While Cameron Mitchell built his reputation on seafood temples like Ocean Prime, his Mediterranean coastal concept, Del Mar, feels more personal.
Following launches in Naples, Fort Lauderdale, and Columbus, Ohio, the restaurant has arrived in West Palm Beach’s Nora District with a 12,000-square-foot, indoor-outdoor footprint that includes an open kitchen, three private dining rooms, two bars, and a terrace. The design is compelling, but the food is the point, a reminder of why Mitchell was recently inducted into the Culinary Institute of America’s Hall of Fame.
The menu draws from Eastern Mediterranean traditions, backed by a made-from-scratch kitchen. Turkish flatbread topped with spicy lamb sausage and feta arrives bubbling. Caramelized onion bread layered with potato, Havarti, Asiago, and olive oil over herb labneh lands somewhere between savory pastry and outright excess. Familiar dips—hummus, baba ghanoush, tzatziki—are served with warm house-made pita.
Cold seafood selections impress, but the fire-roasted shellfish platter steals the spotlight: South African lobster tail, scallops, prawns, clams, and mussels in a lemony wine broth that demands garlic toast. Lobster spaghetti in a sweet tomato sauce with Calabrian chili is artfully composed, the pasta twirled with the tail and claws in such a way as to echo the lobster itself. An 8-ounce filet finished with romesco and za’atar butter holds its own, as do the rosemary potatoes stacked mille-feuille-style.
Dessert is direct but nuanced, especially the frozen Greek yogurt with orange marmalade, honey, candied walnuts, and olive oil cake. Weekend brunch shifts the pace with lobster scramble and cinnamon date bread, giving the kitchen another stage to show off.
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