When Sophia Akbar and Paul Iglesias wanted to open their second restaurant, they debated doing something familiar and Mediterranean (they had previously worked at Canela), but ultimately decided to get more personal. Paul is Colombian and their first restaurant, contemporary Colombian spot Parche, has been a hit since it opened in 2023. It was only right that with their second outing they would honor Sophia’s Afghan heritage. Enter: Jaji in Oakland, a new modern Afghan restaurant that’s been making waves since its January opening.
Nearby Fremont is home to the largest Afghan community in the country, so there’s no dearth of mom-and-pop Afghan restaurants in the East Bay, but what really makes Jaji stand out is the upscale way the restaurant is showcasing the country’s cuisine. Sophia wanted “a place to be able to come and show off all the good of the culture,” she says. “The country itself has always been in war, so we’ve been raised with the beautiful parts culturally in our homes, but then in the media we’re seeing the opposite. I wanted to bring that beauty that we all know and the stories that we all hear growing up to the forefront.”
To that end, she named the restaurant after her family, who immigrated here in the ’80s, following the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. Sophia found inspiration in her mother and grandmother while creating the restaurant.
So let’s meet the matriarchs behind Jaji in Oakland, and head on over to OpenTable to book your reservation and check out the restaurant yourself.
Generations of recipes
Grandmother Asia Jaji grew up in a small town outside of Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan. She escaped in the ’70s, traveled through Pakistan and Germany, and landed in San Francisco in the ’80s. It was meant to be temporary, but the situation never calmed down back home so Asia stayed.
She recently celebrated her 80th birthday. “She’s a beautiful tornado,” Sophia says. Visit her home in Concord, and she’s always cooking or baking. Her standard greeting is “‘Salaam,’ which means hello, peace be with you, and then it’s, ‘Did you eat yet?’” Sophia still fondly recalls folding dumplings with her grandmother as a child.
Sophia’s mom Maria Jaji arrived as a teenager. “She’s an incredibly independent woman,” Sophia says. “She definitely instilled that into me.” Maria didn’t much enjoy cooking, and as a working mother, her weeknight cooking often reflected the Bay Area—meals influenced by Afghan, Ethiopian, and Chinese dishes.
Sophia particularly loved her mom’s white rice, sauteed spinach, and homemade yogurt. These days Maria swings by the restaurant most mornings—the mom who “hates cooking” clearly enjoys “playing chef,” Sophia says. Make sure you get an order of the sabzi galet (spinach galette) when you’re at the restaurant—Sophia gets a pang of nostalgia each time an order of the dish, a reimagined version of her childhood comfort food, comes out.
How those recipes come to life
When she was a little, Sophia’s mom and grandma always said she needed to learn to cook for her future husband. She refused, knowing in her heart she would marry a chef. So it should come as no surprise that Paul Iglesias is the chef in both the marriage and the business.
Paul got into the kitchen with his mother-in-law and grandmother-in-law while developing the dishes at Jaji. He spent a good amount of time chasing Asia around with a deli container in a failed attempt to get her to measure ingredients and write down recipes. But in the end, they landed on an exciting, contemporary menu that nods to classics and pushes the envelope of Afghan cooking at the same time.
You’ll want to get an order of the bolani triangles, a dish that’s particularly meaningful to the family. It relies on Asia’s dough recipe, while layering in a fresh filling of purple potatoes, peas, fava beans, and leeks. Bolani are typically big floppy flatbreads, but this starter is cut into elegant triangles to dip in a bright green chutney. “They’ve commented about how it tastes exactly how their grandparents or mom makes it,” Sophia says of Afghan diners at the restaurant who loved the fresh take on the dish while staying true to the dough recipe.
Memories that soar beyond the plate
Beyond the dishes on your table, you can trace Sophia’s family history through the design details. This dining room soars with arched windows and tall ceilings, filled with bright orange textiles that float like a field of poppies.
A curved gallery wall features family photos, including a portrait of the three generations of women wearing traditional dresses and scarves, some that hang in the restaurant today. Sophia recalled that particular photoshoot when her mom pulled out a simple handmade dress that Sophia had always seen at the back of her grandmother’s closet.
It was during the shoot that Sophia learned that her grandma had sewn it herself, creating extra room to hide items underneath, and worn it to escape the country. “My grandmother is a diva,” Sophia says. “It didn’t look like something she would wear, it just always was around. When I heard the story, it was incredible.”
Becky Duffett is a food writer living and eating in San Francisco. Her work has appeared in Food & Wine, Bon Appétit, The New York Times, the San Francisco Chronicle, and Eater SF.
