If you would’ve asked us about Pittsburgh’s barbecue scene when we started this site, we probably would’ve replied with a sarcastic “what barbecue scene?”
To put it bluntly: while there were a few gems scattered around, the offerings around the city were quite sad.
This is all changing, however, and many barbecue joints have opened up around Pittsburgh that are starting to put our ‘que scene on the map. (Or perhaps our map, at least.)
As with most articles of this nature on our site, we do not publish definitive best-of lists as we do not want to hand out the top spots until we’ve truly tried them all. Instead, we go on quests to find the city’s best meals, like our quest to find the best pizza in Pittsburgh or the best reubens in Pittsburgh to name a few, and update our guides with the best spots as we visit them.
In this one we’re looking for the best barbecue in Pittsburgh, and we’ve been to a number of amazing spots so far!
Note: In the past, our quest style articles organized barbecue in various categories from below average to excellent. Since then, we have decided to remove any category style tier. That said, barbecue joints in this article loosely ordered by increasing preference in this article. So if you want to see our very favorites, scroll to the end!
