Luckily my kids are always game for trying a new restaurant with me, and since we were taking them to a concert at Old National (the Murat), we decided to check out Salt, which is so conveniently located. I had been wondering about it because I haven’t really heard much about it since it opened initially, but I think the concept of a good seafood-centered restaurant in Indy is one that is needed. Let me state up front that this dinner occurred a couple months back, and it looks like the menu may have changed a bit.
The interior of the place is well done. You can see someone put some time and effort into it. Our server was very nice and shared opinions with us about what she liked the best. We started with the spicy Alaska crab dip ($16) because I love a good crab dip. This one was described as being made with seasonal crab, cream cheese, Sriracha and parmesan. I can’t say I loved it. Ok, yeah, it wasn’t very good. While the crab on top was nice and seemed fresh, the crab that was mixed into the dip came across as very stringy (the whole family was fighting over the tender bits). And while there was supposed to be cream cheese and parmesan, the dip actually came across more oily than it did creamy. I liked the chips—they were nice and light and crisp (even if they could have used some salt ironically). I would probably take a pass on this one in the future. Perhaps the restaurant realized the error of their ways with this dish as it is no longer on the menu.
We also split a wedge salad ($8). They do them a little differently—with a split head of romaine instead of iceberg lettuce. There were quite a few bleu cheese crumbles. Although it was a wee bit lacking on the bleu cheese dressing (we had to order extra) it was, overall, a good salad.
For our main dishes, we ordered the Kona Tacos ($18), Fried Oysters ($15), Hawaiian Sashimi Tuna ($28), and a mahi-mahi dish. Hubby and I split the tacos and the fried oysters and we definitely preferred the oysters, although the tacos weren’t bad. The oysters were crispy, plentiful, and delicious. We were honestly surprised by how many came in a $15 order, there were at least 10 on the plate. They were drizzled in a nice remoulade sauce. There were some crispy bacon chips interspersed throughout the dish and the oysters stayed crispy despite the remoulade. The tacos were ok although they needed more acid and there wasn’t a lot of tuna compared to the amount of taco shell. I ended up breaking the shells in half and eating them open face with tuna so I could achieve proper tuna-to-shell ratio. I really wanted to like them and wasn’t wowed.
My kids were undecided on what to order (they didn’t want to order the same as each other and neither would give up their choice of mahi-mahi) so they compromised and each ordered a fish dish that they shared. My daughter got the Hawaiian sashimi tuna and enjoyed it. It consisted of rare tuna on a bed of Japanese red rice and was topped with sambal, caramel soy, wonton strips, and wasabi cream sauce. My daughter thought it a touch spicy (it had quite a bit of wasabi flavor) but hubby enjoyed it and ended up eating the rest of it after she finished. I enjoyed the crunchy texture-adding wonton strips. The tuna was cooked nicely rare and high-quality.
My son ordered a mahi-mahi dish with asparagus spears and some more of the crab dip (ugh) on top. The fish itself was well cooked. There was a beurre blanc sauce underneath that was good. I’ll try not to reiterate what I said above but I was not having the crab dip, it was oily and not a great addition to the dish. We ended up scraping most of it off.
We had a little extra time left after dinner, before the concert, so we decided to order dessert. Hubby and I got a salted caramel brownie and the kids split a slice of chocolate layer cake. The cake was one of those generic, cold cakes that you see everywhere (guessing it comes in a box) although the kids seemed to enjoy it. Our brownie was ok, although a bit dense.
In summary, Salt had a few good dishes but overall doesn’t have me racing back (I have not been back since). The food had some flaws and wasn’t quite as good as we had been expecting/hoping for. Anyone been more recently with better things to say?
Salt on Mass
505 Massachusetts Ave,
Indianapolis, IN 46204
317-638-6565
No; it's been quite disappointing after our first visit. We really hoped this would shine based on its proximity to the Murat but its permanently off our list.
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