Kaya’s big, boozy toast to Jamaica
Nigel Jones and Daniel Patterson bring modern touch to Caribbean cuisine
I could dive into the whole metamorphosis of how Alta CA turned into Kaya, but what you need to know boils down to the Rum Punch, Negril-Oni and Rum Filled Coconut.
These cocktails and other tropical libations fuel the happy atmosphere at this Jamaican-inspired restaurant that opened earlier this year.
That rum, and a menu that combines Caribbean recipes with Northern California freshness, helps the restaurant evoke the spirit of Jamaica, even when outside the door is Market Street.
Of course, just about anything will pass muster when you’re with friends around an ornate, pressedglass punch bowl filled with a pink concoction of Wray & Nephew rum and lime, strawberry, pineapple and orange juices. The Rum Punch ($50) could easily be a sweet fruity mess, but the smooth, buttery rum comes to the forefront, keeping the fruit locked into supporting roles.
When your eyes are able to leave the punch bowl and you look around the busy dining room, you’ll see only subtle references to the restaurant’s heritage: a large painting of Bob Marley, for example, Jamaican-related videos projected on the wall, and bright turquoise accents on the bar front and wainscoting. A few plants scattered around the room give subtle nods to the tropical paradise, but that’s about as far as the island references go. The interior looks pretty much as it did when it was Alta CA. The floor-to-ceiling open shelves are now filled with rums, but they still allow the kitchen to be seen all around the 96-seat dining room. At the center of the room is the bar where the magic happens.
Daniel Patterson, who also has an Alta branch in Dogpatch, decided to relocate the original restaurant to the soon-to-open Yotel Hotel on Market. He partnered here with Nigel Jones, best known for his Kingston 11 restaurant in Oakland, which he opened in 2013 after doing a series of pop-ups for three years.
This is a much more ambitious project, but the menus are similar. It has not been a seamless transition. On the first visit, several dishes had a kind of dull steam-table sameness. But on the second and third visits, a few months later, the experience was better, showing that the cooking staff is growing into the space.
The menu consists of eight starters, most of them vegetable-based, such as the sautéed green beans ($11) with fresh ginger and Thai chile pepper sauce, and eight “Big Eats,” which include a goat curry ($20) available only on Friday and Saturday nights.
The intersection of Northern California and the Caribbean island is most prominently seen in the Papaya + Greens ($11). Bright, lightly dressed
mixed greens are topped with ribbons of pickled fruit and shards of green papaya in a vinaigrette made from the pickling juices.
However, the roasted kale and beet salad ($12) demonstrated why some chefs massage the greens before serving; these were coarse and chewy, although the honey vinaigrette was a pleasant counterbalance to the vegetal flavors of the kale. In another dish, caramelized carrots and squash ($12) are coated in a sticky pomegranate molasses with ginger and pine nuts.
Black pepper tofu ($12), with the marinated cubes arranged around a dense scoop of rice, was a combination that brought waves of blandness followed by chilefueled heat. The dish hit all the textural and flavor points.
Salt fish fritters ($13) can often come across as funky-fishy, but here they are particularly mild, tasting more of potatoes than dried fish.
Other items include grilled wild gulf prawns ($17) that were good but would have been even better with a little less of the powerfully sweet tamarind sauce.
A similar viscous black pepper sauce coated the crab ($28), leaving the fingers gooey; fortunately the waiters brought warm towels. Throughout the visits, in fact, the service was warm, friendly and, most importantly, efficient.
The seven main courses kick off with jerk chicken ($24). Its exterior is as dark as charcoal after being marinated in a dry rub for 48 hours and then smoked. The starchy blandness of the rice and beans and the mildly sweet plantains were needed to cut the intense spiciness of the meat. The piri piri chicken ($24) had a lighter bronze char and a moister flesh; it was served with fingerling potatoes and mango chile sauce that was actually too mild and watery. Of course, finding a chile buzz is never difficult, as waiters bring four different bottled sauces to the table. These can ignite any dish.
At times the kitchen tries too hard to be modern in presentations, as shown in the oxtail stew ($25). The boney, blackened meat is arranged in an elongated mound, its shape echoed by the jasmine rice and plantains. It would have been more appetizing piled in a bowl.
The best main course is the crispy-skin salmon ($29) on a bed of roasted Brussels sprouts, cauliflower and a dice of pickled vegetables.
At dessert there’s a choice of vanilla or chocolate habanero soft-serve ($6), sold individually or in a swirl. Then there’s the Jamaican black cake ($6), with its fruitcake-like texture underpinned by molasses.
But at dessert, many diners might gravitate to another cocktail — maybe the Ginger Shandy ($10) with passion-fruit rum, lime, ginger, pineapple and Red Stripe, or the Deep Dub ($12) with coconut rum, dark rum, pineapple, hibiscus and almond. At Kaya, that seems like the right thing to do.