Pittsburgh Restaurant Micro-reviews

Pete Su
Roger Rosner
Anukul Kapoor
Paul "Goob" Mazaitis
peterb

This page lists restaurants that we know and either love or hate in Pittsburgh. The opinions here are our own, and try to be as honest and brief as possible. The listing is alphabetical. Ratings are:

Red Name: Stay away.

* A good place.

** A really good place.

For places where we disagree, the final rating is up to the judgement of the editor. Places marked with a (*) are second hand from people we mostly trust.


* 61C Cafe - Murray Ave, at the bus stop

Pete: Coffee isn't great, but the place is wonderful.

Roger: Too open for me--I don't want to hear the couple next to me fighting.

Anu: All scene, no bean.

peterb: Meh.

* Abay - Shady Ave. at Penn, near Whole Foods

Pete: Ethiopian food. They get points just for being there. This is not my personal thing, but people I trust like it.

Ali Baba - Oakland, Craig St.

Pete: Used to be the only middle eastern food around here. Now it's just one of several lame places.

Roger (*): My Israeli friend thinks it's lame, but it's my favorite Middle Eastern food. Yummy baba ganoush and sleek. Good with kids.

Anu: Tastes better if you're a student, otherwise keep it to lunch.

Paul: A bowl of the Syrian soup and a shared small plate of baba ganooj make for a reasonable lunch. The former is pretty good. The latter is variable, but never bad.

peterb: Try the Sleek. My biggest problem with this place is that even when no one is in it, it is tragically overcrowded and uncomfortable.

* Alla Famiglia - Allentown

Roger: Scary neighborhood, top notch Italian food, in a pleasant room with great service. Easy to spend $150 for a couple.

Atria's - Wexford, North side, other places

Pete: Steaks, burgers, general american food, good service, great with kids.

Roger: A little too much like TGIF for me.

peterb: The beer is overpriced, and the food is "OK" but not memorable. It's a good place for work-related lunches, for some reason.

Bangkok Balcony - Squill, Forbes ave.

Pete: Reasonable Thai at reasonable price. But, now that Rose Tea is open there is no reason to go here.

Roger: We concur.

Anu (**): Try the mussaman curry or fried fish in chili sauce

Baum Vivant - Baum Blvd

This place has closed.

* Benkovitz - The Strip, Smallman Street

Pete: Good fish market that also has a fried-fish counter with great fish sandwiches. Crowded.

Roger: Fun when you're in the mood.

Paul: When the weather turns cooler, the chowder at the soup counter can't be beat. Utter chaos on Lenten Fridays.

peterb: There is a place in the universe for frozen deep-fried clam strips. Benkovitz fills that need. Everything tastes better when deep-fried.

** Bona Terra - Sharpsburg

Pete: A good place for any city. Recommended.

Roger: Surprisingly high end for Pittsburgh. One of the city's few real restaurants, kind of like a real city would have.

Bravo - Everywhere

Pete: Mediocre pasta and such. Offensively expensive.

Roger: Just downright sucky.

peterb: It's a tasteless, soulless chain, but to make up for it, the prices are really high.

Bruschetta - Carson St.

Anu: Highly over-rated; only go for lunch or if you can't get into Dish and desperately want pasta.

peterb: They pronounce their name "Brush-ettta's." That's all you need to know.

** Cafe Allgero - South side, off Carson

Roger: Back when Pittsburgh didn't have many nice restaurants, we had Cafe Allegro. It was great then and, despite all the new competition, it still is. The servers are top notch.

Pete: Went there once a long time ago, and remember that it was very good.

** Cafe at the Frick (Clayton) - North of the Frick Museum

Pete: Great desserts, soup, sandwiches, lunch, sunday tea. Make reservations.

Roger: One of the best places in town. You can only make reservations if you're a member.

Note: The Chef here recently retired, I have not been back since and cannot say if things are different.

** Cafe Grand Canal - Sharpsburg

Pete: Excellent pasta, transcendent cannelloni with ground veal and bechemal.

* Cafe Du Jour - South Side

Pete: Interesting, decent food served by total flakes.

Anu: Great for lunch (sausage & brie sandwich!), usually good for dinner but potentially inconsistent. The outdoor garden is one of the better settings to eat.

Cafe Zinho - Shadyside

Pete: Seems interesting at first, until you realize it isn't. Extremely inconsistent.

Roger: Owned by the Baum Vivant charmers. Bad hotel food in a funky setting created by the previous owner (who actually had a personality). One of Pittsburgh's top restaurant critics described the owner in terms I will not repeat in decent company. Told you not to get me started.

* Caruso's - Mt. Leb

Pete: Pizza. Good pizza.

** Casbah - In Shadyside on Highland Ave.

Pete: Reasonably good mediterranean-ish food. Too often more expensive than it is worth.

Roger: A reliably nice place to take company, if you don't mind the big ticket (big for Pittsburgh, anyway). Sunday brunch is good too.

Paul: All about the brunch for us, particularly during the warmer months in the "patio" area. They use actual yogurt on the granola.

* Charina's - South Side

Anu: Good & not greasy -- Wonderful sleek.

** Chaya - Murray Ave, halfway down the hill.

Pete: Good Sushi and other Japanese food. Nice hot pots. Get the live scallop if they have it.

Roger: One of Pittsburgh's better sushi places.

Anu: Good sushi; be prepared to get scolded for your eating habits.

Cheesecake Factory - South Side, Coming soon

Pete: I don't understand these places. Why sit in a 2 hour line to get mediocre food and an oversized piece of cheesecake?

Chopsticks - Squirrel Hill

Pete: Stay away.

Roger: Far, far away. Actually I think they're out of biz.

* Chiodo's - Homestead (Closed)

Pete: Great dive bar. Lots of beer. Try the Mystery Meat Sandwich, which is a great value.

Roger: Typical bar food but a great beer selection and a pleasant place to hang out.

peterb: I believe this place has closed, unfortunately. It wasn't good, but it was cheap.

* Chopstick Inn - Mcyntire Square, off Mcknight Rd, North Hills. (Closed)

Pete: This place is now closed. Good Cantonese with perhaps the biggest menu in the area. Get the seafood.

The space has reopened under different ownership as China Star

* Christo's - Sixth Street

Pete: Good Greek food. Get the "Jackie O" cake.

The Church Brew Works - Liberty Ave

Pete: A beer place. I never found the food that great.

Roger: A fine brew pub. Poor acoustics is my only complaint.

Paul: A divided space between a high-rent bill of fare and pub food, plus a collection of decent beers. Loud. The pepperoni pizza is a surprising win, and all the desserts involve malt in some fashion.

* Clem's BBQ - Way east

Pete: Decent ribs. The pulled pork is OK, but doesn't taste like real southern barbequeue.

Coca Cafe - Lawrenceville

Pete: Where hip pre-gentrified Lawrencville neighborhood people go for mediocre breakfast.

peterb: I think the breakfasts here are pretty good, and there's a variety of options and OK coffee. There's a bit of a lack of yummy meat options, but the interesting omelettes and panini make up for it.

* Coffee Tree - Squill, Forbes Ave, other places

Pete: Brewed coffee is consistently excellent. Espresso is uneven. Good hot chocolate.

Roger: I don't drink coffee but the wife loves it.

Anu: Brewed coffee is excellent, great place for beans (espresso beans can rival La Prima).

Craig Street Coffee - Craig St.

Pete: Crappy coffee. I wil never forgive them for throwing out the name Bunznudders.

Contributed (*): Best veg and non-veg soup selection in the city. More sandwich options than you've ever encountered.

* Crepes Parisienne - Shadyside

Pete: OK crepes, but too pricey.

* D's Six Packs & Dogz - Regent Square

Anu: Not quite O quality, but great with Chili or Chicago style. Amazing beer bottle selection and great rotating features on draft. Good for a quick bite before an artsy movie.

Pete: Credible Chicago dog. Not crusty like I like them, and too much bun, but yummy. The fries are really good, really good. Actually better than the O fries.

peterb: I actually think I prefer D's to the O. A lot of that might be the atmosphere, and the superior selection of condiments.

** Dave and Andy's - Atwood St, Oakland

Pete: Really really really good local ice cream shop. Don't go anywhere else for cones. If I see you in a Cold Stone or something, I'll cut you.

Roger: Agree, but the room is coldly industrial at best.

* De Luca's - Strip

Pete: One of the better breakfast places in the city, but nowhere near great.

Roger: Yummy 2,000 kcal breakfasts.

peterb: It's a pit, but it's a pit with really good bacon. The coffee is substandard (and getting worse over time)

** Dish - 17th Street, South Side

Pete: A surreal zone of uber-hipness in the middle of the South Side. Great appetizers and mediterranean/Italian pasta, meat and seafood dishes. Really good, maybe my favorite in the city. No credit cards.

Anu: Great but small space, great but small menu with consistently good specials (2-3/night), fun staff.

* Eat 'n Park - Everywhere

Pete: Almost always open. Great with kids.

Roger: How can you review Eat 'n Park in this city? It's part of the "culture." McDonald's with servers. I hate it.

* Enrico Biscotti - 20th St. and Penn, Strip and Shadyside.

Pete: Great biscotti, cookies, and other delights. The cafe in the back, which was one of the best food places to ever exist in Pittsburgh is now open only on weekends. The Shadyside location is not even close to the same.

Roger: Two of my favoriate places in the city. Top notch.

Anu: I'll miss the chaos of eating lunch in the Strip.

peterb: The place in Shadyside is exactly as bad as the place in the strip was good. The food is almost the same, but the atmosphere is all wrong.

* Enrico's Tazzo D'Oro - Shadyside

Pete: Not at all related to the other Enrico's. Decent coffee, funky place.

Anu: Good coffee, decent lunch fare, great place to read the sunday paper.

* The Falafel Guy - Truck at Hillman Library

Pete: Good Falafel.

Roger: Authentically yummy.

Note: He is now running a new place called LEENA's. Added a new entry.

* Fat Heads - South Side, Carson and 18th or 19th.

Pete: Good wings, lots of beer, huge sandwiches that don't suck much. Very loud.

Anu: Great bar food with great beer; the beasty barbecue sauce is perfection.

peterb: Their wings have declined in quality dramatically over the past few years. Stick to the sandwiches.

* Frankfurters - Lincoln Ave. in Bellevue

Pete: Great hot dogs. I like the O better.

peterb: They have birch beer, and good hot dogs. Not quite as great as D's.

* Girasole (*) - Shadyside

Contributed: Good Italian, nice atmosphere, excellent ravioli and tiramisu. Smallish. LOUD.

Roger: Nice place that seriously needs some acoustic tiling. Competent food, good service.

Paul: The trick to eating here is getting a table on the patio when the weather is nice; considerably less noisy. We've never had a bad meal.

* Green Forest - 655 Rodi Rd.

Pete: My friend Alex says, "If you are thinking 'Meat, meat. I need more meat. Where is the damn meat?' this is a pretty good place." The cold bar is more than tolerable, too.

Roger: Did Pete mention the meat? Atkins heaven. Not half bad.

Gullifty's - Murray Ave

Pete: AVOID. Used to be an OK place for desserts (the killer cookie was awesome). Now there is no reason to go.

** Il Piccolo Forno - 21st and Penn, Strip.

Pete: Antonio's Italian bakery. Great pastas and salads for lunch. Stupendous breads, cakes, and pastry. Also the best pizza in town.

Il Pizzaiolo - Mt. Leb

Pete: Mediocre Napoli-style pizza. The pasta is actually better, but also somewhat bland. Having been back recently, I am returning to my old opinion. Go to Piccolo Forno or Roberto's place or Caruso's.

Anu : Swanky authentic pizza in Mt. Lebanon; not quite RM but very good.

Jimmy Tsang's - East Liberty

Pete: Back in the day this was the dark-red-tablecloth-plastic-chair-generic-chinese from hell. I've never been back.

Paul(* ): We always eat in the Korean section, which unfortunately is either "smoking" or "excessively smoking", being very near the bar. On a cold winter night, a bowl of the Duk Guk is a fine thing indeed.

** Ka Mei Cantonese Food (*) - Murray Ave, across from Jerry's

Pete: This is the reincarnation of Tasty. Sam people, same excellent Cantonese. It's just in Squirrel Hill instead of Shadyside. Giving it an extra bullet because I missed it.

* Kashmiri Food Cart (*) - Outside Hillman Library

Contributed: Excellent and cheap indian food.

Note: Construction in the area means that these guys have moved or closed down. Not sure what their status is.

* Kaya - Strip

Pete: Sometimes it's great, sometimes it sucks.

Roger: I agree about the inconsistency, but I like it a lot. Another competent Big Burrito restaurant.

* Kassab's - South Side

Pete: Good middle eastern food. My Israeli friend says it's the best Middle Eastern place in town. Recently moved to new, much cleaner, location.

Anu: Good and greasy. Good sleek.

* Kazansky's - Murray Ave, down the hill

Pete: Reasonably enjoyable deli stuff. Nice maztoh ball soup. Uniquely dumpy atmosphere.

Roger: Pete is dead on. Place desperately needs a makeover.

* Kenny B's - Sixth Street (Closed)

Pete: Diner-ish sandwich shop with a selection of decent Cuban food. Good media noche sandwich, good cafe con leche, good flan. OK breakfast. Reuben.

Kiva Han - Craig St, also down Forbes in Oakland.

Pete: Offensively bad coffee. OK light-snacks food.

** Klavon's - Penn Ave, Strip.

Pete: Transcendent milkshakes. Neat old drug store soda fountain.

Roger: My favoriate ice cream place in the city.

* Kleiner Deutschmann - Springdale

Paul: German food in a converted house, painted pink, crammed to the gills with barogue kitsch, and the staff wear peasant dresses or lederhosen, as appropriate. Food is great. Dining is cramped, and there isn't really a non-smoking section; if someone lights up in the smoking area, the whole floor gets a taste.

** La Cucina Flegrea - Murray Ave, halfway down the hill.

Pete: Best Italian in Pittsburgh. Go on Wednesdays for Risotto Night.

Roger: Windowless but yummy.

* La Feria - Walnut St.

Pete: Good but a bit boring. Up very many steps.

Roger: Limited selection but reliably tasty Peruvian food.

Paul: Never any reason not to get the sweet potato chips as an appetizer, and no point in ordering off of anything but the specials board. Often have interesting cold soups in the warmer months.

* La Foret - Shadyside

Pete: Impressively excellent French food. Don't get anything with bok choy in it.

Roger: The place has a pleasant intimacy.

** La Prima Espresso - 21st and Penn, Strip

Pete: The best coffee in Pittsburgh, period. Don't even bother going anywhere else. Really I'm not kidding. If I find you elsewhere in the Strip, I'll throw coffee at you.

* La Strada (*) - Downtown

Contributed: "Happening" place for high-powered business meals. Great lunch buffet.

* Leena's - Oakland Ave.

Pete: Good Falafel. This is run by the guy that used to have the blue truck called Leena's. Same good Falafel.

Roger: Authentically yummy.

This place is where Swagath used to be.

* Legends of the North Shore (*) - North Side

Contributed: Relaxed mostly-Italian food. Good soup, nice lunch menu.

peterb: This place is reliably very good. I wouldn't necessarily make a special trip (as I would for Cucina Flegrea), but it's probably your best option for good food in the North Shore, and serves better Italian than most of the Bloomfield places.

** Legume - Regent Square

Pete: Another addition to that magic block of Regent Square. Excellent French-inspired food with a homey Pittsburgh touch to it. Get the cassoulet if they have it.

* Le Pommier - Carson St. South Side

Pete: Bistro style French. Very good, but a bit uneven. Get the Creme Brulee.

* Lidia's - Strip

Pete: Good Italian.

* Mama Lena's - McKee's Rocks

Paul: Good local pizza joint. Get the Sicilian pie.

* Mad Mex - Oakland, North Hills, Mt. Leb

Pete: Enjoyable faux-Mex. Lots of beer and drinks. Loud.

Roger: Best Mexican-ish food in Pittsburgh. Oakland place is so loud I won't go there.

Anu: great wings.

* Milky Way - Murray Ave

Pete: Vegetarian and Kosher. Good pizza and falafel.

Roger: A welcome alternative in the Murray Ave area.

** Mio Kitchen and Wine Bar - Aspinwall

Pete: A great new fancy place. Food is on par with anything I've had in the city. On the expensive side.

* Mitchell's Fish Market - Waterfront

Pete: Good seafood near the Loews theaters.

Roger: Not nearly as good as the OFM downtown. (Both restaurants are ripoffs of the theme from Boston and are unrelated.)

* Monterey Bay Fish Grotto - Mount Washington

Pete: Good fish and such. Nice view.

Roger: Silly name and equally silly decor, but one of the best seafood places in town. Awesome view. The bar is good too.

Paul: One of the best meals I've ever had, sitting in the ghetto in back facing west, watching a storm roll in. They don't overcook the fish.

My Thai - Shadyside, 2nd floor, corner of Walnut and Aiken

Pete: Generic boring Thai food in Shadyside. Used to be better. Removing the bullet.

Roger: There are two Thai places in Shadyside. This is the better one by far. Service is very efficient and friendly.

Paul: Very, very nice. The crispy duck is great. Ask for the condiment dish.

Nakama - Carson and 17th

Roger: The cheesy Benihana schtick lives! Nakama is to Japanese cuisine as P.F. Chang's is to Chinese. Utterly lacking in subtlety and grace. Was that butter you just slathered on my over-grilled shrimp? On the other hand, the kid loved the goofy chef show.

New Dumpling House - Murray Ave

Pete: Chinese and sushi. Stay away.

Roger: The place exudes scary, but I've had okay sushi there.

* Ocha Catering Cart - Hillman Library

Paul: Great Thai lunch truck food served up by the folks who run the never-seems-to-be-open eatery in Verona. The specials are usually great.

Olive Garden - Everywhere

Pete: The Olive Garden is a great evil that stains our very existence and threatens everything good that we believe in.

Opus - Downtown, Reanaissance Hotel, I think

Pete: Pretentious, expensive, boring.

Roger: Cool lobby, big wine list (and wine bar), very good service, competent but uninspired food.

* Orient Kitchen - Oakland, Baum Blvd.

Pete: Good general Chinese. Not as good as other favorites.

** Original Fish Market - Downtown

Pete: Good fish and sushi. Open late.

Roger: Good food, good service.

Anu: Fish Market: non-sushi quality has been inconsistent lately; many mediocre entrees hiding in the menu. Get sushi or something simple (hong kong style fish).

* Original Hot Dog Shop ("The O") - Oakland, CMU

Pete: Transcendent hot dogs. More fries than a human can consume. Dirty, greasy, possibly dangerous.

Roger: An institution. A frightening institution.

* Outback Steakhouse - North Side, McCandless, others

Pete: Chain "Australian-themed" steakhouse. Good burgers & ribs.

Pamela's - Oakland, Squill

Pete: I don't understand why people like this place. Greasy, thin, practically deep fried pancakes, nothing else that great.

Roger: I concur. Gross.

Paul: My body can no longer handle the grease.

peterb: Everyone who stands on line to get in here on Saturday morning is going to Hell.

* Pandolfo's - South south south

Pete: Good breakfast in the south hills. Much better than Pamela's.

* Palomino - Downtown

Pete: Chain with upscale, chic atmosphere and tasty neo-Mediterranean food.

Roger: A cliche, but an okay one.

* Penn Brewery - North Side

Pete: German-themed brew pub with good beer and mostly okay food. Home of Penn Pilsner, Penn Dark, etc, etc.

Roger: Inconsistent food, sometimes dead cold. Beer is yummy.

Paul: The food is variable, but usually reasonable; they can be forgiven much for their beer. Go in March and get a pull of the Martzen.

* People's Indian - Bloomfield

Paul: Pretty good Indian,, somewhat standard menu. They are not afraid to make the food spicy.

** Pierogies Plus - Mckee's Rocks

Pete: Hand made Pierogies. Awesome.

Anu: Eat them there, dripping with butter.

P. F. Chang's - Waterfront

Pete: Offensively bad Chinese. I have further thoughts on this.

Roger: I agree with Pete except that it's not Chinese.

Paul: Favorite house flavoring ingredient seems to be propane. Hideous.

**Piccolo Forno - Butler St, Lawrenceville

Pete: Took over the old Regina Margherita store. Salads, wood fired pizza and Carla's homemade pastas. Easily some of the best Italian food anywhere. Run by the same people who brought you Il Piccolo Forno in the strip.

* Piper's Pub - SouthSide

Pete: Yummy huge dishes of hot food that will kill you. The scotch egg is terrifying.

Anu: High quality brit-pub food with a good selection of beer and whiskey; They graciously handle big groups.

** Pittsburgh Deli Company (*) - Copeland Ave, Shadyside

Contributed: High-quality deli food. Great vegetarian offerings. Wide beer selection.

Roger: Surprisingly good deli.

**Point Brugge - Point Breeze

Pete: Excellent fries and decent versions of various Belgian standards. Good mussels when they are in season.

* Primanti Brothers - Strip, Oakland.

Pete: Those wierd-ass sandwiches with fries and slaw on them. Sublime in their own twisted way.

Roger: Sick making.

Paul: Somewhat addicting high-test piles of sandwich. They'll yell at you in the Strip if you order it wrong.

peterb: The great secret of Primanti's is to go there in the morning and get a bacon-and-egg sandwich (or, if you're eating there, just a bacon and egg plate). It's a yummy (if deadly) breakfast.

* The Quiet Storm (*) - Penn Avenue

Contributed: Hippie-ish coffee place with lots of vegetarian and vegan options; does periodic good veggie brunches and dinners. Fabulous espresso milkshakes, decent coffee.

Roger: I can't take the hippie thing.

Red Hot and Blue - Waterfront

Pete: Passable local pulled pork. Service can be marginal to bad.

** Roberto's Pizzaria - Bellevue

This place is closed. Roberto has apparently moved to NJ.

** Rose Tea Cafe - Forbes Ave near Shady in Squill

Pete: Forget the bubble tea, get the homey Taiwanese peasant food. This is my favorite current Chinese food in the city limits. It's good enough to go to even if you just spent time in a city with a real Chinatown.

*The Sharp Edge

peterb: Excellent Belgian beer at reasonable prices, and good bar food. This place used to serve vaguely OK food that was incredibly overpriced, but now they serve definitely OK food that is priced about right. If you haven't been here in a while, go back.

Pete: I trust peterb about the beer, but I have not had good food at this place, and it always seemed too expensive.

South Side Steaks - South Side

Pete: The grill guy gave me the finger for snapping a photo. Then we got two sandwiches which were all wiz and no steak.

Anu (*): What was inconsistent, is now usually great: "Original Wit Wiz". Stay away from the fries.

* Soba - Shadyside

Pete: Been back recently. It was better than I remember it. Still, the rice was sub-par.

Anu: A great space with great fusion pan-asian food; if that concept doesn't offend you, you'll love it.

Spice Island Tea House- Oakland.

Pete: This place used to be stupendous. Now it is not.

Roger: I can't remember when it was stupendous. Very greasy.

* Square Cafe - Braddock Ave, Regent Square

Pete: Good breakfast and lunch. No nonsense. Great with kids.

Sushi Too - Shadyside

Pete: Warm sushi on bad rice. Never liked it. Note, the South Side location has opened under a different name recently.

Roger (*): Friendly, reliable. My default "let's do sushi" place. Not as yummy as Umi and Chaya, but cheaper and far easier to get into.

Anu: The sushi is almost always nasty; stick to Shadyside location. Haven't tried the korean.

peterb: There are atmosphere differences between the two locations. The people at the South Side location are nice and friendly and make you feel welcome. The people at the Shadyside location hate you, and want you to die.

*Taqueria Mi Mexico - Murray Ave, Squill (Closed)

Pete: Great tacos and tortas. Other interesting Mexican dishes. Insanely cheap. Go now. A second nice Mexican place to go along with Taco Loco.

peterb: I love this place. Although not on the menu, the soups (consomme, menudo) are great, when they have them.

Tasty - In Shadyside on Highland Ave in the plaza just before the bridge.

Pete: The original owners sold out but have reopened a new place in Squirrel Hill called Ka Mei. I have not been back recently, so am updating the entry.

* Taco Loco - 27th and Jane, South Side.

Pete: Real Mexican in Pittsburgh. Great tacos and other dishes.

Roger: Low end and very yummy.

Anu: Chorizo gordita is heaven on earth. BYO six-pack from the Carson St Deli across the street.

* Tessaro's - Bloomfield, Liberty Ave

Pete: Local bar. Stupendous burgers. Probably the best in the city. Can be slow.

Roger: Good burgers but pretty everything else is mediocre.

Paul: The burgers are all. If you ask for a rare burger, they will actually serve one. Great tin ceilings.

Thai Place Cafe - Craig St.

Pete: Offensively bad Thai.

* Tom's diner - South Side

Anu: Greasy & nasty; and yet the gyro omelette is wonderful.

peterb: More evidence of why everything south of the city should be bulldozed.

* Tonic - Downtown

Pete: Nice bar with a mix of creative small and large dishes. Get the veggie plate and the Sticky Bun sundae.

* Tram's - Bloomfield

Pete: Good Vietnamese food. Noodle bowls, some "special dishes". I have never found the Pho here special.

Roger: Atmospherically scary, not for the faint of heart, which for me is a bonus on top of the good food.

Paul: Great pho, great spring rolls, great table coverings.

peterb: I love this place. There's not a lot of options vis-a-vis the pho (no tripe, for example), but the broth is superb.

Typhoon - Highland Ave

Pete: Pretty, blue, hip, boring.

** Udipi Cafe - Old Willima Penn highway, Monroeville

Pete: Probably won't get better Indian near here. Lots of traffic from the Temple. Good Dosa.

Paul: Utensils strictly optional. Get the Paper Masala Dosai for a meal that verges on the architectural.

peterb: I second Paul's recommendation of the paper masala dosai. They have a lot on the menu, but I can never find a reason to get anything other than the superb dosai.

** Umi - Shadyside, Ellsworth

Pete: High end Japanese. Very expensive, very good. Unclear if it's worth it. The fixed price tasting menu (Omakase) is nice.

Roger: My favoriate sushi, mostly because of atmosphere.

* Uncle Sam's - Oakland, Squirrel Hill, others

Pete: Good cheesesteaks. Some gripe about the bread and/or the fries. The one in Oakland is better.

Roger: Hate.

peterb:Every time I eat here I feel vaguely ill. When I want a cheesesteak I go to Charlie's instead. I'm told this is some sort of political question.

* Vendetta Dolci (*) - South Side

Contributed: Italian/Mediterranean place started by the former pastry chef from Abruzzi. High-end food at middle-of-the-road prices, never a long wait for a table. Great desserts.

** Vivo - 565 Lincoln Ave. in Bellevue.

Pete: Expensive for the Pittsburgh area, but clearly one of the best places in town on every level. A wide range of different stuff made with the best ingredients Sam can find. Very excellent. You have to go. Now.

They take credit cards now.

* Zaw's - Murray Ave, down the hill.

Pete: Good Asian takeout in Squirell Hill.

Roger: On the oily side, but tasty.

peterb: The only reason to go here is if you are too poor to afford Rose Tea.

Zyng - Murray, near Forbes (Closed)

Roger: May be worse than P.F. Chang's. You can do better at the food court in a mall. Walk half a block to Rose Tea Cafe, where you'll have great Asian food cheaper.

Pete: I haven't been here, but just looking at the sign and the front window fills me with fear.

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