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| - Chaya is a cozy Japanese place that despite having a very complete menu, falls short in executing a tasty meal.
I came in for a simple deluxe sashimi platter. The dinner set came with a salad and fried chicken appetizer.
The salad was a typical Japanese salad with sauce, and the chicken was alright. It was boneless, which was a treat, but had nothing special.
The main was the sashimi, which to my disappointment came in a pretty small portion. There were maybe 12 pieces total, which is quite expensive at 35$. However, the biggest disappointment was probably the sashimi itself. The fish did not taste very fresh, knife skills of the chef weren't great (I had some scrappy pieces), and I had quite a few bites of tendon. I also want quite sure how the fish was prepared, but their taste wasn't very clean...the fish tasted really old and dirty.
Also, having hot rice served with the sashimi was a real setback. The temperatures completely clashed, and the loose rice did not pair well with the more slimy texture of the fish. I think sushi rice needs to be considered here...
I had a dessert before I left, which I enjoyed. But it was basically an off the shelf ice cream mochi, which you can get basically anywhere.
Overall, the place is very complete and stands out as a higher end sushi place, but the fish quality, serving preparation and small choices in dishes really downgraded the otherwise impressive menu items.
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