Amanda H.
Yelp
I never would have never visited Saltbreaker if it weren't for restaurant week. I feel like I've probably seen it on Yelp years ago, but it seemed to be out of my budget as a college student and I don't typically go out of my way to eat American food. When my boyfriend and I were looking through the catalog of restaurants, the Uni Carbonara on the menu caught our eye. We've been on an uni kick recently. We made a reservation for 6:45 pm on a Thursday. I think it was more crowded than usual because of restaurant week, but it still wasn't too bad.
When my boyfriend reserved a slot, the only seating left for the 6:45 time slot was the bar. We actually preferred it because we got lucky that we got seated at the tail end at the bar near the kitchen. It was spacious enough from the other parties since we were on the edge, and it was fun watching the food leave the kitchen and catching a whiff of it.
Once we got settled, our server was attentive and was ready to take our order. My boyfriend and I ordered the savory cheese soufflé, uni carbonara (a la carte), steak frites, and banoffee chocolate tart (a la carte). Our server asked if we wanted anything to come out in a particular order which I thought was very considerate. We requested that the savory cheese soufflé be served first.
Cheese Soufflé- We really enjoyed the cheese soufflé and I loved how the salad was dressed with lemon which gave the greens a nice tartness. The greens sat on top of a dollap of jam. The sweetness of the jam surprisingly worked well with the cheesy soufflé. Maybe this shouldn't have surprised me too much, because cheese and jam are commonly seen together in charcuterie boards. Next, the steak frites and uni carbonara came out at the same time.
Steak Frites - The steak was more on the rare/medium-rare side, which I'm not too used to, but I liked that the steak was super tender. I'm sure we could have asked the server for a particular cook on the meat, but I just didn't think to. The steak was solid -- wasn't mind blowing, but the flavor was better than the steaks I've had from other restaurants. The frites were on the hard side for me.
Uni Carbonara - We thought the uni carbonara was pretty good. We saw a review saying that it was underwhelming so we didn't have high expectations for this one, but still wanted to give it a try. If you're looking for a very uni forward pasta, this dish might not be your cup of tea because you will be underwhelmed. There was only one piece of uni on top. It wasn't bitter and melted in my mouth, which was good, but it also didn't have much flavor to it. If you are coming for a good carbonara with a twist to it, I think this one is solid. The pasta was al dante and the carbonara was flavored wonderfully from the saltiness of the guanciale to the slight spice from the chili crisp. I also really enjoyed the pop in my mouth from the masago, the freshness from the sauce around it, and the creaminess of the pasta. I did enjoy this dish, but wish there was more uni as the name suggests.
Banofee Chocolate Tart - This dessert was delicious. This might be my favorite banana dessert I've had in a while. The slightly tart banana confit with the sugary caramelized bananas and ice cream was my favorite comboWOW! I feel like this dessert captured the true essence of banana and made it the star of the show. The only thing that would've made it better was if the chocolate tart wasn't as hard and dry.
Overall, I enjoyed my experience at Saltbreaker. The food was yummy and the service was excellent. My boyfriend and I thought it was pricey for the portions. We paid about $60 a person including tip, and only left 60% full. I'm glad I got to try this place, but not sure if I would come again to try their other menu items. If I could, I would knock 0.5 of a star down for my rating due to the value of this place.