Richard Blais is a busy man. He’s written multiple cookbooks, enjoyed a successful run on “Top Chef,” and currently stars alongside Gordon Ramsay on Fox’s “Next Level Chef.” But he has never strayed from restaurants and continues to open new concepts across the country.
That includes restaurants at the Grand Hyatt Scottsdale, where he has partnered with the property to oversee all of its food and beverage concepts. The newest opening is Tiki Taka, a shared-plates restaurant that highlights flavors from Japanese and Spanish cultures, while enlisting local ingredients from the Southwest. It debuted on January 7.
Tiki Taka has 30 seats inside and 108 seats outdoors. The restaurant’s design was inspired by Spanish landmarks like the iconic Las Ramblas street in Barcelona, as well as by Spanish tapas bars and the food of Japanese izakayas, that country’s equivalent to taverns. A long communal table anchors the space and is joined by a few booths, plus sushi and tapas counters, neon accents, and digital art displays.
The menu comes from Richard Blais and combines Spanish and Japanese cuisines. Photo courtesy of Jakob Layman
Fusion is nothing new, but Japanese and Spanish cuisines aren’t the most common combination.
“I’ve worked in Spain and have a strong passion for Japanese cuisine,” Blais said when asked about the restaurant’s inspiration. “The throughline is the word ‘bar.’ We wanted to fuse together the concepts of a sushi bar and tapas bar, bringing bold, fun flavors and shareable, communal casual dining.”
Before branching out on his own, Blais trained with a lot of great chefs, including Thomas Keller at The French Laundry in Yountville, Calif., Daniel Boulud at Daniel in New York City, and Ferran Adrià at El Bulli in Las Rosas, Spain. He’s seen and cooked a lot of different cuisines over the years, and is known for his creative flavor combinations and artful plating. All that led him to create Trail Blais, his culinary consulting group that designs and opens restaurants across the country.
Tiki Taka’s menu leans into the tapas bar and izakaya themes by serving small plates meant for sharing across categories, including cold dishes, hot dishes, pintxos and yakitori, sushi, and sweet tapas, aka desserts.
Cold dishes include stuffed piquillo peppers; hamachi “pizza” with pickled daikon, bonito flakes, and pepperoni “yolk” (an emulsion made with pepperoni that resembles an egg yolk); and a crispy soft-shell crab escabeche with black garlic and yuzu. The pintxos and yakitori section has a variety of skewers, like bacon-wrapped dates with Valdeón cheese, octopus with parsley aïoli and paprika oil, and pork belly with fish sauce and apple caramel.
Dishes include tapas, pintxos, and izakaya staples like yakitori skewers. Photo courtesy of Jakob Layman
Hot dishes include blistered shishito peppers, spot prawns a la plancha, and okonomiyaki with Kewpie mayonnaise, bonito flakes, bacon, and a fried egg.
More fusions dishes are found in the sushi section, which focuses on rolls, with selections like the Tiki Taka roll combining red crab, bluefin, yellowtail, piquillo pepper, avocado, cucumber, and parsley.
Dessert selections include a Basque cheesecake with passion fruit curd, lychee pearls, coconut streusel, and strawberry gel. Another option is kakigori (Japanese shaved ice) available in flavors like mango-ube and sweet coconut matcha.
The beverage menu follows the same format, highlighting Spanish and Japanese drinks like wine and sake, and cocktails that combine ingredients from both cultures. The Osaka Sour, for example, features Japanese whisky, green tea vodka, lemon, honey, and almond milk and is topped with a Tempranillo red wine float. Red and white sangrias are also available, frozen with liquid nitrogen and served tableside.
