Your table at the edge of the ocean

It’s always been a puzzle why here at the very edge of the continent, on this coast festooned with miles of beach, there are so few restaurants with a view of that very Pacific. You can practically count them on the fingers of one hand. That’s why Studio in Laguna Beach is such a find. The setting is absolutely extraordinary.

Tucked at the edge of the new Montage Resort, the restaurant sits on a 50-foot bluff a stroll away from the main buildings, directly on the ocean. Don’t bother asking for a window table: Studio has been designed so that every table has a view.

At night, the subtly lighted water looks like beaten silver, framed by the dark hulk of the rocks off a pocket cove below.

But as enchanting as that is, nothing compares to the full splendor of the view on a dazzling summer day: turquoise sea, azure skies and jade green grass.

From our table at the edge of the patio one afternoon, we have a prime view of the public promenade that runs along the edge of the bluff.

Families trail by Sunday painters struggling with easels and canvases. Girls in skimpy swimsuits vamp it up while older couples keep to a stately pace.

The tall, lean figure of the executive chef, James Boyce, strides into the scene, crossing the grass to greet a group of guests.

Meanwhile, our amuse bouche has arrived: a white plate the size of an LP with a smaller cup and saucer on top, tilted at an alarming angle. “The best way to approach it,” the server tells us and every other table, “is to lift the vessel away from the magnetically charged saucer.” Who thought up that sentence? Despite the rather silly presentation, the canary melon soup is subtle and delicious, just not cold enough.

Lunch is a prix fixe affair with several choices in each of three courses. A bottle of Macon Pierreclos from Jean-Claude Thevenet is crisp and minerally, perfect with the chilled seafood served on four square plates: crab claw meat, chilled mussels, a pair of pristine oysters and a couple of barely cooked, still translucent Mexican white shrimp -- each with an appropriate sauce. A smooth tomato gazpacho shot through with the taste of heirloom tomatoes makes another refreshing first course.

My main-course, fat and delicious white shrimp from Baja come loosely wrapped in a chickpea crepe and splashed with a little vinaigrette flavored with lemon thyme.

Confit pork “sliders” turn out to be a trio of diminutive buns filled with pork confit, each sandwich dressed with a different garnish, from shallots and avocado to diced apple salad and dried sour cherries. The pork’s flavor is rich and unctuous and the sandwich drips grease with every bite. It’s surprisingly decadent for a restaurant like this, and very different from the rest of the menu’s light conceit.

In the heat, we savor the cool tartness of a key lime parfait swirled with coconut creme anglaise. Our waiter sets down the strawberry shortcake; the berries are dead ripe, deep red all the way through, with a fragile shortcake in a thin lake of syrupy juices.

We linger over coffee, enjoying the glorious cliche of the setting, and finally, reluctantly, go investigate what that clutch of painters are painting (the rocks and the sea) and follow the steps down to the little cove below where I found some Russians who had staked out their own little dacha by the beach, a portable cabana outfitted with a table, giant bottles of Coca-Cola and fishing poles.

A thoroughly entertaining interlude, lunch has had its surprises and beguiling tastes. Come dinner, though, the kitchen gets very serious. And despite fine raw materials and a seasoned team, it loses momentum.

Done with deliberation

Boyce came from Mary Elaine’s at the Phoenician in Scottsdale, Ariz., but he’s no stranger to Southern California. Previously he was chef at Loews Coronado Bay Resort in San Diego. He brought his own posse from Mary Elaine’s, including the wine director, chef de cuisine and pastry chef.

His cuisine is contemporary with American and Mediterranean influences, skillfully prepared for the most part, with top-of-the-line ingredients.

Everything is certainly competent, but it’s all too careful. For these elevated prices, you’d expect at the least the occasional heart-stopping dish. But nothing really grabs your attention. Dishes aren’t that expressive or personal.

First-course offerings include meaty Maine diver scallops the size of pincushions, seared and simply presented with a garnish of fat asparagus tips and stone-ground mustard. Pan-seared skate wing is falling apart, either from overcooking or because it’s not fresh enough. The puckered Oregon morels are the best thing about the dish. Medjool dates and an accent of tamarind-ginger caramel take it perilously close to dessert.

But I did enjoy the perfectly roasted foie gras paired with crisp-skinned pork belly, cipolline onions and, for a sweet note, a lashing of apple-anise honey.

Some of the best dishes here are on the prix fixe vegetarian menu. Deep red, juicy strawberries are crowned with a stack of Persian cucumber slices. The crunch of the cucumbers and the velvety texture of the strawberries punctuated with a few threads of lemon skin make sense once you taste it.

Hand-rolled wild mushroom lasagna is a sheet of pasta loosely enclosing wild mushrooms, ribbons of spinach and lovely little baby artichokes like a bouquet of flowers in their wrapping paper.

Main courses are luxe, but still recognizably hotel food. Forget the spectacular setting, you could be eating anywhere.

There’s a beautiful center-cut veal chop set off with fresh morels, French prunes and an unusual walnut couscous; an innocuous “vintage” beef tenderloin outshone by the maitake mushrooms that come with it; or lamb that bears such a faint trace of lamb flavor that the flavor of the Brussels sprouts is startling by comparison. East Coast swordfish is the real thing, cooked with raisins, chanterelles and a fragrant pistou of sweet basil.

Service is the weak point at Studio. It’s uncomfortable and stiff. I’d be uncomfortable too if I had to wear a tight double-breasted suit, an odd get-up for a resort by the beach, however fancy. Everybody seems ill at ease and the pace is out of sync.

One night when we arrive for a late reservation, nobody seems in a hurry to seat us, and the staff takes awhile to get around to setting up our table. After we sit down, it’s another long wait before anyone thinks to bring us a menu. Then we have to ask for the wine list and, still later, grab a sommelier rushing by to put in our order.

Our waiter? Nowhere in sight.

Wine but no passion

As for the wine, no expense has been spared. It’s stored in handsome temperature-controlled cabinets where every bottle wears a bronze tag. But they can’t find the bottle we order one night and wait so long to tell us, we barely have time to choose something else before the first courses arrive.

The choices are broad and interesting, and while markups are high, they’re not as high as at some high-end hotels.

For a place that’s trying to be so sophisticated, though, the wine list is riddled with spelling mistakes. Some of the sommeliers are not good on the floor. When we try to engage a sommelier about a wine one night, it was like talking to a robot there was so little passion or interest there.

Desserts include a dreamy cloud of chocolate souffle, or an unusual pink grapefruit souffle with honey syrup infused with cardamom.

Luscious Harry’s Berries strawberries come with vanilla ice cream and, in a play on the Italian idea of strawberries with a few drops of aceto balsamico, a balsamic syrup. For the most part they’re pretty, but forgettable.

Because of its spectacular situation, Studio is going to be busy no matter what.

It would be easy for it to slide by as just another fancy hotel restaurant with no particular personality. That would be a shame, because they have the opportunity here to do something great. That is, if the kitchen would be more daring and if someone could get the dining room under control.

There’s no reason why Studio can’t have it all.

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Studio

Rating: **

Location: Montage Resort & Spa, 30801 South Coast Highway, Laguna Beach; (949) 715-6420.

Ambience: Understated luxury in a Craftsman-style bungalow perched at the edge of a bluff overlooking the Pacific. Every table has a view, and at lunch, when they serve outside, you can practically feel the sea spray.

Service: Formal and stiff, yet disorganized and scattered.

Price: Dinner appetizers, $13 to $19; main courses, $33 to $37; desserts, $10. Chef’s six-course tasting menu, $95 per person; with wine, $150. Six-course vegetarian menu, $75. At lunch, a three-course prix fixe menu, $47.

Best dishes: Strawberries and Persian cucumber, roasted foie gras, hand-rolled wild mushroom lasagna, Maine diver sea scallops, seared swordfish, key lime parfait, strawberry shortcake, chocolate souffle.

Wine list: Just what you’d expect at a luxury resort: extensive and well-chosen with more than 900 selections at steep markups. Corkage, $15; only one bottle per table.

Best table: One at the front of the outdoor patio at lunch, where you get a view of the sea and the promenade.

Details: Open Tuesday through Sunday for dinner, 5:30 to 10 p.m.; lunch Saturday and Sunday only, 11:30 a.m. to 1:45 p.m. Full bar. Valet parking, $5 with validation.

Rating is based on food, service and ambience, with price taken into account in relation to quality. ****: Outstanding on every level. ***: Excellent. **: Very good. *: Good. No star: Poor to satisfactory.