Salt

Great local restaurant with great vibe and good food. Not pretentious but quality service… nice and close to beach

I am an absolute sucker for a good Neighbourhood restaurant. I love the familiarity, the sense of community and the notion that you are supporting local business. Salt definitely fits into this category. It is nestled amongst residential houses in Castor Bay with the only other business in sight being their takeaway shop next door, Little Salt.
Mum and I popped in here recently for a casual Sunday dinner and as it is the way in Neighbourhood restaurants, I immediately recognized the waiter, who also works at my fave local bakery in Milford. Don’t cha just love that!
The restaurant is small but with white walls, minimalistic décor and open windows/​doors it was beautiful on a Summer’s night. We were both ravenous so ordered the crumbed olives stuffed with Gorgonzola almost as soon as we sat down. They were served piping hot and golden brown with the cheese oozing out the centre. Tasty little morsels for sure!
We followed this with ½ doz oysters (of course). There wasn’t the option to have them natural so ordered them with a soy tapioca dressing. It was interesting but I found the soy to be a bit overbearing. I also noticed there were no oyster forks, although that didn’t bother me too much. I prefer to slurp them straight off the shell anyway.
For mains we ordered three entrees to share — the cerviche, the pork tacos and scallops with a side of chunky fries and a green salad. The food came out pretty quick presentation was brilliant.
We dug into the cerviche first, which was served with a herb laden green gazpacho and a fennel and citrus salsa. The flavours were well balanced and the fish wonderfully fresh but again no spoon for the gazpacho.
The scallops were next — beautifully caramelized and served with a papaya purée, karengo salad and tasted coconut. I enjoyed the tropical flavours and thought the refreshing karengo was a nice touch.
The pork tacos were definitely the all round favourite — long strips of crunchy tortilla heaped with a generous serving of pulled, hoison rubbed pork and a spicy bbq sauce. My only wish was that there was more sauce.
The chips also deserve a special mention. They had just the right amount of crunch and plenty of salt. Initially they forgot the jalapeño mayo but after a quick reminder the problem was solved. Seriously good — we couldn’t stop eating them.
Unfortunately, we have no room left for dessert I have my eyes on the kaffir lime crème brulee for next time!
I am so excited to have such a fantastic restaurant open up in the hood! Great job guys.

Wonderful food and wonderful service, particularly as we were in a group of nine. Will definitely be going back to try other dishes on the menu.

It was hard to fault the food and the staff at Salt. The environment was a little cold. It needed softening up but every bite was stunning. Well done