Café Tondo

Beautiful place! Stopped by for some morning coffee and pastries and they did not disappoint. The cafe de olla was perfect with the fragrant notes of piloncillo and cinnamon. The pastries reminded me of back home in Mexico. They also had Mexican Architecture table books that served as a relaxing reading experience. 10/10!

This new cafe-bar concept just opened under the A line tracks in Chinatown. It’s absolutely gorgeous in here. The space is cozy yet spacious, with two patios and a well decorated interior. The food and drink menu is pretty small. For drinks, I ordered the Tondo Mocktail but I think they gave me the Suero instead, which was pretty bland. We ordered the jamon bikinis (tea sandwiches), and the steak frites. The steak was a bit overcooked for my liking, and the dishes were small for the price. We ended our visit with a reasonably priced pan de elote (cornbread) from their pastry case. This seems like a good spot for a glass of wine and listening to music. I would be interested to check out their breakfast/daytime offerings but I was a bit underwhelmed by the quality and value of their dinner

Honestly not sure what the hype was about this place. It used to be a wine bar and now it’s…a wine bar….that also serves coffee during the daytime. It basically looks exactly the same way Oriel did just with a slight paint job and whoa, Mexican decor? Wow. How innovative. They sell this as a “Mexico City inspired bar”. If that’s the case then any bar with some pan dulce and suns on the walls are CDMX inspired. I can’t roll my eyes fast enough. The coffee I gotta say was pretty bad and pricey. Especially for cafe de olla. It was incredibly watered down with hardly any flavor of what makes that classic beverage so great. Pastries are good but you can pretty much get that anywhere. And staff was nice. Between this and Kissaten Corazon I’d say go to the latter. Though I hardly find that pla

Very hip and trendy place. There are way larger areas inside than looking at the cafe from outside. Foods was very creative and delicious. Love this place for small snack sharing dishes and nice drinks. Probably-the owner is a super cool guy and could feel this place and him attract many cool people in LA. Definitely will come back for dinner!!

Café Tondo (est. 2025) is a new casual local sidewalk cafe bar in LA. It’s located just below the Chinatown subway station. From the looks of it this place is a coffee shop by day, and a bar restaurant with live music at night. It’s similar to Kissaten Corazon, five blocks away from CT. I came late afternoon to grab a coffee (iced cafe de olla); served on a small whiskey glass and it was refreshing but had better iced coffee/latte. The price $5 was a bit over the market value. Cafe’s vibe was relaxing and very intimate. I like their tiny bar, light fixtures, and the grey wall with a minimal decor. Female staff was nice and competent. Parking lot is available in-front of the bar as well as metered parking. Overall, I like the vibe and it’s decent iced coffee drink.