Salt + Smoke — Restaurant in Concord

We recently visited your new South County location on Rusty Road. While the service at the bar was quick and attentive and management made a point to welcome us and thank us for coming, the food unfortunately fell far short of expectations.

Our friendly and professional bartender took our order, and within seconds, a food runner was already placing the dishes in front of us. Initially, we assumed it was a mistake—it wasn’t. While fast service is appreciated, receiving food less than a minute after ordering raises serious concerns about freshness and preparation. The deviled eggs tasted distinctly of refrigeration, literally, and the chicken skins were black, cold, and rubbery, and tasted overwhelmingly burnt. We were unable to finish the meal, as it was simply inedible.

Regrettably, this is not our first underwhelming experience with the brand at other locations. Given Salt + Smoke’s strong reputation in the St. Louis market, we find it difficult to understand how the food quality continues to fall short.

We tipped and paid our bill respectfully, but felt compelled to share this feedback in hopes that culinary leadership takes a closer look at execution standards. Guests expect and deserve food that reflects the pride and popularity of the brand—not dishes that feel rushed, poorly prepared, and served to the public at a...

I was not the person ordering the food, my father in law and wife ordered a big meal. The meat is pretty good. The macaroni was good and the beans. The potato salad and Cole slaw are horrible. Get you some southern black friends to make your potato salad and cole slaw and hush puppies. Y’all are getting away from the fundamentals and getting too creative. The deviled eggs were good. You need yellow gold potatoes or Yukon potatoes for your potato salad. The consistency for your deviled eggs needs to be what you have for the potato salad, smooth. I don’t mean mushy potatoes but let them potatoes cook longer make your potato salad and let it sit up for a day. You don’t need cheese. I will give you my grandmother’s potato salad recipe if it will help. Take a trip to North Carolina do more research. Creamy coleslaw not science experiment coleslaw. Hush puppies are way too big and sporadic keep it uniform and classic. Less is more. I’ve got the South Carolina mustard sauce and that’s ok but give the Midwest some eastern NC that cooked with the sauce in it and constantly added during the cooking process. If you can listen to my suggestions, you’ll be number in the entire area...

I’m so disappointed with our experience here, to be honest. My family raves about Salt + Smoke, so of course we had finally to try it out. We were pleased to see that there’s a newer location closer to us, so we stopped by for lunch.

The actual restaurant is really nice. Spacious, clean, lots of seating. Large bar. But the atmosphere, the vibe even, felt very off. There were almost no people dining inside yet service was severely lacking. Our server Claire barely checked on us and was playing on her phone at the bar.

The food was better than the service, but nowhere near good. My Brisket Sandwich was okay, but very gristly and fatty. To S+S credit, the beef fat fries were very good and crispy, especially dipped with their Alabama Ranch. However, I still thought my meal was subpar at best.

My Dad said his 2 meat combo was too salty and dry. I tried a bite of it, and had to agree. Especially the “popover”, which was supposed to be bacon flavored, but just tasted salty and dry. Anyways— rant aside, we would probably never come back here. We were very disappointed in both the...