Salt Awards

Salt Restaurant Review:

The Ritz-Carlton, Amelia Island's signature restaurant, formerly called The Grill, served as the catalyst for Jacksonville's restaurant boom. It opened in 1991, when the city boasted precious few fine dining establishments. With its world-pantry of fine ingredients, encyclopedic wine list and rarefied prices, it showed that northeast Florida residents and visitors had a taste for haute cuisine. Happily, age hasn't dulled its edge. It's still introducing locals to new dishes, new ingredients. The seasonal menu changes daily but one may find a marinated crab salad with grapefruit gelée, currants and kumquat. Finely shaved organic beef carpaccio, heirloom tomatoes, artisanal cheeses and Tasmanian king salmon may all make appearances on the menu, along with specials featuring the best of area farms, fields and fishing boats. Plan to spend some time with the wine list, which---among its 500 bottles---always includes some rare and intriguing selections. And don't miss the warm mocha mousse with caramel crème anglaise.