OK Food, but What a View!

Everything about the Surf and Sand Hotel feels luxurious, especially its restaurant, Splashes. The views overlooking the Pacific are stunning, the decor is Mediterranean chic and the food is haute cuisine. And it all comes with a deluxe price tag.

From its stucco balconies, Splashes offers a bird’s-eye view of beach life a la Laguna: a man with a fat snake wrapped around his neck ambles by while surfers young and old ride the waves. The tightly arranged maze of tables allows nearly every diner a seaside seat. As for the clientele, the restaurant attracts a fashionable, sophisticated crowd from the neighborhood and beyond.

Since the setting is spectacular and the menu is pricey, one would expect the food to be perfect. But it’s not.

Several of the dishes ordered by our party of eight are recommended; some could have been improved with a little more finesse in the kitchen. And at about $14, the entrees could include champagne or a small salad in addition to the main course, but they don’t.

Of the eight salads and starters, these are among the most successful: The fruit salad was large and exceptionally fresh with perfectly ripe berries, melon and pineapple. The chicken soup is a hearty bowl of wild rice, carrots, celery, flavorful herbs and scallions, and the garlicky Caesar gets high marks for including anchovies, which have sadly become the endangered species of the salad world.

Less successful was the lamb salad, which was rather bland and would have been improved by marinated meat incorporated into a vinaigrette with pine nuts (which is how I imagined it would be served) rather than unadorned lamb slices served alongside various greens in a yogurt dressing. But its excellent Kalamata olives salvaged the dish for me.

Of the entrees, most of the dishes were well received. Although the portions could have been larger, the flavor combinations were creative: The pan-seared salmon with saffron is a winning combination, the wild mushroom omelet with cheese and spinach hit the right note and linguine pasta with ahi, capers and tomatoes formed a flavorful alliance.

The best entrees were the French toast with caramelized bananas and chicken apple sausage and the Mediterranean salad with slender green beans, roasted bell peppers, baby asparagus and tender grilled shrimp.

Other entrees included filet mignon with garlic mashed potatoes, lemon marinated chicken breast with a delicious potato gratin and a grilled halibut over cucumber fennel salad in a beautiful saffron broth, which was deemed lacking in flavor but a treat to the eyes and nose.

When we finished our meals, we expected to be seduced by the dessert list. Unfortunately, the service was so slow that we ran out of time, and our waiter never asked if we wanted any. Sometimes the three best things that can be said about a restaurant are location, location, location.

Splashes, 1555 S. Coast Highway, Laguna Beach, (949) 497-4477. Brunch prices: starters and salads from $6 to $14; entrees from $11 to $19. Hours: 10 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.