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Friday, April 19, 2002

By Ed Masley, Post-Gazette Staff Writer

By early evening on a recent Saturday, the line at Chaya stretches out the door and down the sidewalk -- this despite the fact that you can see your breath outside, despite the fact that there's an older, more established sushi house at the opposite end of the block with no real wait to speak of.

	Chef-owner Fumio Yasurawa prepares a dish at Chaya Japanese Cuisine in Squirrel Hill. (Andy Starnes, Post-Gazette)

That's how strong the word of mouth has been on Chaya since it started serving sushi and other traditional Japanese cuisine on Murray Avenue in November.

It's a small room, seating only 34, and competition for the four seats at the sushi bar -- where diners get a chance to watch and chat with Japanese-born sushi maestro Fumio Yasuzawa -- can be fierce on weekends.

On those busy nights, with people winding down the street, the wait staff and owners at Chaya seem perplexed and understaffed, unsure of how to interact with quite so many human beings all at once.

On my first visit, I wait by the waterfall pond in the entrance for nearly half an hour taking in the tasteful Japanese decor (including furniture made by Yasuzawa and Jackie, his wife) without a soul from Chaya dropping by to say how the long the wait should be -- or even looking up for fear of catching someone's eye (it's something people learn in waiter school, I'm told).

Having given up on any hope of human contact, we're about to take our quest for sushi down the block when Jackie shows us to a table squeezed into a corner by the kitchen -- tight fit, bad location, but at least the service picks up, turning friendly and professional as though a customer becomes a customer when seated.

On a slow night, the service is friendlier and more professional. The waiter even urges us to try the daikon garnish and instructs us, kindly and without an invitation, in the proper use of fresh wasabi (you apply it to the sushi and sashimi, not the soy sauce, which would only mute the flavor).

Chaya takes great pride in serving fresh wasabi (shipped in from the only U.S. company that grows it) -- so much so that on a slow night, they show us the actual roots from which they've grated theirs.

The difference couldn't be more obvious.

The texture of wasabi, when it's fresh, is less like Play-Doh, more like food. Organic, I guess you could call it. And while the paste that's made from the powdered wasabi is content to merely set your sinuses on fire, fresh wasabi makes its presence known in a subtle, more flavorful fashion -- clearly worth the extra effort they've invested in it.

Chaya's sushi and sashimi also have a subtle, more authentic feel and taste than much of what you'd tend to find in local sushi houses.

While it may not be the firmest sushi on the block, it's certainly as fresh as any I've encountered here. The tuna is to die for (more so, one could argue, for the tuna). And the cuts are impressive -- to look at and to eat -- especially for what you pay. At $24 for dinner or $21 a la carte (without the salad, miso soup and fried chicken), the sushi and sashimi combination includes seven pieces of sushi (tuna, salmon, fluke, shrimp, yellowtail, squid and fish egg), six California rolls and, for sashimi, three tuna, two whitefish, two salmon and two yellowtail.

There's more to Chaya's menu, though, than sushi and sashimi, including a number of interesting noodle dishes.

Udon noodles with tempura, served boiling hot in a covered pot, is a standout -- nicely textured, thick and tasty noodles in natural broth (no MSG) with shrimp tempura, seaweed, fish flakes and a poached egg that cooks in the broth at your table.

You can also dip and cook your own meal -- rib-eye steak -- in a fondue of boiling beef broth at your table (with instruction from the staff for those who don't know what they're doing). Shabishabu, as they call it, seems like fun, but sadly, they require that you order it for two or more and the person I'm with will eat no meat that isn't from the sea.

The broiled eel over steamed rice -- Una Don -- is kind of bland, but a touch of the Japanese pepper fixes that. You'd do well not to bother with the salmon teriyaki, though. It's far too dry and chewy -- like the heat-lamp-damaged teriyaki at a food court, only more expensive.

Overcooking salmon at a place that serves it raw is a little unusual.

But Chaya's reputation ultimately rests on what it doesn't cook. And you'd be hard pressed to find a better plate of sushi in the area.

Chaya
2104 Murray Ave.,
Squirrel Hill
412-422-2082

Hours:5-10 p.m. Mondays-Saturdays

The basics: Traditional Japanese cuisine, with dinners ranging from $13 to $24. A la carte sushi ranges from $1.50-$2.75 a piece; the maki can be more expensive a la carte, with prices ranging from $3-$12 (for the giant roll). It has no liquor license, so you're free to bring your own, although there is a corking fee of $2 a glass. MasterCard and Visa are accepted.

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