Post Taste: Tiato

TIATO
2700 Colorado Blvd. (part of MTV/Lionsgate Bldg.) •  Santa Monica • (310) 866-5228

In June, just in time for Father’s Day, Tiato, from the famous House of An, opened for Sunday brunch. Executive Chef Helene An still creates her award-winning Euro-Vietnamese fusion cuisine at Crustacean in Beverly Hills, which opened in 1997.
Now, she is offering her famous garlic noodles during brunch at Tiato in Santa Monica on its beautiful garden patio.
The Tiato brunch menu fuses familiar breakfast staples with Asian flavors, and has an outdoor grilling station where An’s garlic noodles are served up fresh and topped with grilled beef, chicken, shrimp and vegetables.
While enjoying a bottomless Bloody Mary or mimosa, or even a fresh-pressed juice, smoothie or tea, just nibbling the homemade cornbread or lemon-thyme mint biscuit starts off your day with a smile. The coffee cake, blueberry muffin or banana muffin are just as enticing.
Try the house-cured salmon on a corn blini with shallots, onions and crème fraîche as a starter (either small or large), and follow with a breakfast bahn-mi of prosciutto with over-easy egg, flavored with carrot, daikon radish, cucumber pickles, jalapeño and cilantro. Tasty is an insufficient description for this excellent dish.
Breakfast dishes vary from huevos rancheros, and French toast banana Foster to a crab Benedict with poached egg, herbs and hollandaise sauce.
Special entrées include a Vietnamese crêpe with chicken or prawn, and a combo with zucchini and sprouts, along with a mixed-green salad topped with raspberry vinegar. Another tasty offering is succulent short ribs over rice and eggs marinated in a citrus-soy sauce.
The menu includes a dim sum platter of pot stickers and dumplings, salads and sandwiches, breakfast offerings and special entrées. In addition, there are various sides like truffle mac and cheese, honey-glazed bacon strips and various sausages.
Beers and wines are served along with 16 oz. smoothies and fresh pressed juices. Organic house-brewed coffee is $2, while lattes, cappuccinos and mochas are $3.50.
Prices are moderate, all in the $12 to $16 price range (crab Benedict is the exception for $18). Brunch is accompanied by a live jazz performance as a part of the K-JAZZ Summer Music Series.
Tiato features full-service dining in its expansive outdoor garden patio, in addition to a gourmet grab-and-go area, wine bar, market and venue space that is also home to the House of An catering division.
The restaurant is open Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Brunch service throughout the summer is from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Both street and underground parking are available.