In the shaded (and sometimes shady) back lanes of Anjuna in Goa, a new restaurant opened earlier this year, trading debut fanfare with a kind of deep, generous assurance of its vision. JSan, a Japanese izakaya-inspired retreat, sidesteps the usual theatrics of trend-driven dining and offers something classic: clarity, control, focus. Helmed by 20-something owner chef Vishesh Jawarani, a CIA alumnus who cut his teeth with chef Daniel Boulud in New York, JSan might just be the best new restaurant to open in India this year.
The Space
Jsan’s arrival is a striking shift: much of Goa’s culinary scene leans toward spectacle, while JSan is designed to lower the volume. You drive past Artjuna Café—now a hub of mediocrities—and arrive before a long corridor flanked with orange Japanese temple columns. Charred wood table-tops, flag-stoned...the décor is modest. The nearby Bomras is a template for Goan restaurant settings: a garden paradise. Possibly JSan deliberately bypasses all visual tricks, as if it were engineered to discourage anyone here to film a reel.
The Food
Gyoza, with its skins thin as paper, yield to bite; mushroom and tofu—a gossamer dosa-like skin shields the plate of five delicate, absurdly lively offerings. The chawanmushi(steamed Japanese egg custard) was remarkably refined and extremely comforting—savoury, warm, and smooth, a glorious understatement. A green salad, elevated with puffed rice and a miso vinaigrette, is sublimely essential (the affable restaurant manager, Jay Spenard, told me they source lettuce from a neighbourhood grocer, but its implausible freshness—how many ice baths, bro?—is a miracle unto itself). The miso kinoko, my friends and I wondered how our dinner might get any better; perhaps the toasted shokupan to lop up drippings was encouragement for our collective applause. The salmon, cured, meagre, remitted dryness even an orange ponzu could not entirely salvage. We ordered seconds of the avo rice cakes not because we were hungry but because we had been greedy for its spicy goodness!
RR Verdict
Goa is known for two things: passionate chefs who open with all their artillery, and restaurants that lose their steam by their second season. We left in a monsoon downpour—our sweet tooth absolutely enticed, if not entirely satisfied—and prayed that JSan endures here in Goa for many, many seasons.
