Kitava

Kitava is a clean-casual restaurant that shows healthy eating can be both exciting and satisfying. Founded in 2017 in San Francisco’s Mission District by Bryan Tublin and Jeff Nobbs, Kitava now operates across the Bay Area with locations in San Francisco, Oakland, Albany, and SFO. Their mission is simple: make real food accessible to everyone. Every dish is completely free of gluten, dairy, soy, peanuts, refined sugar, and seed oils, and built around whole ingredients that connect good nutrition with the pleasure of eating.

Kitava follows a Clean Casual Manifesto built on full transparency and a deep commitment to responsible farming. Their sourcing criteria cover every ingredient category — proteins from farms using holistic and regenerative land management, produce following the Environmental Working Group’s Dirty Dozen and Clean Fifteen guidelines, and fats exclusively from real food sources with healthy fatty acid profiles. Takeout and catering use compostable bowls, paper bags for recycling and compost, and no plastic packaging. Used cooking oil is recycled rather than discarded. Kitava also maintains a commitment to community access: during the pandemic, they helped pilot HelpKitchen, which delivered highly subsidized meals to people in need. Pre-COVID, they partnered with Mission-based nonprofits, including Project Zeeni and the San Francisco Conservation Corps, to run nutrition and cooking classes for underserved youth, and always maintained at least two $7 lunch specials so local workers don’t have to choose between fast food and real food.

Kitava’s sourcing is a masterclass in transparency, with strict standards applied to every ingredient on the menu.

Kitava leads the food-as-medicine movement in the Bay Area. By removing common allergens, seed oils, and refined sugars while maintaining bold, craveable flavors, they offer a welcoming space for people with dietary needs and health goals alike. Their commitment to sourcing transparency, regenerative farming, compostable packaging, used oil recycling, and community programming shows that a restaurant can support public health, food access, and environmental responsibility at the same time, one nourishing meal at a time.