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Evolving flavored iced tea (left), Cava mimosa (right)

Yes, Jose Andres’ Bazaar at the SLS Hotel has been open for a year now, but I didn’t go right away. Why? Because I don’t like being caught up in a scene, and the SLS and everything in it is definitely a scene. So I waited a year to try it, and I went for brunch, not for dinner when I’ve passed by and seen it totally poppin’ off, as it were.

When we (Sam of LAist and Lucy of Edible LA) showed up, it was kind of dead — relatively speaking, of course. By the time we left, there were more people, though most chose to eat inside, which I thought was kind of strange given the beautiful sunny day. We ate on the patio.

I’m not going to dwell on the Bazaar’s food since by now the restaurant has been thoroughly discussed across the food blogosophere and in the mainstream media, so I’ll just give you my greatest hits of this meal.

12 Tiny Eggs Sunny Side Up, or the Huevos a la Cubana “Andy Garcia” ($12): This dish is made with 12 quail eggs topped with Serrano ham shavings, tomato puree and chopped chives sitting atop a fried jasmine rice cake mixed with banana puree. The layers of flavors and textures are amazing.

Olive Oil Pancakes ($14): Oh. My. Gawd. Like I’ve said before, I’m not a big pancake person, but these fluffy disks from heaven may just change my mind. At once moist and fluffy with just the lightest of crusts to keep them from getting soggy in the bourbon barrel-aged maple syrup (an extra $8; regular syrup comes included in the original $14 price), I was so smitten with this dish that I could have easy gorged myself on all four of them and called it a day. Oh, and there’s olive oil butter on top, too. I want some more now!

We also had Air Bread with Smoked Salmon($5 per person), which was basically a puffed pocket of bread filled with tzatziki yogurt and topped with smoked salmon; Eggs Benedict “New Way” with Iberico ham ($18; $12 with Serrano ham); foie gras sandwiches ($15) with quince paste on brioche; and toast topped with tomato and Manchego cheese. All were good, but none of them stood out to me like the quail eggs and olive oil pancakes did.

Air bread with smoked salmon

Eggs Benedict New Way

Foie Gras sandwiches

Tomato toast with Manchego cheese

There was something interesting we discovered during our meal: The food we were served wasn’t prepared the same way Andres himself prepares it. Lucy had attended a press brunch earlier in the week that was attended by Andres, and she noticed a difference between our meal and the media meal. There was much more Hollandaise foam that accompanies the eggs Benedict when Andres made it, and the fruit-flavored “air” that tops the Cava mimosa was nonexistent on the ones at our table. The “Evolving” iced tea was also different; at the press meal, the iced tea was poured over the flavored part, which was a large frozen cube, while at our meal the iced tea came with regular-sized cubes and barely any flavor at all. I’m not sure if this is laziness or what, but if I were to ever go back, I’ll stick with the tried-and-true dishes.