurant reviews when researching local restaurants and Salt is one that should not go unnoticed!

Much like my other visits to Salt, our service was spot on. Our waiter was attentive, quick to recommend dishes when asked, and generally friendly. The more I spend time in restaurants, the more I appreciate good service and Salt has this down to a science!

Not wanting to pass up any of the delectable-sounding dishes on the menu, our party of eight found ourselves ordering nearly all of the small plates. For a leisurely two hours, we passed plates around the table, getting tastes of everything from smoked pig’s tongue (yes, pig TONGUE…which wasn’t all that bad!) to duck-fried frites to the most heavenly butternut squash soup I’ve yet to taste.

Seated at a large table in one of the back rooms, we sipped wine and shared stories, all while oohing and aahing over each new dish brought to us. It’s hard to pick a personal favorite, or to even predict which dish I’ll try to recreate next month for the “repeat” portion of the challenge. Everything was delightful—perfectly cooked (and yes, full of salt!), it’s easy to see why Chef Wes Johnson has decided to stick to simple flavors. He manages to make magic with just a few ingredients!

We of course couldn’t pass up dessert, not when chocolate brulee with a goat cheese oreo and an apple crostado with salted caramel ice cream were on the menu. A few bites of each and our group headed out into the evening with satisfied—but not stuffed—stomachs full of Salt’s fantastic small plates!

One Year Ago: M&M Dream Bars
Two Years Ago: Carrot Cake Pancakes
Salt on Urbanspoon