Fresh Salt

Came here for a mini family reunion and was great. Swordfish and scallops were nice, and our server terrific. Would recommend! One of the better places in the area.

If you go, go with deep pockets and don’t go hungry. Portions are very small. Almost appetizer size. The chowder was less than okay. It was more like potato soup with bacon. Couldn’t find any clams. Speaking of clams, whole belly clams were ordered at the table, 12 whole bellies that were burnt and dry, really??? I had the salmon, it was good, very small piece though, came with 2 string beans, 1 carrot and about 2 table spoons of couscous. Too funny, but the price wasn’t funny. My wife had the hot lobster roll, the pretzel roll was the best part. The lobster had NO flavor. It tasted like it was soaking in hot water all day. With 1 glass of wine and no desert, the bill was over $ 100 dollars, and that’s with no desert. It’s the most over rated restaurant on the shore… We left hungry and very disappointed.

Great atmosphere. Sat outside for our anniversary dinner. Swordfish chop was excellent, as was the spinach risotto. My husband had the fish cioppino which had just enough light spice. Not too overwhelming. Surprised to find out they had a band starting at 6:30 and wasn’t looking forward to that as many bands are so loud, you can’t carry on a conversation, but this band was perfect. Played some jazzy old rock, blues and not too loud. Totally made my night! Well definitely come back!

On a dreary afternoon, the idea of a lobster roll in a cozy room with a view, where river meets the sound, was just the ticket. At Fresh Salt, you can enjoy your roll outside or in, eliminating the necessity of a sunny day. Here, chunks of tender claw and tail are dipped in butter and overflow a grilled brioche bun. Accompanied by a basket of absurdly irresistible house-​made, wisp thin, kettle-​fried potato chips, plus a half lemon dolled up in a net for seed-​free squeezing, complete the experience. I’m not crazy enough to say this roll had too much lobster but I walked away more than satisfied.

I so wanted this place to be awesome since it’s a stone’s throw away but alas, it needs work.
Granted, both our visits were in off season, so perhaps their chef wasn’t their best, however the food quality is substandard. Steak was tough and tasted previously frozen. If they have sushi on the menu, stay far away. The rice was a disaster and the nori stale. Even the lobster roll, which is on a brioche roll, was overcooked and chewy.
And I’m not sure what’s going on with management there but everyone — from the hostess desk, to the bar and onto the waitstaff — all seem unhappy and put upon. Barely a smile amongst them. You’re working at the shore, people! What could possibly be wrong?
On the upside — the bar is great indoors or outside despite slow service (everywhere).
I imagine out of town patrons are easily seduced by the awesome views and salty air so perhaps they look beyond the plate.
Evening cocktails are worth a visit, just skip the food.

We wanted badly to sit outside. We got the last two seats! Bring a sweater. Chowder was just «ok». My Cosmo was good. The service with Amanda was terrific and we appreciated her smile and enthusiasm!
Our main meals were very good. The menu may be a tad light. There are also specials too and their are «spring, summer, fall and winter» menus.
The view is great! There is also dining outside and the Marina bar also.
There was a wedding going in so there’s a good vibe. I enjoy watching people and being where the action is! We had s marvelous time chatting with the folks next to us. It started when we almost got their oyster order!
Fun night, expensive, great atmosphere, very good food and wonderful service!

Amazing! My wife and I both had their popular seafood dishes and they did not disappoint! Worth every penny! The views are amazing and make for a great day trip.

Decided to try a different place for Easter Brunch this year. I love brunch and I usually have Easter Brunch at Season’s Restaurant in Avon. However, this year the fiancé wanted to try someplace new. So after reading the Unilocal reviews we decided to drive for abt an hour and have brunch at Fresh Salt located inside the Saybrook Point Inn. The inn itself is located on the waterfront so the view and the overall service was spot on.
However, the brunch itself was terrible! The selection of food was very disappointing. You think for $ 50 per person they would have a more extensive selection of food. The shrimp cocktail was rubbery and the peppered tuna was so fishy I had to spit it out. The omelette’s we’re cold and the meat at the carving station we’re tough. Overall if you’re looking for an amazing brunch spot go to Season’s Restaurant in Avon never go to Fresh Salt!!!

I was part of a big group that had a brunch wedding on a beautiful sunday afternoon. Since the wedding ended at 5, a lot of the people decided to take over Fresh Salt like we owned the place. Although much of the staff was aware of overflow from the wedding I dont think they were prepared. However, although we were all over the place, the staff was patient and accommodating, allowing us to push tables together, order erratically and just be a handful. Our water glasses were always full, one of our servers, (lauren, i believe?) Was very personable, and gave great recommendations. The clam chowder, gnocchi genovese and truffle fries were delish. Additionally, the Foggy Harbor Mist cocktail was refreshing and went down too easy.
Also, not from the area and not knowing how early this town shut down, my boyfriend and I went back to the bar to hang. The bartender informed us how its still off season, and much of the staff were not ready for the rush that they got … but that being said — they were hussling, and still gave great service, food was delicious, and it was a memorable day for all. The next time we are up that way, we will definitely have to come back.

We love this place, great service, great atmosphere. The appetizers were delicious. The fish and oysters were well prepared. Lovely place. Drinks were great — nice bartenders. We have sat inside and outside — both are good options. Would recommend the fish over the steak. Clam chowder is always a winner.

Went with my husband for a quick bite — we had gotten a gift certificate — and loved the cocktails and our appetizers. We sat at the bar and the place was pretty quite and calm, which was nice. It was hard to find the entrance if you’re not inside the Inn. I don’t know if it would be the first place I’d think to go again, but we had a good time.

I love coming here every Christmas! They have a special buffet and the food is delicious. Each dish is carefully prepared and distinctly tasteful. On top of that, they have exceptional service. I highly recommend this place!

The location and view provides a wonderful and relaxing atmosphere, that is the good part. The food and service is nothing great, nothing memorable. The food on a scale of 1 to 10; Ten being the best I give a four.
We had the cheese board that was supposed to come with pecan brittle and did not. They replace the pecan brittle with candied pecans, totally different. The mussel appetizer was unremarkable. We also had a flat bread, so bland. The best food item was the dessert, it was listed on the menu «served with pecan brittle» and YES it was in the plate. Bravo

The waterfront location provides a nice atmosphere for dinner, assuming that the weather is cooperating. The food, while not bad, was not memorable either.
I looked forward to the Sushi Tuna Triangles, however, the sushi rice was so bland, I thought perhaps they just packed plain white rice. There was no hint of sweetness and no hint of vinegar at all. Also, there was only a dollop sized-​portion of tuna in the triangles.
The Fresh Salt Cioppino had some generously sized portions, which I can appreciate, until you realize that they really skimped on the lobster (I counted two thumb sized pieces).
If the prices were reduced by about 30%, perhaps the food could be easier to swallow.

Went for lunch on a Saturday with my wife. Pretty underwhelming at any price but definitely unacceptable at the prices they charged.
Service:
The hostess seemed flummoxed by where to seat us and when. First it was a half hour wait and then when I pointed out the tables inside, she was able to seat us.
Our server was friendly and helpful in taking our order.
However it did seem to take about 15min to get three oysters out of the raw bar.
Food :
We both ordered burgers and fries (extra $ for fries)… Pretty poor burgers… They had the perfectly circular preformed look of frozen burgers from Walmart… And the dense texture seemed to confirm that. For $ 11.95 (burger ONLY … fries, bacon, cheese EACH $ 2.95 extra!)… At least make the burgers in house. Also the onion roll was huge and pretty tough to chew… Kind of like when you reheat a frozen roll in the microwave too long.
Those three oysters that took long to come out? … Also were pretty tasteless as oysters go.
Obviously not a good experience… Not sure how the other food is but a burger is such a basic dish to execute… It makes me doubt their ability to execute on anything more complex. The bill for two mediocre burgers, fries, dirt coke, ice tea and three oysters was $ 50 before tip… NOT a good deal

Very nice lunch yesterday and glad we stopped despite the conflicting reviews. Service clearly does make a difference and our server (Lauren) was excellent. It was clear judging by some surrounding tables the service level does vary.
Crowded for lunch on a beautiful summer Sunday which you should expect. Location couldn’t be better. We opted to sit indoors in the bar area at a nice table with a view rather than wait for an outside spot. The wait was actually only 30 minutes which is really not bad if we wanted to go that route. There is a Sunday brunch buffet but we opted for the lounge menu.
A very good bloody mary for the misses to start and a local CT craft beer for me (Thimble Island). We split the tuscan plate which was simple but excellent — everything from the meats to the olives to the roasted red peppers to the melon slices was just super fresh and bursting with flavor. We both had the lobster salad which came with a generous portion of lobster meat which was delicious. Presentation was very good as well and I like the lobster meat plated to the side of the greens.
Sever checked in constantly and was very pleasant. Beautiful day, great location, excellent service and very good food so clearly the planets aligned for us on this visit. I will most definitely go back and of course the misses now wants to do an overnight at the Inn!

Had a very nice dinner here. See my pics. Just one thing … the owners need to hire 10 more servers so that we all can complement the Chef. Otherwise, your food can be outrageous, however, without a good staff … your left with nothing. All the food was presented nicely, good colors, flavorful. However, we had to wait almost 30 minutes to get a desert menu and by then all we wanted was the check. Would return on a non BUSY WEEKEND. Happy 4^th.
See my pics for Friday nite. Much better service and food. The salmon was the only miss being dry.
Going tonight. See my pics and final review tomorrow.
Ok here it is, dinner last night 4^th of July. Not only were we promptly seated, service, food, and timing was perfect. All while this hotel and restaurant were also hosting a 140 person wedding. They did not miss a beat. A 5 ***** from all.

Really fresh seafood, varied menu, nice ambience. We had a great meal here. Highly recommend the tuna brodo app, raw bar offerings, lobster roll (New England style-​warm with butter), and swordfish loin. We topped it all off with the profiteroles which was a fine ending to a fine meal. Will definitely revisit if in the area again.

Fresh Salt — Old Saybrook, CT — 6÷10÷2015
Great waterside /​Marina view venue. Soon the one man band entertainment starts. It’s a great place for an intimate romantic dinner or meeting friends. We’ve been there several times and it has usually been a good experience…
Fast forward to 6÷10÷2015… I booked reservations on OpenTable as I usually prefer to do. Something about removing the «human screw-​up» factor in online booking is very appealing to me… Except tonight…
We arrive, announce to the hostess that we are here for our OpenTable booked reservation and that we would like to dine outside by the fire pit. She acknowledges verbally our reservation and points to the fire pit for us to seat ourselves… after 15 minutes of wait staff walk past us pretending to not see us I went inside to ask for service… 10 Minutes after that still no service so from my cell phone I call inside asking once again for service. 5 Minutes later the manager comes out and apologizes for the hostess who apparently was brand new. My feeling, if she’s not ready, don’t put her in front. Even birds don’t let their young out of the nest until they’re ready to fly…
Next we go from one extreme to the other hand have 2 servers and the manager helping us. Naturally even tho we told the second server that the first one already took our beverage order, we get 2 sets of beverages served…
The Shrimps appetizer was good. Great cocktail sauce with just the right amount of Horseradish…
My main was the grilled Salmon which I had served over the Pea Risotto… Honestly the Salmon was over slightly over cooked and the Risotto was just OK. Now granted I didn’t specify how I wanted the Salmon cooked but I’ve been to plenty of good restaurants where they just know what the best way to serve it is without my input…
My wife had some vegetable dish that she really enjoyed. I went to look it up on their menu but their technology is seriously lacking. Most people look stuff up on their phones and they don’t have a menu posted on OpenTable. On Unilocal it links to an online menu that’s not mobile friendly and I’m not going to get a magnifying glass out to look up the ingredients. It’s 2015…, get with the times or don’t bother… Just take my word for it that it was good whatever was in it…
For dessert we had Tiramisu… It was good but not over the top good. Some coffees and off we went.
Service started off horrendous and then the overcompensating kind of fueled the fire. I was going to round up my 3.5 star rating to 4.0 as we met some really nice people while having dinner. One of which we will further a friendship with but the insult to injury was what arrived in my email later that evening. They never acknowledged my arrival on OpenTable rather put me in as a no-​show. When I called to have them correct this they suggested creating a bogus reservation and then saying I showed up. After explaining that I’ve never pulled a no-​show and was not interested in jeopardizing my VIP status on OpenTable they complied and fixed THEIR error…
Overall we will go there again and you would like the overall experience. We’ll write this bad experience off as an «everybody has a bad night» but if this happens next time, then it may be an indication of changes that have occurred that are not conducive to restaurant loyalty… With all of this they are lucky to get to 3.0…

Last year at a fundraiser the owners had two brunch prizes up for auction — so glad we won! From the moment you walk into this cozy Inn, Spa and restaurant you are met with very friendly staff.
The brunch was all buffet with a carving station, omelet, pasta and much much more. To many choices! The cooking staff were friendly and offered to help with creations of our choosing, everything was fresh and tasty. We started with very good Bloody Mary’s; a little more horseradish would have been ok. Only nit, the coffee while hot and fresh was not as strong as I like. A great desert selection! Bread pudding with chocolate chips — decadent.
It was very busy and it was before the summer beach season — so make reservations!
The view of the sound is delightful as well as seeing the docks, to bad we came early in the season so we did not get a marina full of boats. We will have to come back!