525 S Flower St
Los Angeles, CA 90071-2200
Tel. 213-236-9577
Website: www.thechaya.com/downtownlosangeles/

Above: Chaya Brasserie Los Angeles

8741 Alden Drive, Los Angeles, CA 90048
tel: 310.859.8833
Credit Cards: Amex, Visa, MC
Prices: Expensive

Chaya Venice
110 Navy Street, Venice, CA 90291
tel: 310.396.1179
Credit Cards: Amex, Visa, MC
Prices: Moderate-Expensive

Chaya Brasserie San Francisco
132 The Embarcadero, San Francisco, CA 94105
tel: 415.777.8688
Monday-Friday Lunch: 11:30am-2:30pm
Monday-Thursday Dinner: 6:00pm-10:30pm
Friday-Saturday Dinner: 6:00pm-11:00pm
Sunday Dinner: 6:00pm-10:00pm
Brunch served every weekend
Saturday 11:00am-2:30pm
Sunday 11:00am-3:00pm.
Credit Cards: MC, Visa
Prices: Moderate-Expensive

I met Yuji Tsunoda, owner of Chaya Group, for the first time when he came to my restaurant, Au Petit Cafe, for dinner with Hoki Miller in the 1980’s, shortly before he started planning his first venture in the restaurant business in Los Angeles, a place called La Petit Chaya. After this restaurant had opened successfully he started construction on Chaya Brasserie in West Hollywood off of Robertson Blvd., which since its inception has always been a fashionable spot to dine and have cocktails in the early evening, featuring one of the best Happy Hours in town. Later, they launched the ever-popular Chaya Venice, an all time favorite of mine, also with a great Happy Hour offering sushi rolls at very good prices and the drinks are extremely well-made. Ask for Tim, one of the capable bartenders, although his schedule is becoming shorter every year, and I am afraid that one day he will not be working at all. He makes the meanest Margarita in town, know-how that he brought with him from The West Beach Cafe and Rebecca’s where he worked years ago.

Yuki Tsunoda, also controls the franchise on all Starbucks in Tokyo, and employed the very clever marketing technique of placing each new Starbucks Coffee Shop as close as possible to its strongest competitor Doutor Coffee Houses, is scheduled to launch Chaya Brasserie, the Chaya Restaurant Group’s third Los Angeles-area restaurant, early next year downtown. However, the new Chaya will offer a broader menu, including more moderately priced pasta dishes and options for bar dining, said Lawrence Moore, Chaya’s director of marketing.

The original Chaya Brasserie will go through a face lift and entrées will be adjusted in range from $15 to $33 to combat the flagging economy. The group also plans to open its third M Cafe, a macrobiotic concept, in Beverly Hills early next year.

Executive Chef Shigefumi Tachibe is in charge, who first introduced Los Angeles to Franco-Japonaise cooking at the legendary La Petit Chaya in the 1980s and is famed for his distinctive renditions of East/West cuisine.