It truly is the best of two culinary worlds—with some regional flavor baked into the mix—at the new Tiki Taka restaurant that opened in early January at the remodeled, rebranded Grand Hyatt Scottsdale Resort in Scottsdale, Arizona.
“Global influence” plays a tasty role at this 138-seat indoor/outdoor restaurant, as vibrant, bold Japanese and Spanish cuisines featured on the menu are imbued with Southwest ingredients. The overall end-result is a flavorful experience for guests.
Tiki Taka is already proving to be one of the luxury resort’s most popular dining experiences on the property. The new establishment is the brainchild of acclaimed Chef and Restaurateur Richard Blais, who says that his admiration and appetite for Japanese and Spanish cuisines heavily influence his restaurant’s offerings. You’ll find a striking mesh of hot and cold tapas, skewers, pintxos, yakitori, and sushi available on the menu, which the restaurant guarantees will “delight every palate.”
The new restaurant, open daily from 5pm to 10pm, notably celebrates not only the tastes of Spain and Japan but also both cultures’ dining techniques. Because of this, the Tiki Taka menu is centered off small plates meant for sharing. “It’s a pretty new concept,” explains Chef Blais. “The challenge is always making sure we understand our ‘why’ and how to best represent the vision that there’s a fusion of cultural inspiration.”
The dedicated team of chefs at Tiki Taka may be small in numbers, but each of them is expertly familiar with Japanese and Tapas restaurants, having been trained in those environments. Their experiences allowed Tiki Taka to realize its unique concept as soon as its doors opened. “When we put the team and staff together at Tiki Taka, we were looking for people that understood the importance of teamwork and felt a passion for the cuisine and use of local ingredients,” says Chef Blais.
Tiki Taka sports an open kitchen. “Half the kitchen produces sushi and cold plates, and the other half produces the hot tapas and larger plates,” explains Blais. “We have an outside binchotan grill that fills the area with a delicious aroma of meat being charred and glazed in a number of sauces.”
(For those of you wondering about the restaurant’s branding, the Tiki Taka name is derived from a style of football popularized in Spain that focuses on fluid creativity, small movements, and passing sequences. “It's what we are doing with small plates and celebrating the inspiration of both Spain and Japan through the lens of the American Southwest,” says Chef Blais.)
Guests will find a variety of fused delicacies on the menu. Pintxos & Yakitori offerings include beef bacon-wrapped dates, octopus with crispy potato and paprika oil, and pork belly with fish sauce and apple caramel. Some of their hot dishes include Okonomiyaki with kewpie, bonito flakes, bacon and fried egg as well as pan-fried Chorizo Gyoza with sherry dip.
Options for sushi rolls at Tiki Taka include red crab, blue fin yellow tail, and spicy tuna accompanied with local seasonings, while skewers come to tables with a range of sauces (such as Bizkaina, Xato, Mojo Picon, and Mojo Verde). Finally, a tasty roster of sweet tapas close out the menu and guarantee patrons leave happy.
Interestingly, this is Chef Blais’s first sushi program he’s worked on—and it’s a menu offering he’s found exciting to implement as well as an ideal complement to his “global” aspirations with Tiki Taka. “The setup of [our] sushi station and tapas station (case) is similar and is a fun fusion of restaurant cultures,” he says.
The mix-of-cultures approach at Tiki Taka is delivering menu items that are already proving popular in such a short
time. “Innovative dishes such as our Hamachi Pizza with pickled daikon, bonito flakes, and pepperoni yolk and our Spot Prawns ‘A La Plancha’ with garlic confit are proving to be our crowd pleasers!” says Chef Blais.
Speaking of “innovative,” new ideas are being cooked up daily by Chef Blais and his team for upcoming implementation at Tiki Taka. “Our menu is fluid,” says Blais, “so, as we work with different ingredients and throughout the seasons, we are constantly evolving, upgrading, and editing it.”
The beverage and cocktail programs at Tiki Taka complement the food portion of the menu thanks to playful takes on classic concoctions. In addition to glass and bottle sake flights and wines, guests are treated to Osaka Sour with Akashi Japanese whisky; Charbay green tea vodka, lemon, and honey, clarified with almond milk and topped with a tempranillo red wine float; and Ube Espresso Martini with vodka, ube-infused condensed milk, and Mr. Black espresso.
“Our guests love the Tableside Sangria, which is frozen with liquid nitrogen, available in both Tinto with red wine, brandy, blackberry, orange, lemon, triple sec, and club soda and Blanco with white wine, brandy, lychee, pineapple, orange, lemon, raspberry, triple sec, and club soda,” says Chef Blais.
The fashionable fusion of Japanese and Spanish cultures doesn’t just stop with the menu, as the design space of the 138-seat restaurant combines both. In addition to the curated Tiki Taka menu, it was important its architecture stand out, as there are five other competing dining options on the premises of the renovated Hyatt Grand Scottsdale Resort property (two of which are brand new).
Designed by award-winning Wimberly Interiors, the vibrant, artful 30-seat interior space of Tiki Taka is inspired by the lively character of Spanish landmarks such as Las Ramblas in Barcelona and the charm of small Japanese izakayas with communal tables. Vibrant neon accents and digital art displays also help enhance the experience for those who are either partaking on a “cozy date night” or enjoying a “lively gathering with friends.”
“A long communal table serves as an anchoring focal point, accompanied by a sushi and tapas display counter and intimate booths offering relaxed, lounge-style seating,” says Blais.
Meanwhile, the 108-seat outdoor area takes full advantage of the surrounding mountain and desert scenery. “The weather is beautiful in Scottsdale,” says Blais, “so we wanted guests to enjoy the artistic, relaxed, lounge-style interiors, while also being able to take in the natural vistas and enjoy the open air.”
A graduate of the Culinary Institute of America, Chef Blais has a “wildly creative approach” to cooking, a reputation that helped justify the sizzling-hot anticipation built up during the months ahead of Tiki Taka’s opening. He has also established the culinary consulting group Trail Blais, a firm that has designed and launched popular restaurants across the country including Ember & Rye in Carlsbad, California and Four Flamingos in Orlando, Florida. In fact, Blais used his experience to confidently partner with the Grand Hyatt Scottsdale Resort to put together all their on-premise food and beverage concepts.
Chef Blais is a personality familiar to those outside the bar and restaurant industry as well. In addition to being a James Beard Award-nominated author of three cookbooks (Try This At Home, So Good, and Plant Forward), he is a beloved TV personality, appearing on programs such as Iron Chef America and Top Chef (eventually taking top honors during the inaugural season of Top Chef: All-Stars). Blais currently co-stars alongside Gordon Ramsay on FOX TV’s popular Next Level Chef.
Yet he finds running a restaurant is tough regardless of one’s position in life. “It has its perks and challenges as a celebrity chef,” says Blais. “Guests having high expectations would always be the biggest challenge.”
But even with all these credentials and fame, Blais is still most excited to be part of the culinary conversation in Scottsdale and already standing out amongst so many other innovative and respected establishments in the area. “The community has been amazing and so incredibly supportive!” he says.
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