Gold Dig #26

Salt’s Cure is a Hollywood spot on Jonathan Gold’s 101 Best Restaurants list. While some of the places on his list are street trucks or hole-in-the-wall (dare I say “dives”), this is more of a date night restaurant. Dimly lit (thus the grainy pics), bar, patio seating, and prices to match. If you’re looking for a nice night out, I’d definitely make the trek to Salt’s Cure.

The Dish

The first thing you will see when you go to the Salt’s Cure website is a banner pronouncing “Every meal at Salt’s Cure proudly sources ingredients grown & raised in California, all of which are carefully butchered and crafted in house”. Their locally sourced food is weighted heavily toward meats, which is totally fine with me. Jonathan Gold put their pork chop in his 10 best dishes of 2016. I would go to Salt’s Cure just to get the pork chop! More on that in a minute.

House Steamed Cappicollo, Pretzel Bread

We started with their cappicollo, which is a cured pork cold cut. It was tender and had a great spice rub on the edges. Great to eat alone, but also fantastic with their stellar pretzel bread (chunks of salt on a perfect pretzel skin and so soft on the inside). Spread a little of the lardo and mustard on the bread, and munch with some cappicollo and a pickle. I had to force myself to savor small bites so I wouldn’t devour the whole platter in seconds.

Smoked Salmon Tartare, Cucumber, Everything Crackers

When this little tower arrived at the table, it took us a minute to decide how we were supposed to eat it. We ended up deconstructing it and putting a dollop of the tartare on each of the three crackers. The darker cracker was my favorite. This was the most carefully presented of all the dishes, but the least exciting flavor-wise. Generally though I’d say Salt’s Cure focuses more on preparation and flavor than presentation.

Braised Pork Shoulder, Polenta, Spigarello

I was surprised when I took my first bite of the pork shoulder that it seemed to need salt. I almost never add salt to dishes at a good restaurant. I assume they’ve seasoned it so I won’t need to. It seems that Salt’s Cure assumes that as well, as there wasn’t any salt on the table and we had to ask for some. Once just a touch was added, this dish turned out to be delicious – the pork was succulent, the polenta creamy, and the spigarello added a nice leafy green to cut the richness. It was almost like they’d just missed a step – I forgive them since overall the meal was delicious.

16 oz Marin Sun Pork Chop, Apple Sauce, Brown Butter

Ah the pork chop… this is what brought me to Salt’s Cure. I’d heard so much talk about this life-changing pork chop. Was there any way it could live up to all the hype? I had nothing to fear. It was that good. The presentation leaves something to be desired. It’s a hunk of meat sitting on a plate in a pool of applesauce, with what looks to be a ring of grease seeping around it but is actually brown butter. But then you cut off a piece, swish it around in the butter and applesauce, pop it in your mouth and groan with pleasure. I definitely picked up the bone and gnawed off every morsel of meat – my mom would say that’s unladylike, but it was totally worth it. Get the pork chop!

Date Bread Pudding, Toffee Sauce

Best thing about this dessert? The toffee sauce. I was left wanting more. The bread pudding itself was drier than I was expecting. It was more like cake, as opposed to the typical gooey consistency of bread pudding.

Chocolate Pudding

We almost didn’t order the chocolate pudding, as it just didn’t sound that exciting. I am glad we went for it. Even though it had the light brown coloring I usually associate with milk chocolate, it had a rich dark chocolate flavor without too much sweetness. The cacao nibs on top added nice texture, and what looked like whip cream turned out to be what I think was more like marshmallow fluff. I’m normally not a big marshmallow fan, but it worked.