There are always places I walk by in my neighborhood and think to myself that I want to try. However, I also feel like I rarely get the opportunity because I’m always thinking about how I can make wonderfully delicious things at home. It doesn’t help that most places around me aren’t open on weekends or are only open on Saturday night. But Salt House has been on my list of places to go to, and we did have the time to go one Saturday night due to a long day of driving around the bay area and my sincere lack of wanting to cook something when I got home.
The venue itself has a bit of a modern feel, with an odd extra balcony in the front for additional seating and a fantastic mural on the back wall. Some of the seating does have a bit of the communal dining feel to it, but luckily the tables are far enough apart that you can actually enjoy a conversation with the people at your table without the feeling of dining with total strangers (like it can feel sometimes when they squeeze too many tables together and/or have really bad acoustics in the building).
Glancing at the menu, most of the dishes that seemed interesting were either on the “For the table” or the starters part of the menu, although there was a korean short rib that sounded amazing (but I was making short ribs the following night so it seemed like something to forgo). So, we ended up ordering off of those menus with both quail egg and salmon belly bites, shishito peppers, poutine and a sourdough batard with rendered duck fat from the small bites and the fried salmon collar and the black pepper cavatelli with uni off of the starters menu. Our server was very great and said that he would work on getting things spaced out so everything wouldn’t arrive at once.
The first things to arrive were the shishito peppers and the sourdough bread. They were probably the easiest things to get done, so it makes sense that they came to the table first. Apparently shishito peppers are similar enough to padron peppers that it’s fashionable to use them similarly and just cook them with olive oil and a bit of salt. Not that I’m complaining, because padron peppers are one of my favorite things to eat in Spain, so I’m glad we have a delicious facsimile of them here in the states. The bread was nice, and the duck fat was a fun, different way of enjoying it, but I felt like the duck fat isn’t quite as flavorful as a nice butter (or rendered pork fat), so I did have a bit more expectations than what arrived.
Next the poutine arrived at the table, and I had made sure to order it because I had heard really good things. It’s a bit more upscale that the poutine I had from a street vendor in Vancouver, as it had short rib in the gravy and it had a bit of an asian flair with what was sprinkled on top. It was really tasty though, so we scarfed it down. Finally, the small bites of quail egg and salmon belly came out. They were basically an amuse bouche type of thing (so I was slightly puzzled about why they came out in the middle of the meal), the duck egg was okay, but the salmon belly was a small bite of Japanese flavor heaven. It’s definitely something I’d get again to start things out.
There was quite a bit of a break between the small bites and the starters, but when they came out they looked fantastic. We started with the cavatelli. The pasta was cooked great, and I loved the sauce, but the addition of uni just ended up being really weird. I do love a good bit of uni, but this rich piece of fish on top of the Italian dish just seemed slightly mismatched. However, the flavor of the pasta and sauce was so good, I’m sure it’s something I’d get again. The salmon collar though was pretty much out of this world. The salmon was cooked perfectly, and the asian broth it was served with was so moreish that I really wish we had each ordered our own plate of it.
I did decide we needed to try some of the dessert as well, so I went for the black sesame cheesecake with caramelized white chocolate and matcha ice cream. The server highly recommended it, but I probably would have ordered it anyway as I love black sesame desserts. Sadly, it was a bit of sweet on sweet on sweet, with the matcha ice cream really being two sweet to offset the cheesecake and the chocolate. Maybe a lemon or yuzu ice cream or sorbet would add some tartness and acid to the dish to really elevate it to the next level. (I may have casually mentioned it to the server, I don’t know if he’ll pass it on).
I think overall, while not all dishes were executed perfectly, there was a lot of really good flavors that I put into my mouth at Salt House, so it’s definitely something to keep on the list for dinner in the area when I don’t have time to make something if we’ve been out. The service was really excellent though as the server was really attentive, friendly, and willing to talk about things, and our water was constantly topped up at the table. I really do prefer places that give excellent service as it does make me feel wanted at the restaurant. The Italian/Japanese/American influences seem a bit disjointed at times, but it’s definitely not like other things you’ll find in the city.
Score: 3.5/5
Recommendation: Anything with Japanese influence, poutine
Salt House
545 Mission Street
San Francisco, CA 94105
