Foodie in Pittsburgh (York, Lebanon, Washington: neighborhoods, schools, live)

[BrianTH]

Originally Posted by allisen

I've only been here six months so I'm sure I haven't ferreted all the best places, but so far...

Those are four of my favorite places in Pittsburgh, so you are doing pretty well!

[londonbarcelona]

Originally Posted by Pghtebbie

Kaya- caribbean, Strip District
Sarafino's- Italian, Crafton
Umi- sushi, Shadyside
Mendoza Exp- Mexican, Greentree-ish
Ibiza- tapas, Southside

I've been to all those. Sarafino's has a really nice view. I love the food at Kaya's.

[By~Tor]

Another question, which might fit in well here:


Where in Pittsburgh would one find the best variety in a grocery store, and I'm NOT talkin' about Trader Joes or Whole Foods??.... but more along the lines of Irish, German, Hungarian and other ethnic specialties, as well as a great meat market and outstanding coffees.......

[johnnytang24]

Here's how I rate restaurants:

Dinner per person, not including drinks
$ - <$25
$$ - $25-50
$$$ - $50-100
$$$$ - $100-200
$$$$$ - $200+

Nine on Nine - $$$$ best restaurant in Pittsburgh. Style is a French fusion. Good service, good decor.

Sonoma Grille - $$$ Good food, mediocre service, good atmosphere. Diners were all dressed in business casual or above, but the dining experience is casual. Good selection of food which can be eaten tapas style. Cuisine can be described as fine American

Ibiza Tapas & Wine Bar - $$ Decent food, good service. Good chance to try many dishes, unfortunately most are hit or miss. Spanish cuisine.

Le Pommier - $$ Decent service mediocre food. Very unimpressive French food.

Jorza's Hungarian Restaurant - $ Fixed price $15 for dinner. Good homestyle Hungarian cooking. An Jorza is very personable.

Original Fish Market - $$ Worst restaurant ever. Horrible service, boring food, horrible service. Bread arrived after the first two courses (which arrived together). Waiter took all my silverware before the main course. Food was plain, boring, overcooked.

Monteray Bay Fish Grotto - $$$ Mediocre food, Unbearable snobbiness. Overcooked fish, condescending attitudes.

Tram's Restaurant - $ Excellent Vietnamese food, very low prices, poor service. Takeout is highly recommended.

Tessaro's - $ Excellent wood fired burgers.

Of the one's I've been to recently, these have stuck in my head.

[fleetiebelle]

If you ever have the chance YOU MUST try the high Tea at the Omni William Penn Hotel.

The Cafe at the Frick has great tea, as well, and is good for lunch.

Welcome to the Frick (http://www.frickart.org/features/cafe/ - broken link)

[BrianTH]

Originally Posted by By~Tor

Where in Pittsburgh would one find the best variety in a grocery store, and I'm NOT talkin' about Trader Joes or Whole Foods??.... but more along the lines of Irish, German, Hungarian and other ethnic specialties, as well as a great meat market and outstanding coffees.......

Probably the first thing you should do is go down to the Strip and see what they have there that might fit your needs.

[Nathaniel_G]

Hi, NYSTYLE. I'm going to take it from your handle that you are looking for great food up to the standards of most Manhattanites of my acquaintance.

There have been some good suggestions here (except for Le Mont, which I would call Continental or American Traditional, not French, and not worth bothering with), and for French-eclectic with a Pittsburgh region twist, I'll second the nomination for Nine on Nine.

Here are some more you will enjoy:

Downtown
Cafe Zao - Mediterranean fusion with Portuguese roots

Strip District
Lidia's Pittsburgh - Italian from Lidia Bastianich of Felidia fame. Great Saturday & Sunday Brunch in addition to dinner.

Aspinwall
Mio Kitchen and Wine Bar - New American

Fox Chapel
Walnut Grille - upscale pub food and fish - casual and decent food, though nothing exciting - a good place to go if its not far and you haven't made other plans.

Sharpsburg
Bona Terra - New American focusing on local and seasonal ingredients - ask if Chef Douglas will prepare his chef's menu for you - he's one of the most talented chefs in the region. BYOB - only ten tables - weekend reservations require 4+ weeks advance; weekday 1+ weeks.

Shadyside
Soba (I don't think anyone mentioned this, although all its sister restaurants from big burrito restaurant group have been mentioned) - Asian Fusion
Typhoon - New Thai - lunch and dinner

East Liberty
Red Room - New American/Alchemy - News Flash - Chef Kevin Sousa has just moved from Bigelow Grille to the Red Room. He's another of the most innovative chefs in Pittsburgh and the only one to do New Spanish cuisine a la Ferran Adria of El Bulli, Spain and Wylie Dufrene of WD-50, NYC.

French
There are a couple worth the trip in Fayette County, a rural area an hour south of Pittsburgh:

Chez Girard, Hopwood, PA - not polished, and the servers don't really understand the food and the concept of fine dining, but the chef/owner is French and classically trained and does a creditable job. It's not the greatest meal you'll ever have, but it's a fun trip and a pleasant experience.
Lautrec, Nemecolin Woodlands Resort , Farmington, PA - this is an oddity: A very fine New French restaurant in a huge, gaudy, faux French chateau sitting on top of a hill in what is otherwise a backwater. But it's most definitely worth the trip. The food is brilliant and would stand up well in Manhattan.

There are only three more things of cultural interest in Fayette County, really, besides Chez Girard and Lautrec: Two Frank Lloyd Wright homes - Kentuck Knob and the famous Fallingwater (don't miss either - take the in-depth tour at Kentuck Knob), and one more restaurant: Calleigh's in Uniontown. There are some more points of interest - Ohiopyle state park, a cavern and some historical sites, so it's not a bad weekend getaway. Stay at Nemecolin - the rooms are ridiculously expensive, but I've found nothing else in the area to be very comfortable.

That's enough for now. If anyone here subscribes to Zagat.com - they've finally opened a Pittsburgh location on the site, and I've just started to fill it out with user-submitted restaurants - join me and maybe someday we'll have our own Zagat Guide.

-Nathaniel

[Nathaniel_G]

Originally Posted by By~Tor

Another question, which might fit in well here:


Where in Pittsburgh would one find the best variety in a grocery store, and I'm NOT talkin' about Trader Joes or Whole Foods??.... but more along the lines of Irish, German, Hungarian and other ethnic specialties, as well as a great meat market and outstanding coffees.......

Sadly, there is not one single place for this. Best meats in the city would probably be Shadyside Market, but hideously overpriced.

Coffee: There's only one local roaster that knows what its doing - La Prima Espresso in the Strip. Note that the very best beans they roast are marketed by Building New Hope, a local nonprofit which imports the beans from cooperatives principally in Nicaragua at better-than-fair-trade prices, then reinvests the profits back in Central America in charitable activities and community development. East End Food Coop is actually my second favorite place to buy coffee - they've got a few very good ones, though not locally roasted (except for the aforementioned Building New Hope).

In the Strip, there's no shortage of Italian specialties, a fair amount of Asian, one Mexican market and a couple of others, but I'd be hard pressed to tell you where to go to find Eastern European specialties (despite the fact that Pittsburgh is largely populated by descendants of Eastern Europeans). There's gotta be some Irish specialties around, but I don't know where. There's a good Japanese grocery in Shadyside.

Anybody think we can get Dean & Deluca interested in Pittsburgh?! Nevermind....

-Nathaniel

[pghcleak]

Originally Posted by Nathaniel_G

Anybody think we can get Dean & Deluca interested in Pittsburgh?! Nevermind....

-Nathaniel

That'd be nice. E-mail them and suggest it. Sometimes, they actually listen if they know people are interested.

Dean & DeLuca - Feedback

[Nathaniel_G]

Originally Posted by pghcleak

That'd be nice. E-mail them and suggest it. Sometimes, they actually listen if they know people are interested.

Dean & DeLuca - Feedback

Hah! You mean Pittsburgh in addition to NYC; DC; St. Helena, CA; Charlotte, NC; and (strangely, though it's become some sort of food mecca for some reason) Kansas City!? Not bloody likely. We can't get Zagat to do a dining guide - they just opened a location on their site. We can't get Crate & Barrel here. We can't get the Ritz-Carlton to build a hotel or Bloomingdales to open a store (both have bailed multiple times over the past few decades).

Do you know why we can't get those things? Because people come here and realize that our standards are low - especially our gastronomic standards. Yes, it's getting better - there's been something of a food renaissance here in the past few years, but there's still a much lower standard than exists in most places. We have a lot of work to do to match even Kansas City in demanding better.

-Nathaniel