Sea Smoke Waterfront Grill — Restaurant in Town of Green Island

My first impression of Chef Jaime Ortiz's new restaurant, Sea Smoke, was positive. My current rating is 4 stars as there is room for improvement, but I will be dining here again with different groups over the next few weeks, and I will update my rating after the team has had a chance to "iron out the kinks" associated with opening a new restaurant. The riverfront location is amazing and on full display with floor to ceiling windows almost everywhere. I'm excited for spring/summer when they can open the restaurant to the outdoors. As expected, based on Jaime's other spaces, the interior design is stunning and on par with some of the best restaurants in NYC and Miami. The background music was "modern chill," and fit nicely with the crowd and overall ambiance, creating positive energy. That being said, those beautiful windows coupled with background music playing at a higher volume create some acoustical issues. Larger interior tables (ie, greater than a 4 top) will struggle to have an inclusive conversation. Maybe not a bad thing if you don’t like the person at the other end of the table. Also, please note that if you are sitting next to the windows, your conversation will bounce off the glass and will be amplified to the other tables. It’s strange that I struggled to hear some of the people at my table but could hear a “private” conversation from a window table 10 feet away. Lucky for us, it was an entertaining “private” conversation, and we had a few good laughs. It would also be nice if there was a solution for hanging coats. The rounded back chairs are comfortable, but they don’t hold heavier coats well, and coupled with narrow walkways between tables, means your coat will eventually be on the floor. We ended up putting our coats in a pile on the bench seating, which is not ideal and looks very sloppy; plus, the neighboring table did the same, and it ended up being one big pile of 10 coats. Regarding the food, I'll start off with the positives. I like the overall menu concept, which is a fusion of different styles. The sea bass is the best in the capital region. Great flavor and cooked to perfection. I also tried the strip steak, and it was ok. If you are expecting the same 677 or even black and blue steak experience, you may be a little disappointed, but the price at $42 with sides makes it an "ok" entree. The focus is on the sea food where it should be. They have a kid’s menu, which was a surprise since this place is more of a fun date spot than a family restaurant. One suggestion for the kid’s menu is to keep it simple, especially since you aren’t charging a lot. For Mac and Cheese, use a milder cheese without so much flavor; for the pizza, use less red sauce. Like most people, we love great appetizers and drinks, and this should be Sea Smoke's bread and butter. Unfortunately, all the appetizers fell short and were disappointing. The calamari dish was lacking flavor, the blue point oysters were falling apart, the crab cakes were nothing special, and the table barely touched the octopus. There wasn’t one appetizer where you say to the table, “this is amazing; you have to try this.” We gave the signature cocktails a go for fun, and they were good, but it took 15 minutes for them to arrive. There was also a noticeable gap between appetizer and entrée. Not black and blue bad, but to the point where you start looking around to see if you were forgotten about. We also ordered a bottle of red wine. The wine was noticeably warm as it’s not stored in a wine refrigerator or temp-controlled room. They also don’t have decanters, which are not always necessary, but they are a nice touch and do help some wines open up. These are both easy fixes. Overall, the location, ease of parking, ambiance, and reasonable pricing are what shines with Jaime Ortiz’s latest addition to the capital region. Some dishes were better than others and I’m sure with time the other dishes will improve. I’m excited to come back and try more...

The first time I came to sea smoke was in the summer of 2023. I try this place again tonight with my family to celebrate my sister’s birthday. There were four of us. when we arrived, our table is ready, and our server came promptly. We ordered Saratoga water - my sister and I tried the red sea and high tide cocktail drinks. The Red Sea was delightful, sort of tasted like vodka with cranberry but high class. The high tide was awful - to Me it tasted like hi-c or Fanta with a dash of tequila. We have this drink to our friend who drinks anything. He also ordered peroni. For appetizers we tried the arancini-pretty awful; dry, tasteless, and instead of prosciutto they used bacon it seemed (I make my own so I know). We also tried the kale and beet salad, panzenella salad, and crab cakes. I wouldn’t order any of these again. They were all underwhelmingly bland and suffered taste. We also ordered a side of french fries, which I wanted with truffle oil. I asked the server if this was possible, and she said she would ask the kitchen. When our appetizers were about to arrive, I reaffirmed if our request was made possible. She said OK let me go check with the kitchen , and shortly after are truffle fries came out. They tasted like they were frozen french fries, although the travel flavor, it was good. The real star of this appetizer show was the mussels appetizer. This truly blew me away and I would order it again ten times. Very flavorful, a perfect amount, and made an impression. For entrées we each ordered our own – I, the tuna entrée, my mother, the lobster roll, the paella, and the lobster agnolotti. The lobster roll was the winger here; it came in warm or cold option and we chose the warm with butter. A side of fries is included. The fries are clearly frozen here - opt to order a side salad instead. The tuna was not medium rare. It was well done. I specifically asked for medium rare and also this is how the chef recommends it; seems that the chef doesn’t know how to cook? Because this is well done - no pink at all. The potatos and Brussels on this dish very underwhelming. The lobster agnolotti was okay as well; two pieces of fresh lobster (don’t know where from?) surrounded by broth/butter based sauce and homemade lobster agnolotti pasta. The pasta was cold and a bit hard, should have been softer and in my opinion more flavorful, but still good (I make my own pasta). The least favorited entree was the paella. The rice was embarrassingly undercooked. The seafood and flavor ratio was fine- but I can’t get over how crunchy the RICE was in the rice dish. I’m still chewing on it hours after this meal. For desert I had the the espresso yo self - a very sweet espresso martini - I’d skip next time, not worth the calories at all. The staff was not tentative. Forgot things often and overlooked dirty dishes on the table or refills. I would solely come back for the mussels. Over all a 2.5 on what should be a great restaurant (at least what their prices say). Totally not worth the visit if you’re looking for a good meal. Ambiance 8/10 - nice decor but gross bathrooms see pics, service 5/10 not at tentative food 2/5 not hot...

Waited a few weeks to write this review, because I wanted to still be objective even though the experience was entirely disappointing: The 1st star is mandatory. The 2nd star is for the fantastic location and ambiance.

The good: Whoever designed this space knows what they were doing. Kudos. It’s beautiful. It feels nice without feeling stiff. The hybrid inside-outside dining area is phenomenal; You can sit indoors in the shelter while still feeling as if you are dining by the water. It’s an excellent feel. The looks and feel of this restaurant promises a top notch dining experience.

If the looks, feel, and location of this restaurant is a 1st class intergalactic spaceship, the service is a moody teenager forced to pretend to be a pilot.

The hostess looked like she was plucked from the nearest high school and asked to act as cool and aloof as possible while still - maybe- getting the guests seated. Our waitress then ignored us for about ten minutes in an empty section before we were handed the menu, then switched to hounding us to put in an order immediately. There was no introduction, no explanation of the menu, nor any offer to answer any questions— just several rapid-fire drive-by “are you ready to order yet?”s.

Her demeanor loosened after we put in orders for several appetizers and full entrees, so maybe we just looked poor to her and so were not worth anything more than disdainful, obligatory service. I don’t know. She still received our bottom-end 15% tip, which on a $350/2p bill still feels like much more than what she earned from the 20 seconds it took to take our order with a near-zero presence during the meal itself

The food took much, much longer than it should to come out. We didn’t time it. Maybe in the range of an hour? The waitress was not around to inform if there was any issue in the kitchen and the food was delivered unceremoniously by a runner, who first left it at the wrong table. There is also something (maybe irrationally) uncomfortable with watching your food being breathed on by random people while they figure out that it is not their order, and then having the runner bring it to you with no comment.

I won’t go into the quality of the cooking itself. It’s going to sound really mean. But you can taste the synthetic components to some of the sauces— and for a “real food” establishment, that is a difficult thing to get over.

This is a very big feedback sandwich and I’m struggling to find something truthfully nice to say about the food. The raw bar seems to be very fresh and very high quality. The drinks are well composed.

We wanted to love it and have a ‘nice’ place to visit regularly. Will possibly revisit in another year and hope there are some changes that better serves the amazing location and ambiance.

If the owner of the establishment reads this: You obviously know what a “nice restaurant” looks like, but your staff might not know what a “nice restaurant” feels like. Please take them out to a Michelin starred place for notes, and leverage the experience to build your fine dining empire. We are all cheering for you to make fine dining in...