Ta Joia — Restaurant in Bothell

Ta Joia was a little confusing at first but once I got my head around what it actually was, my wife and I enjoyed it.

TL;DR: If you like teriyaki places, eat here. If you're looking for "fusion"...it's not what it is.

Food: 4 stars Customer service: 5 stars Cleanliness: 4 stars

It pops up as an Asian / Brazilian fusion concept and a few influencers labeled it that too. So that is what I was expecting. For example, an Empadao with Korean flavors inside of it. But once I realized it was a teriyaki joint with a sprinkle of Brazilian flavors on the side, it totally made sense. Ta Joia website calls it "teriyaki with a twist" and it's more clear than some of the ads labeling it fusion.

My wife got the bowl with Crispy chicken & spicy chicken and I got the spicy pork and kalbi beef. (Extra charge for added protein, but we wanted to do Ta Joia right!)

The Molho à Campanha (Pico) was good. Brazilian Pico is more subtle than Mexican pico. Think "no lime. Instead, vinegar + olive oil."

The cilantro sauce was good, but Brazilian chimichurri sauce would be way better. :)

Flavors for a teriyaki joint was good, and the charring on the meat and their "made to order style" made it good also. The crunchy chicken was bland, but dipping ANYTHING in that cilantro sauce pulls it all together. Definitely, mixing the pico and cilantro sauce into the rice gave the teriyaki that twist their website talked about.

For how many workers they had, the establishment was a little dirty and the bathroom smell was creeping out and you can smell it. Bathroom was clean, by the way, it just had that gas station bathroom smell. I'm sad to report.

The customer experience was great for a teriyaki joint. A pleasent surprise for sure. She greeted us, smiled, built a little rapport. And the nice server that delivered our food was super friendly, warm and reminded us to mix the pico into the rice. Pay them more owners, they are both are good at their jobs I'd recruit them myself, if I worked in Bothell.

All food is expensive nowadays, so Im not even going to report on costs. It was worth my money, if I were to rate it.

Give them a shot, if you want a new teriyaki joint. I think you'll like the "twist"! We will eat here again and try their version of...

Friendly service and great food! This is definitely on my list of restaurant to revisit and recommend to friends.

Family friendly Not pet friendly

FOOD:

1. Wings 8 pieces $14.00 (Lightly breaded seasoned wings with side of signature green sauce): Great wings! They were breaded really well and fried until nice and crunchy. They were juicy and not greasy. The only thing I didnt really enjoy was the green sauce. Not sure what was in the sauce but there was too much cilantro for me.

2. Ta Joia Fried Rice $15.00 (Stir fried rice with trio of slow cooked brisket, pork shoulder, and sausage): We ordered this because the Ta Joia Special Rice Bowl wasnt unavailable until 4pm daily. The fried was served with a side of the green sauce and topped with pico. They recommend mixing the pico into the fried rice to eat. It was very flavorful and not greasy like many restaurant fried rice.

3. Kimchi Fried Rice $16.00 (Stir fried rice with kimchi, spam, and egg): This is one of the best kimchi fried rice I've had. A lot of restaurants keep the kimchi in too big of chunks but this dice it up to the same size as the spam so you get a little of everything in each bite. The only thing I would change would be more SPAM!!

4. Vegetarian Stir Fried Noodles $12.00 (Stir fried egg noodles with tangy and savory sauce with cabbage, carrots and broccoli - served with a scoop of rice): Our vegetarian friend order this and she enjoyed it. This one of the few restaurants that had more than 1 vegetarian option which is a huge plus for her!

RESTAURANT/INTERIOR: The location is pretty easy to find and a lot of parking in the strip mall. The interior was bright and colorful. I like how it wasnt overly packed with tables so there was enough space to walk around without feeling crammed. Everything was well lite and very clean. Something small that was great that not a lot of restaurant does - they had a bench available for people waiting for pick up :)

STAFF: This is a family own and ran business. Everyone was very polite and friendly. The food is made right behind the counter so you can actually see them cooking it if you hanged around. When we were throwing our trash away, the cook come up to make sure we liked...

Ta Joia is Foiya!🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥

I'm a super picky eater, and budget myself 1 cheat meal a week. I wanted to try something new for my cheat meal and am getting sick of just plain jane meat and rice teriyaki. Ta Joia did not disappoint! They provided a generous serving of variety, and each item was scrumptious! Not only was the food delicious, but the ambiance of the restaurant was modern, lots of soothing plants, full of inspiring artwork messages, and the friendly family-oriented staff provided a very welcoming vibe! I enjoyed how there were so many options available for different palate experiences. The innovation behind the fusion menu was a satisfying deviation from the norm of monotonous traditional teriyaki. Here's what I had:

Kimchee fried rice – Got Rice? Just the right amount of spice, everything nice, and had hidden morsels of spam that tickled the palate with surprises in every bite. When combined with the fresh in-house made pico de gallo, it provided a nice cutting contrast that soothed the robust flavors. The sunny side up egg on top also provided a pleasant neutral profile that trickled down the rice after breaking the yolk.

House chicken – You can tell from the chicken teriyaki that they are legit! I despise Teriyaki joints that have overcooked, rough chicken, but this was tender, char-grilled, and exploded with juices with every bite.

Ta Joia Special – The special contains 3 types of meat: Sausage, brisket, and pork shoulder. I kept bouncing back and forth between eating the brisket with sausage, and pork shoulder with sausage combinations to even out the neutral and saltiness contrasting profiles of the meats. Once that got redundant, dunking them into the signature green sauce provided a smooth undertone that soothed the palate.

Grilled Shrimp – The shrimp was grilled to perfection! They had a snappiness and just the right amount of seasoning to preserve the texture integrity of the shrimp.

Most definitely Teriyaki with a twist, flava, innovation, freshness, and all of the above! I doubted that I could finish this gargantuan meal, but I ended up devouring the entire plate because it was that delicioso! Ta Joia is highly recommended to everyone, and earns a well deserved...