Rooted in kapwa – connection, Kaya is Restaurant of the Year
The space where Kaya lives has been special in Orlando for a long time, and the spirit of what it has been — a home, a business, a hub of art and food and music — imbues what it has become.
Kaya is lush and green, warm and welcoming, a nurturing place, not only in the way it welcomes guests to eat and drink and even sing at its outdoor Bayani Bar but in the way it welcomes other businesses — farmers, bakers, chefs and makers — to be nourished by its rich presence.
SEE THE FOODIE AWARD WINNERS HERE.
“Kaya was always meant to be more than a restaurant,” says co-owner Jamilyn Salonga-Bailey, who, alongside its other seismic, steady force, chef Lordfer Lalicon, has created a venue fine enough to garner a 2024 Best New Restaurant nod from the James Beard Foundation.
One that also feels — right down to the family photos that line a timeworn piano — like a safe and humble home.
3 Orlando restaurants among the 2024 James Beard Award semifinalists
“The restaurant “is a way for us to build community, and what better way to build connections than over the table?”
And so for the connections that Kaya has made, within the city’s Filipino community and without, for its exceptional, easygoing hospitality and the exemplary fare coming out of its bright, open kitchen, it is my choice for the Orlando Sentinel Foodie Awards’ Restaurant of the Year.
There’s a vibe here.
Wednesday nights bring karaoke and spaghetti. Thursdays, Filipino BBQ. Inside, at the bar, there’s something here that just feels … chill. It’s a vacation, but nowhere near a canned resort. This is the island home of a friend or family member, a place where whoever’s pouring your drink or cooking up the fish someone caught that morning is just on the other side of the counter.
Your pulse slows. You laugh more. The playlist penetrates. You’re connected. To the place, the people, the food.
Sour-savory sinigang with plump, flaky fish in a palayok. Umami-laden pork belly diniguan, the Philippines’ delicious, blood-stewed “chocolate meat,” served on a slider. Lumpia – crisp, familiar, snacky. And always, always the garlic rice.
It’s especially nice in a silog at Kaya’s still-new brunch, the Filipino breakfast I enjoy most with fish. Like the produce, seafood is sourced locally, another part of what keeps Kaya bound to its culture (“there’s nothing more Filipino than cooking from your backyard,” says Lalicon) but the larger local community, as well.
With Kaya, Orlando has its first Filipino fine dining venue
In fact, the restaurant employs full-time forager and farm partnerships manager Hanah Murphy to ensure they fulfill this part of their promise.
“Not only is she finding the best strawberries or snow peas for us to use … it’s important for us to buy from [local farmers] so that they can make a living. When I go to Walmart, who am I connected to? I go to Big Daddys or Frogsong or to Mike at Everoak and I know what he’s doing with the food. I know there’s no pesticides. I know he has three kids.”
And so, what the guest receives on the plate isn’t just food, “it’s the byproduct of many different layers of people, doing what they love to provide for who they love.
“I like to use a Filipino word called ‘kapwa,’” he tells me. “It means that everything is connected.”
And at Kaya, it really is.
The wooden fork and spoon on the wall. The Last Supper behind the bar. The salakot on the walls, woven hats that came from Salonga-Bailey’s childhood home here in town.
“Growing up, it was rare to go anywhere as a Filipino-American and feel seen, like the place was for you,” she says. “And so, I joke that for a Filipino, this place is like a scavenger hunt.”
For gourmands, it’s an amusement park, from the bites to the bar to the warm breeze outside, which feels potently Filipino at the height of summer, when rain gives way to sun gives way to humidity.
It gets loud out there sometimes.
“It gets loud inside sometimes!” says a smiling Lalicon. “And why not? People are having fun. Are they supposed to sit down and be quiet? That’s not what eating together is about. It’s about camaraderie, laughing, storytelling.”
Filipino spaghetti is a sweet and savory comfort-food staple
And exploration, which is what many of Kaya’s visitors are there to do.
“When I see someone here who doesn’t look like me, and that’s probably 50 percent of the customers, I ask whether they’ve had Filipino food before.”
Many say no.
“I love that they’re coming in with open minds, enjoying the flavors, because what’s beautiful about the food is that because the Philippines has been touched by so many cultures, the flavor profiles are, in a way, relative. It’s still new, but the flavors — soy sauce, peanut butter, Spam — are familiar.”
Another connection point.
Recognition by the Michelin Guide in their first year open, the semifinalist nod from the James Beard Foundation saw the owners, the whole staff, thrilled and excited.
“I feel seen,” says Lalicon. “I mean what is James Beard? Is it white plates with beautiful food or is it about good-tasting food and a great experience and having fun? That’s why people go out to eat.”
Foodie Awards: We’re doing things a little differently this year
It’s nice, he says, to see long-standing institutions like these begin to bring everyone into the fold.
“We decided early on that while accolades like these were aspirations, we weren’t going to change who we are or what we’re doing to try to fit a mold, but instead try to change the mold to include more diverse experiences like ours,” says Salonga-Bailey.
Kaya chef/owner Lordfer Lalicon and general manager/owner Jamilyn Salonga Bailey sit beneath the bodhi tree in the yard outside Kaya. The space often hosts small markets and festivals that showcase other independent businesses. (Rich Pope/Orlando Sentinel)It’s that level of authenticity, that willingness to be themselves that in turn makes guests feel okay in doing the same.
Guests sometimes ask she tells me, whether the photos, set with reverence amid flowers and flickering votives on the piano, are real. They are. Her parents and Lo’s. His in-laws.
“They keep us honest,” she says. “They’re looking at us every single day, so we can’t veer too far from our culture or our values because they’re paying attention.”
The staff has since added some of their own. Relatives living and those who’ve passed on, faces that watch quietly the ebb and flow of service from beneath a collage of bayanihan.
“A bunch of people carrying a house together,” says Salonga-Bailey. “There are so many members of this community — our staff, our families, our artisans, our farmers — and we’re all holding up this house together.”
Critic’s Choice
Winner: Kaya, 618 N. Thornton Ave. in Orlando, kayaorlando.com
Readers’ Choice
Winner: Johnny’s Diner, 500 FL-436 in Casselberry, 321-972-8276 and 10169 University Blvd. in Orlando, 407 677-6776, johnnys-diner.com
Runners-up: The Nauti Lobstah (Apopka) and Muzzarella Pizza & Italian Kitchen (Orlando)
Want to reach out? Find me on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram @amydroo or on the OSFoodie Instagram account @orlando.foodie. Email: amthompson@orlandosentinel.com. For more fun, join the Let’s Eat, Orlando Facebook group or follow @fun.things.orlando on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter.
