2008 Dining Guide

2008 Fall Dining Guide
By Tom Sietsema
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, Oct. 12, 2008

A seafood lover can catch most of the basics at BlackSalt: oysters on the half shell, fried Ipswich clams, a chowder that salutes New England. But chef Danny Wells isn't content to mimic every other fish purveyor in town. So he also tempts diners with wild Pacific butterfish, which he complements with medjool dates and an intriguing sauce made from molasses and cilantro; and with braised conger eel, which he stuffs into caps of tender ravioli and finishes with an Asian mushroom jus. Neither is likely to be a combination you've encountered before, and both dishes demonstrate imagination combined with experience. Wells can get carried away sometimes. While it's fun to try, say, puppy drum from Virginia, the entree that resembles striped bass is diminished by a heavy moat of crab, okra, corn and hen-of-the-woods mushrooms (the guy loves his fungi). But I appreciate that the seafood-heavy script remembers meat eaters with the likes of braised pork belly, lightened up with tomatillo and a key-lime gastrique, and keeps everyone happy right through the meal's end. Which means you don't want to forgo the banana cream pie or butterscotch pot de creme. BlackSalt begins with a retail seafood display and ends with a cozy chef's tasting room. In between are a friendly bar and a cramped dining room. Both are loud, but also typically swamped with fans.

Crab Cake Review

The Food section rated this restaurant's crab cake for a July 2009 story about the area's best.

Sauteed just long enough to create a crisp top and bottom, then finished briefly in the oven, these crab cakes were about the handsomest of our taste test. Bits of jalapeno pepper should have been a deal-breaker ingredient, but they work, as do the aioli and onion. The fish market at the front of the house earns points for being one of the few establishments currently using Maryland crab. The crab cake sold at lunch comes on a rich brioche bun with lemon-caper aioli and a smart house slaw ($16).

Two 4.5-ounce jumbo-lump crab cakes, $28 to $32; available as a dinner entree if the crab cakes are in stock at the market

(July 29, 2009)