We went to Richard Chen's on Saturday night. We arrived promptly for our 7:00 pm reservation and was very surprised to see that the restaurant was more than half empty. With all the great reviews, we thought it seemed a little strange. We were seated at a lovely table at the west end of the dining room. The atmosphere was very relaxing, even when the restaurant began to fill up. Our server David was very friendly and happy to give recommendations.
I got a super yummy guava margarita, BJ had a Stella. We both opted for soup, I had the vegetable won-ton, Jim had the lobster miso. Both were excellent.
For dinner, I had the Spicy Wok Fried Chicken. The dish was very flavorful and I loved the shishito peppers. Jim had the beef tenderloin, it was perfectly cooked and was very delicious. His only complaint was that the accompanying fries were boring and bland.
Dessert very totally amazing. We had the crunchy chocolate caramel bar with hazelnut ice cream. It was by far the most amazing dessert that we have ever had. We also shared some sort of parfait that was also very good.
Our server seemed to disappear part way thru our dinner. Turns out that he was serving the stock holders who were held up in the private dining room. He was a little flustered about the meeting and it turns out he had a right to be. According to the Post gazette, the decision has made to close the restaurant. How very disappointing. We fell in love with this restaurant and just like that, it's gone!