salt cellar

went this evening and had a more than terrible experience. ws really looking forward to a great night for our anniversarymaria was able to get us a reservation at the last minute. thanks. arrived and was seated. ordered drinks with my husband. martinis. only one was brought. asked for blue cheese stuffed olives. they didn't have them but we're able to bring us the cheese (charged us) and the olives. we could stuff them ourselves. had 2 orders of rockefeller. average. then salad. one came with mushrooms (soggy) the other none. but the other had some of the core of the lettuce and some brown lettuce. told tim the waiter. not too concernedmain courses arrive. florida grouper and fried lobster with grits and a small filet. grouper rubbery but then raw in the middle. manager tells me they don't cook theirfishall the way. at this point i'm done. was offered a replacement but declined. asked for the bill. grouper removed. gave payment to server who then responds. oh i see it's your anniversary. are you sure you don't want desert? leaving restaurant one of the hosts asked how it was and i said terrible and he chuckled and i said "no seriously " terrible. no one was even concerned. on drive home my husband tells me his lobster was overcooked and no seasoning on the filet. he never uses salt and pepper out but did tonight. one of the worst meals ever.
if you are reading this and thinking of going. think 2 or 3 or even 20 times before going there. bad food. bad service. no customer service

my grandparents came into town from florida and wanted to go to dinner. their absolute favorite food is seafood and being that they live in a place where great seafood is available everywhere, i wanted to take them someplace that would not disappoint. anytime i have ever asked anyone where to get good seafood at in arizona, the answer has always been the salt cellar.

i want to start off by saying the service staff in every aspect was stellar. we showed up with one more person than we had anticipated and the hostesses were quick to make the last minute accommodation. the ladies in your bar were so sweet, and our server was amazing.

in regards to the food, my sister and i ordered oysters on the half shell, which were the best we have ever had. my mom got the crab stuffed shrimp and really enjoyed it. my sister and i also split the crab legs and filet. unfortunately, this is where things take a different direction. crab legs were great, but the medium filet was not seasoned at all and was chewy. my fifteen year old son got the filet and shrimp. he liked the shrimp, but said the steak was not good, and he usually likes, and will pretty much eat everything with no complaints. my grandfather'sfishwas overcooked, and my grandmother's fried shrimp was soggy. we had cold veggies on our plates that tasted like they were warm at one time, but had sat out for quite awhile.

let me just say, money is not the issue here. our bill was 317 dollars after tip, for an average of about 53 dollars per person. totally reasonable for a great meal. when it comes to amazing food, service and atmosphere i would pay double that. i do realize this is a seafood restaurant, however for the amount of money that is being charged i would expect to leave feeling that everything was amazing. i originally thought about going to the keg which is similarly priced. i have ordered different steak and seafood dishes there many times and each time said to my husband, "oh my god. i loved every part of that dinner!" however, i wanted to take my grandparents to a local restaurant and not a chain restaurant that they could go to anytime in florida. after hearing the great things about this restaurant, i decided to take a chance and go here instead. i was honestly so surprisingly disappointed and to be frank, embarrassed that i suggested it. it was just, eh. everyone left saying "it was ok, but not great." my mom and sister who also live here said it was totally not what they had expected.

i did not want to tell the server about this in front of my whole family when he asked how everything was, not to mention we were in a hurry and could not have had our dinners remade at that time had they offered. so i decided to return home and email the manager. in her response she just proceeded to tell me that the issue is their food supplier and not the preparation. she made absolutely no attempts to regain our service. i would have given this restaurant at least three stars but after receiving her reply bumped it down to a 1.

2nd time around. it had been a while since we visited the salt cellar. on this occasion, we had a reservation at 5pm and arrived early for the happy hour.

we were the excited first ones in, we were greeted kindly and made our way downstairs to the bar. ordered a couple drinks and appetizers, the oysters and shrimp cocktail. the small bar was filling up quickly! we got our appetizers (our preference is small oysters, these are huge and only option), they were good? just wish there was more of a selection. second appetizer, shrimp cocktail. the cocktail sauce was the best thing of the night! they were good, but one wasn't cleaned properly and another had a strange black mark on it. i'll add the lemon had a bad mark on the peel. just unappealing. we didn't complain, the bartender was great, maybe a little overwhelmed at how busy it was. so...$60 later, we're off to dinner.

off to our table, be warned those with claustrophobia, this dining room is small! very attentive waiter, we ordered our meals, enjoyed the bland salads. the bread is great! we ordered the stuffed lobster and filet with crab leg. lobster not impressive, filet is a 1/4 inch thick with no seasoning whatsoever, crab leg good. broccoli cold, with something that i thought was hollondaise, but it was a weird, white, cold something stuck to it. our favorite things were the rice and baked potato. so, dinner was around $150 with a cheap bottle of wine.

our opinion, no, we won't be back here again. the staff is great! the nostalgia is there, the food just isn't. i'm not sure if they cater to a crowd who doesn't like taste in their food? and if the owners believe in quality or just have plain pride in the food served? we'll go to kingfishor flemings instead.

we just went to the salt celler for my birthday. tim was our waiter. he was very unaccomadating. i have a limited diet and requested myfishnot me cooked with butter but rather lemon or olive oil. he said it could not be done. he also messed up my order. this was my first and last time to this restaurant.

we went here recently using. groupon. my guy loves loves seafood so this was an opportunity to try one of the only seafood restaurants in the valley. i like their menu in that they fly in freshfishand seafood from all over. each menu item lists where the seafood was caught. i really wanted a boston seafood dinner with chowder, steamer clams and lobster. but even with the groupon, it was a bit out of my price range. the couple sitting next to us got this and it looked amazing. our meal did start with chowder. i had the creamy clam chowder and he had the red based manhatten clam chowder. both were very good. the only complaint i have is that the bread was not good. if i am going to spend a lot for dinner, i expect top quality bread. i was hoping for warm, crusty rolls, maybe sourdough. but the bread was a dry, nondescript, pasty white bread. please salt celler, you can do better! for the entrees, i had the stuffed rainbow trout from idaho. it was a huge portion offishwith a generous amount of stuffing. thefishwas well prepared, just cooked and moist and flaky. i did not like the stuffing but this might be a matter of personal taste, as r loved it. it came with a very good mixed green salad, steamed veggies and a pecan rice. i feel bad saying this but the rice was very disappointing. it was undercooked, chewy, lukewarm and had no flavor. r had grilled salmon and it came with the same salad and veggies, but he had a large baked potato. the salmon was a king salmon from canada and it was perfectly prepared and delicious. even though my meal was not what i hoped for, i would definitely try this restaurant again. thefishwas fresh and well prepared, and that's hard to find in the desert. i personally like shellfish more, so i might have liked another dish. it's a very cute place, and they were extremely crowded from the groupon. it is pricey, and i think they could really give a better impression with a different bread and side dish (i.e. the pecan rice). next time i will go for the clams, lobster or scallops. the alaskan halibut cheeks also sounded and looked delicious and you rarely see them on a menu.

needs an update!. the meal was fine, but the restaurant has shoe-horned more table since the last time we visited, making it crowded and uncomfortable. myfishwas cooked perfectly, my companions lobster slightly over-cooked. but the vegetable medley accompaniment look and tasted frozen, and not in a good way. with the other good choices in phoenix, we'll think twice before we go out of our way to go back.

overrated for many years. the salt cellar is a huge disappointment and perhaps even a bigger waste of money. i've tried the place several times with friends and family. the service is attentive, but the food is just bad. the last visit i had a piece of halibut, which must've come from at least a 600 lb.fish(which, with halibut is bad...the smaller the fish, generally, the better the eating) was overcooked and dry. my partner's salmon in pastry was no better: bland, pink and rubbery. the food was served after a salad with ice crystals in it (a new trend?). very very disappointing.