The Salted Pig

Amazing food… everything we had was just. down right yummy. Brussels sprouts we our favorite along with the cheesy grits… try the grits! Wine list was good too. Only suggestion is they need to put in some booths. Finger licking yummy

Last minute Sunday family dinner decision… no reservations necessary as we were seated right away and served promptly as well. There was a large group of 70 there, but it had no affect on the service.
We started with salads… three Kale Caesar salads and the house salad. Presentation was great on the Caesars, but nobody liked them… house salad was as you’d expect.
Two of us ordered the fried chicken based on the Unilocal reviews, one ordered a full slab of rubs, and I went with the meatloaf. Meatloaf was average, I won’t repeat that.
Fried chicken and ribs were hits! Huge servings of chicken with sides of mashed potatoes and green beans. Ribs came with baked beans which were terrific and cole slaw… I don’t think we got to the slaw. Ribs were tender. The meatloaf BTW came with mashed potatoes, peas, and a light brown sauce… they were all great.
For dessert we tried the chocolate chip cookie I’m a pan with vanilla ice cream and the mixed red berry cobler with vanilla ice cream. The cookie dessert was a hit; the cobbler was not. The waiter, Dez, was great and thankfully recommended ice cream with the cobbler or it likely would have been inedible.
All in all we had a great time and would most certainly repeat. Next time I’m trying the pulled pork… I’m not making that mistake again.

Meh,
I was expecting so much more. Food was ok. Wait for the food was too long. For the prices and wait I’d probably go somewhere else.

I need to pump my review up a star. I came in for dinner and I had a much better experience. The brisket chili was downright incredible. I also got the salmon and it was so flavorful.
The upright metal chairs are still way too uncomfortable, but I’d eat that chili and salmon on a bed of nails. We had a friendly server that did a great job. I’ll look forward to coming back again. A marked improvement from my last visit.

I have eaten here 2x’s for lunch. I’ve had the buttermilk fried chicken plate with garlic mashed potatoes and green beans. I thought it was a great bargain for $ 10 and the chicken was very well seasoned and delicious. The mashed potatoes and green beans were equally as delicious even though the green beans were loaded down with garlic.
On the second occasion I tried the TSP burger with their homemade chips. At $ 12 it’s highly over priced for the sub par taste. I expected more from a burger supposedly made out of beef short rib and accompanied by aged white cheddar, bacon and caramelized onions. The bacon was plentiful, thick cut and provided major assistance to a burger that was obviously lacking something (FLAVOR). The chips were OK. I’d definitely order the chicken plate again but STL offers far to many options for a delicious, juicy burger than to eat one here.

We went there on a date night on the recommendation from a friend. I had noticed a nice write up in a local food magazine several months ago, but read some mixed reviews. We gave it a try.
Service was good and friendly. We were there early (happy Hr!)so we could go on to do some Christmas shopping in the area after dinner.
The food was very good, hot, and without a long wait. We’ll be back.
But be careful, they did not apply the happy hour prices to the bill (about a $ 20 mistake). Check your bill…

I recently visited this restaurant for a work event. I have to say that overall the experience was interesting!
The restaurant is really spacious which is good. I liked that it wasn’t crowded. The atmosphere had a very light feel. When you first walk in you are greeted by the hostess. This was my first visit. She seemed pretty friendly.
My party had already started their appetizers so I grabbed a seat and dug right in. I tried the bacon wrapped shrimp. It was okay. I liked that they offered something different and not the usual stuff. It was refreshing.
For Dinner I ordered the Risotto. It had crab meat and shrimp in it. It liked the smoked flavor and overall the taste was unique. Not unique in a bad way although it wasn’t spectacular. I just can’t put my finger on it.
Overall my experience with the food was alright. It was good but it didn’t really blow me away. I would visit again though. But maybe try something else.

I visited the Salted Pig for an event a few weeks ago. When I arrived around 6 pm I was greeted at the door and immediately directed to the event area. The tables were set up for a few dozen people and there was an awesome buffet table with snacks from the menu!
I made my way to the bar to order a drink and the bartender was really nice and helpful when I asked for a nice glass of red wine. He recommended a glass for me to try and it was exactly what I wanted. I then found a spot at a table to put my things before making my way to the food. I found the buffet table with all hot and fresh items; wings, chips, calamari, and a veggie option as well. I made a small plate of food and found my way to my seat. I started with the chicken wings-​they were so tasty and perfectly crisp. I then tried the chips which were delicious and the calamari was my favorite item of the night!
The servers would come around often to make sure we had all that we needed and the tables were cleared regularly.
I would like to plan a dinner date at the Salted Pig soon so that I can experience more of the menu!

Neat place. Service was excellent, fried chicken skillet excellent, great mashed potatoes & green beans. Great beans were a touch under cooked, & just read from other reviews that they usually cook them that way, mgmt: just a couple minutes longer cooking please, but flaver is on point! BBQ pulled pork great too. I’ll be back!

My wife and I visited sp for a quick Friday date night as our neighbor highly recommended it.
–service was not great. Very un personable and unfriendly. She seemed miserable, never offered to bring us water refills, didn’t bring plates for our sprouts, etc.
Sprouts were okay but swimming in oil. They were quite mushy also.
The mrs got the chopped veggie salad and brisket chili. Salad was very good but the chili had WAY too much powder in it. Nothing special.
The ribs did have great flavor but I actually had to use my knife to separate each bone. Very tough: (
The sauces were really nothing to rave about either.
My Manhattan was the best part of my meal after a long hard work week.
Only 7 tables in this big dull cafeteria style seating restaurant on a Friday night in fancy Ladue.
I agree with other reviews stating that if they don’t get their sh*t together, they won’t be around long.

Service & atmosphere was nice! Fried ck coated with cornmeal. Tasty, but the texture reminds you of fried fish. Sides were no big deal. Husband had the risotto with shrimp & sausage & the watermelon tomato salad, he loved both. Son had burger with white cheddar & bacon. He said it had good flavor, but over-​seared & under cooked for ‘med well’. Hush puppies were good! We sent the mixed fruit cobbler back.
More to explore, we will try again!

I periodically go to lunch with guys I used to work with. The K-​Man is one of them and we decided to try Salted Pig. He said he drives by every day and has never had an occasion to stop. Since I retired, I don’t drive that way anymore. The restaurant is located in what used to be Frontenac Grill (I think) on Lindbergh and before that I think it was a Coco’s. It has been given a makeover and is a roomy, modern, trying to look a little rough and not succeeding, but well-​appointed place. The basis for my review is the assumption that this is a barbecue restaurant. I say restaurant, it does not qualify as a barbecue joint, it is way too new and sort of up-​scale.
The menu, at least at lunch, did not include a combo platter, so I asked if I could somehow get a combo. The server went to check on this and returned to confirm that I could get a platter with 4 oz each of pulled pork and brisket and a half rack of ribs (no sides) for $ 22. That is what I ordered but added a side of slaw. K-​Man had some kind of sandwich with pork and brisket on it (called The Big Dog). I shared a couple of ribs with him.
The ribs were the best of the day. They were fairly smoky, but were decidedly underdone. As a disclaimer, I am not a mushy, fall-​off-​the-​bone guy, but these were gnaw-​off-​the-​bone and when you were done there was a lot of meat shreds still on the bone. In my book, the bone should come clean. They were, however, well-​seasoned and we both liked that they warm them by glazing lightly (apparently with honey based sauce) and grilling on a flame. This not only heats them for serving but caramelizes the glaze imparting a grilled flavor. Too bad they were so chewy.
Neither the pulled pork nor the brisket convey a sense that this place knows what they are doing. Both appear to be cooked and held in sauce, Midwestern church supper style. The pork is shredded pretty well. It is apparently stored in some reddish sauce that I thought might be kin to Salisbury, NC style, but it had an unpleasant bitter finish and the sauce was over applied. The pork did not seem fresh. In truth, the pork was better than the brisket, but should be eaten as a sandwich. Not that sandwiches are bad, but I like to enjoy my barbecue as a platter, no bread, no sauce, if possible.
The brisket is simply misbegotten. I hope they were trying for something unique, because they achieved it. Again, the brisket was way undercooked, then shaved deli-​thin. (that cannot be done with properly cooked brisket). The meat is then stored in a broth of some sort, maybe kind of like Italian Beef. Again, I’m picturing one of those electric roasters maybe at the Legion Hall, filled with broth and pre-​sliced meat. The result was extremely smoky and was extremely salty. Remember, I’m the one always saying my food needed a little salt. It reminded me and the K-​Man agreed, of undercooked bacon; texture, smoke and taste. The texture was the critical flaw. It even looked bad. There is a lot of mediocre brisket in the St Louis area. Most of it is edible, but this really is not, unless you pretend it is something besides barbecued brisket.
The slaw was marinated sweet/​vinegar style, fine — nothing special. Their special secret barbecue sauce is almost a copy of Blues Hog Smokey Mountain Sauce from Perry, MO.
St Louis has had an explosion of barbecue restaurants in the past 3 – 4 years. This means that a lot of people either think they can create barbecue or they are already in the restaurant business and want to jump on the bandwagon. Not all of them will survive. I’m not betting on Salted Pig unless things change. One star is my rating. I rarely give those. I just see systematic issues that are too deep, not just a bad day.

I recently met a friend at The Salted Pig for lunch, and was met by the sweet smell of barbecue and the smiles of friendly staff. I don’t get to Frontenac too often, but it’s nice to know there’s another great spot to choose from. I definitely want to come back for dinner, too.
You’re all going to yell at me but all I had was the BBQ chicken salad. While the ribs, pulled pork, and brisket looked amazing, the salad was more fitting for lunch and certainly didn’t disappoint one bit. It’s made with mixed greens, sweet corn, red onion, tomatoes, pulled bbq chicken, and ranch dressing… and it’s a complete crime if you don’t drizzle some BBQ sauce on top. The salad was pretty darn wonderful, and I can’t wait to try more offerings soon!
We’re lucky to have such great barbecue options in St. Louis, and this spot should not be ignored. Get over there!

A Mixed Bag of Goodies
This was my second visit to the modest establishment, with both times in need of delivering big to my mom (Well Known Caterer) on Mother’s Day and then my stepfather (CERTIFIED BBQ JUDGE) for Father’s Day.
The customer service, from the hostess to your server is nothing short of exemplary. This particular time I was blessed to be served by Pat whom I’ll never forget. I pray you all retain her services for many years to come, and if you’ve never been (and you should go soon) ask for her. She was not only helpful but extremely warm and attentive. Now for the food, hence the title:
My first visit we ordered the apps Brussel sprouts, and the Mac N Cheese.. which I highly recommend everyone should try at least once. The Brussel Sprouts were sautéed with bacon and caramelized onions and perfectly cooked, if I had a complaint it would be for more. The Mac N Cheese was a huge surprise as I’m used to a creamy and often thick rich cheese sauce. This sauce was thin and velvety with the blue crab pieces throughout it which gave it a nice salty balance to the sweet addictive cheese sauce. It was so good we were all dipping whatever we could find in the remnants.
Our main dishes were the fried chicken and the shrimp and grits. The chicken was perfectly fried, tender, juicy, and very flavorful. The sides are less than remarkable but edible. The shrimp and grits were what I hope to be served in heaven. The prawns were cooked and seasoned perfectly and the grits with the spicy butter were amazing… again UH-​MAZING I said! They were so good on my second visit, today. …I ordered them to go with my brisket.
VISIT TWO. … the brisket & burnt ends were surprisingly tender and I say surprisingly because it wasn’t sliced traditionally (against the grain) which aesthetically didn’t make it appealing. Once you get passedthe looks it had great smokey balanced flavor. Of the 4 burns ends I got 1 was inedible, unless you want to eat a cube of carmelized fat. The sauce is a familiar sweet sauce that complimented the chefs work well. The 3 other burnt ends were spot on tender juicy cubes of brisket point. The sides again (a creamed. … sorta not corn, and mashed potatoes that I enhanced with the spicy butter from the grits) were again less than stellar. The proteins were definitely the strong stars of the plate, but the sides played the role of a nameless stage hand.
My mom had the pulled chicken sandwich that she destroyed, which is a rarity for her of a sandwich that size.
My stepfather had the full slab of ribs that were very meaty, seasoned, smoked, and charred perfectly with a welcoming taste to the palate. His sides were beans that I didn’t sample, but couldn’t as he smashed them. They looked have a great rich (not soupy) consistency.
Overall this is a place you must go. … but my recommendation to the owner or chef would be to either make your sides as good as your appetizers, or make the appetizers your sides.

My girlfriend and I went for lunch. The décor is quite a change from the previous restaurant, Frontenac Grill. It’s quite industrial. .. no frills. Didn’t bother me.
We were seated at a banquette. She got the bench side. I got a metal chair.
Our server, Mary, was fabulous.
My girlfriend got the fried chicken lunch special for $ 10. I got the full fried chicken dinner for $ 14.
We got the same sides: green beans and smashed potatoes (red potatoes, skin on).
The difference was I got a half chicken, and she got two pieces of chicken.
She ate all hers. I took home three pieces of chicken, some smashed potatoes and green beans. .. another meal.
The chicken was moist and flavorful. .. crusty crust, and wonderful tasting. And BTW, it heated up well in the microwave.
The green beans were crunchy and good-​flavored, well-​seasoned.
The smashed potatoes were so flavorful, because they were red potatoes skin-​on.
We had great service from Mary with water filling and replenishing our beverages.
There are many other offerings on the menu I’d like to try.

First impressions… I really love it, and I’m tempted to go to 5 stars, but I’ll wait for a 2^nd visit.
Went for lunch and tried the blue crab mac and cheese for an appetizer (just right to split with another person while leaving room for the entrée that came later). It was light, creamy, and tasty!
Then I had the pulled pork sandwich (see pics) with homemade chips. Both were very good. The sandwich was huge, and I was pleasantly full.
The beef brisket looked super tender, and I was told it was very good.
The big hit though ended up being the fried chicken (see pics). For lunch, they had a special for a half chicken with creamed potatoes and green beans served in a big iron skillet. Wow, it looked good! Buttermilk (and maybe cornmeal) breading. My friend loved it so much, he went back the next day and ordered it to go for dinner and loved every bite! I can’t wait to try it!

Probably a 2 ½ star review but just couldn’t get over the conflict between the décor and the presentation of the food. What are they trying to be?
Things i liked:
— Sprouts were an appetizer that is not to be missed. I will have to try this at home — my two Teens currently fight over my brussel sprouts when I make them and these were way better than mine. Bacon, duh!
— Team service meant that our drinks were never dry and we were well attended to
Things I didn’t like:
— I was served a four year old’s dinner. Presentation, not size. I ordered a burger with a side of chips. I love home made potato chips so when the server said they make them in house, I was sold. What I was served was a plain burger — meat, cheese, bun (exactly what i used to order for my girls at McDonalds several years ago) I asked for lettuce and tomato so she brought them on a small dish. The chips were served cold; I assumed since they were made in house that they would be served hot. They were good, just cold. Plain burger and chips on a plate with nothing else. Weird to me for what I think is trying to be an upscale place.
— We ordered dessert, but asked for a different flavor of ice cream on the side. The «cobbler» was really a crumb, a couple of burnt spots on top but still tasty. The ice cream was good too. When the bill arrived, there was a $ 2.50 up charge for the ice cream. When Husband questioned the server, she said the manager told her that she had to charge it because it was premium ice cream or something like that. Husband told her that he would have expected to been informed prior to the bill and would have stuck with the regular ice cream if he had known. They had this discussion when he was giving her the credit card; kind of expected after the discussion that the charge would disappear from the bill — it didn’t. Which made our dessert WAY overpriced and I left feeling sort of ripped off.
I’m sure there will be some amount of criticism for not allowing management the opportunity to fix it; I was just tired after a long day at work and a function at school and wanted to go home…

You must have the fried chicken. I ordered the lunch sized portion (breast & thigh) for only $ 10.00. It comes with green beans and the best mashed potatoes known to mankind. A hint of sour cream in the mashed goes awesome with the bread crumbs from the chicken. I am drooling as I am typing.
Okay, now about the chicken. I was told that they brine it in Southern Style Sweet Tea for a day, then butter milk bath, on day two, and then a secret event, on day three before they fry it and serve it. YUM OH !!!
Get here and eat the fried chicken. You will thank me later.

I think I liked this place quite a bit more than the wife. I also think I ordered better which can explain the difference in perspective. I agree with her comments and concerns. Still, a good set of bones can make all of the difference in the world.
Started with the brussel sprouts based on the recommendations of others. Somehow… someway…I will learn to replicate that dish! Just plain amazing! No bitterness but slightly sweet instead. The sprouts are quartered lengthwise and cooked both evenly and to perfection. The bacon was absolutely delicious and not excessively fatty while the onions were translucent touches of flavor on top of everything else going on in the cast iron dish. I’m serious — I will learn to replicate that dish!
I had a half-​slab of ribs and they were pretty good. Nice rub, sauce on the side, good smoke ring, etc. Not SugarFire but certainly not Crapplebee’s either — somewhere in the middle but leaning more towards the tasty end of the spectrum. There was coleslaw but it was nothing special and had a little too much celery taste. What really stole the show on my dinner plate was the baked beans. I’m no connoisseur of baked beans but I can certainly say these were among the best I’ve ever had. Nicely balanced between sweet and smoky but with generous chunks of smoked meat in the dish that really put it over the top.
Dessert was a cobbler-​esque creation passed off as a cobbler. Actually, calling it a crumb or crumble or something similar would be more appropriate. Chocked full of fruit and not too sweet made me happy. What made me unhappy was that I asked for a different flavor of ice cream than the standard vanilla and got an up-​charge without any mention of it in advance.
I will crave the brussel sprouts and baked beans. I would probably go after the fried chicken if I find myself there again.

Delicious smokey flavor without heavy BBQ sauce. We had lunch and I was surprised how full the restaurant was at 11:30, but after experiencing the food I know why!
I had sprouts– Brussels sprouts with cartelized onions and crunchy bacon bits scattered throughout– and wings– meaty and smokey with a light sweet sauce. My boyfriend opted for pulled pork Sammie with baked beans. His sandwich was also delish– right balance of fat to meat making the sandwich moist and succulent.
Service was excellent. Our server was knowledgeable and friendly. Only suggestion– more bacon in the sprouts!