Salt Grill

C says:

This is one of those places which are a bit too intimidating for us to attempt for a normal dinner service. Instead, I was on leave today so we came for the weekday set lunch. Located on Level 55 of ION Orchard, Salt boasts a pretty spectacular view – from our table we could see all the way to Keppel Bay and beyond. Access is from the concierge desk on Level 4, and they verify your reservation there before allowing you to take the elevator up to the Sky Gallery.

The set lunch, at $40 for 2 courses, isn’t the best deal in town, but given the prices of the degustation and a la carte menus, it’s almost understandable. Portions are pretty small, so 2 courses is good for a very light lunch. For us, we added another starter from the a la carte menu to share.

From the set menu, A had one of Luke’s signatures, the Sydney crab omelette with miso mustard broth. I expected quite a lot from the crab, since it’s a signature dish, but I found it slightly underwhelming. Flavours were quite clean but overall not much of a wow factor.

I had the Salt salad – baby vegetables, slow poached hen’s egg and buffalo mozzarella, drizzled with some truffle oil. I preferred my dish because it was really simple, but both the egg and the vegetables were done really well, and in a way that showcased them.

The additional starter was Spanish anchovies with semi dried tomato and garlic toast. This knocked everything out of the park. The flavours of each element were good on their own, and absolutely amazing when eaten together.

My main course was grilled Kurobuta pork with a huge disc of herb butter and served with green beans. The pork was nicely grilled, and the bits with the fat were tender and juicy, but some parts were a bit dry and chewy.

A went with the pan fried gnocchi with seasonal vegetables and truffle jus. Surprisingly, I think this was executed better than my pork. The gnocchi was amazingly light, yet had a nice crisp exterior from being pan fried, and the vegetables were again cooked to tender perfection.

Food was good, but will we return for dinner? Given that it’ll set us back at least $150 per person, I’m not sure. Maybe this is one of those places, like Osia, which are way better value at lunch and hence more enjoyable as a result.

A says:

Excellent view. Excellent service. But the food, which was very good, fell just short of excellent. The only thing that blew me away was the sundried tomato component of our order of anchovies.

Conclusion – a great place to take visitors and guests, for special events, and maybe for business lunches. For a regular place... probably not.

Salt Grill

Level 55 & 56, ION Orchard

Tel: 6592-5118

Lunch: 11.30 am to 3 pm

Dinner: 6 pm to 10.30 pm

www.saltgrill.com