Once upon a time a couple took their 2-year-old daughter to a fancy dinner at the French Poodle. The second they were seated, the ninja toddler with the jet-black bowl-cut took off with a vengeance, straight through the kitchen door, leaving her barely English-speaking mother mortified. Seconds later, she reappeared with a mischievous grin, in the arms of a smiling chef.
Fast forward 30 years. Yafa now occupies this simple, small space, giving Carmel a new Mediterranean restaurant. But some things didn’t change. When I enter Yafa I am – like everyone – scooped up by open arms, literally, often with a hug, friendly banter and a room full of smiles, even if it’s your first time.
Yafa’s friendly formula is borrowed from long-popular Dametra Cafe, and it works here too. Ben Khader, the tall blonde who’s the first to greet you and runs the show, is a cousin to Chef Faisal Nimri at Dametra (through marriage) and also hails from Jordan. Khader learned a great deal during his stint at the busy restaurant cafe on Ocean Avenue, and Nimri showed the chef at Yafa a few of his own tricks – and still helps out in the kitchen when he can.
The hospitality carries over to the first bite of food, a complimentary plate of feta cheese and sun dried tomato pureeaccompanied by an artistic plate of sliced cucumbers – cucumbers, not pita bread, because Ben remembered that I was gluten-free from my last visit. A welcoming gesture. Tasty and salty.
The grilled octopus ($13.95) comes recommended by Ben. Me too. The dish delivers tender bites and a bright, herbaceous and lemony sauce. Oregano, garlic and olive oil work wonders. Ouzo shrimp ($12.95) is another, more unique, recommendation – hold the bread bits if you are gluten sensitive – four jumbo prawns sauteed in olive oil, garlic, a squeeze of lemon and finished with Greek liqueur that leaves a nice anise tang.
MishMish Chicken ($17.95) sounds like a cool onomatopoeia; here it’s a chicken dish prepared with the Middle Eastern seasoning that features saffron, lemon and crystallized honey originating from the village of MishMish (or Michmich). Slivered almonds and chopped parsley sit atop a double portion of chicken breast and a larger-than-life apricot chutney and butternut squash sauté. Like art. Potatoes or rice arrive as side choices and – if you like the smell of cinnamon-y potpourri – then you will love their fragrant rice. It was overpowering for me.
With that, we decided to do a side-by-side fowl tasting. The other contender was the Yafa Chicken ($17.95), and now we know why it is their signature dish. My date – a tall, sensual blonde who is known locally as the Feather Fairy and a master hair colorist at Strands – made some pretty climactic noises expressing her satisfaction with the Yafa bird.
The potatoes could use a dash of salt, but are soft to the mouth while still holding their structure. The trick is boiling and then oven roasting them with precision timing – not an easy task to accomplish. Tzatziki sauce – yogurt, fresh garlic, cucumber, salt, olive oil and, for Yafa, mint – adds depth and density. We asked for extra.
If we had ended our night with the chicken we would have left happy, but we had to try their Floating Island ($8), a dessert they were sold out of on my first visit. It’s naturally gluten free, consisting of egg whites, vanilla, sugar, more caramelized sugar on top, a couple blueberries for color and an all-over drizzle of creme anglaise. It usually has sliced toasted almonds on top but ours came without and we received a few decorative squirts of whipped cream instead. We didn’t know what to expect but dug into the tower of fluff and didn’t stop to breath for air. Gone in 60 seconds – and then we hit a hard sugar high, like a kid who goes to a carnival with cotton candy in one hand and a bag of caramel corn in the other, bumps into someone and has caramel corn embedded in his cotton candy, eats it and finds saccharine heaven.
If that’s too much for your tastebuds, go for the Beirut pistachio pudding ($7), a traditional cream pudding enhanced with rosewater. This mature-tasting Lebanese panna cotta ended up being one of the most exotic desserts I’ve ever enjoyed. The rosewater perfume isn’t too much like I feared, particularly with the help of the salted shelled dry roasted pistachios and creamy coolness of the eggless custard. It made sense in my mouth.
Other options I have my eye on for next time include shakshuka ($11.95) – a traditional Tunisian dish of poached eggs in a spicy tomato sauce impossible to find around here – the grilled pear salad ($11.95) and the chunky cubed watermelon salad ($8.95). The watermelon sounds as refreshing as the bottle of Ruffino Prosecco ($29), an extra dry Italian sparkling wine with hints of citrus and a littleAsian pear on the finish. For steak lovers there is a filet mignon ($24.95) with a gorgonzola cream sauce, an uncommon find around here (that being a better than average filet for under $40).
It’s not easy for a restaurant to carry that welcoming start through a meal but they do it here with passion and finesse. We never needed to wave a server down and our flutes were never without a drop. Turns out Yafa means beautiful and is also the name of an ancient and picturesque seaside town in Jordan, so it clicks for a perky new restaurant by the sea. This place may or may not be your best Mediterranean food experience of all time, but it will rank among your most memorable.
YAFA Junipero and Fifth, Carmel • 5-10pm daily 624-9232.