TIYA BRINGS MODERN PRIX FIXE MENUS TO THE BAY AREA’S EVER-EXPANDING INDIAN DINING SCENE

On Wednesday, May 8, a new Indian restaurant rolls into the Marina District backed by a duo of chefs with years of experience running Indian dining destinations in the United States and abroad. Tiya, located at 3213 Scott Street, comes from brothers Sujan and Pujan Sarkar. Sujan made his name in the San Francisco restaurant scene as the opening chef at Rooh, but most recently earned a James Beard Award nomination for his Michelin-starred Chicago restaurant Indienne. Pujan, meanwhile, has been running the show at Rooh in San Francisco before joining forces with his brother on this new project. Pujan says he’s wanted to open his own restaurant in San Francisco ever since he first visited the city when he was cooking on a cruise liner. “I jumped off the ship and fell in love with the city,” Pujan says.

At Tiya, Pujan says he’s excited to leverage the city’s abundance of local produce and ingredients to put a California spin on Indian cuisine. The menu will be somewhat similar to what diners know from Rooh. But at Tiya, the brothers say they’re taking everything they learned at that restaurant and making tweaks to bring a fresh Indian dining experience to San Francisco. Specifically, Tiya will offer both an a la carte and a prix fixe menu comprised of four courses and an optional supplement. At $90, it falls on the more affordable end of the Bay Area tasting menu spectrum, and a wine pairing will be available for an additional $50. Sujan, whose Chicago restaurant Indienne has been praised for its French-inspired Indian tasting menus, says he thinks San Francisco diners crave this genre of elegant Indian dining. “There is a clientele interested to do that experience with Indian food,” Sujan says. “But it doesn’t exist.”

That is, until now. Tiya’s prix fixe menu will be available only in the back dining room, a vibrant space wrapped in floral wallpaper and chartreuse velvet. Diners will choose between courses such as yogurt chat made with strawberry, tamarind, and mint, and hamachi bhel, a riff on the savory snack starring young millet, red onion, and buttermilk solkadhi. Sujan is excited to be getting a portion of the restaurant's produce from small growers including Hawk Creek Farm in San Francisco and Three Springs Community Farm in Bodega Bay. He’s featuring seasonal delicacies like summer squash then serving them with stuffed morels and pairing spring peas with jackfruit in the restaurant’s vegetarian take on lamb keema, which is also on the menu for the meat eaters.

The a la carte menu leans heavily on a selection of smaller plates including some of the selections from the prix fixe — along with a handful of fresh options. Diners can start with a tandoori avocado, cooked in the kitchen’s large clay oven, or a cauliflower pakoda fritter made with carrots and served with a peanut thecha curry. Larger plates include the restaurant’s version of butter chicken, a menu staple, as well as paneer polichattu spiced up with curry leaf, Malabar curry, and ginger, or lamb shank roast with zarda pulao and nihari.

On the beverage side, look for a concise list of cocktails each named for a different San Francisco neighborhood. Pujan says the beverages aim to capture the essence of each part of town. For example, the Mission District drink channels the flavor profile of tacos with tequila, salsa verde, and a nopales cordial, while the North Beach gets to the area’s Italian roots blending vodka, Parmesan, sourdough, extra virgin olive oil, and a cherry tomato and basil pickle. Wines will come from California, France, and Italy, but Sujan also says he’ll be bringing in some Southeast Asian selections including those from Naidu, the Sonoma winery owned by Indian American owner Raghni Naidu. Sujan, who operates restaurants and bars in New York, Chicago, London, and Los Angeles, says he’s confident San Francisco will bounce back from its post-pandemic slump and hopes Tiya will become both a regular dining destination for Marina District residents and a destination for anyone who enjoys Indian cuisine. “I think San Francisco will come back big time,” he says, “and I want to be a part of that.”

Tiya (3213 Scott Street, San Francisco) opens on Wednesday, May 8.

2024-05-06T18:43:56Z dg43tfdfdgfd