RESTAURANT REVIEW: Chaya Venice

110 Navy St. | Venice, CA 90291 | 310-396-1179 | www.thechaya.com/venice | Prices: $$$

By FRANCES SHARPE | Editor-in-Chief

One-third of new restaurants fail within the first year, and another 30 percent shutter their doors for good by the second year, according to the National Restaurant Association. For a restaurant to survive, and more importantly thrive, in fickle, trend-driven Los Angeles for nearly three decades it’s worthy of ‘Hall of Fame’ status.

For 28 years, the Chaya restaurants have remained some of the hottest dining and drinking spots in town, and the Venice location is no exception.

I’ve dined at Chaya Venice four times in the past few months, and it’s still as sardine-packed with the cool crowd – better known as hipsters these days – as it was in the 1990s when I first started frequenting the Mediterranean-Asian fusion eatery.

Back then, my single girlfriends and I used to wedge our way into the bar area for Happy Hour cocktails and sushi and it looks like today’s young, hip and beautiful are still doing the same.

On one of my recent visits, I slid into a booth with friends from Nashville who had never dined at Chaya Venice before.

As we nibbled on crusty sourdough, they marveled at the expansive – for some people, overwhelming – menu, or rather menus, including the dinner menu, sushi bar menu and Passport to Wine Program menu sure to entice even the most discerning oenophiles.

I assured them that one of the best things about Chaya is there’s something for everyone – sashimi and inventive rolls from the sushi bar, fruits de mer, light and flavorful pastas, tender filet mignon, a famous Black Angus burger, exquisitely unique vegetarian fare and the de rigueur gluten-free options.

The list of specialty cocktails, beer, wine, champagne and sake is equally extensive and one of the reasons the bar remains so popular.

We decided not to indulge in cocktails, such as the Chaya Mule (Skyy Vodka, cinnamon-clove tea, ginger syrup, lime juice and ginger beer) or By the Shore (Fair Quinoa Vodka, muddled orange and lime, cramberry foam and lime zest).

Instead we sprang for a bottle of Tozai-Snow Maiden Nigori sake, a Davis Bynum Chardonnay by the glass and a 2012 Joseph Phelps Pinot Noir that can’t be found by the glass on any other menu in LA, according to our server.

I have my go-to favorites on the menu, but I decided to join my friends in sampling a variety of dishes. There was no theme for our meal; we literally went all over the map.

To start, an organic vegan Thai coconut soup – one of the day’s specials – arrived hot and so satisfyingly creamy we couldn’t figure out how it could possibly be vegan.

The Japanese Hamachi Sashimi had just enough Yuzu Pepper Vinaigrette to give it a kick without overpowering the delicate fish, which was fresh enough to rival even the best sushi houses. With four of us, we only got a few delectable bites each and were left wanting more. Note to self: ask for two orders next time.

Great food at a trendy restaurant is one thing, but I wanted to give my out-of-town friends a bit of LA showmanship so I ordered Chef Tachibe’s Original Tuna Tartare with avocado, micro shiso and crispy crostini, which is prepared tableside. A few minutes later, a server wheeled a silver cart to our table and carefully crafted a vision of beauty right before our eyes. The resulting tower of tuna was almost too pretty to eat.

A Slow Roasted Organic Beet Salad with orange, wild arugula, candied walnuts, crispy goat cheese, red wine vinaigrette and aged balsamic served as a palate cleanser before our entrées arrived.

The Scottish Salmon, cooked medium unless you tell your server to prepare it otherwise, arrives in a cranberry Pinot Noir sauce on a bed of sautéed spinach over four large pillows of Kabocha Mascarpone Ravioli that are so decadently sweet and tasty they seem like they should be on the dessert menu.

We also ordered Soy-Glazed Black Cod with Hijiki garlic brown rice, asparagus and shiitake mushrooms in a sweet soy sauce, the Wild Mushroom Risotto with Mary’s Farm Chicken Breast and truffle oil and a few sushi rolls.

When it came time for the dessert menu, we realized we had already been dining for three hours, not because the service was slow but because we had ordered items individually rather than all at once.

It was time for them to relieve the babysitter, so we missed out on the Milk Chocolate Croissant Bread Pudding, Warm Apple Tart and Warm Pistachio Chocolate Chip Cookies. 

Oh well, there’s always next time.