Salute Brick Oven Bistro - Montclair

Immediately inviting on a very busy night, with fast service and delicious food. the pasta and seafood dish I had was exceptional.

Very nice, authentic place with very good price of BYOB policy (you can call local liqueur shop and they can deliver within 5 minutes) are good decent and great. freshly baked bread and pizza. most things are when you want to dive in montclair

The look on the outside is not very welcoming with furniture and heat lamps stacked in front of the restaurant. they had a private party and I went to the Mother's Day, so it was very busy. the host also commanded everyone. all pasta on my table was understated and even raw. I told the host, but he never apologized or even offered to take anything out of the bill. they were from a few things and the menu was changed by the one I originally viewed on their website before over a week. that was not good! I'll never go back.

I've always appreciated the atmosphere at Salute, so I decided to visit again after a few years. Unfortunately, I was a bit disappointed by how quiet it was on a Friday night. The food was good, but not great, as others have mentioned. The menu features non-traditional options, which can be charming for a rising eclectic restaurant, but I don’t think they quite succeeded. My wife struggled to find something appealing and ended up ordering a salad with chicken. I opted for the spicy chicken dish, which I hoped would be bold, but it fell short. There was a lack of texture, and the sauce resembled a thin soup. However, the burrata crostini appetizer was fantastic. While the service was attentive, the large dining room felt mostly empty, and it seemed there were too many large tables compared to what I remembered. If the terrace doors are open, the atmosphere can be lovely. I genuinely hope the restaurant thrives, and I’ve given an extra star in support, but there are definitely areas that need improvement—starting with the $11 charge for still water, which feels steep. I believe lowering prices and offering more traditional menu items could help attract repeat local customers. This is just my assessment.

Went in early on a Thursday for our daughter 's birthday (party of 3), about 6 tables were filled. One nice waiter. He let us know the pizza oven was broken and they were out of a few things on their short menu, and we ordered. Took 40 minutes to get our appetizers because they ran out of arancini and had to make more (probably gave ours away since we saw them going to other tables). Place filled up with about 20 tables, most large parties. STILL ONE WAITER. You know that point where the wait gets so long that it 's comical and you start thinking you should just leave and eat somewhere else because it would be faster?? We got there about an hour and a half after we ordered. Waiter promised food was actually cooking and brought it out a few minutes later. Food was meh pasta was basic, branzino skin wasn 't crisp. We skipped the birthday dessert because it would have been cruel to the waiter to order more. Waiter was worked waaaayyyy too hard, and the hostess just sat there doing nothing and enjoying the show. If you can charge $25 for pasta you should be able to afford enough staff, or don 't take the reservations. Won 't be back.