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| - Every time you move to a new city and ask about the places to go for good food, there are a few names everyone rattles off. Salt is one of those in Pittsburgh.
If this were a quasi-French restaurant I might understand the price point, but no such pomp and circumstance. The decor I think is great for a casual dinner, and a fancier date that you don't want to feel too stuffy. I don't care that you have your own place setting and fancy silverware-- it's at a communal table (unless you reserve upstairs). The service was no different than anything you'd expect at Elbow Room, it's fine.
My barometer for any restaurant is a simple protein. It says a lot about how they pick ingredients, their philosophy about bringing flavor out vs. marinating, timing in the kitchen. So I got a hangar steak. Why? No idea. This is a cut closely resembling flank, the stuff people use in fajitas and beef stir fry (read: marinade the shit out of it to make it taste good). The dish came out looking like an art piece, but the meat was so thin it didn't retain any heat and it felt like eating the steak off the top of a fancy salad... without the salad. To their credit, it was cooked well and I could see the idea behind it, just didn't taste good because the cut itself was lacking. Scallops were the same story. Good ingredients, great plating, light fluffy flavors and not too buttery.
We had two drinks a piece. I don't tend to get fancy cocktails but two Hendricks tonics and two Rieslings brought the total to $130 with tip. Humbly two stars from me because feeling "fine" after leaving a place like that is disappointing. Went straight to Wendy's afterwards and got some chicken nuggets.
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