Lounge At John Salt

Had birthday drinks in the upstairs mezzanine bar last night. Staff were amazing, cocktails delicious, vibe on point � Thanks guys!

Great place for food and drinks! Their cocktails are really original and tasty. Happy hour makes is very accessible. I loved their sharers. Perfect spot for birthday or lunch date!

John Salt is a great place to come to have drinks with your friends on a Friday or Saturday night. This place gets really full on those evenings but that's not really a nuisance and feels more like it's part of the ambiance. They play a good selection of house and pop music and the ambiance is really nice.

I wouldn't recommend coming here to eat since you can't usually find a place to sit and it's not really the right place to have a meal, but I once came here really hungry and so I ordered their chicken sandwich. I had no expectations but that sandwich was really great.

A birthday meal has to be chosen wisely. I didn’t choose mine, well, not directly. Instead I hinted on my ‘day job’ blog. Luckily Ade took the hint and got straight on the phone. His first choice for me – Duck & Waffle (where we STILL haven’t been yet, yeah yeah, we know) was booked until 10pm, so he booked John Salt instead. I would have been happy with either.

Birthdays are weird things, the pressure to have a good time is immense, I have better regular days. I thought at least if we went somewhere well-regarded I could roughly ensure we have a great time. I needn’t have worried, we spent the night eating dish after amazing dish and laughing until our sides hurt.

John Salt was way bigger than we expected, it was a relief not to be crammed in as seems to be the norm these days. We sat upstairs in the more formal restaurant area, which also has its own bar with warm and friendly staff on hand at all times. We always give a big tick to anywhere that offers us tap water straight away, the John Salt kind was delivered in a white fish-shaped jug that made a mildly amusing glugging sound when pouring. Crockery was mismatched, the kind your gran would have. No filament lightbulbs shocker, instead there were ‘pipes’ crafted from old fluorescent strip lighting that lit internally

For the full review and more pics go to http://welovefood-itsallweeat.com/2013/06/08/simply-one-of-the-best-meals-of-our-lives-john-salt-131-upper-st-islington-london-n1-1qp/

John Salt opened in November with Ben Spalding at the helm, with his much revered taster menus & bar menu. Much praise was lavished, including from us, but it was all cut short rather abruptly, with Ben replaced with Neil Rankin, former head chef of Pitt Cue Co. Neil was already in talks to go into another one of the 580 ltd group's pubs at the Owl & Pussycat in Shoreditch. Looks like John Salt have pulled another Ace out of their sleeve with this new signing, with food cooked on another spectrum (or a big green egg). With Rankin's renowned expertise with all things meat and barbeque and some rather exquisite Asian influenced dishes, the place is a haze again with recent glowing reviews in Timeout and the Metro, as well as from the smoke in the kitchen
While the upstairs area, where we have been sat before, is now unsurprisingly increasingly difficult to get a booking for, downstairs isn't too bad, as long as you don't mind sharing the large communal tables. At off peak times there is enough space for walk ins. It's a strange set up to have a reservation for an undetermined place on one of the 3 large communal tables, thankfully it wasn't that busy though by the time we got there for a late lunch.
Service is a bit hit and miss, and with the staff (while pleasant) are so casually dressed it's hard to work out who was the waitress and who were customers shuffling there way back to their seats. It was half an hour before we even got our drinks, nevermind the food. It really cuts against the grain, the set up seems very in tune with high turnover with the communal tables and stools, yet was so much different in reality. This can be partially forgiven though as the food is a revelation, the grilled prawns to be eaten whole were crunchy and flavourful, a texture combination I'm not really used to, traditionally peeling them, but wow this was an unexpected delight. The burnt leeks were fantastic, the parmesan and rich egg yolk coming together well with the BBQed leeks, perfect comfort food.
After another lengthy wait, the mains of the pork hash (£12) and skirt steak with kimchi hollandaise (£10!) arrived. To say this is just 'good pub food' is doing it a tremendous disservice, but these are simple dishes, cooked uniquely, and to perfection, using the best and freshest produce (most from Cornwall) that fits hand in hand with the ambience of the place. The pork hash is something of pure indulgence, cured pork belly, cubes of delicious pork far, pulled pork, peas and sweetcorn, roast potatoes, small chunks of apple and egg yolk to bring it. Not the most sexy of dishes, but damn it's good eating. With Rankin's panache for cooking meat in his big green egg, I had to go for the skirt steak, not the most popular of cuts, it is very chewy but a lot more flavoursome and beefy than ribeye. The steak is so charred on the outside you wouldn't have guessed at it's perfect pink of medium rare interior, showing off the barbequing skills on display. The kimchi hollandaise is the perfect accompaniment with the sauce bringing a tang that complements the steak beautifully. With frites and keveral salad on the side as well we were more than adequately fed.
The food here is a great advert for the fantastic produce available from Cornwall. More and more restaurants seem to be catching onto this, with Cornish Grill supplying many a place, including John Salt & Pitt Cue Co. If you are ever down in Cornwall, I can recommend it be worth your while checking out Philip Warren Butchers, in addition to it's beautiful coastline towns and villages. With top sourcing such as this, half the battle is already won. The rest is brought with a menu and style of cooking you will struggle to find in the rest of the UK, let alone London.
It's a shame then that the service somewhat lets things down. On a Saturday lunch I didn't expect to be there for nearly 2 hours with only 2 courses down. We both had things to do and places to go, so unfortunately had to forgo the dessert that I was looking forward to; possibly would have gone for the banana dog or bacon panna cotta. Despite the quality, and value, of the food it's a great disservice that I have to second guess my next visit. Maybe we were just unlucky. That said I highly recommend a visit if you haven't already been the food here is really on the money.

Read more on: http://www.foodoverlondon.com/2012/11/salt-of-earth_13.html

Absolutely wonderful bar, extremely well run with really friendly and helpful staff! Planning my event was effortless with Jordan taking care of all details and Jamie and the team running out flawlessly on the evening. Nothing was a problem, they were super attentive, helpful and kind despite it being the last Saturday before Christmas and very busy! Food came out on time and was delicious enjoyed by all guests. Was very surprised just how nice and easy going a plush bar in Upper Street could be, but this was it! Would definitely plan another event here in future. Highly recommend.

A rather nice venue with a mezzanine and bar upstairs definitely not pretentious but rather down to earth. The downstairs area is fairly spacious and able to double as a dancefloor too. They have good seating as well as several large TV monitors. The bar staff were all very friendly and efficient and the drinks are reasonably priced. They have a small indoor uncovered terrace doubles as a smoking area. I attended on a Saturday night when they also had a DJ on the ground floor playing a mixture of Club Classics, Dance and Pop. An enjoyable night was had by us all. Certainly a place to visit with friends on a night out.

Good place to chill with friends and you can even watch Wimbledon here. The lady at the bar is very helpful and welcoming. Though the chai tea I tried isn’t very good, their beer and cocktails might be nice probably?

Great service and amazing place to work from!! Their space upstairs is very cosy and allowed me focus on work better than I’d do at the office. Fantastic!

Great pub, amazing staff! Really enjoyed the drinks while watching the game.