Ouch! How it hurts to loose your favorite eatery. I chose to spend my birthday at SALT and I also decided to try everything on the menu. It was totally clear that there was no chef in the kitchen and the sous and prep chefs were supper sloppy. The only good dishes were the ones that could not be hurt- the tomato soup was great as was the Hanger steak and the tartar, scallop and the shrimp were fine too. All dishes that required actual blending of flavors and creative prep failed. There was also a big issue with presentation and portion. I like small sized dishes but tonight I felt the kitchen was trying to skimp and we were eating the menu so we had lots of extra plates floating around but we all left hungry and it was not possible to share most dishes even more than a taste to your neighbor. This killed my concept of grazing. The worst pothole Penn Ave disaster was the Chicken Fried Mushrooms which had to have been left sitting under a warmer while other dishes were being prepared because it was lukewarm and the gray gravy formed a thick blanket of unattractive mass on top of fried greasy mushrooms. This dish killed a perfectly good mushroom the only saving grace was that they included so few mushrooms. The kielbasa stuffed muscles were a creative thought but the meat overpowered everything else- I lost anything seafood except the shell. The final stab was the slab of thick cut bacon that was passed off as Pork Belly- three parts fat is a portion that should be put aside for ingredient not entree. The servers seemed disinterested although they were pleasant. They never asked how we enjoyed our meal- so I never got to tell them how disappointing it all was. If they had been any where near by or checked into customer care they could have heard or seen the reactions. Because my company was so good I had a good night despite the bad food and I did like the more quiet setting of sitting upstairs verses the hustle and bustle of the downstairs. The metal chairs were not comfortable in fact they were less comfortable than the wooden benches downstairs. I hope Chef owner Kevin Sousa checks in because this is a really bad sign of things to come and my birthday dinner broke my culinary heart. No espresso served here either and we skipped the dessert which I usually liked because we baked our own cake. Looks like I am taking SALT out of my diet. Total waste of great ingredients.