This three-year old restaurant advertises itself as Kaya’s Fusion Cuisine. Why “fusion cuisine” is not instantly apparent?  It is not a fusion of two distinct cuisines, for example Thai-French, or other such Asian fusion menus.  Rather it signals that many of chef-owner Michael Hawthorne’s dishes are eclectic, multi-cultural combinations using elements of two or more cuisines, frequently resulting in unusual food and flavor juxtapositions on the same plate. A number of his dishes are certainly creative, his food sense on target; i.e., the combinations are not absurdly out of synch taste-wise…

The Sampan Inn is a restaurant with an Asian split personality, comprising two dining rooms, each with a different ambiance and character, offering a different menu and cuisine.  Each has its own outside entrance, but both are accessible on the inside through a doorway and a three-step stairway. The Chinese cuisine dining room has the familiar feel of the typical, small, neighborhood Chinese restaurant, brightly lit, lots of pink leatherette booths, and glass-topped, linen-clothed tables adorned with bud vases of fresh rose and baby's breath. The Japanese dining room is darker, its black …