After having a pretty good meal at Salt + Smoke in September, my wife decided it was time to go again since my daughter had missed going last time. We showed up around noon and were lucky enough to find a street parking spot just forty feet or so from the door on the north side of Delmar. It was a sunny but breezy November day and seemed like a good day to have some barbecue on the Loop. We were seated at a table for 6 near the middle of the dining area where we could still see the painting of the cow and the pig and could also watch the door to "the loo" (more on that later.) The hostess seated up promptly and one fellow came over and gave us menus and glasses of water. We did notice a smear of something on the table, so my wife had to make sure she did not put her elbow into it, so it sat there until my wife finally used some water and her napkin to clean it up.
And so we sat there for a while and waited for a server to come over and take our order, After a longer than usual wait, my daughter flagged someone down and they said they would find our server and send her over. She finally appeared, a very lifeless soul who could have been an extra for the Walking Dead. She took our drink orders and also our food orders at the same time since we were all quite ready to eat. My mother-in-law ordered a burger with BBQ sweet potato chips, my daughter picked a brisket sandwich with fries, my wife again selected the pulled pork sandwich with plain fries and my son, of course, ordered a burger with fries. As for myself I went with a "Bestie Combo" again. Since the ribs were so good last time, I got them again along with some pulled pork this time, and along with the beans I selected the garlic and herb fries. The wait for the food was not so bad, probably no longer than the wait to see our waitress, and we were ready to eat!
My son thought his burger was okay but nothing special, and even though he enjoyed dipping it in the "hotangy" sauce, he thought he should not have to dip a burger in barbecue sauce to enjoy it. My daughter thought her brisket was too fatty and that even the bun was too greasy to pick up and eat. My mother-in-law wanted some mayonnaise, lettuce, pickle and tomato for her burger and had to wait several minutes for the zombie waitress to bring it to the table but she forgot the mayo and the pickle! My mother-in-law did end up eating most of her burger, and she did like the chips too. She also wanted more salt, and we also thought it was funny that a place called "Salt + Smoke" did not have a salt shaker on the table! My wife liked her pork sandwich with the "my sweet bestie" sauce but thought her fries were lackluster and mushy. She ended up giving some of her pork to our daughter since she could not eat all of her fatty brisket. As for my selections, I thought the pulled pork and the ribs were both excellent and cooked perfectly. The pork was tender and well flavored and ribs again fell off the bone and I could almost cut them with my fork. With a blend of the "hotangy" and "my sweet bestie" sauces to enhance their flavor I thought they were quite good. The beans were again very good and meaty, although the fries were just okay.
Overall, the experience was not as pleasant as our first visit to Salt + Smoke when the service was much better. The very popular "my sweet bestie" sauce is still served in a wide mouthed bottle which is difficult to use and gets quite messy with the lid. And the single restroom known as "the loo" was again in a rather unpleasant state. This time the single toilet was stopped up and unusable. We were lucky none of us had to use it. They definitely must do something about the state of their one lone restroom. It is pretty disgusting. After this latest visit, we will probably not be returning, despite their very good barbecued meats. They need more than that to keep customers coming back.
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