At Everyday Noodles in Squirrel Hill, meals come with a show.

Tables are positioned so diners can watch the action behind a plate glass window, where a cook transforms a muscle of dough into noodles.

Mike Chen and his son Allen, owner of Tamari in Lawrenceville and Warrendale, have carved a niche by opening accessible Asian restaurants with menus that court fusion cuisine and offer lively dining rooms for cocktail drinking and people watching.

Everyday Noodles is different from their other concepts. It was inspired by Mike Chen's trip to Toronto three years ago, when a dining experience motivated him to bring authentic Chinese cuisine to Pittsburgh.

Since then, he has worked with the Taiwanese government to bring cooks here to train his employees. Several trips to Taipei led him to cherry-pick the trio he will host for the next six months, after which they will return home to be replaced by three new visitors with different skills.