Les Barnes, proprietor of Saltaire Oyster Bar in Port Chester, has replaced opening chef Bobby Will with executive chef Cedric Lamouille. French trained, chef Lamouille had been sous chef at venerable Jean-Louis in Greenwich. Meanwhile, the menu will be tweaked as well, I was told. The seafood menu will now offer more meat, poultry and vegetarian options. I have enjoyed this restaurant, and I hope they maintain the quality level…
Interesting.Jean Louis closed in 2012 and Lamouille joined Cafe Versailles in early 2014 and I was invited to sample his cuisine. If he is bringing the Boeuf Bourguignon I sampled it will be a great modification to the menu with some outstanding beef dishes.
It will be nice to have a good French around. Went to Vox last week and, though we like the place more for a relaxing evening, the chef has serious lack of salt issues. I had the potato gratin which was not properly seasoned. What a disappointment! It’s very hard to salt that at the table…
Don’t think the place is changing to a French theme per se, though the new chef has the credentials. I believe it will stick to a fish and seafood menu that will be tweaked with other offerings. Saltaire has been there for almost a year and management probably is reading their public…
Sorry to hear about your experience at Vox. I remember when it opened as Auberge Maxime back in the 80s. Prior to that it was the original home of The Arch before they moved to Brewster. Son of the original chef at Auberge still operates place, I believe.
We had dinner at Saltaire on Friday night. Started with a beet salad and tasted my friend’s cold corn bisque. Both were pretty good. My husband started with soft shell crab appetizer and my friend’s husband had the tuna tartare. Everyone like their appetizers. For entrees, my friend and I both had the striped sea bass which was a special. It came over shredded brussel sprouts and mushrooms (a little Fall-ish) but still tasty. My husband had “lobster carbonara”, which was not really a carbonara…it came in a tomato sauce which he doesn’t really like. He also said it tasted fishy. Can’t remember what last person had as entree…maybe salmon?
Dessert menu was not tempting at all. We left and went to Ralph’s Italian Ices in Mamaroneck.
Pleasant enough dinner but no great urge to return. And kind of expensive for what it was. $35 for the lobster carbonara and specials were $35 too. With a drink person, all of a sudden it was $85+ per person.
Wow, that seems high!
Yup, Gwenn.
It’s had a yuppie vibe since it opened. I can do without.
Thanks for the report, Valerie. I have had similar experiences here: I enjoyed quite a few of their osyters and appetizers but have not really explored their main courses…they are pricey, and they offer a good early happy hour.
We looked at the bar area to the left of the entrance and I said to my friends that this would be a good place to come and have some appetizers and drinks. My husband and I are not fans of oysters, though, so my guess is that we won’t be back any time soon.
Let me start right out by declaring Saltaire to be one of the best seafood restaurants in the Westchester/Fairfield area. (Their only rival might be Kee Oyster House in White Plains.) Last night we dropped in during their happy hours, scored a seat at the big bar with its fresh seafood raw bar and took our time grazing thru both the happy hour menu and the regular menu. As we sat, the bar/lounge section of the restaurant began filling up steadily. We started with an order of Artichoke Spinach Dip and Short Rib Sliders. The dip was amazing for its flavor and the crispy bread great for dipping. The tender sliders came with sliced hot peppers on the side.
We followed with their Grilled Shrimp Cobb off the regular menu, a delicious fresh salad bowl of giant shrimp, greens, bacon, avocado, sliced hard boiled eggs, and a vinaigrette that brought us to culinary heaven. Yes, it was that good, and easily sharable. We were in the mood for mussels, so we ordered a bucket of them with an herbed lemon broth. It was served with more toasted bread. The mussels were plump and tasty. We had a delightful time dipping and slurping…we washed all this down with a few beers from Cisco Brewers, which we remembered from Nantucket.
The service was great throughout, even as the crowd grew. It was fun watching the raw bar crew shucking those oysters and clams non-stop. Wonder how their wrists feel after work?
We will return to Saltaire…
