Salmuera

Yummy food and welcoming staff. We especially enjoyed the mixed tapas plate. The meat was tender and delicious — try the sirloin steak!

Holy wow. This was such a great dining experience. I got here early and the place was empty, but the staff was very friendly and I was seated at the table of my choice. The bartender took my drink order, and I went with her recommendation of the chipotle margarita. It was fantastic! I combined this drink with the ceviche classico, which was a lovely piece of sea bass covered with some kind of yummy orange sauce (I’m thinking mango?), and came with some slices of sweet potato, which were also quite good. This actually filled me up a bit, so I hung out for a while and eventually moved on to round two, which was a glass of Malbec and a ribeye steak. Both were delicious! On top of that, the service was wonderful. Not to mention the great ambience! Love it all — will definitely be back!

Starting with a mezcal bar on kings night is never going to end well! Although, the Chipotle Margaritas I had here that night were almost worth the hangover the next day. I don’t remember much about the food, drinks were great though, friends loved all the cocktails! Atmosphere is cool, great décor, expect very slow service though on more popular nights — ordered two cocktails at a time because of it — which definitely contribited to the hangover… All in all, a nice night out, would be back to try the food again so I can actually comment on it!

My new favorite spot for the moments that I’m craving meat! I started with a great blueberry margherita and a ceviche classico: tender sea bass and nice tiger milk. But then there was the rib eye… Gosh! I’m not a frequent meat eater, but this one asked for another one. Great quality and perfectly cooked. Grandpa’s chimichurry & other bottled stuff is really lovely too.

The food was great, the drinks amazing.
We had a few cocktails, including their mole old fashioned and their signature margarita. Amazing!
The classic ceviche is well balanced, perfect tanginess to saltiness.
The lechón was tender, the sides (arroz and verduras for us) were well seasoned.
For the price point, great. The only thing that we fussed about about were waiting 15 – 20 mins at the beginning to get our drinks and the bottle of sparking water. The server, however was very friendly and accommodating. Also, all of our food was brought out at the same time: the cool ceviche and the warm lechón, so the latter got a little cold while we had the former. Perhaps they should ask in what order guests want their food to come out? So really a 4ish, but I’m rounding up because we had a great time and the atmosphere was great!

Although I live a block away I have been hesitant to try this restaurant because I really loved the previous restaurant Chow and Nghia Nghia and visiting here would feel a bit like cheating.
But I had heard good things and my curiosity was sparked.
I walked in at 9 pm on a Saturday night without reservation but it wasn’t a problem for the super busy staff. They say my date and me at the bar and we ordered some cocktails.
While still waiting for our drinks, the host came to get us after about 10 minutes and sat us down at the table by the front door and kitchen.
The atmosphere immediately disappeared, the lights in this area were bright, we felt the draft every time the door opened which was frequently, but most importantly we were completely ignored by wait staff from the moment we sat down.
We were in no rush though and we saw it was busy so we chatted and waited patiently. However after 20 minutes without our drinks or a menu I ran low on patience and went to find a host, who was very apologetic and immediately came over with our drinks and some menus.
I asked to be moved back into the actual restaurant and they had a table for us in 5 minutes.
We shared the seabass ceviche to start (amazing!) and ordered octopus and a small portion of the house specialty, the roasted pig.
The pork was disappointingly dry, I barely made it through half of it.
My date loved the octopus, I tried some but hated it, but that is probably because I’m just a picky eater.
The side of grilled vegetables was delicious and so were the margaritas.
Salmuera I will leave you with four stars because the friendly service made up for the rough start, however I’m not yet 100% sold on the food.
I’ll be back though and happy to revise my review if the food gets better!

So it’s my 100^th Unilocal review… I’ve been hesitating for months to write one because, well, the 100^th review should be special! I then realised that I should take the advice of the great Nike, and Just Do It.
The BF and I went out for a dinner at the new Salmuera. It’s an impressive visual when you arrive — piglets splayed out, roasting over open charcoal, a large patio and an robust interior. HOWEVER, if you look on their website the photos posted are NOT representative of the food. On the website the food looks very sleek, beautiful, lots of attention to detail. We saw none of that food anywhere in the joint… in reality, what’s delivered are platters of deep fried items and piles of meat on wooden boards.
Though the interior is rustically cool, first impressions weren’t great, as we were sort of ignored in favor of a larger group which came in after us. The ‘hostess’ seemed to be completely unavailable while sorting table arrangements outside (*TIP for Salmuera: Set up some sort of area where guests know where to stand to get seated!). We finally sat and got to ordering. We got a decent bottle of wine and, *Bonus* — they offer tap water as an option here, which always wins points with me. Our food journey started with the streetfood platter which, though pretty tasty, is essentially about 6 pieces of deep fried food and a sausage for 20 euros. That said, the sausage was absolutely delicious and the platter came with a nice array of sauces. The BF was extra hungry and also got the prawn ceviche, which he tore through like… well whatever animals eat prawn ceviche in the wild. The mains unfortunately, failed to impress.
My bf ordered the 400g Ribeye, I ordered the specialty, the roasted pig — you have to order side dishes separately. We opted for the slaw and this pata relleno, which was basically deep fried mashed potatoes filled with meat and egg (*Note: it doesn’t mention egg in the menu, which made one side dish a no-​go for the boyfriend). My pork was plentiful, tender and tasted nice but very basic. It literally is just roasted pig — nothing to really zing it up. If you just like meat for meat’s sake, this will work great for you but I guess I was hoping for something sexier? The bf was none-​to-​impressed with his steak. It was a bit overcooked (he ordered it medium) and somehow even the pinkest part was tough and a bit dry. Nothing was inedible, just somewhat disappointing.
Our food and drink servers (2 different people) were very friendly and there was a different woman seemingly checking on us every 10 minutes. When she asked how our food was, we both kind of did the stuttery silence — not-really-saying-anything-because-we-want-to-tell-you-but-don’t-want-to-be-rude thing, and by the time the bf mustered up words, her back was already turned to us. To be fair, we should have been faster but hey ho. When we discussed with her later, she did offer to do something but by then we were just ready to leave so got the check and made a move.
I know this place is new so there will always be kinks to be worked out — I get that. Nothing was inedible and some of it was downright tasty! I’d give this place a go in another 6 months but stand by my opinion that they need to re-​vamp their website, work on their service model and sort out some of the food. Salmuera is rustic and streety. BE rustic, it’s very cool and hipster to be rustic now-​a-​days, embrace it.

Delicious meal. Excellent appetizers, meats and rice and bean sides. Patient waitstaff who explained the menu. A delightful evening at a great restaurant.

A cool new latin restaurant on Rozengracht with a hip and gezellig vibe. You’re greeted with a loud SAL light in front of their narrow kitchen and you’re not sure whether to go walk back or go forward. Did you find the right place? Are you are in a takeout taco place or going into a dive bar with a mechanical bull in the back?
Then suddenly you take a turn to the right and it’s exactly the place you’ve been looking for! It’s romantic, candlelit, there are old shutters lining the walls, tiny wooden tables and it’s the place you want to stay all night. Well done on the décor!
For a veggie appetizer, I recommend the tequenos de queso, a latin version of the kaastengel with some favorful green sauce to accompany it. No one says no to fried cheese!
For the main meal, if you’re a meat eater, Argentinean steak is definitely the way to go here. The Bife Ancho looked amazing. For vegetarians there was only one choice of a stuffed zucchini, and I would say, try the sides and appetizers instead. It was underwhelming. I’m hoping this portion of the menu will change a bit. It’s currently their ‘soft launch’, so who knows. The corn on the cob was too chewy, didn’t have that fresh crisp to it. I’d pass on it.
Anyway, I really like the ambiance and I’ll be back to try their cerviches and other apps soon. I kinda like that it’s a neighborhood secret at the moment, but it’s sure to become really popular.