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 their fish all 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? leavingrestaurantone 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's fish was 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 localrestaurantand not a chainrestaurantthat 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 thisrestaurantat least three stars but after receiving her reply bumped it down to a 1.

salt cellar used to be great - about 15 years ago. the only thing they have worth going for is clam chowder or if there is a tornado in phx... everything else seems like from freezer or worse. they don't even have real iced tea! what kind of seafoodrestaurantdoesn't have brewed iced tea!? in az?!?!! everything is bland, tasteless & super duper overpriced. & the place smells terrible when you walk in.

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 fresh fish and 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 of fish with a generous amount of stuffing. the fish was 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 thisrestaurantagain. the fish was 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 therestauranthas shoe-horned more table since the last time we visited, making it crowded and uncomfortable. my fish was 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.

a rare seafood find in phoenix. i've been here four or five times with my wife. the wait staff are some of the best in the city. they are usually right on. the best mussels i've had since my sister-in-law's house in brooklyn. the seafood tastes fresh and well seasoned. my wife had one bad dish there. the waiter could tell by her full plate she did not enjoy the crab cake entree. he promptly apologized and took to meal off our check. i will be back. norestaurantis perfect but they handled it with class. kudos for running a business the right way!

overrated and overcrowed. after hearing about this place for years, we tried it out awhile back. the place was overcrowded, with people standing elbow to elbow, and there was hardly room to walk between the tables. the first bite my wife took had apparently been stuck to the bottom of the pan or something, because it was burned to a crisp. it was just that one bite, but it was horrible and sure did start things off on the wrong foot. the server was rushing around in a hurry and it was tough to get a refill. the overall impression we got from the staff was that they were so busy and we were so lucky to be there that they just didn't have time to do things better. the food overall was good, but it wasn't any better than the seafood marketrestaurantin mesa, which is half the price and more relaxed.

pricey but priceless food.. service was great
baked spinach mussels/clams were delicious
steak was good
underground bar andrestaurant(nice atmosphere)

i would definetly recommend this restuarant to anyone who has the $$$.

one of my all time faves. i went here with colleagues from new york city (foodies) and we all loved it! i've eaten at everyrestaurantin the valley and this one is really good. the service was great. this isn't a place where you rush in and out. order a bottle of wine, sit back and enjoy the delicious seafood.....you won't be disappointed.