Kitchen 1540 - DEL MAR

We were the only one there, so i told my date i bought out the restaurant for our date!!

It is with disappointment that I write this review. We are local and eat out every night. Over the past 3 years we have gone to this restaurant only one time per year. This is unusual for us as we go to our favorite places weekly and pretty much dine only at high end 5 star options. Last night as we dined I was reminded one of the reasons we don’t dine here very often, and it’s actually because of the huge amount of salt that is used during the preparation of the food. I love salt in my food so for me to state that my food is too salty, says a lot. My salad seasoning was salt and a lot of it. For my main course I ate the ragu. One of my first bites I bit down and chewed on what we assume was a bone and the crunch was very loud and didn’t have much taste. Additionally though the menu options don’t warrant dining here more than once a year, if at all. It’s a shame because this hotel is in a beautiful location. We also observed the kitchen chefs looking bored out of their mind and goofing around with each other. Quite frankly the atmosphere is like watching an Applebee’s restaurant kitchen rather than what is supposed to be a 5 star restaurant. I don’t believe this 5 star rating. This restaurant has a lot of competition with many better dining options surrounding it. This restaurant is supposed to serve the entire hotel room service, the casual restaurant and the fine dining option so if the kitchen staff is bored and goofing around that speaks to the lack of clientele. Our dinner reservation was for 6pm because 5:30pm wasn’t available on Open Table. When we arrived we were one of three other tables. There were so many empty tables available it is uncomfortable. So even though the restaurant opens up at 5:30pm no reservations were available until 6pm on Open Table. This restaurant has to be losing money and it’s shocking that management hasn’t figured out (or doesn’t care) about the lack of reservations.

So enjoyed the birthday dinner. Chef and hostypersonally came to table that added a nice touch! Definitely will return soon.

Staff are awesome, personable, professional, attentive! The food was simply delicious, loved the salmon and the kale salad! the pastas were also very good.

Possibly one of the best dining experiences I have had in a long time! Beets from Chino were amazing, Salmon was SUPERB and the NY Strip very good also. Manager and also Chef came to visit us which was awesome.