Saltwater Restaurant - St. John's

Newfoundland is not exactly a culinary paradise -- throughout our stay, it was a rare event when we could find even one menu item that did not involve deep-fried fish, well-done hamburgers, or mac & cheese. Saltwater was a happy exception -- nothing exotic, of course (this IS Newfoundland, after all), but everything was well prepared, delicious, and professionally served. Highly recommended. Try the beet salad and the salmon with chutney sauce.

I my view, this is one of the best restaurants in St. John's, NL. My wife had the scallop appetizer and the pan fried cod as the main. We shared the dessert trio which was a berry cake, chocolate mousse (?), and apple bread pudding. I had the cod tongue appetizer and the half rack of lamb. Everything was top notch including the house wine. The generous scallop and cod tongue appetizers were the best we've ever had. The scallops were very fresh and melt-in-your mouth done right. My wife doesn't usually like tongues but she loved these. I think because they were ultra-fresh, lightly breaded, cooked to perfection, and had the "jelly" portion removed. Service was prompt and courteous.

We joined our friends for dinner last night, and we were looking forward to a nice dinner, with a bit of spoiling. The food was excellent, well prepared, impressive presentation, along with a nice bottle of wine. For their dinner, our friends selected two appetizers each, a bowl of chowder, scallops and shrimp; we selected the salmon. Each dish was well prepared and delicious. The problem came with the waiter. Our friends selected to have their chowder first, then their shrimp and scallops as their "main" dish. Well, as it happened, they received all of their appetizers at the same time, prior to us receiving our dinner. We asked that they hold the shrimp and scallops, which they honored, then brought them back as they completed their chowder. But we still did not have our salmon. We asked about the salmon. The waiter ARGUED with our guests, that they had ordered appetizers, that's why our salmon dinner was late. ???The waiter rarely came back to make sure we were ok, we had to get up to pour our wine, since he left it out of reach. And we had to flag him again for more water and another bottle of wine, which he haphazardly poured. We felt like we were bothering him and we were in the way. We don't like to under tip wait staff, so we reluctantly tipped the 20% tip, but wanted to let you know of the service. Maybe he was having a bad night. Bottom line: great food, poor service.

We celebrated a reunion with old friends from Labrador and enjoyed a fabulous meal. A real treat to impress anyone for fine dining.

We had a wonderful dinner w/ 4 friends at Saltwater...July 5,2017. Memorable! All of us were impressed with our meals and their lovely cocktail menu! Highly recommend it!