This is the first time I've had sushi in Pittsburgh so I can't comment on how good the food is in comparison to other sushi bars in the city, but generally, as a sushi place, Chaya is just okay. The prices were inconsistent, with some rolls costing $4 and others $14 and nothing in between. How is it that an eel roll costs $4, while a dragon rolls costs $14 when it is defined as "thinly sliced avocado on top of eel roll?" Maybe the roll is 3x the size of the eel roll? I don't know. Also, the tempura udon was a rip-off at $13 a la carte.
I guess I would've let these things slide if I weren't so dissatisfied with their service. At the end of our meal, we had a couple cookies from the bakery next door (Allegro Hearth--highly recommended) and the server told us that outside food is not allowed and that they would be charging us $2/person for bringing it in. WTF? I understand their policy on no outside food, but how about a warning? And this isn't even like we brought in our own wine or a cake that they had to slice for us. We each had half of a cookie and it ended up costing our table the amount of 2 sushi rolls. Ridiculous.