Salt Time - Austin

Not as good as it is. uses a lot of salt and fat in the food to cover something.

The best steak in Austin because the onsite butcher shop can serve the best cuts. The local produce, tapas and cheeses are a fun taste treat. The restaurant is small so using Open Table is a good idea to ensure you'll have a seat. A good date place but not for large parties.

If meat is your thing you have found your haven. I mean, come on, it 's a freakin ' butcher shop. The restaurant is attached to the shop and all of the meat comes straight from local Texas ranchers. It comes in as a whole animal and they use their amazing butcher skills to create amazing cuts of meat and age, cure, dry and smoke it themselves. The restaurant itself doesn 't have a lot of seating so you can either make a reservation ahead of time or show up at 6pm and have no wait--that 's what we did and within 30 min it was packed. Service was excellent. Our waiter was nice, attentive and new the menu up and down so he could explain and recommend items for us AND tell us what beer and wine would go well. We started with a cheese plate which is really only enough for 2 people. It was on the sweeter side with sweet raisin bread, honey roasted pecans and an orange basil marmalade. It was very tasty but almost seemed like an after dinner cheese plate. We also went for the large meat dish to share. It happened to be a very large beef rib that night and it was awesome. It bit more fat on the cut than desired but still really good and definitely enough for the both of us. All-in-all a great experience!

We were expecting to have sandwiches when we went here but realized the dinner menu did not include their sandwiches as an option. Our entire party ordered the burger. While the meat was juicy it felt like it was missing something as it was only meat and cheese. Their fries were just okay and the homemade ketchup tasted more like marinera sauce. Service was fine and ambiance was super casual. I might come back here for lunch but probably not for dinner anytime soon.

Had to switch gears when wait at another restaurant was 2 hours long so we went to Salt Time which I 've heard good things about. The menu looked promising, and the impressive butchery area we waited in prior to being seated was impressive. The food, however, was not. A nice cheese and salami board started the meal off well, offering house cured meats and a nice selection of cheeses. For mains, a friend ordered Cassoulet which we were both excited about only to find it was a very non traditional version with Chinese 5 spice duck confit (which was prepared well) and pinto beans where the cumin flavor was overwhelming. Taking a French comfort food, complex dish like Cassoulet and putting a southern/asian spin on it didn 't do it for me and my chef trained friend thought it didn 't work as well. I ordered the 16oz Bavette Akaushi beef filet which was cooked well (medium) but served with a miniscule amount of the veggie accompaniments buried underneath the large filet I almost didn 't notice them. I also ordered a side of the candied baby carrots with lardo, which were still hard and crunchy when they came out although the flavor on them was nice. It was a very underwhelming performance overall. To top it off, my partner ordered the market salad which she was asked if she wanted first (as she was sharing the steak with me) and she said she would. It never arrived and it was taken off the bill. The server was chatty and engaged, but didn 't really check in or attend to the table as needed. Another off note was the server offering a last glass of a bottle of wine we just finished as there were no more bottles to purchase. Two friends split the glass, but when it got to the table it was clear from the mildew y nose and taste that it was a completely different wine. When it was pointed out to the waiter, he agreed and removed it from the bill, but it was just an odd situation of offering one wine and getting another.