I was making my way down 18th Street to meet a friend at a new neighborhood eatery called Kasa. It was a Thursday night and I expected some people but not a large crowd. About a quarter of a block before the restaurant I began to hear a lot of loud conversation. I looked around me trying to find the club I was expecting to be walking past. The din was getting louder and louder when I finally realized that the sounds were coming from Kasa. The restaurant windows were open allowing the chatter from within to spill out on to the street. I thought walking past Badlands was loud but it was nothing compared to this. I was early so I waited outside a couple of minutes for my friend Dara (names changed to protect the innocent, unless she later gives me permission to use her real name). She also could not help notice the noise when she arrived. We went inside and the sound was deafening. The decor was modern with stainless steel and wood. There were high ceilings and all the surfaces hard which helped increase the volume of the acoustics. Wow.
Dara noticed the crowd looked hip and very non-ethnic. A possible clue to the authenticity of the food. The staff of the restaurant also looked hip and non-ethic. Another clue about about the food. It did make me think even though I did know by doing some research that the recipes are from one of the owner's Indian upbringing in London and India. Ordering works like many other Indian places. You order at the counter and pay for your food at the register, but here your order is put together immediatedly so you have it to take with you to one of tables or to one of the counters that line some walls and the windows. It was still so very loud. Picture being in a club on the dance floor trying to talk to someone by pretty much putting your mouth on their ear while the music is blaring, but here there is no music, just people talking. I even commented to one of the servers on the other side of the counter asking him if his ears are ringing when he goes home after work and he said, "They're ringing right now." Okay, enough about the loudness.
So, the two ordering options are the roti rolls or thalis. The roti rolls seem to be the main draw and most people describe them as akin to a burrito. Take a roti (a type of flat bread) and fill it with a meat or vegetarian option plus some onion and condiments. It is served on a stainless steel tray (that looks like something recycled from an army mess tent) with some raita and a small vegetable salad of diced cucumber, carrot, onion and bell pepper in a very light dressing (a very forgettable side dish). The thali is described as a deconstructed version of the roti rolls plate with one meat or vegetarian choice plus the addition of some daal and basmati rice. Dara and I opted for the roti rolls for dinner. She ordered a two-fer (one lamb and one aloo jeera (potato) for $8.95) and I ordered a three-fer (chicken tikka masala, aloo jeera, and karahi paneer (indian cheese) for $11.95). Chicken tikka and Kebab (of turkey) are the remaining two regularly offered fillngs. There are Indian beverages available, I chose a mango juice. Dara chose San Francisco water. The roti rolls are fill as you stand at the counter. I was noticing a green condiment that was being put into every roll. I have an extreme dislike of cilantro (coriander, chinese parsley, whatever you want to call it) and I know it is used a lot in Indian cuisine. So I asked what it was before it was put into my roll. Sure enough it was a Cilantro Coconut chutney. I declined, so a spicy red sauce was suggested instead. I accepted. We sat at a counter that lined the windows at the front of the place. The paneer roll was good, tastier than I expected. Dara had me try her aloo roll just to see what the cilantro coconut chutney was like and it was not as bad as I thought it would be. She was right that it really didn't taste "cilantro-y". Her lamb roll was tasty and bit gamy. I liked the chicken tikka masala the best of the ones we had. The red sauce I had on all my rolls gave them a kick that worked well with a cooling bit of raita added to each bite. My eyes were bigger than my stomach so I never got to my aloo jerra roll so I wrapped it up and took it with me (it made a nice lunch the next day). Three rolls are actually a lot of food.
Dara and I concluded it was okay but we probably wouldn't go back. The price for a single roll is a bit high at $5.95. The price gets better when you get three and it could be shared for a light lunch. Still, we couldn't get over the volume in the room. A search at Yelp didn't show any mention about the noise. Maybe I would consider a takeout order. I'd recommend a try.
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