Kaya

 Located at 3925 Sedgebrook Street in High Point, Kaya offers Korean and Japanese cuisine. Lunch specials are available.

 

Tucked into a shopping center off 68 near the High Point-Greensboro border, Kaya hits a number of hidden gem checkboxes: it’s unassuming and easily overlooked, it’s family-run and popular among locals, and the food is, by and large, good. That said, I would hesitate to give this place a rave.

 

A no-frills establishment, Kaya is nevertheless quiet and clean. It offers a familiar selection of hibachi dishes, but Korean is the main draw here. A large, pictorial Korean menu greets you upon entry. For those seeking authenticity, dishes like spicy squid or braised pig trotters let you know that you are in the right place.

My wife and I opted to split a seafood pancake, a bimimbap, and a spicy pork. As expected, they came with an array of banchan, and portions were plentiful. Though food quality varied, nothing was worse than average. The spicy pork was delicious. It was served hot with onions and slathered in a delectable sauce. The seafood pancake’s dough-to-seafood ratio favored the former though it was still tasty. That said, the bimimbap was a mixed bag. I appreciated the array of vegetables included though it was fairly light on meat. It also was not served sizzling, but that was my fault for not realizing that I needed to order the dol sot (stone pot) version.

 

Staff here are polite, but they will leave you alone unless you specifically request something. Chalk it up to custom rather than any kind of intentional indifference. For what Kaya charges (entrees in the teens), the plastic silverware and styrafoam cups felt like penny-pinching.

 

The variety of Kaya’s offerings and the quality of the spicy pork alone make me want to give this place another chance, but I would probably opt for takeout rather than dine-in in the future.