Restaurant Review: Salazar - OTR

I work on a new site for Latinas called Un Rato Juntas at my day job and our Brand Manager is from Colombia and our design team is from Mexico & Peru – thus we end up out to eat at a variety of Latin restaurants around the city. The other day – we headed for Salazar in OTR – to have a team lunch celebrating the launch of the site!

Salazar is on the corner of 14th between Vine & Race just a block from Washington Park.

We started with drinks. The bartender was being his fancy mixologist self and was making lots of fancy drinks then I asked him for something sans alcohol. After thinking on it – I got a lovely purple drink in a mug with a lemon twist.

The restaurant is REALLY small. As in maybe 8 tables + the bar. Luckily it wasn’t too busy so we only had to wait for about 15 minutes.

We got some Nibbles to start with – first up were the blistered shishito peppers, yuzu vinaigrette, sesame and bonito flakes ($6). They were spicy – I didn’t love them – they were a bit too spicy for me – but everybody that liked spicy loved them!

Next up were the fried broccoli florets with a buttermilk-sambal aioli ($5). There were delightful! They were super crispy and almost so much that they disintegrated in your mouth. This wasn’t your run of the mill stir-fried fried broccoli – I think this was deep fried. Yum!

Oh yeah – then dip it in aioli – how can you go wrong – fried goodness and flavored mayo. 🙂

Someone tried tea – which was from Churchill’s ($3) – so fancy.

The team got a little of everything from the menu – starting with the Grilled Vegetable Sandwich (eggplant is one of the vegetables – I checked – yuck) with roasted garlic hummus, lettuce, tomato, pickled onions, manchego cheese and house-made flatbread ($9). The menu changes all the time because Jose is all about the farm and what’s in season.

The sandwich was served with the housemade chips – which I did not get – then as soon as they came – I regretted my decision. Trust me – get the chips. Thank goodness for nice coworkers that let me try one.

Others tried the Cubano with ham, roasted pork, swiss cheese, mustard & pickles ($10). The team really liked this one – it’s very smushed and cuban.

I was a bit disappointed in the lunch menu – there was no chicharon, no saffron, no sunchokes – there was just nothing fancy foo-foo like they have on the dinner menu. With that – I ended up getting the burger – it’s so uninventive to get a burger – but I just wasn’t too excited by anything else. 🙁 In the end – it was fine. The bacon was good – but the burger wasn’t anything too exciting and the fries were even less exciting.

Why Should You Go? Well – it’s really cute and you should go – but go for dinner – or just order from the Nibbles. I know – I shouldn’t have gotten a burger – but nothing else was quite right. I don’t like eggplant, I just had a cuban somewhere else, etc… That said – get the chips. 🙂