The Jia Chinese Kitchen pop-up was a fantastic experience! Although it was just a pop-up event in the backyard of a restaurant, everything came together incredibly. All of the food was set out with heaters keeping it quite warm and fresh. The owner and creator, Aaron Marasia, was so kind and brought together the whole night beautifully. He brought a successful pop-up food truck for Jia Chinese Kitchen to Jericho, Long Island, which did quite well. They even have super cute merch! Word spread quickly with a huge turn out for this event.
The concept of a Chipotle-style Chinese food restaurant is truly groundbreaking. You’re able to pick your base by choosing from white rice, fried rice, soy-glazed noodles, and mixed greens. From there you pick your protein from chicken, braised beef, shrimp, and tofu. There are many choices for vegetable toppings including cucumber salad, edamame, roasted broccoli, sweet potatoes, and more. You can pick unlimited finishing toppings from crispy onion, marinated soy egg, crushed peanuts, and many more. Lastly, you finish your bowl off with up to two sauces, choosing from general tso’s, teriyaki, sriracha aioli, hot honey, and sesame. Each bowl comes in a sustainable container with a paper fork or chopsticks. The assembly line of people making your bowl ran like a well-oiled machine.
I decided to go with fried rice, chicken, broccoli, sweet potatoes, sesame seeds, peanuts, and teriyaki sauce. The portion sizing was perfect, leaving me full and content after the meal. The chicken was extremely fresh and had clearly just been cooked. The fried rice was bursting with flavor, making it a good base for my bowl. The sesame seeds and peanuts created the perfect crunch and the teriyaki sauce brought everything together so nicely. This seemed like an awesome healthy choice for any meal and I’d love to see it as a restaurant.
We, want to Thank You for an insightful and well written review of Aaron and his partner in Jia Marcos, Pop-Up in New Orleans. Not only is this an exciting concept that you wrote about right on, but in your opening words of Jia Chinese Kitchen: Fast, Fresh, and Flavorful is to the essence of what they want to establish. We had the pleasure of attending their Pop-Up in Jericho LI. We were able to see all of their hard work come to fruition first hand.
So, I could go on and on about these two full time college students and about their dreams of opening Jia as a brick and mortar restaurant or food truck, but I just have one last comment, as I read your review to my wife it became harder and harder because of the tears in my eyes and the joy in my heart.
Aaron’s Grandparents
Eric & Paula Steinberg