Salt Fork Kitchen

Lots of local farm are featured, big breakfasts, excellent coffee and brewed iced tea. This not your small town Mayberry diner. We had omelettes, hash browns, cole slaw, fruit, fresh jellies and home made biscuits. Fresh spinach and onions in the omelette. The inside has unique décor and decorations, nuvo small town chique. We loved the place on a Wednesday morning. You have to try the coffee if you are a coffee lover. Choice of meat for breakfast, sausage, bacon, patty. Lots of TLC from the wait staff.

Best Eggs Benedict I’ve ever had! Make your way to Solon, IA and wait in line to get in. It’s worth it.

Came in on a Sunday afternoon around 1:15pm (closing time is 2pm) for brunch with a friend. I appreciated that even though we were close to end of service, we didn’t feel rushed at all. I opted for a Mimosa and the signature Zayna. The dish was different, but the flavors were well put together. I do wish there was more lamb on the plate, but the poached egg and yogurt worked well to bind the different ingredients together and make the dish feel more cohesive.
Décor is what you would expect of a small town restaurant and so is the service. The waitresses felt very sincere and concerned with making sure our food met our expectations and that we enjoyed our experience. My friend and I chatted for about 20min after closing, and the waitress refilled our water and continued to serve us as normal.
I will definitely be back to try more of the unique menu items and maybe a few traditional breakfast items as well.

Delicious breakfast made with fresh, local ingredienys. I had the rabbit omelet, yummy aioli sauce served on top.

Pros:
1. Salt Fork Kitchen uses fresh and local ingredients whenever possible. This includes their coffee from a local coffee roaster, their vegetables from a local farm when in season, and many others.
2. They serve breakfast all day which is great if you show up at 11:30 and still want breakfast.
3. Their flapjacks are excellent! Fluffy, large, with great flavor. On top they give you local real maple syrup!
4. The rest of the menu is common Iowa brunch options, eggs, meat, cheese in different forms (omelets, sandwiches, etc).
Cons:
1. The dining room is a touch small with no outdoor patio.
2. The food is very good, but fairly common for the area. If you are looking for something out of the box, I would suggest looking elsewhere.
3. Coffee lacked a bit of punch, seemed a bit too watery for my tastes.

All the dishes are delicious! I ordered the Zanya today — wow! The spice lamb with rice was very well seasoned and tasty, and the poached eggs added a wonderful light touch to it. The flapjacks are also delicious — and paired with the maple syrup — yum!

The brioche French toast is unbelievably light and eggy rich. Just the way I love it. I ve tried to re create it … and haven’t yet! So back I come to The Salt Fork, for the perfect French toast!!! Solon is very lucky to have this scrumptiously healthy eatery!

Great breakfast option that’s just far enough from DT IC to avoid the weekend crowds. Where do I start? The (Wake Up Iowa City) coffee is delicious and the wait staff keeps your cup full. The breakfast sausages are seasoned to perfection. The blueberry pancakes are fluffy and crisp and cakey and you can’t go wrong with any of the breakfast sandwiches that come on a biscuit. Did I mention the Bloody Mary bar? Yeah… this place is a no brainer. Love!

Healthy mostly organic food from local farms! The meat and chicken is superb! Everyone is happy and very attentive! I can always get greens! Fresh, cooked or baked! Fruit, greens, meat not filled with chemicals and even plug in my laptop and use their wifi! Perfect! Oh, and good coffee plus organic teas-​even green teas!
The cook comes out and talks with me about dietary restrictions or the servers communicate VERY WELL with him. Great Sunday brunch buffet, too!

Looking for a place to eat on this cold Iowa Sunday morning. This restaurant is amazing!!! Lamb and feta tacos and the bacon and cheese melt were spectacular! Looks like we found a new favorite restaurant!!!

I’m not sure what is better: the food or the service. Was there for New Years brunch buffet today and the hosts and wait staff were just delightful. The chef’s fantastic. The New Years brunch was so good. I ate more than I should! The flap jacks and maple syrup, sausage gravy, cheesy grits, coffee, mimosa… i could go on. Thank you SFK for a great start to the year!

This is one of those hidden jems you hear about from time to time. Quaint in a very good way. Very good and friendly staff, eclectic menu. Take the short drive for breakfast, worth every minute.

This place is a must! So if you live in Iowa City or Cedar Rapids, make a morning trip to check this joint out and stop at Lake Macbride while in the area! I recommend Zayna $ 10.25 rice, lamb sausage, peppers, poached eggs, balsamic, yogurt that my husband ordered. I got the Egg-​Fried Rice & Greens $ 8.25 sesame oil, tamari, onions, garlic, Kimchi slaw. It was good also but was a bit salty. Perhaps more kimchi would help to cut through the saltiness. Great atmosphere and locally sourced food! Now one of my favorite breakfast joints around Iowa city area.

Service — Outstanding.
Food — Such a fun place to go! Apparently, they serve cheesecake (six different types) and eggs to go.
1. Egg Fried Rice and Greens — Kim Chi Slaw was really good although I didn’t get any coleslaw as mentioned on the menu. The fried rice was a bit salty for my taste. I added a side of pork sausage which was fantastic.

We rode our bikes over 20 miles for breakfast and we weren’t disappointed! We were greeted warmly and shown to a table immediately. The waiter was great as was the food. I was hesitant to order the fried rice with kim chi slaw but I would order it again in a heartbeat. The coffee went down easy and the fried potatoes were delicious!

Time to update so here I am. In short this place is heaven. The food, and yes it can take a while to prepare food well and I am happy to wait, is perfection.
I love their lamb tacos but struggle because their egg fried greens with pickled veggies is too good not to order also. Conundrum — so I order both and take home a nice leftover for another meal. The lamb in the tacos is local and superb. These tacos are amazingly delicious. The egg fried greens are seasoned beautifully and the bits of their freshly grown kale make it even better. The pickled veggies which of course they make themselves, take this dish to another level. YUM
My husband usually gets breakfast and he has never been disappointed — all cooked the way he ordered — fresh farm eggs, local bacon, their own great bread and homemade jam.
We have also been to the Friday night dinners and they are out of this world.
The wait staff is friendly and attentive — truly making you feel appreciated.
OH PLEASE keep doing what you do so well Salt Fork!

Sunday brunch stop on route from Cedar Rapids to Iowa City. Surprised there was no wait for a table at 11:45 a.m. We enjoyed our two person church pew bench at a four top right next to front door as it allowed us to people watch as folks entered and exited. Décor is very simple with farm themed «art» on the walls and nothing special tables and chairs. I was entertained mostly by the people who arrived wearing weird combinations of things as outfits like dress pants paired with a t-​shirt with holes.
Anyhow, I digress. Coffee arrived instantly and often and we downed cup after cup of the local brew Wake Up Iowa. After listening to our friendly server’s recommendations and house favorites, my partner ordered the Jethro with a side pancake and I ordered the egg stir fried rice with a side lamb sausage patty. Food wasn’t served quickly, but with the coffee coming regularly, we didn’t care. And, we knew everything was cooked to order.
The Jethro was a pile of homemade biscuits covered with homemade sausage patties and then topped with soft poached egg and mountains of sausage gravy. Not a Blue Zone certified entrée, for sure. He gave it high marks and wouldn’t share a bite.
The best thing about the fried rice was the kimchee that accompanied the plate full of soy sauced rice with veggies scattered inside. The fresh greens on the side also off set the outside too salty and a bit dry rice. I liked it, but I’m pretty sure it’s not a go to dish for returning customers. Next time I will order an omelet.
We found the pancake to be too sweet with overwhelming vanilla flavor. I suspect many sweet lovers would have died and gone to heaven especially with the squeeze bottle of 100% pure maple syrup that comes alongside.
The lamb patty on the side was a good choice and it made me question why I don’t eat more of that lean meat.
We loved our first visit, especially the friendly welcome and attentive service. We highly recommend.

We finally had the chance to try this place out on Friday. It was fortuitous, as we were faced with a long wait at Big Grove Brewery and a hungry toddler.
The space itself is no frills, with a relaxed and quaint atmosphere. My wife and I split the vegetarian tacos and our son had a grilled cheese sandwich. The veggie tacos were fantastic, quite simply one of the best vegetarian dishes we’ve had since moving to Iowa. Great flavor on the onions and mushrooms, the aioli was tasty and well-​apportioned, and good tortillas. Service was laid back, a little slow at times but not overly problematic. We’d go back, particularly to check out breakfast. This is a place to come for unpretentious, locally produced, tasty food delivered in a casual setting.

Great food! My husband and I both had the Jethro. Our girls had biscuits & sausage! Very tasty!

Have been to Salt Fork at least half a dozen times so far and it’s a 75 mile drive one way from where I live. If you’re a foodie in Iowa, you soon realize you must make these sacrifices. Salt Fork serves fresh, locally sourced, lovingly prepared food that is reasonably priced and highly satisfying. I mean, c’mon, who else makes their own kimchi in rural Iowa!!! This place is awesome!
There’s a great assortment of dishes for vegetarians and the flavors in all the dishes are superb. Great omelets, great greens and rice with egg, great biscuits!
For those complaining about service: you’re in Iowa, get over it. When I lived in L.A. or San Francisco Bay Area I would have felt the same way and written the same kind of snub review, but after living in rural Iowa for 6 years, I’m in no rush anymore and enjoy people/​establishments who do what they do best — even if that means it’s slower.
I was also there for the University graduation weekend brunch (also happened to be my birthday) and was asked to come back in an hour because they were slammed. I wasn’t put off, I took the time to walk around the adorable and historic little town — found a building that was being renovated and was invited to tour it (1800’s stable house turned into wedding venue). I love these kind of adventures in Iowa and I still had a great meal when I returned to the restaurant an hour later.