Sea and Smoke Review (Del Mar)

Sea and Smoke, in brief:

--very loud

--very airy

--tasty food, interesting menu

--disorganized, disappointing service

--slow kitchen

--high prices, portions too large (this is fine if you really are sharing dishes, but if each person is eating something differnet - CH likes chicken, I'm a veggie - lots of food is leftover with a very big bill)

--there's a lot of fried food for "farm-to-table". I liked my mushroom dish (with poached egg, smoked lentil mousse), but did it really need potato chips on top of it?  And the dandelion greens didn't really harmonize with the rest.

We ended up cancelling some of the things we ordered because the waits between dishes coming out of the kitchen were just too long.  Either the bar is also really slow or our server was.

Too bad, because it's beautiful, interesting food, and I want Matt Gordon to succeed (nice guy, great chef). But I don't think we'll go back, at least until we hear other reports. Too bad!!!