Published by Jeremy. Last Updated on January 9, 2019.
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Bigham Tavern is one of those places that you may never come across when exploring Mount Washington unless you are expressly looking for it.
We would know- we lived on Mount Washington for two years and had no idea that Bigham street had a gastropub, and we lived just a few blocks away.
It wasn't until we published our neighborhood guide that we got a lot of feedback that we missed this hidden gem, and we made a return trip to the neighborhood to check it out.
We really were missing out.
Modern Gastropub Fare at Bigham Tavern
The menu at Bigham tavern reads like a lot of gastropub menus. They have burgers, sandwiches, mac and cheese, wings, and an array of sides and hearty appetizers- and that is just to start.
The options are so plentiful that even in just our one visit we're only able to highlight a small cross section. Throw on the added fact that many items (especially the burgers and wings) are noted to have won awards in local competitions, and deciding what to choose is, well, tricky.
Although many of the menu items sound quite appetizing, we stuck to what we set out to try- the award winning wings and burgers plus an appetizer of hot cheese bites that were just $5 for happy hour (also known as a happetizer).
Deep fried cheese is one of our secret pleasures, and we always love to try the different variations at gastropubs such as Bigham Tavern. This order had about two dozen small balls of deep fried cheese as well as a side of ranch and were bite sized chunks of semi-molten perfection.
We were enjoying our appetizer quite well when our food came out, and we realized we made a pretty big mistake in ordering it- the portions here are huge!
Angie ordered the Hangover Helper burger (at my behest) as it was the first place and people's choice winner at the 2015 PittsBurgher competition. This one is a 1/2 lb of angus beef, seasoned with their famous coyote dry rub, and topped with pork and potato hash, bacon, capicola, fried egg, onion straws, sweet chili sauce, two kinds of cheese, and tomato.
If a loaded up burger is your thing, we can safely see why it won both of the awards in the competition noted above.
The toppings make this burger and would put it in the top tier of all burgers we've tried in Pittsburgh. The meat itself was medium well despite us ordering it medium (but in Pittsburgh where every burger is always well done, this is a positive), and unfortunately the flavor of the beef was simply overshadowed by all the toppings.
But sometimes you want a burger for the beef, and other times you want crazy toppings. Bigham Tavern definitely serves up the latter.
We also ordered a dozen wings and let our waitress guide us on the flavors, as there were numerous options to choose from. We opted to split our flavors 50/50 and went with a wet sauce (the honey garlic habanero) and a dry sauce (the dingo- a mix with their coyote rub).
The wings themselves are fairly standard iterations as far as wings go, with a solid bite from being fried but on their own were nothing to write home about. The sauces, however, were quite delicious with the honey garlic habanero being our preferred of the two (admittedly dry rubs have to go above and beyond to truly wow us).
We'd order the wings again just to try more flavors, but odds are good we'll be returning for the burger- it was just that good.
Overall, Bigham Tavern is a solid gastropub that follows a fairly traditional mold. But this one tries to stand out with a large menu and numerous items that push the boundaries of what you'd consider bar fare.
Next time you're over in Mount Washington, head away from the main restaurants streets of Grandview and Shiloh street and head over to Bigham Tavern to give them a try!
Bigham Tavern is located at 321 Bigham St in Mount Washington.
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After your meal, take a stroll along Grandview Avenue on Mount Washington and ride the Duquesne Incline!