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Last night, Pere and I had dinner at the Salt Cellar in Scottsdale, before heading off to see the touring Cirque du Soleil show Corteo. Because the show started at 8, we figured we would need to do an early dinner, sometime around 5:30. Normally I don't like doing dinner out that early, but we didn't really have a choice as we needed to be at the show by 7:30.

The Salt Cellar is one of those places I've been meaning to go to for years yet never seem to make it to. It's considered by many to be the best place for fresh seafood in the Phoenix area. What really makes it unique, though, is the fact that the restaurant is located entirely underground. From the street, you would hardly know that it's there. There's only a small building with the entrance door and a stove pipe sticking up from the ground that give the location away.

When we arrived, there were already a few people at the bar, presumably for the happy hour (5-7) specials. We were seated almost immediately in one of the many small dining rooms. I'm not sure how many there are in the place, but the dining room we were seated in was very intimate - only 6 small tables in the room. Our waitress was very friendly and went into great detail about all of the menu items, including the special board which had about a dozen daily specials.

While we tried to decide on entrees, we went ahead and ordered a half-dozen oysters on the half-shell along with a bucket of steamers. I also ordered a bottle of David Bruce (2003) Pinot Noir. David Bruce makes on of my favorite Pinot Noir's, so I couldn't pass it up even though it may be a little heavy for seafood. In the meantime, our waitress brought by a bread basket with slices of three different breads, an olive bread, a sesame loaf, and a piece of sourdough. The sourdough had a perfectly crispy crust with a nice chewy inside, as did the sesame. Pere and I were both less than thrilled with the olive bread, though as the olives seemed to have all pulled to the same spot in the slice making it a little too briny.

The oysters were the first appetizer to arrive. They were decent sized and smelled very fresh. We had them with a squeeze of lemon, shot of Tabasco, and a little cocktail sauce - just enough to enhance the flavor without totally killing off the taste. I thought they were great, but a little pricey at $12.95 for 6. Just as we finished the oysters, the bucket of clams arrived. One think I found a bit odd. The clams were completely dry, as if they had been baked and not steamed. It didn't really matter, though, because they tasted great, especially with the drawn butter and a squeeze of lemon. All of the clams they served us were open, which was good. I can't stand when a restaurant brings out clams or mussels and a bunch of them are dead (haven't opened).

For entrees, I went with the "small" baked stuffed lobster while Pere chose the salmon wellington. The small lobster was actually 1 1/4 pounds. It was stuffed with a mixture of king crab and scallops and topped with a Ritz cracker crust. Accompanying the lobster were sauteed vegetables and a lemon and pecan wild rice. When the entrees arrived, our waitress explained that they crack all crabs and lobsters table side. She then proceeded to remove the claws from my lobster and crack them using a combination of a clean cloth napkin and a cracker. In about 30 seconds, she had cracked both claws and all of the knuckles, each with a satisfying crunch that told me the lobster hadn't been frozen for 6 months then overcooked in a pot of boiling water. She obviously had a lot of practice. The lobster also tasted great. The meat was done just right - not at all overcooked. The Ritz cracker crust was tasty as well, but I would have been just as happy with the naked lobster. I'm a bit mixed on the stuffing of king crab and scallops. While I thought the crab was good, I found the scallops (there were three) a bit mushy. All in all, though, I was very happy with my lobster. I was so full after eating it, though, that I only had a fork-full of the rice and vegetables. That's okay, though. Who really goes to a seafooder and has any interest in the vegetables and rice?

Pere's salmon wellington turned out to be a huge hunk of salmon wrapped in spinach, then topped with mushrooms (it didn't look like duxelles) and wrapped in pastry. She thought it was ok, but it didn't live up to her expectations. We both thought that the quality of the seafood at the Salt Cellar was quite good, but the prices were a little higher than they should have been to be considered a good value. I do plan on going back for their happy hour, though. They run a lot of specials at the bar during happy hour, and that seems like a much more reasonable way to get decent fresh seafood without breaking the bank.