John Salt

7 Reviews on “John Salt”

• Emma Battagello

  I love this place. With a nice combination of rustic warehouse decor and down-to-earth instantly likeable staff, it’s a lovely place for a drink. I was impressed with their array of craft beers and creative cocktails. Will be back in summer to enjoy the breeze through the open folding glass doors with the tempting bar food options.

  September 14, 2016, 7:45 pm

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• Merve MollaahmetoÄŸlu

  I thought the cocktails were expensive, that might also be because I’m not used to London standards of paying 8-9 for a simple tiny cocktail. They weren’t served particularly nicely either. The food leftover from other parties were not cleared out and because there were no other tables available we had to sit at a dirty table. Not worth paying 9 for a caipirinha when it’s bad service and poor presentation.

  March 24, 2016, 4:00 am

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• Gabriella M

  John Salt is a great place to come to have drinks with your friends on a Friday or Saturday night. This place gets really full on those evenings but that’s not really a nuisance and feels more like it’s part of the ambiance. They play a good selection of house and pop music and the ambiance is really nice.I wouldn’t recommend coming here to eat since you can’t usually find a place to sit and it’s not really the right place to have a meal, but I once came here really hungry and so I ordered their chicken sandwich. I had no expectations but that sandwich was really great.

  February 3, 2015, 6:07 am

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• Kesta

  John Salt is a very trendy stop with an interesting food menu. The decor manages to be both minimal and rustic at the same time; the main section at as you enter is occupied by long communal wooden tables, then the other side of the bar has plush leather couches and chairs and custom made lamp shades which hang from the ceiling emblazoned with the words John Salt.John Salt is not the kind of place you would come to get wasted on a cheap long island ice tea. Here the cocktails are fresh and sophisticated, offering such subtle delights as a Mint Julip which is simple and delicious, letting its three ingredients of bourbon, mint and sugar do the talking. The food is equally simple but delicious, relying on a list of fail-safe dishes like burgers and mac and cheese which make for a real treat. I had a side of salt and pepper squid alongside my spare ribs which was particularly indulgent but incredibly tasty.Highly recommend John Salt for an impeccable dining and drinks experience.

  February 2, 2015, 11:53 pm

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• We Love Food, It's All We Eat

  A birthday meal has to be chosen wisely. I didnt choose mine, well, not directly. Instead I hinted on my day job blog. Luckily Ade took the hint and got straight on the phone. His first choice for me Duck & Waffle (where we STILL havent been yet, yeah yeah, we know) was booked until 10pm, so he booked John Salt instead. I would have been happy with either.Birthdays are weird things, the pressure to have a good time is immense, I have better regular days. I thought at least if we went somewhere well-regarded I could roughly ensure we have a great time. I neednt have worried, we spent the night eating dish after amazing dish and laughing until our sides hurt.John Salt was way bigger than we expected, it was a relief not to be crammed in as seems to be the norm these days. We sat upstairs in the more formal restaurant area, which also has its own bar with warm and friendly staff on hand at all times. We always give a big tick to anywhere that offers us tap water straight away, the John Salt kind was delivered in a white fish-shaped jug that made a mildly amusing glugging sound when pouring. Crockery was mismatched, the kind your gran would have. No filament lightbulbs shocker, instead there were pipes crafted from old fluorescent strip lighting that lit internallyFor the full review and more pics go to http://welovefood-itsallweeat.com/2013/06/08/simply-one-of-the-best-meals-of-our-lives-john-salt-131-upper-st-islington-london-n1-1qp/ welovefood-itsallweeat.com

  July 11, 2014, 3:27 pm

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• Edgeandspoon

  When the star chef (Ben Spalding) leaves just a few months into the opening of your new restaurant (booked-up weeks in advance, I might add) youd be forgiven if things went down the pan. But, magically, things havent gone that way at John Salt. Whilst it might not be possible to have Spaldings Chicken on a Brick any longer, you can, however, sample a range of delights from new head chef, Neil Rankin. Theres no pomp and chefery here. What you get is a new take on unfussy, home-style cooking but its not the place to take your grandmotherLets get rid of the unpleasantries. What lets John Salt down is its layout: a dining mezzanine and a ground floor bar with communal tables. Upstairs its hot, loud and slightly claustrophobic. Even more so for geriatrics. Also, Im slightly tired of the faux-grunge, distressed look that is being churned-out for the young, hip end of the market at the moment. My other gripe is with the service, who all seem to have got up on the wrong side of bed. Five minutes ago. I felt like demanding 12.5% myself.But the menu appealed: Tempura oysters with beef fat mayo (7) or Onglet steak with kimchi hollandaise (12.50) sound delightful dont they? However, wanting to test barbecue-specialist Rankin, we launched into Asian-influenced Raw beef, pear, & sesame a beautiful tartare mixed with crunchy Nashi pear, spring onion, and a good handful of hot green chilli. Whilst it didnt look much, an oh-so-trendy jam jar of Smoked aubergine & tomato was, in fact, made of more substance than style, delivering the perfect smokey vegetable toast topping. Green chilli poussin (14) saw a succulent bird sitting in a sticky, sweet Tabasco marinade, with yet more of that chilli. Thatll put a stop to your hayfever. The less said about the overcooked and under seasoned Cod, Romesco, cuttlefish (16) the better. However, the Keveral salad (5) highlights Rankins fantastic use of sourcing: meat from Warren & Sons, Cornwall; fish from Newlyn Fish Market; and vegetables from Keveral Farm. This was a lightly dressed, super-fresh, crunchy salad. The perfect accompaniment to dishes of which Dr Atkins would be proud.The fact that the restaurant survived potential ruin is clear testament to Neil Rankin and his remarkable food. Ignore the lousy staff and the room and John Salt achieves what it sets out to do: providing pimped-up, in your face, drunk food to the up-and-coming hipster. And from what Ive read, Rankin does a mean take on a Sunday roast. Perhaps Granny could learn a thing or two edgeandspoon.com

  November 26, 2013, 10:43 pm

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• Food Over London

  John Salt opened in November with Ben Spalding at the helm, with his much revered taster menus & bar menu. Much praise was lavished, including from us, but it was all cut short rather abruptly, with Ben replaced with Neil Rankin, former head chef of Pitt Cue Co. Neil was already in talks to go into another one of the 580 ltd group’s pubs at the Owl & Pussycat in Shoreditch. Looks like John Salt have pulled another Ace out of their sleeve with this new signing, with food cooked on another spectrum (or a big green egg). With Rankin’s renowned expertise with all things meat and barbeque and some rather exquisite Asian influenced dishes, the place is a haze again with recent glowing reviews in Timeout and the Metro, as well as from the smoke in the kitchenWhile the upstairs area, where we have been sat before, is now unsurprisingly increasingly difficult to get a booking for, downstairs isn’t too bad, as long as you don’t mind sharing the large communal tables. At off peak times there is enough space for walk ins. It’s a strange set up to have a reservation for an undetermined place on one of the 3 large communal tables, thankfully it wasn’t that busy though by the time we got there for a late lunch.Service is a bit hit and miss, and with the staff (while pleasant) are so casually dressed it’s hard to work out who was the waitress and who were customers shuffling there way back to their seats. It was half an hour before we even got our drinks, nevermind the food. It really cuts against the grain, the set up seems very in tune with high turnover with the communal tables and stools, yet was so much different in reality. This can be partially forgiven though as the food is a revelation, the grilled prawns to be eaten whole were crunchy and flavourful, a texture combination I’m not really used to, traditionally peeling them, but wow this was an unexpected delight. The burnt leeks were fantastic, the parmesan and rich egg yolk coming together well with the BBQed leeks, perfect comfort food. After another lengthy wait, the mains of the pork hash (12) and skirt steak with kimchi hollandaise (10!) arrived. To say this is just ‘good pub food’ is doing it a tremendous disservice, but these are simple dishes, cooked uniquely, and to perfection, using the best and freshest produce (most from Cornwall) that fits hand in hand with the ambience of the place. The pork hash is something of pure indulgence, cured pork belly, cubes of delicious pork far, pulled pork, peas and sweetcorn, roast potatoes, small chunks of apple and egg yolk to bring it. Not the most sexy of dishes, but damn it’s good eating. With Rankin’s panache for cooking meat in his big green egg, I had to go for the skirt steak, not the most popular of cuts, it is very chewy but a lot more flavoursome and beefy than ribeye. The steak is so charred on the outside you wouldn’t have guessed at it’s perfect pink of medium rare interior, showing off the barbequing skills on display. The kimchi hollandaise is the perfect accompaniment with the sauce bringing a tang that complements the steak beautifully. With frites and keveral salad on the side as well we were more than adequately fed.The food here is a great advert for the fantastic produce available from Cornwall. More and more restaurants seem to be catching onto this, with Cornish Grill supplying many a place, including John Salt & Pitt Cue Co. If you are ever down in Cornwall, I can recommend it be worth your while checking out Philip Warren Butchers, in addition to it’s beautiful coastline towns and villages. With top sourcing such as this, half the battle is already won. The rest is brought with a menu and style of cooking you will struggle to find in the rest of the UK, let alone London.It’s a shame then that the service somewhat lets things down. On a Saturday lunch I didn’t expect to be there for nearly 2 hours with only 2 courses down. We both had things to do and places to go, so unfortunately had to forgo the dessert that I was looking forward to; possibly would have gone for the banana dog or bacon panna cotta. Despite the quality, and value, of the food it’s a great disservice that I have to second guess my next visit. Maybe we were just unlucky. That said I highly recommend a visit if you haven’t already been the food here is really on the money.Read more on: http://www.foodoverlondon.com/2012/11/salt-of-earth_13.html foodoverlondon.com

  May 19, 2013, 1:09 am

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