Moosewood suggests using rice that's been sitting for a while because it supposedly picks up the flavor better than freshly-cooked. I have no idea how restaurants do it, so not sure why you don't care for it. i wonder if you're really experiencing that it's under-cooked or if it's just overly-dried because they're using leftover dried-out rice?

I think instant brown rice works fine, but I'm not sure how traditional long-cook brown rice would work because I haven't tried.