good point.
I didnât know the other chef was owner of contramar in CDMX that is indeed very sad based on your experience.
Will definitely be skipping until further notice.
Iâm intrigued by breakfast. Will probably check that out this weekend.
Overjoyed (especially for my Westside brethren) to report that daytime Onda kicks ass!
Feel is much closer to Sqirl; you order at the counter, only itâs indoors in a beautiful, roomy, bright sunny room. They have a bakery case (we tried the chamomile/some other flavor I canât remember cookie and it was great, with the chamomile really shining in a way it often doesnât in chamomile-flavored things).
We got the vegan crispy rice bowl (+ egg), tlacoyo, and toast + jam. It was all great. Crispy rice bowl and toast and jam were very similar to the Sqirl counterparts (the main difference was the toast was a baguette, and it was really good). Tlacoyo had just absolutely perfectly cooked scrambled eggsâfully cooked through but still jiggly even ten minutes after it cameâon top of a delicious masa cake (I guess you could call it a tortilla? It was thin but not tortilla-thin). Fermented hot sauce on the side.
Was lucky to work from home so there was basically no line on this weekday; weâll see what the weekend crowds bring. This place deserves to be just as packed on a weekend morning as its sister across town. Yay!
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I went on Tuesday morning and indeed, it was much better than the dinner experience.
That bread looks divine⊠Prices donât look too bad for the area, so will def be giving it a try. Thanks for the report!
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Our order was WAYYYYY too much food for two people, but we just wanted to try a bunch 
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I got my pastries to go but then was tempted to buy some sidecar donuts across the street.
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The man: âWeâre not ordering three appetizers just so you can take one bite of each.â
Me: âWhy not?â
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The eggs look outstanding!! Canât wait to give it a shot.
Many thanks to @bruins for this heads up. Breakfast/brunch was delish. Buñuelos, tlacoyo, and âmegaâ chilaquiles (chorizo + avocado).
Buñuelos had black sesame and orange zest. Very sweet, but not cloying. I donât know if the black sesame added much, and I couldâve used more orange zest. Tlacoyo was wonderfully savory, and the silky smooth beans were indeed⊠silky smooth. I personally like a very soft scramble and wouldnât have minded them even just a touch softer. Chilaquiles was excellent (looks very similar to the rice bowl) and a messy delight. Wish the chorizo was a bit more thoroughly distributed b/c a lot of it collected on one side (where it gets overly salt in bulk). Portion of the chilaquiles doesnât look that big, but itâs very filling; they ainât skimping on the chorizo or the avocado.
These are all nitpicks, though, IMO. Thought the food was very enjoyable and would happily return.
Ginger tea is INCREDIBLY strong w/o being medicinal.
Service almost overly polite (cashier thanked us twice for trying the place). Counter service. I think Jessica herself mightâve been present (the woman we saw as we were exiting certainly matches pics that pop up on an internet search). Space is beautiful and breezy.
Hotel itself is mid-century modern meets Inca temple⊠And, somehow, it works.
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Went today and it was excellent for lunch. This is what it should have been all along.
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Iâm surprised to say it but honestly, this place went from the biggest disappointment of the year at dinner to maybe the very best place to eat in the morning on the west side. It is a legit Gjusta challenger. The menu is basically Sqirlâs menu, mixed with Mexican flavor profiles.
Yesterday I had the rice bowl, which was basically the classic sqirl rice bowl with pickled onions, turkey pastor, and avocado thrown in. It was great.
But more fundamentally, the pastries are bananas. Have you been to Panaderia Rosetta in Mexico City? Because there is now a place in Santa Monica making better conchas. This morning, I had a lemon turmeric curd concha that I canât stop thinking about. Below are some pictures of the pastry case from this morning.
Right now this place is empty during the day. The word is not out yet. It will be. I would give the food during the day right now an A-, and the pastries (based on today) an A-+.
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My thoughts exactly: âOndaâs daytime menu is so consistently good that you could pick from it blindfolded and end up happy.â
Picked up some snacks before a meeting. Thought about going to Sidecar but remembered Onda does mornings now.
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Thinking of visiting Onda after I arrive in L.A. tomorrow. What type of concha is that, and what is the loaf with sesame seeds on top? They all look delicious!
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Black and white coconut cream concha!
Banana bread with sesame something or other, canât remember what the card said
The dried plum cake in bottom right of top pic was a definite hit
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