Lauren F.
Yelp
I was so excited to dine here while visiting Coastal VA, unfortunately the service was really bad.
Saltine is mentioned on several "best of" Norfolk lists. The space itself is very aesthetically pleasing. Their design team hit the mark; the bar/dining space is very trendy and modern.
I had a reservation for late lunch at 1:30 PM. No one was at the hostess desk, and another group was ahead of mine waiting. We all stood there for 5-10 minutes wondering if we should go to the bar to ask to be seated instead. Hostess appeared and even though I had a res she had to check if the table was ready; seemed odd as the place was nearly empty.
Got seated and chose what we wanted to eat, we were hungry. Ordered the lobster roll, fish dip, she crab soup and double smash burger. My friend ordered a coke and we said we were deciding on other drinks. Waiter came back, we ordered one cocktail. Coke never came, cocktail never came.
Saw everyone else's food coming out, where was ours? Waiter checked back in 35 mins after we placed food order and asked what we ordered - RED FLAG. We told him our order, he checked with kitchen and said they didn't get our order. No apology, no owing up to forgetting to put our order in or even write our order down. We asked out the drinks four times, waiter went and got coke but not the cocktail. By the time the cocktail got to the table, it was so watered down, it wasn't worth $3 let alone $16.
The food was good but not great. Waiter forgot the fish dip, forgot the soup, forgot the aioli for the fries. My lobster roll wasn't warm. The burger looked so sad. The patties were tiny and definitely not smash burger-style; the tomato jam and fries/aioli were saving grace of this dish. Fish dip was good, very smokey flavor. Soup was fine.
The presentation was lacking, food wasn't on par for price or supposed popularity. I would be embarrassed to serve that burger at a backyard cookout. Wait staff needs a lot of training and oversight. I wasn't even comped the coca-cola for the order mess up and resulting long wait for mediocre food.
Would not dine here again or suggest it to others. Really disappointing experience overall.