cellio | Chaya (new location)

When Chaya, a Japanese restaurant, first showed up in Squirrel Hill the sushi was excellent -- best within reasonable range of my house at the time -- and the portions generous. Over time the portion sizes diminished and the quality wasn't as consistent -- still very good, but combined with them having only seven tables and not taking reservations (just making people wait in line), we stopped going there as often. Then a year or two Sakura showed up and their sushi was just as good, so we stopped trying to go to Chaya.

A few months ago Chaya moved to a bigger location (a block up the road). We tried to go there a few weeks ago but the line deterred us. Last night I gave them another try (no visible line).

The new location is about twice the size. They've upgraded the decor; they still have the bamboo screens separating otherwise-adjacent tables, but it felt a little bit roomier (other than that) and the lighting was much better -- bright enough to give no trouble reading but still warm and mellow. The wait-staff now wear kimonos and those sandals with white socks instead of street clothes with uniform shirts.

I counted five servers (one of whom was also serving as hostess), which should be plenty of coverage for a dozen tables. I did not see anything complicated going on (large party, fussy kids, etc); it looked like a normal, full night. I think the problems are best illustrated if I just transcribe the timetable I eventually began to jot down on the wrapper from my chopsticks:

8:55-9:00: arrive; no line (all tables filled)
9:10: party of two leaves
9:15: three more parties have left by now; seated
9:25: order taken (I've been ready for quite some time)
9:42: salad and edamame arrive (they're part of the sushi dinner)
9:50: the oshinko maki I ordered along with the dinner arrives
9:56: dinner arrives; I ask about the miso soup
10:03: miso soup arrives
10:10: place credit card on table as signal
10:13: server sees card, offers bill -- and then leaves immediately without card
10:16: flag down a different server to pay bill
10:20: leave

The wait-staff were consistently inattentive. Maybe I can understand waiting five minutes to clear a just-vacated table when a customer has already been waiting, but 17 minutes to bring the salad? The salad consists of greens with ginger dressing, not something complicated. 10 minutes to visit a newly-seated customer for the first time? (Someone had come by with water earlier, but he couldn't take my order. And if I'd known how long it would take to get a refill on water, I would have nursed the drink more.) Reacting to the "I want to pay now" clue (good) and then failing to complete the transaction? The last time I was in a restaurant for an hour and a half it was a multi-course meal with wine, dessert, and someone to converse with.

But what about the food? I ordered a sushi dinner with kosher fish, an option offered on the sushi placard on the table. (Despite that, the server had to go ask the sushi chef if they could do that.) The fish was tasty and the portions a little bigger than at times in the past but still small -- the fish was cut thin and the rice mounds for the nigiri sushi were very small (to make the fish look bigger, maybe?). The sushi dinner comes with one maki (roll); canonically it's teka maki (tuna), but that's actually not stated anywhere. So it's perfectly fine that mine was three pieces tuna, one salmon, and two yellowtail, but their attempt to use up random scraps of fish was a little obvious. The rice in the nigiri seemed fine, but the maki pieces kept unrolling as I picked them up. (Maybe that's an issue with the application of the seaweed?)

The salad was a little small but the greens were fresh (and it wasn't iceberg lettuce). The ginger dressing was very good. The edamame portion was downright skimpy; they used to bring a fairly big bowl, but last night they brought me eight pods. They were tasty and cooked to just the right degree of done-ness, but I expected at least twice that. I wonder how big the $4.50 edemame appetizer is?

The miso soup was tasty and served hot. The server explained when bringing it that they had run out and had had to make more; I suspect they made one portion. If she'd mentioned that earlier I'd have been happy to accept a (kosher) alternative. I overheard another server telling the people at the next table that if they wanted rice they would have to wait for it to cook, so I suspect that either people in the kitchen are not looking ahead enough or they did not plan to have people still coming in that close to closing time (9:45). I don't know why they would make the latter mistake, though; they always seem to be full or nearly-full even at that time.

I'm not sure, but I think charging for green tea is new ($1.75). I just had water.

If they are trying to become more upscale, then they need to realize that that's not just about decor and uniforms -- it's about training your servers to be attentive, about allowing people to make reservations, and about having staples like rice, miso soup, and water always on hand. It's also about acknowledging problems and apologizing for them rather than leaving people guessing.

At Sakura I have to order a la carte (which costs more and deprives me of the sushi chef's judgment) because they don't understand the kosher directive. But they pay attention to their customers and the sushi is good there too, so I doubt I'll be going back to Chaya any time soon.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Tips always confuse me, because how they are distributed amongst employees is not visible. There have been times I have wanted to heavily tip the chef but give barely anything to the slacker providing service, and vice versa. A very few restaurants have separate tip jars for the cooks (mostly in the deep south, from my experience). I like that idea.

I've never seen a tip jar for the chef; what an excellent idea. The only thing I've seen close to that is that if you sit at the sushi bar you are in a position to tip the sushi chef directly; I have both seen and done this. But if the chef is not accessible (because he's in the kitchen or I'm not sitting at the bar) I've never seen a way to do it.

I assume that tips left on the table (or the credit-card bill) go to the servers only. I know some places pool the tips (which bugs me if they don't also pool the service), but I have the impression the cooks don't get a cut of that.

I'll have to ask one of my relatives, who used to work as a waitress (and married a cook), but I think distribution depends on the restaurant. And yes, if they pool tips but not service then it is horrible, because your server has no incentive to do more than the bare minimum. Argh!

A few restaurants in Chinatown out here were busted last year because the owners were confiscating all the tips.

Chaya (new location)

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