Jaya Asian Grill Has Been a Strip-Mall Favorite for Over Twenty Years

When Thanh Ha Tran opened Jaya Asian Grill over two decades ago, Asian food in Denver meant Chinese, Japanese, Thai or Vietnamese fare (and sometimes a mix of all four at the same restaurant). Tran, who is from Vietnam and worked his way through Chinese restaurants, instead wanted to introduce Indonesian, Malaysian and Singaporean cuisine – dishes like beef rendang and ayam goreng which, at the time, were nearly impossible to find in the state.

Both Tran and his wife were born and raised in Ho Chi Minh City (formerly Saigon) in southern Vietnam. They met and married in the ’80s, and fled as war refugees to northern Bali, where they lived for ten years. In Ho Chi Minh City, Tran worked odd jobs, but he had an epiphany after undergoing serious heart surgery. “He wasn’t the best at cooking, but he was able to learn and get knowledge from my grandmother,” explains his son, Kent. “He fell in love with cooking…and [after] heart surgery, he decided to change his path.”

In Bali, Tran worked as a dishwasher and started to learn the secrets and techniques of Indonesian, Malaysian and Singaporean cuisine. He continued to work in restaurants until he and his wife immigrated to Colorado in 1996 to meet up with and work for his sister, who was a partial owner of two restaurants in Denver, including Imperial Chinese Restaurant.

Slowly, Tran worked his way up, learning the ropes of the business and improving his English. In 2003, with the support of his family and friends, he opened Jaya Asian Grill in a strip mall off South Colorado Boulevard.

About the place: “He opened this restaurant to allow new guests to come in and try this kind of cuisine. … His goal to this day is to grab people’s attention by saying, ‘Hey, you know Asian culture is not just Chinese cuisine. It’s more than that – there’s a lot out here,'” Kent says. “When he opened the restaurant, he was very happy, very excited, but he was concerned that it wasn’t translating to success by people coming in every single day.”

While it had a slow start, little by little, word spread as adventurous eaters started bringing their friends and families in for a meal. Jaya is a restaurant with a true mom-and-pop soul. It’s located in the basement level of a strip mall and is wholly unpretentious, with the ambience and decor of a ’90s-era Chinese restaurant.

The whole family works there seven days a week: dad, mom, brother and sister. “I consider Jaya to be a second home. Same goes for my sister,” says Kent. They’ve both been pulling shifts at the restaurant since they were young. “It’s the culture to support our families, and we want to keep this restaurant as successful as possible, obviously.”

What you’re eating: The three most popular dishes at Jaya are beef rendang, a traditional Indonesian beef curry simmered with coconut milk, lemongrass, garlic, turmeric, ginger and spices like cinnamon, cloves and star anise; Hainanese chicken rice, a poached chicken served over rice cooked in chicken fat and broth; and ayam goreng Kalasan, incredibly crisp fried chicken marinated in a blend of spices and coconut water and served with acar (pickled vegetables) and spicy sambal sauce.

A personal favorite that should not be missed is the Asian Chili Hot Wings appetizer – not entirely a traditional dish, but deliciously spicy and flavorful all the same.

Dishes like those served at Jaya are more common nowadays on menus across the metro area, but finding them is still a bit of a treasure hunt. One reason: they are very labor- and time-intensive. Jaya is open six days a week, and the one day it’s closed, Tuesday, is when the hardest work happens as the team prepares and cooks.

“All these dishes, it’s not like you snap your finger and it’s done in two seconds,” explains Kent. “The average time for making beef rendang is 46 hours…due to the size of the pressure cooker. And there are no shortcuts, like using powder. No, everything from scratch.”

It’s the same process for the curry ayam, a dish that Kent thinks is one of the restaurant’s best but often overlooked offerings. The Indonesian and Malaysian chicken curry dish is also cooked in the pressure cooker and made with a fragrant blend of spices stewed in a rich coconut milk-based curry sauce with aromatics like turmeric, lemongrass, garlic and ginger. At Jaya, potatoes and pineapples are added, creating a spicy and sweet dish.

“There are still people that don’t know these dishes, so they won’t give us a try,” Kent notes. Business has been especially difficult post-COVID; the order volume still hasn’t fully recovered, and Jaya has no budget for marketing or advertising to attract new customers.

Instead, it replies on the dining experience to gain new fans. “I always mention to all my guests, you know, come in and give this dish or that dish a shot,” Kent says. “Give it a try – otherwise, you’re going to miss out on this delicious food.”

Jaya Asian Grill is located at 1699 South Colorado Boulevard and is open from 11 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. Monday and Wednesday through Friday and noon to 8:30 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. For more information, visit jayadenver.com.