Salt & Vine — Restaurant in Maryland

We came here for the first time after reading reviews for my birthday, and we were very happy to find that every dish and drink we ordered was literally perfect, no notes.

10/10 service: Franco was our server, and he was so sweet and patient. My mother can be a little indecisive and he didn't rush her and shared what were his own favourite drinks and dishes. He brought out a cannoli and candle and sang Happy Birthday for me, which was very sweet as he did it by himself. We definitely plan to come again, and would hope to be in Franco's section again. The GM brought over my second glass of wine and I believe he's also their sommelier -- you can tell he's very enthusiastic about their cocktail and wine program and is very knowledgeable about what they carry. The restaurant makes their own amaretto, which was very aromatic.

I don't think I know everything about wine or pasta, but I do know what I prefer, and Salt and Vine hit everything I was hoping for.

10/10 drinks: I had 2 glasses of the La Perlina Moscato -- absolutely delicious, not too sweet as some moscato can be, and so fragrant. The wine list descriptions are very easy to understand and imagine for those who aren't wine experts, and based on the accuracy of the one for La Perlina, I would assume the rest are just as reliable. My parents got the Spiced Pear Bramble cocktail (packs a flavourful punch for sure) and the Italian Mule with the house amaretto (delicious and great recommendation by Franco).

10/10 food: We got Grandma's Meatballs, the Jumbo Lump Linguini, the Lobster Pappardelle, and the Jumbo Scallops. The pasta was housemade and absolutely perfect al dente, the sauces for both pastas were so flavourful with their respective seafood and not too creamy or overwhelming, and the scallops were literally jumbo and perfectly seared. All the seafood was very fresh, and the portions perfect and generous with the title ingredient. The meatballs were also the perfect texture (tender without being too soft) and the sauce was very bright and fresh. As a side note as someone who also makes their own bread and focaccia at home -- the housemade focaccia is so good and fresh.

10/10 dessert: Besides the birthday cannoli, which was perfect and not greasy or too sweet as some can be, we also got the Coconut Panna Cotta with lemon curd. Absolutely amazing -- perfectly smooth and the right level of firmness, and the creaminess was balanced with how bright and sharp the lemon curd was.

We would definitely come again. I think most people are used to having to go to DC or Bethesda to find the good restaurants, but Salt and Vine is such a lovely hidden gem that's absolutely worth venturing away from the typical...

I was REALLY disappointed with my first visit here for lunch today. So may things that we didn't like. It really pains me to create such a list of gripes... it's not my usual M.O. However I think others should understand all the details that this restuarant needs to pay more attention to.

There's insufficient parking so I had to hobble over there with my sprained knee from the Safeway a block or so away.

We had a 1:15 lunch reservation and it wasn't overly busy - still had to wait til nearly 1:45 to be seated. Obviously understaffed for a plenty-busy Veteran's Day holiday.

No biggie, it's a holiday - have a beer while we wait, right? Nope. Draft system went out so I was left just to imagine what those local brews would taste like. Maybe a split CO2 system or backup might be in order?

Eventually (remember, this is lunch) we were seated upstairs. I was surprised at the choice of interior decor - very art deco. Don't get me wrong, it's REALLY nice...just very incongruous with the antique shop exterior of this historic building. Not nearly as cozy as one would hope.

We cheaply opted for tap water over bottles, admittedly, but they could at least filter the tap water. It was horrible and I can't believe they serve it to customers. We live close by so we have similarly smelly water. Any Brita makes the water taste fine. Really, do better.

Our apps arrived quickly, in about 10 minutes. Unfortunately it was another 10 minutes before we got our drinks we'd ordered before the apps.

Apps were just OK. The arancini and meatballs were just a 4 or 5 out of 10. I would expect better for a restaurant of this type and price point. Galliano's in Maple Lawn performs WAY better on these particular dishes.

Drinks were not good. My wife had a specialty cocktail that was bitter. My spicy bloody was super bland. Their bloody mix is obviously way too thin and tasteless.

I think our brick oven margherita pizza woulda been delicious if it was cooked properly. The sauce was just the right amount of sweet and the cheese properly blobbed on. But it was chewy and some of the dough was still wet. It needed several more minutes in the oven. We brought most of it home so we could pop it in the toaster oven another day and improve it by cooking it fully.

I'm sincerely hoping management works these things out (with the exception of the decor, it is what it is and it's certainly nice). We'd love to go back regularly for dinner. But it's gonna be a little while before we try again.

Oh, see photo for cut off wine list. Too nitpicky for it's own list item but seriously - for a place at this...

Came here Saturday night. I am not sure how anyone would eat here more than once. Our apps/soups/entrees came out lightning quick and almost all at the same time. This tells me 2 things; our server didn't space out the orders, and most likely a lot of the food we ate is pre made/heated up. I would rate our waitress as average. She left the menus on our table for the entire meal, and didn't really clear off our plates as we finished( this could have been tougher because as I stated earlier we were pretty much eating every course at once). In the middle of dinner the manager came over and asked us is he could have one of our chairs since we were not using it. Although I don't really have a huge problem with it, it does seem kind of tacky. They did give us complimentary champagne for our anniversary i did want to mention that. However, when the waitress gave it to us she was basically just like "here this is for your anniversary" and then walked away. If the manager is reading this maybe you could coach your servers to say something like " Hi, I understand it is your anniversary tonight, and to celebrate we wanted to start you off with two glasses of complimentary champagne"

So here is what we ordered to eat;

App: Charcuterie Board - this was probably the best part of dinner.

Soup: Lobster Bisque - I am someone who enjoys this type of soup, and this was definitely one of the worst I have ever had.

Entrees: My wife got the lobster and pasta (which we both agreed was average at best), and i got the code with sweet potato wedges. Let me just tell you something about the aolio sauce that came with this dish. It had so much garlic in it. I love garlic, and the amount of garlic in this aoili was literally insane and very overpowering.

Dessert - Cheesecake -Nothing to write home about. I wish i would have gotten something that they claimed was made in house but oh well.

Bottom Line: If you are a couple and want to spend $200 on dinner, do your selves a favor and go to a place like Woodmont Grill in Bethesda. The ambiance is better, the food is out of this world, and the service is fantastic.

This place needs to either drop their prices, or provide better food. People of Olney, if you are coming here more than once i implore you to try other places.

Sorry this review isn't very good, but trust me it is honest. If the manager wants to send me a visa gift card as a refund I will provide information on a...