Sear + Sea Woodfire Grill — Restaurant in Kissimmee

I waited a few weeks before writing this review, to make sure I had time to reflect on the experience and provide an honest and considered opinion.

Visiting a Michelin star restaurant is an experience that many diners look forward to with anticipation. It is a chance to savor the finest ingredients, prepared with skill and care by renowned chefs, and enjoyed in an atmosphere of sophistication and elegance. But for those who are lucky enough to have visited such establishments around the world, there is sometimes the experience that falls short of even the minimum expectations.

Recently, I had the opportunity to visit Sear+Sea, a Michelin star restaurant in my home city, but unfortunately my experience was not what I had hoped for. When we arrived, we decided to have a few drinks at the bar which had a good selection of gin-based cocktails and we enjoyed them while we waited for our table to be ready. When we were finally seated, we were brought still water, but unfortunately no one came to take our order for food. We waited for over 35 minutes without any service or acknowledgement. This was particularly surprising considering the restaurant was not very busy at the time and the couple next to us had already been served their appetizers and main course, although they had been seated just after us. We eventually flagged down a manager and informed them of our situation, and were able to place our orders. Our drinks arrived first and were the same ones we had enjoyed at the bar earlier. Unfortunately, these drinks were not made with the same level of skill as before and were a big letdown. The octopus appetizer was excellent. It is prepared using an air fryer technique to preserve the tenderness. Personally I prefer a properly wood-fired octopus, but I have zero complaints and it was excellent. We also ordered 'truffle' fries. We all know this truffle flavor is not "real" truffle, but my wife loves it and it is one of her favorite things. They came out soggy, un-flavorful, and not even a hint of truffle. There were flavorless truffle shavings on top of the fries that added nothing but more disappointment. When our beef arrived, we were given a slight "warning" that it is organic beef, so it will have a different taste than what we might be used to. HUGE red flag, and the warning was needed. This beef has no place in a Michelin star restaurant, and had a very strong and overwhelming metallic flavor and smell. This comes from low-quality un-finished, unfattened beef. I don't see how this could possibly come from organic beef, or any high quality cattle. The fat of grain-fed animals is where the metallic after-taste resides, from the soybean meal feed (which is the byproduct of extracting high-dollar soy oil with hexane, an industrial solvent, for the processed food market and what’s left is a high-protein feed “stuff” that cattle get fat on). There's nothing wrong with this practice, unless the cattle are unfinished after this process. The fat of a properly grass-finished (aka “grass-fat”) animal is delectable...and this certainly was not that. I inquired about where the beef came from as it shouldn't taste this way, and was just told the Tampa area, but was unable to obtained the name of the cattle ranch, so I couldn't inquire with them. Although cooked perfectly, neither one of us could manage to choke down the steaks and we were just ready to go. I live locally and it was a huge disappointment. Overall, I give the restaurant a 2 out of 10 stars, and 'unacceptable' would be a good adjective, even if it were a upper-midrange establishment. The only items of saving grace were the drinks at the bar, and the octopus. If you're looking for a Michelin star experience, I would recommend...

Sear + Sea is a combo of elegant + casual. The prices are definitely elegant. The atmosphere when we were there was very resort casual in terms of how guests were attired and the general vibe of the place. The quality of our food leaned toward elegant but with some missteps.

We started with a Dressed In Smoke cocktail. I'd boil it down to being a really nice and well crafted Old Fashioned, but with a super fun presentation that probably makes it worth the price tag.

The Octopus appetizer was just good not great. Flavors were nice, but compared with similar dishes we've had, this version was on the chewy side, not the crisp yet tender we were expecting based on our waiter's recommendation and the manager's comments.

The 16 oz ribeye was cooked to a beautiful medium with that classic steakhouse char, and the added crab bearnaise treatment turned out to be an outstanding choice. Big enough to share for most couples I would think, but delicious enough for one really hungry person to happily devour. If you're in a steak mood you could not do much better than this anywhere. Just a wonderful dish.

As it seems is customary at most such places, sides are extra, and we chose the Polenta and the Green Beans. The Polenta was excellent and interesting, creamy and flavorful, and we would definitely get it again. The Green Beans looked promising, with vibrant color and with chunks of ham strewn about the bowl, but the flavor of the beans themselves was lacking, and to our taste they were a touch too al dente. Fine, but we'd choose differently next time.

Service was a mixed bag. And at this price point I don't expect a mixed bag. Waiter was friendly and was helpful with suggestions. He advised upfront that everything is made from scratch, and meal prep would take some time. He wasn't lying. The fact the manager visited our table twice to make sure we were okay and thank us for our patience suggests to me the looooooong time it took our food to arrive may have been unusual, but regardless, expect this to be a two hour meal if our experience means anything. Particularly if your waiter gets busy and (apparently) forgets that you might be ready for the check, this after maybe 15 minutes of our boxed up leftover sides sitting on our table.

So overall, we found this place a nice blend of fancy without being too pretentious. Casual, but special feeling. The price for all the above was right at $200. It was good, and was in fact outstanding in some respects, but not worthy of five stars. That in itself is disappointing for a restaurant that clearly has five star ambitions. But still, it was mostly quite enjoyable, and we wouldn't rule out giving them another chance on some future...

My husband and I just celebrated our 10 year wedding anniversary with Damien at Sear & Sea. Damien is the epitome of beautiful service. He is absolutely flawless in his read on his guests, their needs and comfort level of how they like to be served. We are very familiar with fine dine restaurants and frequent them regularly, Damien is top notch and the best at his craft we have ever experienced. Well done and hats off to you! We will see you again soon and will be booking Easter dinner with you! To add to Damien’s amazing talents was the food. It was elevated and refined but not fussy. We enjoyed the octopus, lobster bisque, artisan rolls, king crab, bone in Kansas City steak (sharing the portion) with Brussel sprouts and the chocolate bread pudding to finish the night. The chef working the grill was like an artist in front of a painting. He was calm and cool and never appeared rush. He was in complete control, making the fire on the grill dance and tamed when required for absolute perfection. The communication the service and food team have together is again seamless. They work together and trust one another to do their individual roles and help where needed. The manager, Elleana, stopped by our table at the end of the night and spoke with us. She cared about how our experience was and had a great conversation with us as we sang the praises of our experience. The atmosphere inside is modern, comfortable and not stuffy as some higher end restaurants have a tendency of being. You can feel free to dress up in your finest dress and three piece suit or comfortable in your cute jeans and blouse without feeling out of place. This will be our new go to spot for date night, business dinners, birthdays, and...