Sonder
More than a restaurant and cocktail bar, this young, music-focused Santa Ana restaurant is a vibe
Opened in the summer of 2025 immediately next to Santa Ana’s Japanese small bite and shabu-shabu restaurant Kaizen, Sonder isn’t your typical Orange County dining establishment: It’s an Asian fusion restaurant and cocktail bar with a strong focus on music. Even when there’s no DJ manning the twin turntables between the bar and dining rooms, Sonder’s air is filled with fun, well-produced 1990s and 2000s R&B tracks, and the entryway is decorated with album sleeves from A Tribe Called Quest, NERD, Smokey Robinson, and Michael Jackson, to name just a few iconic artists. Whether you’re visiting Sonder to eat or drink, you’re going to have an experience – and will likely wind up spending more as a result.
Half of the single-page food menu lists 14 different types of Japanese binchotan charcoal-grilled skewers ($6 to $20 each), plus a single uncooked item – A5 Wagyu Beef Carpaccio, listed as a “test kitchen” selection at the menu’s highest (and comparatively eye-watering) price of $60. The other half includes seven more entree-sized “shared plates” ($12-$22) including a little gem salad, bone marrow onigiri, and a fried egg salad sandwich. Five sides include sichuan fries ($10), kimchi ($8), and white rice ($4), with two desserts ($13-$14) rounding out the selection. A single-page drink menu of cocktails, wines, and sakes is formatted like a narrow, two-sided card, with prices ranging from $4 to $24 per glass, most in the $7 to $14 range.
We tried eight different types of skewers – duck breast, octopus, hanger steak, chicken “oysters,” Thai sausage, chicken skin, Filipino longanisa sausage, and pickled beef tongue – and enjoyed all of them. But it’s important to note that despite the use of Japanese charcoal, Sonder’s approach to marination and seasoning is certainly “fusion” rather than traditionally minimalist Japanese. Every piece had a reasonable base level of salt, plus a second deliberate note that varied from sour (beef tongue, Thai sausage) to spicy (Filipino sausage) to herbal umami (steak, tender octopus) to sweet (chicken skin). Nothing lacked punch, and in some cases, the salty and sour flavors were Lao/Burmese/Northern Thai-level strong.
The same was true of sides: a cold Cucumber Som Tum salad ($10) was powerfully sour with lime juice, balanced by plenty of crushed peanuts and bits of tomato, garlic, and chilis, with enough sauce to deliciously flavor an included bowl of white rice. By contrast, an order of Charred Cabbage ($8) with crispy rice was notable for its milder sourness and Koji butter sauce, which might have rated 7 or 8 in flavor by another restaurant’s scale, but here was closer to a 4.
Shared plates were mostly winners. The stars were Pork Belly & Escargot Fried Rice ($18), an ample portion of fish and soy sauce-augmented rice served with a half-lime and nice portions of the promised pork and snails; even the pickiest eater at our table enjoyed this one. Green Curry Mussels ($22) combined a large portion of medium-sized mussels and a split loaf of bread with a deep bowl of curry and sliced bamboo shoots, hiding a substantial portion of (again) sour Northern Thai-style sausage.
Barramundi Crudo ($19) was another hit, topping a ginger vinaigrette-soaked raw fish and pears with purslane sprigs; it was one of our first dishes, and like others that followed, a little more sour than we would have expected from a crudo. The only miss for us was a bowl of purple Okinawan Sweet Potato (12) with pickled sea beans, which looked fascinating but tasted so plain and mushy by comparison with everything else that we didn’t finish it.
That didn’t stop us from ordering both of Sonder’s desserts: a Pandan Butterscotch Pudding ($13) was literally exactly as expected (and very good) – a cup with green pudding that tasted equally of herbal green pandan and caramelly butterscotch, topped with creme fraiche. But the Supreme Strawberry Sorbet ($14) was even better than its name suggested, combining coconut shavings, mango, lychee, and just slightly overtoasted marshmallows with a small scoop of strong strawberry sorbet and lime. While we would have loved more of the sorbet and slightly less char on the marshmallows, the flavors were dynamite, and the rare exception of a Sonder dish where sourness was present without being dialed up to 11. We also truly enjoyed all three of the mocktails we sampled; any of them could have passed muster as a real cocktail, even absent spirits.
Putting aside the chef’s obvious taste for Laotian-style tartness, which we note more as a cautionary note for those without that preference than with disapproval, Sonder’s only major caveat is its pricing. In a neighborhood full of affordable options – 4th Street Market and La Michoacana are a block away – Sonder is more like nearby Detention, an approachable step below fine dining at a much higher price point. Between small dishes and skewers, each hungry guest can easily rack up $100 in charges with only a single drink and a shared dessert. That said, we certainly were paying some premium for the experience: We loved the music and decor, and found the service both friendly and attentive, though our glossy table would have benefitted from faster and better bussing.
Overall, we enjoyed our meal at Sonder enough to return in the future. Before doing so, however, we’ll likely watch to see how the menu evolves over time, and will be interested to learn whether the kitchen’s execution shifts to balance its boldness across a wider array of flavor notes.
Stats
Price: $$$
Service: Table
Open Since: 2025
Addresses
301 N. Spurgeon St.
Santa Ana, CA 92701
714.486.1070
Instagram: @sonderdtsa