Korean food is pretty hard to come by in Fresno. It’s not that there aren’t any Koreans in Fresno; there are actually a lot of Koreans in Fresno. But there’s only 2.5 Korean restaurants in Fresno, to my knowledge. The half restaurant comes from a food stand inside a Korean supermarket. For the past couple years, my family has gone to Samo’s Kitchen whenever we wanted Korean food. I never really liked going to the place because I was always coming back to Fresno from USC, where I lived only a few miles away from Koreatown, where food was leaps and bounds away from stuff in Fresno. We always saw Kaya when we drove down Blackstone, but never went in. You know how seeing an empty restaurant is unsettling? Well, that’s what always came over us when we saw Kaya. It’s only open for dinner 6 nights a week, and there aren’t many, if any at all, cars in the parking lot. My family overcame that fear one night after we had received recommendations from various Korean friends. It was alleviating, but when we arrived, there still weren’t any customers. There was, however, a group of Korean tourists leaving the place. It turns out that Kaya makes most of their business from tour groups and serves us local folk only for extra cash I guess. Well compared to Samo’s, Kaya is the closest thing we can get to real tasty Korean food in Fresno.
Even though the place is usually empty, and the menu isn’t that large, the food that they do serve is plentiful and good. We ordered soon tofu, bbq pork loin (or belly?), and a spicy stewed fish dish.
As with standard Korean places, our meal started with a complement of panchan. They were all pretty good, but for some reason, they tasted better than Samo’s. Maybe they were made in-house instead of from a can, or maybe because we were in better spirits after we figured out that they weren’t stingy with giving us seconds of the panchan that we wanted more of. Either way, it was a good way to start off our meal.
First came the soon tofu. I noticed that the serving size was meant for multiple people because the pot was significantly larger than most pots of tofu I’ve had at places like BCD and Beverly House in Los Angeles. It was mild tasting, not spicy enough to deserve that tinge of red that colored the dish, but I guess it’s good that my tongue wasn’t scorched to the extent of not being able to taste the other dishes. By the way, the menu says that only combination tofu is available (it comes with seafood and meat), but I’m not a big fan of shellfish, so hopefully they’ll make it with just beef if I ask for it.
While the tables came with tabletop grills, the waitress asked us if it was ok for the kitchen to cook the meat inside, instead of us grilling it ourselves. That was fine by us. I think the act of grilling is a pain. The novelty of grilling my own meats wear off after realizing that I’m just paying to cook my own meat. The accoutrements were pretty unique. One “side” that came with the bbq was a giant pepper that looked intimidating, but had no spice at all. I guess it’s supposed to be dipped in gochujang and eaten like a carrot stick with ranch. The pork didn’t look very substantial when it came out, but after eating a good number of pork-wrapped-in-lettuce, the dish turned out to be heartier than I expected. We had to take this home, and half of the dish became a whole meal for us later.
The final dish we got was a stew with pieces of cod, leeks, zucchini, and korean radishes softened up by gochujang and other spices. The fish pieces had small bones in them, so I stayed away from them because I was too lazy to avoid the choking hazards. Instead, I gobbled up the radish because it was nice and mushy. Sometimes I feel like being young and old are awesome ages for eating cuz mushy foods are so tasty. But then again, I’d miss eating crunchy fried foods. Blast!
I’d like to come back with my family sometime again to try some more of their dishes. Now that we know that there’s a place better than Samo’s, I don’t have to loathe eating Korean in Fresno again. The only warning I have is to come early, because although the hours say they close at 9, the owners here usually close early after the tour groups leave. The night we ate, they were close to closing when we came in before 7, and they closed up just as another table walked in the door at 8, and they refused to serve them.
Kaya Restaurant 4151 N Blackstone Ave Fresno, CA (559) 229-5959
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