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| - While having a not-so-great meal nearby in January, my friend mentioned that just around the corner, we could have had much better karaage and better food for a similar value. I just had to come the first chance I got, which unfortunately wasn't until ... 8 months later!
The restaurant is brightly lit (YAY!) and looks super traditional and Japanese, and so do the servers in their traditional clothing. Love the atmosphere.
The Chaya special combination dinners for 2 are absolutely the best value I've seen in the city. For ~$20 each, my friend and I sampled a variety of delicious food.
1. Salad. Delicious ginger dressing, fresh vegetables, well dressed.
2. Sushi - a 6-pc california roll to split and 4 pieces of assorted nigiri each, all fresh, good quality pieces. They weren't assembled very well (ie rice fell apart when picked up) and the vinegar was lacking, and the fish wasn't pressed properly, so they should probably hire a new sushi chef, but this is the best quality fish I've had in pittsburgh so far.
3. 3 pcs of karaage - absolutely perfectly marinated and fried, super flavorful and very juicy. Definitely lived up to their hype. They didn't come with sauce though... but they were good enough on their own.
4. The final soup took a while to come, but I was surprised our crab soup actually came with a whole snow crab (for the entire set for $40, I expected a few pieces of canned meat at best), and bunches of veggies and udon.
Service was great - very prompt and friendly, and patient with our indecisiveness. We dug into our first bowls, sipped the delicious soup, only to find a hair wrapped around a tofu in the soup.... It wasn't a big deal, but they handled it amazingly and made me like the place a lot more.
For sushi, the individual pieces are a little pricey (though justified by the quality). But the service and atmosphere and the combination deals definitely make me a fan.
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