Gorgeous views and authentic Hanoi-style flavors by Lake Washington.
Visited Anchovies and Salt for lunch after a friend recommended it.
Tip: Look for the free parking on the beach side rather than the paid lots; it’s a short, easy walk to the restaurant.
We arrived right at their 12 PM opening and got a lovely window seat. The patio directly faces Lake Washington, making it the perfect spot to soak up the sun while enjoying a meal.
For lunch, we shared the Wagyu Pho and Grilled Pork Broken Rice. I loved that the Pho stayed true to traditional Hanoi style, accompanied by shaved banana blossom, mint, lime, and their homemade chili. The taste was wonderful and the portion of meat was generous. Unfortunately, the broth was served lukewarm, which caused it to go cold almost immediately—a bit disappointing for an otherwise great dish.
That being said, the beautiful decor and polite service made for a great experience. I’m definitely looking forward to coming back for a sunset dinner on the patio. Highly recommended for dates, family dinners, or hanging out with friends!
I came here once with my husband and my little one and we loved this place, so we brought our out of state friends to try it on July 4 weekend, but it was a massive disappointment. The food was highly hit or miss. The pho didn’t look like the menu picture, the beef in the bò né was way too chewy and the sauce was too salty, and the bánh bèo was overly sticky with lack of shrimp. However, the absolute stars of the afternoon were the cơm tấm and the coffee, we honestly loved them. The prices are steep for such small portions, but to be fair, I pay the same amount for high end Italian dishes with small portions too. With the beautiful lake view they have, the price isn't actually bad.
However the service was a complete disaster. One female server spilled nuoc mam all over our table and just walked away without cleaning it up. Later, she slammed the bò né down and left without asking whose the dish was for like our main server, completely ignoring us even though we were loudly trying to tell her several times who the dish belonged to.
Then the bill came and it raised a massive red flag. We had a party of 8 adults and 5 kids. Because they put three tables together for us, they asked us to order separately using three separate tablets so it would be easier to track who ordered what. We thought that was cool because it meant less confusion. At the end, they initially asked us to pay for each table separately, but we decided it would be easier to just combine everything onto one bill and split it among ourselves later.
On that combined bill, we were charged an automatic 20% large party fee. We all work in the restaurant and nail industries, so we were totally happy to pay that 20% gratuity for a big group. However, when we got home, we were shocked to see that the restaurant slapped Washington state sales tax on top of our tip. Washington already has one of the highest sales taxes in the whole country, and we felt completely taken advantage of, only to find out after researching it online that because we combined the bill, they technically get to classify it as a "service charge” for big party to legally force that extra tax on us.
It makes me wonder: what if we had just stuck to their original request and paid separately for the 3 individual tables? Since our table sizes would have been about 4-5 people each (they have a sign of 6 people table will be charged 20% service charge), would we still have been automatically charged a 20% tip and forced to pay sales tax on it? No, because it should have been a voluntary tip (for 4-5 people table), which isn't taxed (we did not get a chance to see the three separate bills before combining.) Charging tax on a tip is ridiculous. Everyone knows business owners and servers don’t have to pay sales tax on the tips their workers make, so why are you turning around and charging the customer tax on it?
As a Vietnamese immigrant, I honestly hate writing such a long, negative review for a Vietnamese restaurant. I love seeing how much our community has grown and I always want to support our people. But for such a premium price, we deserve better service, and we need an honest answer from the owner regarding this tax on tip policy. This is why I only left 3 stars review when it should be lower. However, unless we get an explanation and an assurance of better service next time, I can’t recommend this place to anyone ever again or ever come back. We don’t mind leaving a big tip, but with the hit and miss food, the bad service we received, and the tax on the tip, this is completely unacceptable.
JY
Jeremy Yowell
Jul 3, 2026
Anchovies and Salt was a disappointing meal that not only was higher cost than I expected but we experienced a real insect issue where I was bit multiple times by something, leaving very itchy marks.
I actually quite enjoyed the food overall. Service was hit and miss with an off mix of human and robot waiters and I also can't say I loved the spring rolls, but our other dishes were tasty.
Ultimately, the main issue is that the restaurant has a real bug issue that is not being resolved. We were sat in the back of the 1st floor area and had a great view of the water. Unfortunately, I also had a view of an indoor bug zapper which should have been an indicator of a problem. I proceeded to get bit over the course of the meal 3-5 times, which I didn't fully notice until the end.
Over the next week, I experienced severe itching in those areas and noticable red spots. On the way out, I noticed the only 'Okay' health rating. Not sure if it's related, but it didn't inspire confidence (also the Men's restrooms were amongst the least clean I've seen in the Seattle area.)
Will not be back and would actually recommend friends to not visit until it's confirmed their various issues are resolved.
Came here for dinner on a Thursday hoping for a nice calm evening. The service was amazing, Justin and Bryan were friendly and attentive. The food was good. Unfortunately, the ambiance was disappointing. For a restaurant that markets itself as upscale, it did not feel that way. The music was so loud that I asked if it could be turned down, but a manager came and explained they were hosting some sort of event. During the event, someone started beatboxing, and the whole atmosphere looked and felt more like a hole in the wall than an elevated dining restaurant. Great service and good food, but the ambiance not so much.
JW
Jeannie Williams
Jun 24, 2026
My family came to Anchovie and Salt for the first time on Father's day and it was the worst restaurant experience I've had in a long time.
I'll start with upon entering the restaurant, I noticed that the restaurant rating was 'okay' which is one step up from the lowest rating of 'needs to improve' which is associated with closures or violations.
We were told that because it was Father's day, the menu was reduced to mostly the Father's day specials but there were sides and a few other menu items available so ask if we had questions.
We were given 1 iPad for the whole table to look at the menu and when we asked if we could get another iPad so more than one of us could decide what we wanted to eat at a time, they brought us a bunch of paper menus. However, since it was Father's day, and a reduced menu, most of the items on the paper menu were not available. We then began to try to match up the items on the iPad to the items on the paper menu to determine what was available and realized that most of the Father's day items on the iPad were marked 'Sold Out'!
Again, we called the staff over to say, it looks like most of the specials are sold out and the response was 'yeah, sorry about that! Let me know if you have any questions!' Now we are sitting trying to determine what is left available to order. At this point, we have been sitting there for over 40 minutes and had not placed an order yet and none of the staff had the foresight to come and ask if they could help! A couple of us had randomly picked something that didn't say sold out and my nephew called the staff over yet again to ask if a certain dish was available. At first the waitress said yes but then said 'let me check on that'. She returned a few minutes later and said 'Unfortunately we are out of rice and out of rice noodles so if you choose any dishes with rice or rice noodles we will need to make it with a different kind of noodle!' My nephew said 'We are in a Vietnamese restaurant and you've run out of rice!!' And she said 'Yeah, I'm surprised too!' 👀
It felt like there really were no available items on the menu and whatever we ordered would be them throwing together whatever was left over in the kitchen. I person didnt want to pay top dollar for kitchen scraps. We were all frustrated and ready to go and several of us pulled out our phones to look for another restaurant but of course it was Father's day and every place was booked. At this point, we are all starving and have been sitting there for over an hour. We collectively decide to order a few appetizers to hold us over until we could get home and eat.
We ordered 2 beef skewers, 2 crab wontons appetizers, my nephew ordered a drink and my niece ordered a orange juice.
WHY WAS THE BILL $200?!!
...And we all still had to go home and eat!!
A couple of things to mention...
The guest are expecting to enter there orders on the iPad and send the order to the kitchen. The kitchen then sends the food out on a robot all with no staff interaction. Then when the staff notices the food sitting, they then go and deliver it to the table. Our appetizers sat on the robot for quite a while before someone noticed and brought them over to the table. Also, there are no kids items on the menu!