May 28, 2024 – El Bistro by the Sea is one of those places where the menu snatches your appetite.
Chorizo chilaquiles. Tiramisu French toast. Four-egg chile relleno omelets. Carnitas barbecue burgers. Dulce de leche lattes.
The loaded assemblage of French-tilted Mexican reminds me of the line an old colleague once composed when we were young(er).
“This is the type of menu I could roll up and eat,” Ray Napolitano wrote.
But he wrote that in the 00s, right around when Taylor Swift was doing her first show at age 14 and “social media” meant watching the news together.
These days that type of menu lives most vividly on Instagram, where Swift has 284 million followers.
And sure enough, a few recent posts make for cinematic food erotica, chief among them the Nutella-cream cheese “lava cake French toast.”
Instagram is also where the “secret” menu, the molten Nutella cube included, appears.
The host says her newest secret menu must is the bacon birria burger, built on a half-pound Angus beef foundation. “It’s huge, and delicious,” she says.
While the menu items jump off the page, so do some of the price points. I mean, $26 for French toast?
To be fair, two things bear mentioning there.
1) They do a locals menu, with “a smaller portion options for your everyday meal!,” per the El Bistro IG.
It’s a beautiful counterpoint to the $$ main menu that gathers 11 items like butter-and-berry brioche French toast for $6, quesabirria for $7.50, “breakfast” for $8 (one egg any way, two slices of bacon and a piece of toast) and the plato ranchero for $10 (two scrambled eggs, diced ham, beans, salsa and queso fresco).
2) The two-egg French toast bacon sandwich ($25) I shared with my dad was plenty for us to split.
“What the hell did you order?” he said. “That’s a sandwich.”
The sweet of the maple and thick toast works nicely with the savory cheese, bacon and well-sizzled ham, as my choice of over-medium egg ties the messy-oh-yessy endeavor together.
Asking for the eggs on the inside and some of the garlicky homemade house salsa helps up the experience.
The aggressive affair bodes well for the waffle sandwich and croissant sandwich, with both throw down scrambled eggs, ham, bacon, avocado and melted cheese.
The roasted potatoes, the host’s recommendation over a salad, are among some of the best in a town stacked with quality breakfast spots.
The tidy and cute space was tapas spot Promesa for a spell after Casanova converted part of its old larger footprint into space to give to a separate restaurant.
On our visit, accents and appearances suggested an international and moneyed clientele that was bigger than I would’ve guessed for an overcast Wednesday mid-morning.
Perhaps the word is out among the town’s concierge crew.
On a related note, a sign at the host stand flagged El Bistro’s participation in the Carmel Restaurant Improvement District, which carries a 0.25% “assessment” on checks (i.e. a quarter for every $100 spent).
Meanwhile, BBTS—which has been open about a month—is likely experiencing at least a little pop from its participation in the onrushing Carmel Culinary Week, which wisely highlights recent restaurant additions like El Bistro, Pizza Heaven and Jeju Kitchen.
Edible’s next visit for the seemingly mandatory volcanic Nutella-cream-cheese French toast never completely materialized because the Memorial Day wait was 45 minutes.
Also seemingly mandatory would be ending on an appropriate thought from Swift, via her 2020 song “Tolerate It.”
As she sings, “Lay the table with the fancy s***.”
More at El Bistro by the Sea’s Instagram page.
About the author
Mark C. Anderson, Edible Monterey Bay's managing editor, appears on "Friday Found Treasures" via KRML 94.7 every week, a little after 12pm noon. Reach him via mark@ediblemontereybay.com.
