What You See is What You Eat.

Whenever I bitch about not having enough affordable food options in Santa Monica, someone inevitably reminds me of Bay Cities or Santa Monica Seafood. I’ve talked about Bay Cities before; Santa Monica Seafood, though, is a different story. At its former location on Colorado and 11th, it was primarily our local source for fresh fish and amazing …ly expensive mango salsa. In addition to fresh fish, a very tiny portion of the shop was devoted to non-fish, but fish-related essentials, the cashier counter, and general walking space. Not totally comfortable, especially when it got Bay Cities-crazy during peak hours. Effective yesterday, SMS has moved to the corner of 10th and Wilshire.

I think the prior tenant was Carl’s Jr. and/or some other fast food restaurant. Before totally gutting and renovating the space, SMS opened its then-shabby ass storefront with a fairly limited menu with even more limited operating hours, sort of an experimentation lab while it decided on its menu and got used to the kitchen. The girlfriend and I hit up the pre-fab SMS and while the food was good – your basic chowders, fish and chips, etc. – the space was horrendous: retro 70s baby turquoise lacquered pastel, fast food-style booths and tables, and horrific linoleum. I mean, you felt like you were eating in a fish tank. What they did with the space is amazing.

It’s a cafe, no, it’s a fish market; it’s a cafe, no, it’s a fish market … in a somewhat odd combination of Whole Foods and The Hungry Cat, SMS is at once a full service fish market, a full service cafe, and a full service oyster bar. Contrary to other early reports, we didn’t have to hover over others, Father’s Office-style, to poach their table.  Instead, we put our names down on the wait list, saw that there was no host at the station, and, confused, went over to order at the cashier’s.  It was only when we tried to poach someone’s table that we were informed (kindly, hurriedly) that there was actually a wait list.  Since the people on the list before us had left – ostensibly, also confused – we sat down legally at the table we were were ready to steal. It was also at this point that I realized between us, one black guy in the back table, and one potentially Japanese guy next to us, we were the only non-white customers in the entire crowded cafe/market. If I think about things like this too much, I get really socially awkward and self-conscious about my life choices.

The menu offers a variety of seafood — crab cakes, chowders, halibut, seared tuna, cioppino.  We settled on sharing an appetizer, a potato and parmesan frittata ($6), and an entree, pan roasted halibut ($17).  The girlfriend ordered one hama hama oyster ($1.75).

The oyster.

I do not like oysters, or clams, or things in their shells generally.  Something about their nasty, slimy, wet bodies freaks me out.  The girlfriend loved the oyster though, and, at $1.75 a pop, considered this a fantastic deal one only could get during happy hour at a shit bar near the beach.  We all will have to trust her judgment on this one.

The frittata:

Mandoline-thin potato slices, egg, and bits of sturgeon caviar layer to create this frittata, topped with rock shrimp and mascarpone. Pretty decent, but a little bit bland. This was surprising because you’d think either the caviar, the shrimp, or the marscapone would have given it the needed flavor, but the flavors at the top didn’t quite trickle through the starch. But, really, at $6, there isn’t a whole lot to complain about here.

The halibut:

This was a little dry, which was unfortunate, because the halibut itself was excellent. The variety of grilled (but cold! Why do places insist upon serving their grilled veggies cold!) also was a nice complement. $17, though, a bit much to charge for this small, not particularly thick piece. It was the most expensive thing on the menu, I think.

Overall, even though the food itself wasn’t spectacular, I could definitely see it going back there very soon. Like, tomorrow. I want to try everything on the menu, and I would like some to poach some fresh salmon. I still think it’s really odd that there is full service at the tables, because I can’t imagine that things run smoothly during peak hours: some people crowded at the front, waiting for a table; people congregated at the tables; servers squeezing past everyone to serve the congregation their food; and non-cafe customers perusing the store for items. A bit of chaos, no? Maybe I will have to see it to believe it. To their credit, our servers tonight, clearly harried by an insanely busy opening and day-after-opening days, were kind, helpful as they could be, and immediately corrected any mistakes they or the kitchen made. One tired server, bless her heart, said to someone through gritted teeth, “It’s been a GREAT two DAYS!” Aw.

In addition to adding a cafe component, SMS has a Bay Cities catch-all component – they’ve expanded their non-fish, packaged item selection considerably. For example, there is a whole corner of wines:

There also is a little refrigerated section for cheese; shelves full of sauces, pastas, and La Brea Bakery bread. The prices are hit and miss – a few of my favorite cheeses, Affinois brie and Petit Basque, are cheaper here than at Bay Cities and Beverly Hills Cheese Shop. On the other hand, the packages of creme fraiche were definitely at least a buck or two more than the same package at Trader Joe’s. The fresh fish selection, of course, is hard to beat, but, like almost all fresh seafood, it is not cheap (i.e., striped bass is priced $19.99/pound – which, incidentally, probably is just a buck or two more expensive than Whole Foods, and probably more fresh). Is it worth it? I unhesitatingly say absolutely, it is, in the same way that organic chicken is worth the extra expense, based just on flavor and without regard to any politically correct, liberalizing need to justify our food sources. But, again, it’s expensive, and prohibitively so. It’s not something we all can justify; even the highest of principles falter in the face of the lowest of bank balances.

So, if we can afford it, we’ve got two spots for fresh seafood meals – here or The Hungry Cat. The Hungry Cat is better, no doubt, but for a neighborhood spot, SMS is so great, I smile just thinking about it. For some odd reason, Los Angeles severely lacks in low- to mid-range places that serve fresh seafood, so I am ecstatic that SMS is open. I can’t afford to pick up fish there all the time, but when the time and recipe is right, it’s totally worth it.

Santa Monica Seafood
1000 Wilshire Blvd
Santa Monica
(310) 393-5244
M-F 9am-9pm
Sunday 9am-8pm