Salt & Olive — Restaurant in Salt Lake City

I’m not quite sure how to articulate how incredible of an experience my wife and I had at Salt & Olive. This place must be a well-kept secret because in my opinion, there should have been a line out the door clamoring to get a table. It was heavenly bliss to say the least. We started our evening with a beautiful spread of charcuterie, fresh bread and spread, and the Caprese salad. The ingredients were clearly farm/fresh-sourced and intelligently prepared to perfection. Celeste, the GM checked in on us to make sure the dishes were prepared to perfection, and they truly were. Nothing but mad compliments to give to the kitchen. We enjoyed some cocktails from the bar menu and were pleased by the maturity and care they took in giving us the perfect cocktails. How is this place not lined up down the block?

Bring on the entrees! Here we go, guys. Buckle up. “Pappardelle”…I’ve long heard of this legendary pasta and boy did the chef deliver! It’s like egg noodles and lasagna noodles went to prom. The texture is out of this world. The truffles gave a unique experience and sophistication that I could never reproduce at home. Throw on the shrimp add-on, and you are whisked away to fantasy-land on a plate. At $28, this dish is a diamond in the rough. My wife “enjoyed” the Tuna Steak salad. I’m reality, it was likely the best take on this dish either of us have experienced. The tuna flares were seared to a beautiful edgy crisp. They were seasoned perfectly, and paired with a fresh bowl of greens and accoutrement. We could not stop eating this food, though we were completely full from the amazing appetizers. Several team members stopped by to verify everything was cooked to perfection. They were probably disappointed to see we didn’t need anything from them, but that every detail was tended to in the kitchen. What an experience!

Let’s talk more about the drinks, though. They have perfected the dirty martini with a special brine of their expert-picked green olives. The espresso martini (my wife preferred the original version) was nothing less than extraordinary. In her words: “this is THE best espresso martini I’ve ever had”. There you have it.

Would we come back? In a heartbeat! How would I rate it? On a scale of 1 to 10, let’s go ahead and say 500. Salt & Olive should be on everybody’s to-do list. Don’t...

My party of three arrived at 6 PM on a Tuesday. This restaurant is weird. The back half of the restaurant is a full service typical restaurant with waiter serving the table. The front half of the restaurant is a counter service fast casual type thing. Both front and back sections serve the same food. When we got there pretty much the entire restaurant was empty the whole back section was empty. We ask for the back section to get a full waiter service they said we had to make a reservation. My dad asked if we could make a reservation right on the spot, they said the reservation had to have been made yesterday. My dad clarified by saying “the whole restaurant is empty“ they insisted we could not sit back there and get waited upon. So we sat in the front and again ask about getting waited on and this time the waitress gave us a lecture about how they’re about to get really busy so we had to do counter service. I’ve never been in a restaurant that makes homemade sauces/pasta and sells wine but yet you have to go order at a counter like you’re at Café Rio. So that whole aspect was weird and disappointing. My food was equally disappointing I ordered the sausage pasta thing and it was incredibly salty almost in edible. For whatever service there was it was also disappointing. We ordered bread and olives and a Caesar salad for appetizers and because of no waiting service to coordinate anything they bring out our appetizers and then two minutes later while we still have 90% of our salads left they bring out the food. there wasn’t even enough room on the table for all of those plates. I had to pack up my salad which was less than half eaten in a to go box to get back to it the next day when it’s gonna be wilted and gross because of the dressing but what do you do? eat a salad and let your food get cold or eat the food and let your salad go to waste? I won’t go back there This restaurant has a decision to make: become a fast casual Café Rio type place or have homemade pasta and wine with the correct service. But doing both satisfies no one and nothing. News check: if it’s 6 PM on a Tuesday and your restaurant is empty you’re not going to get really busy. by the time we left an hour or so later they were maybe 40% full in both the...

DON’T BOTHER COMING HERE UNLESS YOU ENJOY FEELING IGNORED AND UNIMPORTANT!!!

My boyfriend and I chose to try Salt & Olive for the first time on Saturday night for our dinner date. When we walked in, we saw a hostess desk and a small party of people standing near it like they’re waiting for a table, so we just waited behind them thinking there’s a line, which is fine because we’re patient. But after a few minutes they were still standing there so we thought maybe someone already told them they’ll have a table shortly so we thought that we’re next up.

So we walked closer to the desk, where there were about 2-3 servers standing there as if they were cashing out meal tickets, but got no acknowledgment. We walked closer thinking they didn’t see us because we might not be in viewing range, still no acknowledgment. Finally, I lean on the desk almost face to face to the other server on the other side of it and I’m looking at her hoping to get her attention, and get this, STILL no acknowledgment. Didn’t make eye contact, didn’t say “we’ll be with you shortly”, nothing. Then, about 2 more staff members walked by after the servers at the desk left and neither one of them acknowledged us either. That’s 4-5 people who passed by and didn’t look at us or speak to us. After about 5 minutes of being ignored from the second we walked in, we decided a place that doesn’t greet their customers with pleasure doesn’t deserve our business, so we walked out and went elsewhere.

I’m quite appalled actually, for such a “high quality” restaurant, the service was quite the opposite. I’ve never in my life been treated like that at a restaurant. Especially with my experience working in the food industry in the past, I know how vital it is to treat your customers with importance and kindness, and we received none of that. I understand being busy but there’s really no excuse for that to have happened. And I’m wondering if that happened to the party of people waiting in front of us too. So in summary, if you want to eat delicious Italian food at a restaurant with exquisite service and ambience, just go to Stoneground a few blocks away from here. Much better...