Salt Cellar Restaurant

Recommends

Robert M.

Joined 1 year ago

A friend recommended this restaurant to me and I must say it was a good choice. The food is excellent, staff friendly and very clean. Well worth a visit.

Recommends

stephanie Peterson

Joined 2 years ago

Excellent Seafood. After hearing favorable comments about the Salt Cellar we made reservations and went last night.

Service was prompt and courteous in the bar and at our table.

Although they carried a good selection of wine, the quality was subpar. Sutter Home may be a fair wine, but not what I would expect at an establsihment such as the Salt Cellar.

We started our meal with clam cowder which was tasty with a hint of bacon. However, the soup was not rich and creamy, but milky.

The salad was excellent, made with a variety of greens and fresh mushrooms. Nice presentation.

My main entree was halibut, wild rice and a steamed carrots with green beans and it was excellent. The generous serving of halibut was cooked to perfection as was the veggies. The rice was so delicious, I could have made a meal out of it alone!

My husband had king crab legs that were hot, plump and succulent, perfectly prepared with a side of clarified butter that was placed in a warming dish. I am not sure why the previous reviewer said it wasn't sufficient in quantity. The order is 1.5 pounds which my husband who is a hearty eater had trouble finishing.

Although the prices are high, you are paying for fresh flown in fish in the desert.

We will definately return and I highly recommend the Salt Cellar. I would have given them a 5 star if it wasn't for the wine list and clam soup.

Doesn't Recommend

FoodieChick

Joined 2 years ago

Not Impressed. I was really excited about this restaurant. My brother had mentioned it to me a while ago and I had high expectations. The ambiance of the place was great. An underground restaurant is a cool idea.

However, the food wasn’t cooked very well, the portions were small, and it was EXTREMLY overpriced. We had oysters on the half shell and escargot to start. This was excellent. My issue came with the main course. My husband and my brother both ordered crab and lobster. It was way overcooked and rubbery (a trend I noticed in other reviews AFTER I went to the restaurant). They were too polite to send it back, but my brother did mention it to the waiter when he asked if the food was good. He didn’t even get an apology. Our vegetables were also way underdone. We basically got a huge chunk of raw broccoli. I like broccoli, but steamed broccoli shouldn't be crunchy. My brother’s Irish coffee wasn’t made right either.

The other thing I noticed was portion size. My plate was $30+ and I got one skewer of scallops, a SMALL baked potato, and broccoli. If I hadn’t ordered an appetizer, I would still have been hungry. My husband and brother had the same issue. My husbands plate had 1 crab leg…..that’s ridiculous!

I would expect this kind of thing from a place where I spent $50-$60, but we walked out with a tab of $211.00. I do not think I will be going back. I have had better seafood at Pappaduex!

Doesn't Recommend

jmartinez0427

Joined 3 years ago

The Salt Cellar. Alright, so i was told by a family memeber that this was his favorite restaurant, so I decided to take my wife for a nice dinner. I should have went somewhere else.

First off, we were laughed at by the lady greeting us and the lady who took us to our seat. Don't know why. They just looked at my wife and I, looked at each other and started chuckling. That was rude. Maybe I had somthing hanging from my face. Who knows?

Anyway, We started by ordering the maryland crab cakes. They were good but nothing to write home about. For my main course I ordered the lobster and steak. The lobster was way over cooked and very rubbery. The steak was cooked how I like it but tasted like it wasn't seasoned at all. Very bland. My wife ordered the stuffed lobster. Same story, lobster way over cooked. Whatever they stuffed her lobster with was terrible and the scallops inside tasted bland as well. My wife took one bite and stopped eating We told the server and she just said "sorry", walked away and gave us the $120 check. Normally when you go to a restaurant and don't like something, they offer you a different choice, discount on the check or both. We got none of that. I will never return to this place again. Severly over rated. We should have went to Red Lobster. I could have saved some money and had better food.

Final review, Over priced food, over rated food and rude staff.

What a joke.... but no one is laughing.

Recommends

Thisplacerocks

Joined 3 years ago

I love this place. We started off by making a reservation well in advance as they are busy most of the time from what I hear. We had another couple with us so that made 4. We sat at a great round table whee we could all talk. Nice!! The server told us about some specials and we all tried something different and shared. This is the place if you want FRESH-WONDERFUL-SEAFOOD. You will not be dissapointed.

Dessert and coffee were hard to get down as the portions are big but we had to try the Banana dessert.YUMMY

Recommends

James Echols

Joined 3 years ago

Great Sea Food in a hole in the middle of the desert!!!. A nice lady bartender at the airport Crowne Plaza Hotel in Phoenix reccommended Salt Cellar when asked about seafood places around Phoenix. I have traveled a great deal around the world. This was however my first visit to Phoenix. My wife Bonnie and I were very pleased and had a wonderful dinning experience at Salt Cellar Rstaurant in Scottsdale Az. We reccommend this unique experience.

Recommends

Married2AF

Joined 3 years ago

Best Seafood in AZ period!. Our waitress, Christina, was really friendly and very helpful! She suggested we start of with the Sauteed Shrimp San Remo and we weren't disappointed at all! It was one of the best things I have ever had! The sauce it is made with is so delicious, you can dip the bread in it too. My husband got the stuffed baked lobster, which was absolutely awesome. I got the steamed lobster and that was delicious as well. The staff cracks the lobster so you don't have to do the "dirty work" and that's an added bonus as well. Overall the experience was great and we had an outstanding time. We just can't believe it took us seven years to find this place but then again, we live on the other side of town. We definitely recommend this place to anyone who likes seafood!!!

Doesn't Recommend

ozialien

Joined 3 years ago

Terrible food. I had heard how good it was. What a disappointment. Very expensive restaurant with food inferior to the corner fish and chip shop back home in Australia, or MT, CT, NY.

The waitress was very good. But her support from the kitchen and the near teenage greeters at the front were not charming one bit.

If somebody eats here and says the food is good, then they do not know what good sea food is, from somebody who catches it.

Recommends

Letseat

Joined 4 years ago

Fishlover#1. The Salt Cellar offers the best seafood in the entire valley. I should know, I eat seafood every chance I get. My husband and I dined at the Salt Cellar twice this month already (october 2009). We ordered the king crab legs and the shrimp san remo. It melted in our mouths- We decided to order the yako (?) tuna for an appetizer because we loved it the 1st time as a dinner. Every appetizer and entree we have ordered there has been cooked to perfection. The service was prompt when it needed to be but she also knew when we wanted some alone time. The servers there really know how to make the evening special. The bottle of wine we ordered was poured by the server and the cheesecake (snickers) was amazing. I would HIGHLY recommend this amazing restaurant to anyone who wants to impress their date (1st date or married for 50 years).

5 stars to the Crew of the Salt Cellar

Doesn't Recommend

Stomp

Joined 4 years ago

Poor service and quality. I went here w/ my family the first and ONLY time last night. The prices are high and the quality of service and food are poor.

The hostess was extremely rude, commenting on our attire even though we were similarly dressed as other patrons. The food was average at best; I had the shrimp scampi which was inedible. I returned the meal unfinished and barely eaten as it tasted as if it were cooked in Pine-Sol. The prices were very high for the quality of food and rude and unprofessional greeting. The hostess, an older white female w/ above the shoulder length hair should at least wait until the guests of her place of employment have left before disparaging their attire with such disdainful comments as, "Have you seen the ones that just walked in?"

The table server, at least, was polite and professional, but that along w/ a "cool" building certainly do not justify the overly high prices. I WOULD NOT recommend this place to anyone, I know there is better service and seafood for less money somewhere else in the area. Do not waste your time and $$$ here.