To say that Salem lacks in culinary choices would be an understatement. Espcially compared to Portland, which is renowed for its quality and variety. But there are quite a few bright spots. Due to a large Mexican population the Mexican food is authentic. And because it's proximity to the ocean, seafood restaurants can serve fresh dishes.
In late 2008, Megan and I started going out to a 'nice' restaurant once a month. Nice places to eat vary widely from person to person and from place to place. One way, for me, to rule out a restaurant as being nice is a chain. Olive Garden, Applebee's, Red Robin, all have their place but it's not the kind of place I look forward to going. The menu is very standard, the food is good but not unique, and the wait staff is very customer oriented but nothing special. To me, a nice restaurant is place where the food is the focus and it's a little different for some reason or another.
One such place is
Venti's Cafe. We ate there this evening and it was splendid. It has a fairly small dining room and bar in the basement. They pride themselves on serving a "True Pint", 16oz of beer in a 20 oz glass. I guess that's a pretty big deal to some people. The unique thing about Venti's is their menu. It's hardly what I would consider a cafe (no burgers or potato fries) and though the signature dish is Chicken Teriyaki I would call it Chinese Food. They simply serve what they now how to make very good. The ingredients are top notch and the entrés are very well balanced. The flavor alone qualifies it as a nice restaurant. If you get to go there, I highly recommend the sweet potato fries.
If anybody knows of some hidden gems in Salem please let us know in the comments.
