Actually you can blame Alan Wong (and his senior management) for the demise. His kitchen staff was continually understaffed (and under-trained), hence the long wait times on orders. If you look at PR's Yelp reviews the majority of the complaints are about the long wait time for their orders to come out. Last time I was there for lunch two tables near me walked out because they waiting so long for their food. As things got worse, you hardly ever saw Alan there to try to fix things. I think he was resolved to the fact that he was going to close. I was a regular customer there and continued to go there even after things started getting bad mainly because I thought the "front of the restaurant staff" (wait staff) was so good. You can't blame the "wait staff" for long wait times if the kitchen is backed up. When the kitchen would get backed up with orders and you've waited over 30-45 minutes for your order to come out, a free edamame just wont keep customers coming back...