Red Salt Chophouse and Sushi — Restaurant in Virginia

Had 7 p.m. reservation and was seated without issue. The tables felt crowded to one another. We had a party of three. Our server was fairly formal and somewhat impersonal. She was not familiar with some of the items on the menu such as the volume of water in the bottled options although the restaurant offers two sizes. She also struggled to provide information about the butter board cheeses and butters when it was at our table. More on that. Ordered the scallops and butter board appetizers. The scallops were done very well, but I thought it was a strange choice to pair it with fall vegetables. Especially in May. The butter board was significantly underwhelming. The fact that they have this board with "artisinal butters" for $25 is probably the most egregious oversell I have seen. It says it comes with fruits and cheeses as well. I wish I had taken a picture of how underwhelming this thing was. There were three small pieces of cheese and literally three raspberries and one strawberry that was sliced into pieces. There were four slices of sourdough bread each toasted mildly and cut in half. However, there's enough artisinal butter for twice that amount of bread. That plate wasn't worth more than $14 in my opinion. When the bread was gone, what remained was about 2/3s of each type of butter, three-quarters of the blob of jam that they carelessly placed in the middle, and a full pot of honey. It was at this point that I decided I would not come back to this restaurant. To make matters worse, they brought the board out to the table and dropped it off. There were no knives to spread the butters or the jam, and there were no labels to tell us what anything was. When we asked our server she started telling us what some of the items were and then started guessing at others. She had to leave and come back to clarify. This all occurred easily well after 5 minutes of the item being brought to the table. She also informed us that they don't provide additional bread. What the hell is the point in having a artisinal butter platter if you're not going to provide ample bread especially when the cost component of the bread itself should be the least of the overhead concerns at $25. I had the pear salad which is a holdover from the winter menu. Again, I wish I had taken a photo because the pear salad actually had three thin shaved pieces of pear that were so thin you couldn't taste any of it. There's essentially a $9 bowl of spring mix drowned in dressing with a couple of dried cranberries and some toasted pecans. For the entree, I had the Wonder Woman roll and a side of kale. The Wonder Woman role was relatively dry and flavorless. I could not have been more disappointed in the quality. The role had a hard time staying together but I'm assuming that's because the "forbidden rice" that they use is why it was so dry and wouldn't stick together. It seemed like the dish was really emphasizing the appearance and sauces on the plate over the quality of the roll. The roll itself was more of an afterthought and leaves room for improvement. The side of kale was okay. I feel like it could have been cooked a little bit longer, some of the leaves were still raw in texture and bitterness.

I think this place does a great job creating ambiance and offering a very diverse menu. However, you have to be careful when you're trying to do too many things and you end up not doing any of them well. I read a bunch of the reviews on this place before I made the reservation and I think maybe some people had different experiences based on the night and the staff, or just were caught up on eating at a fancy restaurant. Personally, I don't think that the value in the experience and food is there for the...

A decent restaurant at the price point. 2 apps, 4 entrees, and a bottle of wine ran $240 including 20% tip. Great staff (Travis was nice). Quality sushi, food, and drink options. Here's a few tips to make your experience better:

Reserve seats well in advance and ask for a nice center booth (this is thevmain issue). Sashimi over sushi here (lots of rice) The specialty rolls are good. 1 with an app is plenty of food.

TLDR: If you want good sushi that's in a more fancy venue over YaYas cookbook this is a good bet. You cant really go wrong with any choice you make, theres just nothing jaw dropping here. If you get a bad table the ambiance is ruined. West Coast Provisions next door is a better bet IMO.

Food: Our table mostly got sushi and I had the burger. Everyone said the sushi was nice but I did notice the rolls where very large due to the amount of rice they put in them. The ratio was a bit high. Burger was cooked to my liking and very tasty. The winner was the lobster Mac and cheese. I would honestly get just this and be happy here.

Appetizers: We tried the 2 truffle options. Truffle salmon and the 3 piece truffle sashimi. The sashimi with salami or prosciutto on it was the absolute best. At $15 each piece is $5 though. I would order just 3 of the salami one hands down. The salmon was... well... salmon topped with truffle oil.

Drinks: We enjoyed a bottle of Pinot Noir from Oregon. Very nice but the waiter poured it all out into 4 glasses instead of proper sized pours. Minor issue but lowers the classiness. I've had mixed drinks here before and they are well made.

Dessert: It was my wife's birthday and they gave us a lava cake. This was very decadent and great representation of chocolate lava. Bonus point for the chocolate happy Birthday sign.

Atmosphere: This is where they bombed. This would be a 4 star place if it weren't for the table we sat at (twice now). There are 2 rows of tables that are shoved against the side walls which have zero atmosphere. We got to hang by the wall with a single small led light 8 ft above us and the servers register 4ft behind us. All while looking at the really nice booths and exciting areas in the rest of the place. Essentially dark, and unexciting. Ruined it for us honestly. We booked a week ahead of time too.

Staff: Profession, sharp, and personable. What you would expect at a place like this. No...

Edit: We returned last night and the General Manager saw to it that our experience (both service and food) was PHENOMENAL. They truly made our poor experiences right and for that, we will certainly be back.

We gave Red Salt two tries with two other couples who swear by the place. I'll say up front that the 2 stars here are a gracious nod to the amazing steak and the ambiance of the restaurant which were as good as it got for us.

Both times, the service was incredibly slow. Most recently, we enjoyed our dinner alongside a slew of dirty dishes and consistently empty drinks. Our server, while courteous, was inattentive and MIA most of the evening. Whether he was in the weeds, inexperienced, or just lazy, was hard to tell.

While we fully understand and empathize with the post-pandemic challenges in the service industry, under no circumstances for the amount of money we paid to dine here should we have experienced such a subpar level of service not once but twice.

I contacted management via email to kindly let them know we gave the establishment two tries and were sorely disappointed, letting them know I would include any corrective measures they took in this review. They responded asking for a meeting to rectify the situation. I provided my availability and followed up, but never heard from them again (this was over 2 weeks ago).

I will reiterate that my food was great. But for $150 for just my husband and me, and the affects of inflation continuing to impact all of us, it makes the choice to spend top dollar on a nice dinner that much more important.

The bottom line is - the price did not align with the experience. If you want a great steak accompanied by dirty dishes that barely give you enough space for your empty drink, then this is the...