Salt of the Earth

Salt is closing on August 1, and so many people told me I had to make it there before it did. I am very glad! I had the beet salad to start, and it was very good. The sauce was probably the highlight, as well as the beets (love those). For my appetizer I had the tofu option, which gave you fried tofu and pickled vegetables and lettuce leaves to make lettuce wraps. The tofu was cooked perfectly. The two house made sauces were also very good. For dessert, we had the rhubarb dish, which had rhubarb, meringue, a rhubarb sauce, and ice cream/​custard. It was good. Our waiters were also very attentive. It was a good experience, and I am sad to see this place close.

The menu for this place changes all the time, but somehow the only vegetarian option is always tofu. I don’t really like the idea of paying this much just for tofu (you can have it done better for much less elsewhere), so I’ve only ever eaten here on someone else’s dime, and never by my choosing.
So in terms of vegetarian friendliness, I feel like they phone it in. If they didn’t bill themselves as creative, I would probably be a little more forgiving. The cocktails are good though and I would come back here for a (very expensive) drink.

Sad that they are closing! Here for one of the last nights… 35 days to go. Pecked! Amazing meal the dessert to die for. Tomorrow night Cure… Super excited about that!

Since this place is going out of business in a month, I figured I’d swing by for one last hurrah. Boy was I disappointed.
The bread starter was extremely soft and tasteless. Almost to the point of being mushy. Fine… it’s just the bread. On to the appetizers:
Steak tartare: It didn’t taste bad, but then again it didn’t taste period. It came out looking like an uncooked hamburger. I could taste the lettuce and the olives, but that’s about it. I don’t know how they managed this.
Chicpea fritters. These weren’t bad, but were sort of a nondescript fried something-​stick.
The main dish we ordered was the salmon. It had a «fishy» aroma and flavor, for lack of a better word. Perhaps an indicator of it not being as fresh as it could be.
Overall, I was quite disappointed. Not necessarily because it was *bad*, but more because my expectations were much higher, based on my prior visits. This is definitely not the NACL of the past, and it’s sad to say but I don’t think I’m going to miss you much.

Finally got to Salt, and oh my, it was heaven!
It was a special occasion, so we went full tilt boogie, sampling *a few* of their specialty cocktails, as well as a four course dinner.
I started with the beet salad, which was lovely, and the husbear had the sashimi – a little unexpected for this place, but it was quite good.
Second course: I had the pork terrine, which was dotted with pistachios, and served with a hot little mustard which was terrific. The terrine was indeed very porky LOL; it was nice that it tasted as advertised! Husbear had the steak tartare, also delicious.
Main course: I had the hanger steak, served with roasted baby potatoes and some nice crispy onions. Generous portion of steak, cooked to perfection… really, really sublime. Salmon with ricotta dumplings kept my man quite satisfied.
For dessert: a coconut pudding served with a quenelle of ice cream, so, so good, and a nice little cheese plate finished us off completely!
Pricy, yes, but great for a special occasion. Server was great – knowledgeable on the entire menu, without hesitation, friendly and attentive but not intrusive – just like I like!

Salt is one of the best eating, drinking, and overall dining experiences I’ve had in a long time. This particular meal was a celebratory retirement dinner for my mother. I made a reservation for 5:30 on a Saturday for a Chef’s Tasting with drink pairings. Our menu was designed just for us — and created a memory we will all cherish. Some might balk at the price ($ 65 for the tasting and $ 35 for the pairing); however, there is absolutely no way to replicate the meal we had at any other place for less money.
Our courses included:
1 — hamachi sashimi with elderberry stalk and cippolini onions /​prosecco
2 — pan roasted squab with black lentils, golden raisins, and apricot purée /​rum, mint, citrus bitters, and almond nectar martini
3 — ricotta dumplings with rock shrimp and English peas /​white wine (can’t remember the exact varietal but very similar to a gewurztraminer)
4 — hanger steak atop romesco sauce with asparagus and mesquite-​smoked new potatoes /​bordeaux
5 — almond financiers, violet ice cream, basil seed meringue, and rhubarb /​madeira
Our waitress, Monica, was among the best I’ve had — friendly, attentive, knowledgeable, and with impeccable timing. The drink pairings were so right on, I was able to guess what kind of food was coming; and, the food was high quality, fresh, bright, beautifully plated, and impeccably executed. I absolutely plan to go back for communal seating and a bird’s eye view of the chefs in action.
From the food to the drinks to the service, I cannot speak highly enough of the Salt experience. Salt is what makes the Pittsburgh food scene exciting, surprising, and worth every penny.

I finally got the opportunity to try Salt of the Earth after hearing the hype from my friends. When the complementary bread is out of this world, I knew that the rest of my night here would be excellent. My colleague and I decided to order different appetizers to share. The risotto was not par cooked (which I have seen many restaurants do) and the steak tartar was an interesting dish with crispy additions to provide a textural component. I ordered the salmon entrée and it was cooked perfectly. I loved my experience at Salt of the Earth and definitely want to try their seasonal food.

My husband and I went to Salt for our anniversary dinner. We had been before way back in 2012 and had kept saying we needed to go back. I forgot how BIG the portions are. We ordered a starter of Korean Fried Chicken and a «mid» of Risotto to share. The chicken was a good-​sized drumstick. My husband, having just come back from Korea (fancy I know!) said that it wasn’t as authentic in terms of the sauce, but that the veggies served on the side had more of the sour tang he had during his trip. I found the chicken to be a bit on the spicy side, good, but I’m not a big fan of spice. The rissotto was an excellent first few bites, and the poached egg really made the dish. By the end, however, once the egg was gone the last 3^rd of the helping was kind of bland.
For entrees he got the pork belly with soba noodles, which he very much enjoyed. I had a taste, and found the pork to be a bit too salty, but the noodles and shrimp garnish were very good. I ordered the salmon with lobster bits and spring roasted veggies. The piece of salmon was really big, I couldn’t finish it. The lobster and veggies were very tasty. In fact I enjoyed the sides more so than the salmon, which was just ho hum…
Our service was excellent – friendly and attentive. We got a bottle of wine, which was hard to choose based on an impressive wine selection.
Overall, this visit to Salt had highs and lows. Service, wine, and parts of each dish were notable, while some aspects of each dish weren’t as up to scale as our previous visit.
We would come back again and maybe just order a few starters and mids to share, OR just stick to entrees because there is ALOT of food per plate.

Great dinner on a Monday night. Staff were beyond professional and friendly. The restaurant has a comfortable, unpretentious vibe — good lighting & music, plenty of different seating options.
Some reviews mentioned the drink & food were pricey but we found them to be pretty standard for this style of restaurant and well worth what we paid. The cocktails were interesting and there’s a decent wine selection. The food was creative and delicious. The steak tartare was pretty bad ass — it was refreshing not to have it prepared in the traditional style and the flavors, although unconventional, worked so well together. The rhubarb dessert screamed of almond sweetness and we just about licked the plates.
We enjoyed our meal and if we were local would add it to our rotation.

Amazing meal that was very enjoyable.
5 stars are not from food along. It was the experience that gave them that. I sat at the bar and was served by Jennifer, or so the reciept said, who was cleaning at the time. My visit was late with about 35 minutes prior to closing, but did not affect the warm service and good conversation. I left right before closing at 11. None of the staff actually rushed me in any portion of my dinner late while short as it was since i did not want to keep them there.
The food was wonderful. Ordered the fried chicken appetizer, the style was a bit different than what i was expecting based on the subtext as being korean style i thought bonchon style but was sutprised instead. It came out with a great crispy texture, while not heavy breaded sitting on top of a bit of gochujang (pepper paste).
For the entrée i had the pork, simple name good taste. This part of my dinner wasn’t all 5 dtar. The pork belly portion itself was a bit too salty, it was balanaced out by the soba and veggies in between so that was ok. The texture had the pork melting in your mouth!
Last for dessert i was torn between chocolate or the coconut pudding. In the end per suggestion i chose the chocolate and enjoyed every bite of it. Almost all the time i hesitate to order chocolate desssrt since they are overly sweet in many places and kills the chocolate flavor, not true here.
No comments on the drinks even though i sat at the bar!

Wow! Everything was fantastic!
I know they change up the menu pretty frequently, so I can understand why some might not like it as much? I guess it can be a hit or miss, but it’s been a hit for me so far. I had the korean fried chicken (kfc) and it was really good. Might be better than Bonchons, which is a restaurant out in va, that does great crispy fried chicken. Loved the sauce and side of radish it came with too. We also got the mussels which were on point. For mains, my fiancé got the hanger and I went for the burger. I was just feeling really hungry and wanted something hearty. Burger was delicious and loved the horse radish sauce they used!
Salt of the earth does a great job mixing different textures and flavors! We loved everything we got and had a great time.
Also, I made reservations online and noted it was my fiancé’s bday. Didn’t bring it up at all and it was nice that they considered the note and had a candle in the dessert for him. Really nice touch to end dinner!
Can’t wait to come back again!

Striped bass smelled and tasted so fishy it ruined my apatite, and I couldn’t even eat after it was placed on the table.
Purée of root vegetables soup was outstanding. Crab appraiser was tasteless.

Fantastic meal. Very flavorful dishes and neat atmosphere (good music)!
I started with the sweet potato soup — perfect winter soup. The chicken thigh craqcuite (sp) was next and that was a rich blast of flavor! Main dish was the pork and it was a very full and tasty dish :).

So damn good. My sister took me here for a tasting as my Christmas present, and more than a week later, we’re still talking about the meal… and the drinks. Service was a tiny bit shaky in the beginning – we were poured a delicious Semillon but weren’t told if it was paired with the first course (it was) or if it was a stand-​alone apertif. However, the staff were much more engaging for the rest of the meal, and the chefs in the kitchen were perfectly happy to chat with us about ingredients and all things Pittsburgh (we were sitting at the open kitchen). Everything was incredible but we both loved the pasta course – butternut squash with gnocchi and duck confit. It was heaven – we were both trying to figure out how to drink the broth without embarrassing ourselves!
I do wish there had been a choice for dessert – we’re both a little picky in that we like neither coffee nor chocolate, and the dessert contained several coffee elements, but that’s on us for not alerting them to our tastes. I was thoroughly impressed by the quality of the food, the plating, and the incredible skill of the bartenders – I’d definitely go back for a trendy girls’ night out.

I wanted to take my friends out for a nice dinner, and this was the perfect place! I made a reservation in the upstairs private dining room. When making a reservation, you have the option of sitting at communal tables downstairs, at the chef’s counter downstairs, or in the private dining room upstairs. I think the communal tables would be great for a casual lunch, but I definitely recommend dining upstairs if you’re coming for dinner.
Our waitress was really nice and was very familiar with the food and drink menus. She was able to answer all of our questions and made good drink recommendations. I ordered a gin-​based cocktail, and my friends went with vodka drinks. All of us thought the cocktails were delicious. We were also happy with our entrees. I ordered the vegan pad thai which came with baby bok choi and perfectly-​seasoned tofu. I cleaned my plate. One friend ordered the hambuger which came with a full plate of fries. He was a fan. My other friend ordered the pork which she said was tender and delicious. We were all stuffed so unfortunately didn’t have room for dessert, but the options looked tasty.

With all the great things I have heard about Salt, I was eager to try it. I have to say I was a bit disappointed, but overall it was still a good experience.
As others have mentioned, the communal dining concept is unique and can be fun. What isn’t fun is how uncomfortable those seats are. You are essentially sitting on a block of wood. If you have a jacket with you, skip the coat rack and put it on your «chair» to save your butt some pain.
They have the menu, including drinks, written on a giant chalkboard on the wall. They also have individual menus which makes it a lot easier to review your options. Although the board is nice when you are eating your food and trying to figure out what ingredient or flavor you are tasting.
The wine and cocktails are on the pricey side averaging around $ 10 or more, but there is a nice variety and the wine and cocktail I sampled were quite tasty.
I ordered the steak tar tar as an appetizer. It had large pieces of olives which was different than I’ve had in tar tar before, but the flavor was excellent. Instead of an entrée, I chose the risotto which was on their «seconds» menu. It was chock full of fall flavor and I really enjoyed it.
Without even ordering an entrée, with tax and tip my meal was over $ 40, so be prepared to spend when you come here. That being said, the dishes are interesting and original, so it was worth the splurge.

I cannot tell you how many times over the past few years that I have driven past Salt of the Earth and wondered why I had not yet tried it out. I finally had dinner here with a few friends for my birthday two weeks ago.
The place itself is pretty cool inside. I don’t mind the communal dining arrangement, but I can understand why some people are opposed. I think it’s fine with a group of friends, but probably not a good arrangement for a date. Unless your date is terrible enough that you would rather talk to complete strangers sitting next to you.
The staff was friendly, and it was easy to get a reservation on a Friday night; in fact, it was actually pretty dead. This was a little odd to me. I don’t know if that is the typical experience or not, but I definitely expected it to be bustling.
I had the roasted chicken with corn risotto, figs, and cipollini. Everything was good, but I wasn’t blown away. Temperature was an issue; it wasn’t cool enough to warrant sending it back (partially because we were all starving), but it was by no means hot. My friends had the same complaint about their dishes (two of us had the chicken, and two the seitan).
Another issue is definitely pricing. By no means do I have an issue splurging on a nice meal from time to time. But I expect that meal to be special and live up to the price, and this just didn’t do it for me. I understand that with places like this you are paying for presentation, ambiance, etc. – but the food needs to be great too.
I didn’t hate it, I didn’t love it. Maybe they were having an off night or something. I won’t write it off completely, but I’m not sure that I’ll go back.

One of my worst dining experiences in terms of food taste and overall experience. I have given it 2 star because the staff is polite and the food does look very presentable — top chef style.
To start off: a Blackboard menu? Common, its cool and all but if you are a pricey restaurant it doesn’t suit the image… Plus our server asked us to walk around (in case I have bad eyesight) or pull up a smartphone to view the menu… HUH?
Menu selection is limited — 5 or so appetizers, similar number of main courses, 3 desserts, and a lot of alcohol. This is actually a good thing, as a 2 page menu can get confusing, so a simple and condensed menu worked for me. I hear the menu changes often so a plus if you go there when they have a few good options. We had 3 fish options, 1 beef, 1 tofu and 1 pig option to choose from.
NACL (their logo) — Sodium Chloride or salt (cool right), except that all the food I ate had an overdose of salt. We ordered steak tartare and it was salty, lacked any citrus and to me tasted like it was just thawed from the freezer. Sashimi was ok but nothing to die for. Avocado ice-​cream along with the sashimi was innovative but again salty for my palate. We should have tried the oysters but I leave that for my imagination. They like to use a lot of deep soup bowls to serve food but the presentation was top notch.
For main course, we ordered the beef and baramundi. The beef was sliced into strips making it easy to eat, was cooked perfect and overall was tasty. Only saving dish that entire night. The baramundi was salty and not impressive in my opinion but nonetheless sufficient portion wise for one person. Just a note the entrees are 25+ and usually enough for one person (unless you have a small appetite). You will not leave the place feeling hungry or overstuffed.
Shortbread dessert was caramel, pretzel, a lot of peanuts and salt. Not a good way to end the meal. I guess there was a shortbread somewhere in there.
I forgot to mention the drinks (cocktails) are interesting combinations (negroni and moscato, rum and grapefruit) and if you go there for some appetizers and a few drinks, it is well worth it. I would not say our server was super attentive but we managed.
One thing that ticked me off was that they have communal type seating below and tables above. I had called to make a reservation and they said they were booked but when we went there (9pm), they were empty and still no tables?
This sums up my lackluster experience at Salt of the Earth. After seeing it on the list of top 30 restaurants in PGH, I really wanted the experience to be great. I left there never wanting to return or recommend it to anyone.

Walking out of the restaurant, I am still in disbelief at what major disappointment NaCl was. Having heard rave reviews about the restaurant, I have wanted to try it ever since I moved to Pittsburgh… I guess that is probably the reason I find it harder to digest how bad the food was. I kept hoping that the next course would be better… ALAS that was not to be.
The place has a wonderful décor with community style seating and dim lighting. However reading off a chalk board is not my idea of upscale dining. The poor quality of the handwriting, with items erased & rewritten over, made reading that much harder. Though I was informed promptly by the waitress when I asked about a paper menu that I could look up the restaurant’s menu on my smart phone or I could walk up to the chalk board to see better. (WHAT???)
For a Friday night it wasn’t that crowded which was wonderful. I don’t think I would be particularly fond of having some stranger sit extremely close to me & have to talk over their conversation to be heard by my dinner companion.
We started off our dinner with cocktails. I had the sparkling negroni containing moscato wine, which was strictly ok. It started off sweet but left a bitter taste at the end. The hubby got the rum cocktail which was nothing to right home about.
For starters we got the beef tartar & the sashimi. I think the sashimi was probably a little more flavorful than the tartar which didn’t have too much flavor wise. For our main courses we got the barmundi (seabass) & beef. The barmundj was decent… Other than having some salt, it was pretty flavorless. The shallots were the best part of this dish for me. The beef was well seasoned & perfectly cooked… The best meal of the night… Though I have eaten better at less steep prices.
For Dessert we got the millionaire’s shortbread… Or should I just saythe Salt Ball instead… Coz That’s what it was. Salty peanuts & salty pretzels over a salty peanut Carmel base. The Result: an inedible plate of Salt concoction.
I truly wanted to love this place but unfortunately true to its name, all I walked out of the restaurant with, was only the overpowering taste of NACL.

Nothing will justify spending so much money on something so average.
We were both extremely excited for the food since everyone was telling us to go but we were horribly disappointed. My friend treated me to the dinner so I felt especially bad that he had to spend that much money on food that we weren’t into. He got the chicken while I got the hangar steak.
There wasn’t anything particularly wrong with the food but there was nothing special about it either. The steak was good quality beef but nothing kept my interest. I actually got pretty bored of the food… The ingredients weren’t impressive at all — beans? Like the beans from a can type beans?
The service was fine, nothing to comment too much about. I think the extra star is for amount of effort that they put to enhance the ambiance in the restaurant. I just wish that the food matched the level of swank that the restaurant embodied.