One of my best friends came back to town to visit her family and as black women, we do try to visit black-owned establishments anytime we can. Pink Salt has been around for a while, but every time thought of going it was always too late or too early for them to be open for the day.
My mom friend of the group (to her dog son) being the prepared human she is set a reservation for us. The restaurant is in the San Marco area which is a great location for shops and corporate workers. The place is medium-sized with low ceilings giving it an intimate atmosphere. Everyone in your party must be there before you can sit down which is meh for me but, instead of bunching up like sardines in the front while you wait they have an adorable reading nook with cool books on food and history. It seriously looks like they transported your granny's library into the back of the restaurant which I thoroughly enjoyed.
Parking is limited but we are finally seated, the waitress is friendly the drinks are strong and it's happy hour. We are having a grand time. I order the fried okra and collard dip for the table. The dip comes with plantains (really they were tostones) but that was absolutely delicious. If collard greens and cheese had a baby that would be it. I oddly want to try and make it at home with vegan cheese. The okra was good as well but, the flavor blast in your mouth with the dip put the okra on the backburner for me.
I knew we would be out of I did not eat an actual meal for the entire day in preparation. I ordered to entrees with every intention of taking parts home but when I tell you, I severely underestimated the size of their meals.
Well, Look for yourself...
This plate was the size of my arm and the second entree was a whole snapper mouth to tail with all the fixings.
I ordered Escovitch Fried Snapper and 1/2 Jerk Chicken. The size of the food memorized me but, I noticed immediately the "jerk" chicken looked like bbq chicken. I went in a tasted it, with a long sigh, new that this was a very loose attempt at jerk. The same sauce was on my friend's braised beef as this chicken. Don't get me wrong on the beef tasted amazing however, do not put jerk in the title if you don't like who to make jerk, plain and simple.
The Snapper was much better but still lacked scotch bonnet or any spice so I had to add scotch bonnet pepper sauce to it. Everything was cooked perfectly and the fish was definitely worth it, but the $50 price tag for the fish alone hurt my feelings a little bit, should have known with the market price listed and snapper is getting rather expensive right now.
Overall, I would recommend this place for a great dinner date or dressy dinner with your friends. Please be ready for that 18% gratuity on every bill (no matter the group size) and have a backup plan to get home because those drinks are HITTING.
Let me know if this a place you would like to try!
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