Black Salt: Still good, still pricey

My friend Bill and I headed to Black Salt on Wednesday for a long-postpooned catchup dinner. There was a snafu with the reservation...probably some screwup between me and OpenTable...but the helpful staff soon found us a table despite the crowds hanging around the bar.

We ended up having the tasting menu, which was five courses plus a perfect oyster and caviar as a starter. I cannot remember all of the courses...one was a salmon tartare with yellowtail sashimi, one was a sauteed block of mackerel or something similar, and the rest eludes me. It was all very tasty, though. The last course was a dessert presentation of chocolate pot de creme, chocolate cake, and ice cream. All very satisfying. Individual portions were small, as befits a tasting menu, but we did not leave hungry.

The tasting menu is $74 for 5 courses (which we had) and $89 for 7 courses, which would seem to be more of a bargain for people who want to eat that much, but this was a weekday and we are both trying to trim a few pounds. We drank a bottle of Goldeneye Pinot Noir from Anderson Valley which was terrific, dark, rich, and a bit on the heavy side...maybe not a classical pairing with fish but just what we wanted on a cold night.

Service was attentive (a bit too much so when they were trying to get our orders in) and reasonably professional although not overly warm. We also had to make our own call on the wine as I felt we were being steered to other things...glad we stuck to our guns.

With the wine and service, the bill came to well over $100 per person...nearly $150 after tip. Of course the cooking was excellent, we had an elaborate dinner, and fish is not a cheap meal. Nonetheless I could not escape my usual feeling when exiting Black Salt: good, but a lot of money for a meal in a very simple setting.