CULINARY COUV: SALT

SALT' is located in downtown Boulder where you're so close to the Rockies you feel as if you could touch them and where every corner is dripping with charm. Brick walkways, tree lined streets and crisp air. Boulder is quite lovely in the summer.

The inside of this restaurant is beautiful with painted brick walls and vaulted ceilings. There is an open kitchen with a wood burning stove and oven. You can sit and watch them cook at the wood bar overlooking the action.

The food was...okay. Ya, just okay. Well, I take that back- the fries and homemade ketchup were AMAZING, but the rest of the dishes were just not up to par...

This ketchup was great. Tasted like a cross between marinara, store bought ketchup and barbeque sauce; we couldn't get enough of it.

I ordered the sesasonal vegetable plate but ended up enjoying the pickled beets the most. The spinach with goat cheese wrapped in phyllo was good but not too impressive. The curry cakes flavor was overpowered by dill and needed to have a crispy outside, in my opinion. The green beans were nice and al dente but had been sitting with creme fraiche and onion too long so as to take on too much raw onion flavor for my palate. The farratto and mushroom side was delicious but tasted like it had a pound of butter in it and seemed slightly too rich to finish for a lunch dish. This may be too harsh, I don't know.

My friend is a vegan and only had a few options to choose from. The homemade flatbread was quite enjoyable with a nice olive oil drizzled with rosemary and sea salt (though, it was $8 for an order). The salad had good beets but was plain. I won't blame that on the restaurant though. Being vegan and making them hold the cheese and dressing is a bit unfair...

Like I said before, the atmosphere was great and our server was nice enough. I just wasn't blown away, you know? I love the name, the menu and the cute street corner it's on, the ousdie patio and the painted brick. I also love how well they pickle their beets.