Sala Restobar — Restaurant in Beverly

I don't leave reviews often, but I had such a poor experience here that I felt I needed to share. Caution: long read.

My friends and I went to dinner for Dine Out Boston. The restaurant was listed and had a Dine Out menu that looked interesting. Didn't realize Beverly participated in Dine Out, but I was excited to try something new. Upon arriving, our table wasn't ready for our reservation. Not a big deal, it happens, but there was poor communication between the host and the busser about when it was actually clean yet. We just kind of all awkwardly stood there and stared at the busser while waiting for that answer. The busser had already moved on to clearing tables from another party.

After being seated, we realized we didn't have Dine Out menus. Totally chill, that happens, but when asked about it, the host had no idea what we were referring to. That's strange; they're on the official and unofficial websites (Dine Out and Restaurant Week). Upon reading the menu, we realized there was a tasting menu prix fixe, but it was referred to as "Taste of Sala" and didn't include all the dishes we saw from their menu on the official Dine Out Boston website. We finally ordered drinks and food. The drinks were fine, but the food was close to inedible. I started with the brussels sprouts and the level of salt was almost painful. I'm a chef in the area and looovvee salt, but these sprouts were just sitting in and soaking up pure soy sauce with an excess of bacon and extra flaky salt on top. My friends ordered the sweet potato dumplings and had a similar issue. Once crispy dumplings were just soaking up straight soy sauce and sogging out. I ordered the yakisoba for my main and again, it was so salty it was inedible. I hate wasting food, but I couldn't even take that home to try to salvage myself. It was not a yakisoba; it was some strange interpretation of ramen? My friends ordered the street tacos and the duck bao buns. Both had sushi rice included clearly as filler, and it didn't make sense or taste good in either dish. Bao doesn't need rice and neither do tacos. For 3 duck baos, it came to nearly $30, an insane price, with very little duck. By the time we got to ordering dessert, we couldn't order the one dessert we were all excited to try because the kitchen was now closed. The reservation was for 7:30 and it was 8:45. All night, we kept looking around for our waiter. He took a very long time to take our orders. It got to the point where I had to get up to ask if we could order dessert before they closed; it was included in the prix fixe menu. I can't say I've been to any restaurants that close that early, and I think they shouldn't take reservations after 7pm if they can't provide their full menu until 9.

The prices don't make sense either. The shiitake baos and the cheeseburger baos were both the same price on the regular menu, but the cheeseburger baos had a $4 upcharge on the prix fixe menu, why? With a drink and the prix fixe menu, the average was about $70 pp and it wasn't close to worth that price. I, nor my friends, could bring ourselves to take any food home, and I wouldn't recommend this place. The only tasty things were the korean sesame wings (still too salty, but edible) and the truffle fries (though they were not truffle themselves, they just came with a watered down "truffle aioli" with the consistency of thick milk). In contrast, we ate at Althea earlier in the week for Dine Out and had an amazing meal! It was the same price, and totally worth the money. Drinks, food, ambiance, and service were all on point.

It's such a shame because it's a pretty restaurant and the live...

My girlfriend and I went out to this restobar tonight as we usually like to go out to eat every Saturday. I had seen Sala while driving around and it looked pretty nice, so we reserved a table and we were excited to try out the fusion food we saw on the online menu. Once we got there my excitement diminished. The atmosphere was a bit strange; it felt like the restaurant didn't have a solid identity, as I couldn't tell if it wanted to be a classy restaurant or cozy bar. That's really not the point of this review though, so if you like the vibe and the food, that's cool, I could see why some people would like it (though I would definitely recommend this place get a larger selection of wines - any nice bar should have more than 4 red wines, c'mon guys). The real issue came with the our waitress. Once we got seated and started to order, it seemed that she couldn't hear us that well. I ordered the food twice, the second time literally pointing at the food on the menu so she knew what we were getting and she confirmed the order (which my GF did admonish me for later, saying pointing at the menu was a bit condescending, so my bad on that. It wasn't my intention). We ordered the burger bao buns and the jumbo shrimp dish they have. Eventually Bao Buns came, but not the shrimp, and when they started taking a long time to come out, my date and I started getting a little bit annoyed. Eventually a different waitress came over to ask if we needed anything and we said that we were still waiting on our food (the other staff were nice). A waitress then came and gave us some duck Bao Buns, compliments of the chef, which was very nice of them, and my GF and I assumed they were giving this to us because something must have gone wrong with the shrimp dish and it needed more time. Our waitress came some time later and asked if we needed anything, and we told her we were still waiting for the shrimp dish. She said that she didn't remember us ordering the shrimp dish, even though I very much remember ordering it because as previously stated, I literally pointed out and said the exact things we wanted on the menu, which my GF had said was rude of me. That's fine, mistakes happen, if it were just that, it wouldn't have been a good dine out, but I wouldn't make a review about it. So we told the waitress that we didn't want the shrimp dish anymore and that we just wanted the check. We got the check and then we saw that she had added chicken wings onto our bill, which we neither ordered, nor received. I approached her with this and her mood changed. Sometimes I have a hard time reading people, but my GF assured me that, yes, indeed, the waitress was giving us dirty looks, and was being very curt with her language after I had her remove the wrong item from the bill. There was a lot of things I could forgive from this experience, but after so many screw ups, I would hope for a more respectful tone and demeanor. I hope that this one event isn't representative of what this restaurant is, that's why I gave it only two stars instead of a one, but I want to be clear, the experience I had tonight, was...

Came to this place with a party of six people on a Thursday evening. I live out of state.

Walking over from the train station, I saw outside seating. A clean and sleak exterior. The corner location reminds me of older established restaurants.

Our party was met by Max. Warm and welcoming with a genuine smile. She had us seated quickly.

The interior is fresh and updated. There are places for drinks at the bar, and at a Hightop. There are also booths for intimate meals, and tables which can be arranged as needed.

The lights adjust with the time, and they have blinds to minimize the setting sun .

The men's room was clean and updated.

Our party was served by Gabe with support from Max. Service was great. Gabe and Max made great suggestions for drinks and food.

As a former dishwasher and former mystery shopper, I noticed the glasses and cutlery were clear or spots. The dishwasher should be complimented.

The suggested drinks were very tasty. I encourage people to try their signature drinks. The maestro at the bar nailed it...not too strong and they were consistent with each round.

Now let's talk food. I have never been to a tapas style restaurant. I was shocked how the food tasted . I learned the food is prepared fresh, including the sauces. The pork, cheeseburger, and duck buns were incredibly tasty. The chicken fried rice was obviously made with fresh ingredients.

Side note I have a shell fish allergy. The staff made accommodations and separated my food...Gabe, Max, and Chef Alex clarified and took strong measures to accommodate me. Thank you.

The food and drinks were flowing and the live music added to the atmosphere.

BTW the Jazz musicians were really enjoyable. For you Vets, the lead musician is a retired vet, and living his dream post service. Stop in and check him out. I am not a jazz listener, but he was good.

Deserts were great...again homemade. We had a selection of them...amazing and just enough to share.

Chef Alex came by and sat down with us. He explained his passion is cooking and serving people to experience the taste of his cuisine.

Overall it was a great time. I would suggest this restaurant in a heartbeat. A quick bite, special event, or to enjoy the music. It is not a corporate chain, it is owned and operated by a Chef who has chosen to live in Beverly, ...