Karma Restaurant at Sixth & California in SF

[Guest guest]

I recently learned (from the people who run Karma) that they have

decided to close it; they are trying to get someone to take over the

space. There are various reasons for this, but one of them is the lack

of business; another is the fact that the space is too small to be a

restaurant (only 4-5 people max can eat there at one time, although

there is also a bench outside) and it's also too small for the cook

(Rai) to be able to prepare and offer other dishes that he wanted to

serve, so it's been limited to the 5-6 dishes offered.

 

Re the lack of business, he said it's been up and down, but definitely

impacted by the economic downturn; the loss of regular customers who

have moved away from San Francisco; and the fact that Sixth & California

doesn't have the walk-by traffic that Clement St. does. I also have to

say that he cooks just about everything from scratch and doesn't rush,

so it can take a while to get orders ready (I usually call ahead to

order and it generally takes about 20 minutes to get it ready.) So this

doesn't come as a complete surprise, but it is disappointing.

 

He's also tried very hard to be able to offer vegan desserts (like vegan

cupcakes or ice cream or cookies) but most suppliers only want to work

with restaurants which order in large quantities, so he ended up having

Alternative Baking Company cookies for sale.

 

So I'm writing this as an FYI in case you haven't been to Karma to try

any of their dishes: momos (Himalayan dumplings); noodle soup; noodle

salad; lentil soup; salad w/VGA (vegan cheese which the chef invented

for that salad so that all dishes would be vegan; at the beginning he

was using feta cheese, but was influenced to go completely vegan by all

the vegan customers, including me). I have been there many times (I'm

only a few blocks away) for momos and noodle salad to go, and whenever I

have potlucks to go to, I try to bring momos, and EVERYONE has loved

them, veg*ns and carnivores alike).

 

NOW is the time to go over and try something, because they will

definitely close -- it's just a question of time. Rai is hopeful that

at some point he can try again, with a larger space, so that he can

offer all the different dishes he's been experimenting with and has

wanted to offer, and I'm almost 100% sure that if he did manage to do

that, it would be 100% vegan.

 

Nadine May