Jaji — Restaurant in Oakland

Brought my husband here last night to celebrate his birthday. Given his family is Afghan, I thought it would be a treat to enjoy a modern take on his culture’s cuisine. Parking was a challenge and with only five minutes left before our reservation, we decided to splurge in a nearby lot that charges by the minute, rather than being disrespectful by showing up late.

We arrived right on time for our 7pm reservation, but the host immediately informed us they were running behind. We didn’t mind waiting a bit and happily decided to stand at the bar with a drink.

My husband ordered a cocktail, which arrived in a coupe glass that was only filled two-thirds of the way, with was no garnish to elevate the drink. Unfortunately, he finished it in three sips. Instead of ordering another, we decided to wait patiently at the bar.

By 7:30, we were both starving and feeling neglected. We purposely saved our appetites for this special evening, and my husband was eyeing every lamb dish that passed by (he had already decided on it before even looking at the menu). It was his birthday, so I went up to speak with someone who appeared to be the manager. At this point, we had already waited 30 minutes, and I would’ve expected a manager to offer a comped drink or at least apologize profusely, especially since we were waiting because they were behind. Instead, he acknowledged our patience but simply said it would be a bit longer. I mentioned it was my husband’s birthday and asked if they could do something special - he suggested I give him a wink, and he would remember.

At 7:45, we were finally seated and informed that the fish was no longer available. It was a bit surprising, considering it was a standard dinner hour, but neither of us had planned to order the fish, so it wasn’t a big deal. We chose our dishes and tried to catch the attention of our waiter, but that also took longer than expected.

By the time he came over, we were both incredibly hungry. We ordered the lamb, only for the waiter to apologize and inform us they were out of that as well. After waiting so long, this was incredibly frustrating, especially since if we’d been seated on time, this wouldn’t have been an issue. My husband’s face fell in disappointment, and the waiter immediately seemed to notice. He quickly changed his tune and managed to find a way to get us the lamb after all.

By 8:40, two of our four dishes finally arrived—one starter and one main. While fine, neither was remarkable.

At 9:05—more than two hours after our reservation—our remaining two dishes arrived. The bolani was delicious, but the wagyu skewers were just 2 tiny skewers with three small pieces of meat, no vegetables, just a few microgreens.

I passed the manager on the way to the bathroom, who winked at me and said he hadn’t forgotten about the birthday. Neither of us really felt like dessert at that point—we just wanted to go home—but I figured I’d humor the situation. When the waiter came to ask if we wanted anything, I assumed the manager had communicated the birthday request to him.

Even though I wasn’t hungry, I ordered the cheesecake, thinking it would come with a candle or some small gesture. It didn’t. There was no surprise, no acknowledgment, and the manager completely forgot. In the end, I ended up paying for a cheesecake I didn’t even want.

When it came time to pay the bill, the waiter handed it over and announcing the total aloud! It was incredibly uncomfortable and unnecessary.

By this point, I had completely forgotten about the parking situation. I ended up spending an extra $30 on parking and $30 on cocktails, and buying dessert I didn’t want all because the restaurant was well behind schedule and failed to do anything special for us.

They have a 24-hour cancellation policy with a $25pp fee and expect you to call if you’re late—so why don’t the same rules apply to them? If they’d bothered to call and let me know we wouldn’t be eating for 2 hours, I wouldn’t have wasted all that extra money and felt completely disrespected.

So...

Tiny portions don't make food fancy even if it is expensive. Presentation is precious here but isn't better quality than the halal cart in front of my office, and I never leave the halal cart hungry. The Mama's Daal was fine, if slightly stingy, I like lentils and eat them a lot--colorful presentation. Shola-Gorooti Croquettes was fine, started a curious trend of things being served in threes--this was a somewhat expensive dinner and the kitchen is being stingy with a cheap rice ball dish that is hard to split between two people. The Wagyu skewers were in a pomegranate sauce that we were ready to lick off the plate, but the beef was ordinary quality and tiny portions. You could spend $90+ for one person without a cocktail and leave slightly hungry, with lentils and skewers, and lamb shank--nothing against small plates as a concept but that is expensive to leave slightly hungry. The lamb shank was particularly good, but not a lot of bites of meat for $58. Why doesn't the lamb shank come on a pile of seasoned rice? I hate this menu concept so much, it's the worst. We watched the table next to us struggle to eat a ridiculous dessert with spoons--the pastry was too dry and crunchy and jumped around on the plate as they tried to share it between them. The service feels more like being swarmed by flies than good service. At the start, three waiters apparently had different (and increasing) ideas of how full a glass of water should be and kept filling up my glass within as many minutes. And waiters swarmed one after the next to remove a plate that we repeatedly said we weren't done with. A swarm of quiet polite attention isn't service, it's a weird...

Visited Jaji for their restaurant week menu, which felt like an incredible value for the overall experience. We had the ducktu, shola-qorooti croquettes, branzino and kabobs. Pistachio ice cream was included as the dessert, but we also added the pistachio chocolate cake as an al a carte add on.

Each dish felt notable and well balanced in texture and flavor. My favorite dinner bite was the shola-qorooti croquette (make sure to get a bite with the aoli and caramelized onion) but it's tough to choose between that and the bold and bright flavors of the chapli wagyu beef and chutney.

My partner really enjoyed the branzino, which was buttery and satisfying when eaten with the sour orange saffron rice and jalebi that came with that plate.

The saffron flavor in the rice was beautiful and, with the subtle layer of sour orange, made for a welcomed contrast against some of the heavier (but not too heavy) dishes in our meal. I can see why the rice is offered as an optional add on to the chapli wagyu beef in their standard menu, and would totally recommend electing it for that order.

For dessert, we were blown away by the dark chocolate pistachio cake. The combination of crunchy phylo and kataifi, cool and sweet semifredo, and rich dark chocolate was divine.

Lastly, the interior was beautiful and the staff were friendly and attentive. All in all, a...