The Ravenous Pig is one of the newest restaurants in the Orlando area. The restaurant is located off Orange Avenue in Winter Park. It describes itself as an American Gastropub which according to their website means: “a pub that provides food of such quality that people will attend merely for the quality of the cuisine, rather than because it is a place where they can drink alcohol.” After our first meal here I’d almost only come back for the alcohol. If I cold sum up the entire experience with one word it would be “salty”. Someone had a heavy hand the night we dined. At first I thought it was only my food until the 6 others we were dining with all started making similar comments.

We started off with a charcuterie plate ($3 each serving), which had various bits of fine sausages, cheese and other delights. My favorite was the duck prosciutto. It was an excellent starter with a glass of wine. Our appetizers arrived next, which were the Snake River Farms Steak Tartare ($14) and the Florida Stone Crabs ($15). The tartare was excellent. Nice tender bits of steak top with a halved quail egg. The crab legs where difficult to work with and to top it off, were very fishy. Another guest of ours said the exact same thing. Out of the starters I’d recommend the charcuterie plate and the tartare. Both were excellent dishes.

On to the salads, we ordered a Farmer Salad ($9) and a Gatherer Salad ($8). Here is when the salt kicked in. The Farmer salad consisted of bitter greens, bacon, soft boiled egg, caesar vinaigrette and brioche croutons. The Bacon was so salty it overwhelmed the entire salad. All I could taste was salt. The Gatherer salad was an equal disappointment. Beets, avocado, goat cheese, pistachio topped with a herb vinaigrette. Overcooked mushy beets ruined this salad leaving two nearly untouched salad bowls for the waitress.

About 20 minutes later our entrees arrived. We ordered the Steak Frites ($23) and the Prime Black Angus Ribeye ($32). The Steak Frites dish consisted of porcini marinated flat-iron steak, truffle fries and béarnaise sauce. The fries were excellent. The steak was perfectly cooked but unfortunately very salty. The Prime Black Angus Ribeye was the same, very salty. It was served with boulangere potatoes, grafton cheddar and a bitter green salad. The best part about each dish was the side accompanying the dish.

Desert was brought to the table for one of our guests. It was called “Pig Tails” ($7). I didn’t try it but I snickered when a guest of ours said, “Even this is salty.” Whether it was true or not the theme for our dinner was salt.

We’ve had many friends who have raved about Ravenous Pig. Perhaps it was just a bad night in the kitchen. That question can only be answered when we return.