Probably the most extraordinary thing about Chaya Venice is that it has a menu that manages to cater to a lot of different tastes and do them all well. We had a team dinner with 7 people – and when we were taking a survey of what people wanted to eat for dinner we got one vote for meat, one vote for fish, and one vote for sushi. Amazingly, Chaya satisfied everybody’s wants, and everybody walked away happy!

The first thing I noticed about Chaya was their drink menu – I got the Lychee martini, which was definitely one of the better lychee martinis I’ve had. The raspberry mojito, pomegranate martini, and blu-beri drop all looked equally enticing.

For my main course, I had the “Sea Scallops wrapped in New York Steak Sautéed in Dijon Pommerey Mustard Sauce Sautéed Potatoes, Oyster & Shitake Mushrooms & Green Beans”. I thought the dijon mustard was a curious choice… but let me tell you, everything about this dish worked perfectly! The dijon mustard tasted like butter against the scallop, but tasted like a spicy mustard against the steak. I wolfed down this dish, and couldn’t get enough of the mustard!

I was fully satisfied after my entree, but after having seen a review for the “Banana, Banana, Banana” dessert, I couldn’t resist. The Banana Banana Banana is a “Warm Banana Tart & Banana Ice Cream whipped with Mixed Berries
topped with a Frozen Chocolate Covered Banana”, and it was SO GOOD. I don’t think I’ve ever had banana ice cream, but this banana ice cream was sooo good… totally naturally flavored, and just, yummy. The banana tart was different from what I was expecting – more like a bread pudding than a pastry, but I liked it better that way. The frozen chocolate covered banana was good too, but it was just a banana, and I was toostuffed from everything else.

I thought this place was great, really well-rounded. Now I’m looking forward to trying the one in SF!

so i initially planned on having a nice quiet albeit expensive sit-down dinner here, but changed my mind when i found out about their happy hour (5-7pm daily). although somewhat glorified on other review sites, i may have walked in with too high expectations as i’m not really a seasoned happy hour goer. chaya offers an abbreviated simple sushi/fried food menu of 10-12 items (i.e. spicy tuna roll, ca roll, chef’s special roll, edamame, sweet potato fries, etc) for $4-5 per dish with 2 drink options at $6. amazingly, managed to spend more than $50 pp, but i left completely stuffed.
as i probably should’ve expected, the happy hour food quality wasn’t anything spectacular but still good “bar” food. bummed that there weren’t any specialty rolls on the happy hour menu. oh well.
i probably wouldn’t come back for the happy hour, but might for the regular dinner dining area options.

A definite lunch option within Venice, especially for DD employees. Pricier than the other lunch spots, so we’d only hit Chaya every other week, once a week if we were bored.

For a higher scale joint that it’s thought of as being, the decor is somewhat low key…no big deal cause at lunch time, I’m not there to examine the seats. Food was tasty and service also good.

If nothing on the menu catches your eye, go with the default Daily Bento Box. Like 4 small japanese tapas dishes served in a bento box. Surprisingly filling for looking so small. Wasabi burger wasn’t too bad either.

Also a good spot for celeb spotting.