Tavernakaya

Tempura cheese curds. Clock Shadow Creamery white cheddar, spicy mayo, togarashi—they even won the Madison Curd Crawl one year. Yeah, you didn’t know you wanted that in your life until now. Unless, of course, you’ve been to Tavernakaya, Madison’s American/East Asian fusion restaurant on the Capitol Square.

You might think that having a menu willing to take the occasional risk means co-owners Michael Ding and Wendy Kuo have an extensive culinary background. With a setup like that, you probably won’t be caught off guard when I say that couldn’t be further from the truth.

“My husband and I, we grew up in New York,” says Wendy. “Both of our dads worked in restaurants or owned restaurants, but we didn’t grow up, like, working in the kitchen. I took takeout orders over the phone in high school, but that was it. We decided to change our careers. I studied information systems and marketing from NYU, so I graduated from Stern [NYU’s school of business]. My husband actually graduated from UW–Madison, and he was working on Wall Street.”

By the time 2010 rolled around, the market wasn’t doing so great, and Wendy wasn’t enjoying her job. Wendy and Michael decided they would be happier making a change in lifestyle. That year, the two got married, realized living in New York was super expensive, and set their sights on the city of Michael’s alma mater.

Madison didn’t have it all, though. The East Coast had been enjoying the ramen uprising, and, as a whole, the ambitious isthmus hadn’t moved that far past Maruchan. “There were ramen shops everywhere in New York, but there weren’t any here,” says Wendy. So step one for Michael and Wendy was to change that with Umami Ramen & Dumpling Bar on Willy Street.

The ramen there is superb, the dumplings perfected from an old family recipe, but the thing I fell in love with is the pork bun. Pork belly, pickled cucumbers, scallions, and house blend hoisin sauce housed inside a pillowy steamed Chinese mantou bun. It’s one of those faithful reminders that life is worth living.

Many of the items available at Umami migrated to the Tavernakaya menu when it opened, in 2015. In case your Japanese is rusty, an izakaya is a Japanese tavern serving small, often inexpensive food alongside beer and sake. Culturally, the norm involves small plates being shared by everyone at the table, which leads to another surprise for Wendy and Michael’s menu concept. “In 2015, people were not as used to this whole sharing your plates. Everybody was still very much ‘this appetizer is mine. This is my entrée.’ We ended up changing some of our items to accommodate people’s tastes.”

Some of the changes involved coaching people how to eat their food. It wasn’t all intentional, but if you order a big plate of chicken fried rice and then a big plate of chicken fried rice comes to the table, you’re going to think, “Man, this is too much chicken fried rice.” You’ll then share your order with others, and they’ll share their plates with you, and you’ll realize that getting a little bit of everything makes a lot of sense when working your palate over to appreciate all the different flavors and textures each dish adds to the experience.

Sushi lends itself quite nicely to table sharing, especially when they’re as delicious as Tavernakaya’s house favorites, like the T.K.O. roll. “It’s our specialty item,” says Wendy. “It has spicy tempura pineapple inside with bacon, and then it’s topped with seared albacore tuna and avocado.” If you also wanted to try the Rainbow roll (kani crabstick, avocado, cucumber topped with yellowfin tuna, salmon, yellowtail, and escolar) or the Dragon roll (shrimp tempura, eel sauce topped with eel and avocado), bring a few friends and pass the plates around.

To highlight the hospitable atmosphere, Tavernakaya also has some killer vegan options. Take the General Tso’s Cauliflower. “Usually, people that have it are surprised it’s cauliflower.” There’s also Japanese Curry, Inari, Togarashi Fries, and more. It’s not just that everyone is welcome, but that everyone will be taken care of.

In terms of location, it doesn’t get much better than being on the square. “The space was vacant for a long time, and we invested a lot upfront to build it out to make it look the way it does today. We worked with Art & Sons, a brand and design company, to help us with the look and feel along with our architect, John Martins.”

The result is something that, even after almost a decade, feels contemporary while holding its own identity. There’s high-top seating at the front that utilizes the natural light from huge floor-to-ceiling windows as well as comfortable, intimate seating just inside. Patrons can also enjoy top-notch sake at the bar under a wave of wood planks mimicking patinaed barnwood.

It really feels like the whole area can transform into whatever the moment needs it to be, which makes sense given the space’s life after dinner. “We actually also do Late Night on Friday and Saturday nights. We have a DJ, and this whole place turns into a night club.” There’s a dance floor, laser lights, and more, and it happens year-round.

Tavernakaya won’t settle into something the owners insist on the space or menu. If changes they made through COVID prove anything, such as reorganizing the entire entrance to promote their conscientious takeout service, it’s that Wendy and Michael are always ready to shift gears to fit whatever force is driving them. Yes, the restaurant is still their vision, but it’s also a reflection of everything around them. Whatever a trendy tavern might look like in the Midwest, Tavernakaya feels like it can only exist in Madison.

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Tavernakaya

27 E. Main Street
Madison, WI 53703
(608) 286-1548
tavernakaya.com