Salt at Geist — Restaurant in Fishers

Wow, not what I expected at all. Hostess was pleasant and seated us quickly, and got water immediately after sitting down. Took 10-15 min for the server to get our drink order. He seemed rushed and thanked us for being first time visitors but told us nothing about the restaurant. Another 10-15 min to get our drinks. The whole time a manager was buzzing about talking to some tables and never said anything to us. The atmosphere was very if you weren’t known there you weren’t welcome. Bread is a purchased appetizer, not included. It was good and my husband thought the lobster bisque was decent (gets it at every seafood/ steak restaurant we go to and this one did not blow him away, but wasn’t bad). However, no one gave him a spoon so had to wait on that. Entrees came out, again no one set appropriate silverware for entrees, so my husband asked the manager for a steak knife for me: I think there was a mumbled apology, but no greeting or asking how everything is or how food was. Seemed rushed to talk to someone else. Husband had shrimp and grits and said they were good. My filet was cooked perfect! Mashed potatoes were barely warm, but otherwise good. Server never touched our table between food being set and we were done. A different server dropped a kids water right next to me that went under the table and the cup actually hit my foot. Was just water and didn’t splash on me, but it was left there pooling and no one came to it for about 5 minutes when another server came by and was stunned. Honestly, I was most worried someone was going to fall. Manager came over and said something about the water so I finally moved to a different seat at the table so they could clean it up. The manager came back and was more concerned with who to blame and smelled like cigarettes or alcohol, couldn’t tell. He did take 50% off our meal, but the whole experience was ruined by then. Did not ask us about the rest of the evening at all. Overall service horrific, food...

Summary: Food just ok, service decent, and the place is dirty.

Went with the family for brunch on a Sunday. Food was just ok — I had crab cake benedict, and the crab cake/egg were prepared decently well but the dish had no balance. No greens, nothing light/bright (not enough acid in the sauce?), and it was served with hash browns (when there's already a starch on the plate, the english muffin — Rize does Benedicts better, with some microgreens and a small spring salad). This theme repeated itself across all the dishes (another Benedict, some omelettes) — heavy and unbalanced. In general the food was tilted more toward the greasy spoon type of brunch place than the higher end experience I expected.

Service: the waitress was really nice and attentive, but some small things happened that suggest some issues — one person in our party ordered a short stack of pancakes (which was on the menu) but then a full stack arrived because "we don't have the short stack option in the computer." OK, so...you have things on the menu that your POS doesn't support? And even if that's the case, you couldn't just talk to the kitchen or put a note on the ticket? Someone's tea arrived without the cream that was ordered, or a spoon to stir anything into it. Another person's drink arrived with a bug in it. By themselves, all small things, but stuff's starting to add up here to a less than great experience.

Speaking of bugs, here's possibly the worst part: the place was dirty. Sure at first glance it looked ok, but while sitting at the table I noticed the trim/chair rail on the wall was quite dusty, and then I noticed the bugs. Dead bugs in cobwebs along the wall trim, dead bugs in the corner by the plant. Dead bugs along the window sills. One or two I can understand, but this was a lot — it was clear those areas hadn't been cleaned, even in a cursory way, in days.

Adding all that together, I don't think we'll be back. I'd rather go to Rize or Patachou for a...

We have been a handful of times and have never left impressed with service/food/atmosphere comparably to atmosphere/location. The location and atmosphere is great, but the actual restaurant/food has been less than hoped for in most every aspect.

Since the summer when we were there, they must have felt the need to change up the menu and provide smaller portions. Don’t go if you are hungry or expect meat in your dinner. They brought out my Lobster and Mac and Cheese and it came in child sized portion of Mac n Cheese with maybe 4 bites of Lobster. It was literally an OVERPRICED Mac n cheese from Sam’s club. I ordered the entree portion and as I look at the review pictures online it was SLIGHTLY larger than the pictures of the side of Mac n cheese but I paid $28. It was so small that I literally laughed and asked the poor guy bringing the food out it was the right portion. I felt bad for him as he walked away. How easy and inexpensive is it to make it look like a larger portion and put at least a clump of lobster on top of pasta in a larger bowl. Just poor presentation and lack of meat and even pasta.

Our waitress was subpar and didn’t really ask if we liked the food and it was obvious that it was a disappointment.

Also they use to have a drink with a “buzz button” (edible flower) that was a delight and reminded me of the Cosmopolitan in Vegas that is renowned for this drink but it was absent from the menu. I would come back and pay the $15 for that drink and say thank you with no food, but the Lobster and Mac n Cheese...