Salt & the Cellar by Akira Back — Restaurant in Four Corners

I was in Orlando for a three day convention over the weekend 10/11/24-10/13. I decided to eat dinner at Salt because I am a retired chef and enjoy trying "fine dinning" restaurants whenever I venture to a town away from home. The ambience was what is expected in a modern dinning room. I was impressed when reading the menu and was also impressed with the the presentation of the drinks I saw coming from the bar. I was excited to see the presentation of the food at his point and was ready to order. I like to stay off the beaten path when it comes to ordering this way I get a better feel for the culinary staffs awareness and ability. I started with a mushroom dish that was offered as a side. The beach mushrooms in the dish were not properly cleaned and still contained the tough wood like ends. The other mushrooms didnt seem to have the texture consistent with fresh fungi. (Seem to be dried and dehydrated.) The yuzu soy flavor paired well with the mushrooms. The presentation left a lot to be desired considering the reputation of Akira. Just a crock of cooked and saused shrooms with haphazardly chopped parsley that appeared to be smashed with a dull knife by a first year culinary student. I consumed the mushrooms despite having to chew until I was worn out because I didn't want to disrespect the other guests and spit it into a napkin. When my entree arrived (miso cod) the presentation was a little less then expected but was not terrible (no fresh garnishings?) The flavors in this dish were where salt lost me for good. The cod was ment to be cooked to medium it arrived cooked thoroughly. The strip if skin left for presentation purposes was not properly seared and was soggy. The soft skin and uncleaned bloodline made for a bite that tasted like the way a can of cat food smells when you first open it. Yuck! The miso glaze was overly sweet as if brown sugar was added. The pickled cauliflower was a bit strange compared to what I am used to. It appeared as if the florets were pickled removed from the liquid and stored uncovered long enough to dry out and shrivel up. They tasted as if they were pickled in straight red wine vinegar. The yuzu air was the best part but did not have enough citrus flavor to mask the bloodline and skin of the fish. Needless to say I lost my appetite after two bites. I will never return. Akira should reevaluate his culinary staff or become more proactive in the functioning of his kitchen and culinary staff. What a huge disappointmet. If I could speak to Akira I would remind him of an old saying in the culinary world; "your best cook will do he worst work the second you stop supervising".

In response to Salts response I have decided to clarify a few things. The blood line on the cod was definitely present. Maybe Salts management should speak with the member of the staff responsible for cleaning and portioning the fresh seafood. While you are at speak to the person who overcooked my portion as well. The "fresh"garnish of sea bean atop my overcooked cod was overly salty, wilted and contributed to the bad taste of this dish but, it was in fact on top my fish. I have a tendency to block out bad memories. This could be why I forgot to mention it. As well as the cauliflower florets, dried out! Regardless of what practice may supposedly be used by the culinary staff. The thing that should puzzle Anyone is how this food is making it to the table. That is the reason I included the last sentence of my review. As far as the wood ends on the mushrooms are concerned. I'm not quite sure how the growing process would prompt any culinary professional to decide to not check and clean the product before serving. I also feel as if Salts responce is coming off a bit pretentious. None the less I will venture to another venue next time I am in Orlando to enjoy the pleasures of dinning in a restaurant that can live up to the visions the executive chef. I would also ask that the responder read and comprehend the review before making comments on...

TL;DR: One of the better Michelin chef's for vegans in Orlando, but not worth the price.

Food: Our group ordered 1 of everything vegan on the menu. While we greatly appreciate a separate and extensive vegan menu, having options is just not good enough to pay these prices. Each dish needs to be superb in both presentation and taste. Only the eggplant and spinach dishes were presented with the artistic Michelin level one would expect and taste wise, the majority of the food was good, but not mind blowing. For example, the fried rice was one of the best tasting fried rice dishes I have had worldwide, but it was just scooped into a pot. The spinach salad was a work of art that tasted superb and the miso eggplant was also top notch. However, everything else fell flat for a Michelin restaurant. The best example of this is the Tofu Steak. This dish is a 1/2 block of unpressed, unmarinated, and mostly uncooked tofu on a bed of mushrooms. The middle of the tofu was cold and honestly did not have any flavor for the price of $38. Now, I am not complaining about the price alone, but it is about value for what you get. A $38 tofu dish could be worth it, if it was clear the time was taken to prepare the tofu for hours or overnight, etc. However, this was simply a lightly seared 1/2 block of tofu that cost them less than $1 and under a minute to prepare. Compare this to the spinach salad at $24 which was delish and GORGEOUS clearly taking one of the chefs a solid 10-20 minutes to fully put together.

Drinks: Fantastical drinks with short lived WOW. I am sure the basic Instagram influencer who doesn't know what the Crusades were about will love these drinks. They are non-alcoholic and gorgeously crafted. However, the wow factor is short lived as the bartenders take away the presentation trays within a minute of hitting the table. E.g., Into the Woods is a green juice with a touch of 0 proof spirits served on this really cool bed of mushrooms and greenery. The bartender explains everything saying, "Served with cute little edible mushrooms!" So we start eating the mushrooms and the bartender gasps, "OH NO! Those are just for decoration, I have to take this tray away after you take your pictures." Not only does that feel weird, but these serving trays also have oil diffused dry ice smoke to enhance the experience. But when they take it away, how can you possibly experience the smells while drinking? Oh, all for $25 per drink so be prepared for that.

Service: for a place that automatically forces 20% gratuity on all food and drinks, one would think the service would be impeccable right? Nope, we had to stand up and refill our own water twice and the third time we just gave up with empty glasses for the second half of the meal. All the servers were kind, no one was rude, but just didn't seem to as actively care since they knew once the food was done, they were getting their money no matter what.

Atmosphere: Beautiful, new modern, marble, and open hotel lobby, but feels weird to be eating $38 cold tofu while Jim Bob checks into the hotel 30 feet away in his swim trunks with his rats playing tag.

Overall, it was hard for us to rate this place because a few dishes were amazing, most were pretty average, so we wanted to say a 4 star. However, on our drive home, we really started comparing the value to the quality and we simply couldn't in good conscience keep it that high. We asked ourselves the following questions to decide:

Would we HAVE to take my wife's European parents here when they have limited visit time? No, it was not that memorable and therefore, cannot be a 5 star. Would we take my Floridian parents here for a celebration dinner? No, to drive 40+ miles, spend $400, we could have had the same quality at other restaurants closer to Orlando proper and thus it cannot...

*Update - Thank you to Gino for inviting us back last night. From the moment we arrived, the restaurant rolled out the red carpet with truly white-glove service and seated us at a beautiful table right by the bar. Gabriel, the sommelier, guided us through at least six incredible wines and his knowledge and passion made the experience unforgettable. The food was top-notch, the service was flawless, and every staff member we encountered was warm and welcoming. The restaurant really outdid themselves, and I’m so grateful for such a memorable evening.

I've been to this restaurant three times before and had wonderful experiences, but last night was by far the worst I've ever had here. I decided to book this restaurant for my friend's birthday, and there were five of us total, four of whom had never been to the restaurant before and wanted to try it on Magical Dining.

From the start, the hostess was dismissive and passive aggressive. She was the worst part of the night. I had a reservation confirmed through Resy and even showed her the text message from the restaurant, but she kept insisting she couldn't find it and treated us like we did not have a reservation. When I pressed the issue, she made a strange comment about this being a "high-end restaurant," as if to suggest we didn't belong there. I don't know if she judged us from the second we walked in or if she was just having a bad night, but her attitude set the tone and ultimately ruined the evening for us.

Instead of seating us inside the (mostly empty) dining room, she placed us in the lobby, where a very loud charity event was happening. When I asked if the event would continue all night, she smirked and said, "yes, it's a charity event," before whispering, "for children." The whole exchange was bizarre, off-putting, and left my entire party of five feeling unwelcome.

The service was equally disappointing. What should have been a smooth three-course dinner dragged on for nearly four hours. Each course came out roughly an hour apart, and our drinks didn't even arrive until after the first course had already been served. While the hostess did have the Chef send out a few appetizers to "make up for it," that did little to offset the frustrating experience. What was also odd is that everybody who served us made a comment about how one of us had been to the restaurant before and the other four hadn't. It wasn't said in a curious way, it was said sarcastically to point out they all knew we spoke up. It was like the entire restaurant knew our story of having to sit in the lobby. We were not disrespectful or belligerent, I don't think we asked for too much in requesting to be seated inside the restaurant, especially considering the lobby party and yet we were treated like those requests were extra. In addition, the lobby, seating is awkward where I had to put a pillow behind my back to even sit on the couch like bench seating. It was definitely not comfortable.

What makes this worse is that my friends had never been there before, and now none of them have any desire to return, one of whom is a well known food blogger. Magical Dining is supposed to be an opportunity for restaurants to attract new customers, especially locals, but it felt like we were treated differently.

This is a beautiful restaurant, with exquisite food, but the dismissive attitude at the front and the painfully slow, disorganized service left us with one of the worst dining experiences...