Cook it: Hook, line &…
The Salt Room – style & substance
The city has had what I would describe as culinary accident black spots. Locations that have proved to be disasters, or was it restaurants that turned locations into disasters. Whatever, they simply did not work.
But in recent years there have been some amazing changes. Chilli Pickle turned the Jubilee Square site into a roaring success, Curry Leaf Cafe has breathed life into their Ship Street premises and now The Salt Room has transformed the long abandoned premises on the eastern corner of the Hilton Metropole.
The Salt Room springs from the same team that created the much feted Coal Shed, and it benefits from that success for sure. But this is on a much larger scale and instead of focusing on meats the main emphasis is on fish. Hoorah for that, a Brighton Restaurant that reflects the fact that this is a seaside city. How long have we needed that?
I left it a while before visiting, always feeling that a new venture needs a little time to bed in. I finally went along on a very blustery spring evening with my old friend Mr L, I say old but he is still only admitting to being 36, 36 for the last 15 years or more!
The location is superb with a wide terrace that will certainly come into its own in the summer, (if we get one) and a spacious dining room on two levels with a private dining space too.
I was early so I waited at the bar with a G&T from an extensive choice of G&Ts, excellent stuff packed with rosemary and pink peppercorns. When Mr L arrived he had similar but with black peppercorns and we also shared a pot of creamy salt cod paste with cod’s roe, radish and lavash bread. It was very nice indeed.
At our table, with a sea view, we started to peruse the menu and found it very hard to make a decision, the choice is so tempting. One thing we did find easy was kicking off with oysters. We had six Jerseys and six Colchester Natives and all three dressings, the yuzu being the most impressive.
Pre-starter polished off, Mr L moved on to the cuttlefish fritters with pickled sea vegetables. They were truly scrummy, unusual and exciting, full marks! I chose the Fire roasted crab claws with garlic, chilli and lime. Oh how I enjoyed the delicious sticky messiness of the dish, I was in fishy heaven!
For his main course Mr L went for the Shoulder of turbot with a warm red wine tartar dressing. He loved it but found it a complex dish to eat easily as the fish is cooked and served on the bone but the dressing makes it awkward to negotiate those bones. It merely hampered his enjoyment rather than spoiling it.
I chose a hearty dish of hake and oxtail. The beefy version of surf and turf and epic in all respects, flavour, style and size. I loved it but it did impact on my enjoyment of two excellent side dishes. The tiny baked potatoes were stunning but the brined and charred leeks with hazelnuts were a revelation, creamy, earthy, slippery and crunchy. I was drawn back to them between each mouthful of delicious fish and melting oxtail.
To drink I chose a bottle of Sicilian white poetically named sigh of the sea. It was a great foil to our rich dishes.
The signature dessert passed our table and looked impressive, but far too big for our now dented appetites. Mr L decided on the blood orange jelly with rapeseed oil, marjoram shortbread and vanilla cream. He loved it, the sharp contrast of citrus and cream. I plumped for the Sussex honey ice cream, milk skin dumpling and toasted rice milk shake. It ticked all my boxes, the wild adventure of the dish balanced by comfortingly familiar flavours.
The Salt Room is a smart and elegant experience. The room is impressive for sure, with a cosmopolitan air that the city needed – but it is the food that really impressed. Adventurous ideas, familiar flavours and confident cooking. Full marks! I will be back very soon to try their very well priced lunch menu.
The Salt Room, 106 Kings Road, Brighton
01273 929488
saltroom-restaurant.co.uk
