Chef Michael Mina knows how to charm a crowd. Standing in an all-black chef uniform on the terrace of Orla in Santa Monica with the ocean and the famed pier in the background, he regales a table with a story about how his tuna falafel still draws flak from his harshest critic, his mother, making everyone laugh.
But his mom should be proud. Aside from the memorable seafood starter, the illustrious chef has an empire that spans more than 30 restaurants and counting — next up is new Italian fish and steak spot Acqua Bistecca in D.C.
But today, he’s focused on “his baby,” Orla, inside the new Regent Santa Monica Beach, the brand’s only hotel in the Americas. Both the hotel and the restaurant will mark their first anniversary in October, and Orla plans to celebrate with a party.
While Mina built his career on modern American fare, Orla is the Egypt-born, Washington-raised chef’s first foray into the cuisine of his heritage. He deftly elevates Mediterranean comfort food like macaroni béchamel (a cluster of pasta tubes standing vertically laden with black truffles, mushroom duxelles and Parmigiano Reggiano); the crispy phyllo-crusted sole; and heaping kebab platters with filet mignon, lamb kofta, chicken dolmas, halloumi chunks and more.
As Orla continues to thrive (with new executive chef Fernando Darin taking the helm in early August and fun additions like the summertime Beach Club Brunch with a St. Tropez-meets-the Mediterranean vibe, a DJ and performers), we sat down with personable chef before dinner service to learn more about the restaurant’s first year, the menu’s special dishes and Mina’s go-to room service order.
Orla is about to turn one. How has it evolved since it opened?
Orla is a new concept, even though now we have two of them. [The other is in Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas.] They’re going to be unique to wherever location they’re in. I felt like this was going to be so special to be the first Regent [in the Americas] and then to have Orla here.
With Orla, this couldn’t be closer to my heart and to my career because it was 30 years before I really dove heavily into the cuisine that I grew up on. I’m Egyptian, born in Egypt, but lived there for a couple years. My mom had seven brothers and sisters who all lived around us, so I grew up eating a lot of Middle Eastern food.
But my mom’s cooking, so much of it was either Greek or Greek-influenced because of Egypt being invaded by Alexander the Great. And my father is from Alexandria. That’s what my father loved to eat. It was unique what I grew up eating.
Cuisine from the Middle East, from all over the Eastern Mediterranean, is hot right now. And every country in the Middle East has its staples and twists on a lot of the same food. I wanted it to be very personal to what I grew up eating.
In Egypt, you’ll see a lot of crossovers with the food. You see things like macaroni béchamel and samika Iskandariya, a dish we do here — which is sliced potatoes, fish, Middle Eastern spices, olives and tomatoes, and it’s baked in the oven. It’s as classic as you can get Greek food: sliced potatoes, a piece of fish, olive oil and everything else. The only difference is, when Alexander the Great was in Egypt, he had that spice mix that they put on a lot of fish and started eating it that way. And that’s how that became such a famous dish.
It’s really been a fun journey with the restaurant to start to take the food that I grew up with and then being able to say, “Okay, now add product to it, add technique to it, add innovation to it.”
As you said, the food here is deeply personal. Which dishes are particularly special to you?
There’s a lot, but the falafel with the tuna on it. That dish is something that my mom’s made ever since I was a child. Falafel with tahina and salad baladi. Everything is called “baladi” in Egypt and it sounds great, like salad baladi, aish baladi. “Baladi” just means “from my town.” It’s a cucumber, tomato, red onion salad with parsley. For that dish, I add the yellowfin or the ahi tuna to it and made it into a crudo.
Right now, what we’re really starting to expand on is the fish market fish. We’ll bring in different fish and you can have it either way: Greek style, which is usually a little more simply grilled with just a little bit of olive oil, lemon, capers, like a citronette. Or, you can have it with that more of a collaboration of Middle Eastern spices, a spice mix that we make, that gives the fish more bold flavor.
Any other plans for Orla that you have in the works?
I think that this is the type of concept that just continually evolves because it’s always going to have so much to do with what’s in season. We’re just having a lot of fun with it, taking dishes and elevating them.
One of the dishes is feteer, a famous laminated dough. You’ll have five women sit around a low table in Egypt and they’ll pull dough to a table this size that’s paper thin. And then they’ll keep folding it over with clarified butter in it until they make it into what they call Egyptian pizzas. We make little baby ones, and we bake them. There’s a cream that’s like crème fraîche in Egypt it’s called ashta. Traditionally, feteer can be savory with something in it or it can be served for breakfast with powdered sugar, butter, sometimes jam. We do it with ashta and caviar. We’ll continue to do dishes like that.
It’s fun to see the pastas that my mom would make. Some of the pastas from the Middle East have a lot more egg in them and are stringy. The consistency of them is a little bit different. They’ll hold together a little bit more. We’ll continue to expand that section of the menu as well.
How does Santa Monica influence your restaurant?
Santa Monica was one of the perfect places to put Orla because of the farmer’s market, the product that you get here and the food-savvy clientele. The food at Orla is very much on that Mediterranean diet. You can eat extremely healthy here, and I think that works well.
When you visit Santa Monica, what do you like to do and where do you eat?
Whenever I get a break, it’s just walking the walkway and boardwalk. My new little favorite Italian restaurant is right next door at Capo. Oh my God, it’s just adorable. I end up there quite often.
Beyond enjoying a beautiful meal, what is the ultimate feeling you want guests to leave with after dining with you?
One of the biggest joys for me is when I see you 20 years later and you remind me of when you dined here. It could have been a celebration, it could have just been a normal day, but you remember the experience.
You want to create an experience. To do that, you want people to feel important when they come to your restaurant. You want them to feel like they are part of your family. And that’s why I love this food and this whole concept, because it really does lend to that.
A lot of times people think this style of cuisine is very casual. Whereas here, we try to find that perfect balance of being able to be relaxed but still precise. I don’t want you to feel uptight when you’re here. I want you to be relaxed, but the precision still needs to be there, in the service, in the food and in everything. But most of all, I want you to remember. I want you to have things that are unique, and you’re going to have this vivid memory of, “Oh my God, I was sitting at the water in Santa Monica, and I had falafel with ahi tuna.” That’s how you create the magic.
You told us before that you always do at least one food trip with your team every year. Have you had your 2025 trip yet?
No, it’s looking like Asia, though. We do the Ritz-Carlton Yachts. It looks like it’s going to be a lot of stops. We’re going to go to Korea, Japan again, probably Hong Kong. I’m going to take the team on the boat with me.
When you travel, what’s your go-to airport meal?
I’m a nut fanatic, so I always have pistachios. That’s one thing you’ll always find in my bag. But my most enjoyable thing is if I can find any sort of sandwich that is good. Even simple, like a turkey sandwich or something like that. But I enjoy having a sandwich when I travel.
What’s your go-to room service order?
I’d be lying if I didn’t say a burger. This hotel makes this date cake — don’t order it. Whatever you do, don’t order it because you’ll end up having it every time. I order it every time I come here. My wife’s like, “Don’t you dare have that date cake.” I’m like, “Oh no, I’m not going to have it…” [Laughs]
And for breakfast, I just love Swiss cheese and mushroom omelets.
What do you anticipate is going to be the next big food trend?
There’s no doubt that a lot of those Middle Eastern/Mediterranean flavors are big. But I think that simplicity has come back strong. By that I mean you start to see more of restaurants like The Polo Bar in New York, where you’ve got people loving those comfort classics but elevated in how they feel.
But the biggest food trend that I see is everyone’s using the whole globe in the United States. Twenty years ago, you would never see soy sauce in a French kitchen. Now, you’ll see it and they understand how to use it in a sauce. I think you’re seeing that more and more.
