Salt Bar Pizza Grill — Restaurant in Maldon

Salt… what’s can I say.

I wasn’t going to write a review as I wanted to try something new and after visiting the restaurant I will not be returning, but after the restaurant responded to my friend in such a poor manor, I’m afraid it has to be done.

The restaurant is beautiful, wonderfully decorated but that’s about it… From the rude staff, to the less than mediocre food, I was not impressed.

We were seated at the bar after being informed our table was not yet ready… to kick things off, we were then given the wrong cocktails which we were not charged for, and rightly so. We had been waiting at the bar for 40 minuets before my friend asked how much longer, and questioned why we couldn’t we sit at one of the 2 empty tables behind us. To which we were were advised that they were waiting for us to finish our drinks?

We then ordered our starters which were probably the best part of the menu… for main we had a pizza each, accompanied by a side of chips, rosemary potatoes and some veg. We had to send the veg back as it was stone cold, only for it to emerge seconds later reheated in the microwave. The pizza’s were dreadfully bland and dry, you would be batter off ordering from dominos! The chips were nice, but the potatoes were parched to say the least and seasoned with dried rosemary… Wouldn’t hurt to use fresh and maybe a knob of butter while you’re at it!

My partner then went around the counter to pay the bill as he wanted to be discreet and treat our friends to a ‘nice’ meal, only for the bartender to tell us the bill was over £400. He insisted this was our correct bill and that we had ordered shots and a meat platter which was not the case. This resulted in the conversation getting heated between the two. Our waiter then resolved the issue before coming to collect our almost untouched plates. He greeted us with silence and snatched the plates away like a toddler scolded by his mother.

As per your recommendation of ‘I think you made the right choice to not come back to us any more begging for free food and drinks bit instead you can enjoy the donner kebab at very cheep price as that will definitely make your night.’ You are right, I would much rather eat a kebab from SARK which you will find next door who offer amazing food at reasonable price and are more than gracious hosts! Also, out of curiosity, you should have offered a discount as opposed to us having to ‘beg’ for it.

Can’t wait to see what they turn the the place into once you’re...

We went for lunch with my family, 4 adults and 2 kids, short version is grumpy waiter, over priced and mediocre food.

The main waiter, an older gentleman, seemed to scoff and roll his eyes at every request, I’m not some Karen being rude or picky, we weren’t asking for loads of things, or being impolite, he just had a chip on his shoulder for some reason. My wife is a waitress and we make sure we're always polite and respectful to waiting staff. I've never really had that experience with a waiter before, literally rolling eyes AT US as we asked for something like a desert menu, it really left a bad impression at our table. I've seen a few other reviews pointing this out too, perhaps the same man, perhaps he should step down and take a non-customer-facing role, as the other, younger waiters and waitress were perfectly nice.

I’m not just being negative about the food because of the waiter, he definitely made us uncomfortable, but honestly it was mediocre, I don't know why the food is so expensive, the pizza / pasta dishes are like £15-17 and they're so basic, and don't taste that great.

You’d be crazy to eat here with Sark right next door. We’ve always gone to Sark but my step mother wanted to try this place as she said it was always busy when she passes, we all regretted it, and this is definitely the last time for all of us.

One last point is they didn't have any child seats, I have a 2.5 year old and he had to sit in a regular seat, well kids move a lot and the ground below his seat was dipped, the chair actually fell over backwards and he hit his head. I didn't blame or scold the staff at all, instead I thanked the two younger waiters who came over showing concern and we just got on with our meal, but if you have younger children just be prepared for them to sit in regular seats.

Just skip this place and go next door to Sark, if you are desperate for pizza, then go to Dominos, much better...

Where to start, it's nice that Maldon has somewhat an authentic Italian but it's more commercial flashy pazzazthen anything else, just like Paparazzi, if you want Authentic Italian I would suggest Luigi's for their friendly staff, real cooking, overall Italian atmosphere and intimate experience.

After that epilogue, it was my birthday and someone else's and we booked 12 people and told them this week's prior, when we got to our space we was one table short so they put a round table at the end as they were running short on 1x1 tables.

We order our food fine, starters, drinks and mains the staff were very attentative, anything you could ask for, the Front of House staff and waiters excellent service.

So we get our food and some had ordered pizzas and some had ordered pastas, we was told pasta was fresh but it felt like it was more water based pasta and the pizza was mid at best, good quantity but fell apart as soon as I picked it up.

Our main issue and gripe was the heating in there, there were 4-5 air conditioning units in there, it was a 26 degree day, evening now so must of been 23⁰c- 24⁰c. We were sweating and non of the air condition units where on, it made eating the food uncomfortable as the food was warm in itself. We did ask if they would turn the air conditioning on and their response was "sorry we can't because the front doors are open". Well then why not open them then? There was an air condition unit by the front door? It made the whole experience uncomfortable and not fun and we didn't stay for desert because of it and wasn't offered and apology or explanation considering the size of our party.

Also we calculated our costs between 12 of us and divided it by 12 and still had a 10% excess charge, not sure what that was about.

You can see my previous reviews I'm not a Karen I don't review things unfairly, I just feel like we had a poor experience at Salt on...