Published by Jeremy. Last Updated on February 11, 2021.
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We do not always need an incredibly fancy meal when we go out to eat in Pittsburgh. Sometimes we just want the staples, done right, in a fast-casual environment. When it comes to breakfast, Father's Diner in the North Side checks a lot of these boxes for us- simple breakfast items made with good ingredients served fast.
A Traditional Breakfast Spread at Father's Diner
The menu at Father's Diner reads a lot like most traditional diners. The vast majority of items are egg-forward either in the form of traditional breakfasts with eggs or as an omelette. From there, the diner has a smaller selection of items from the griddle including hotcakes and French toast, sides, and a lunch menu of burgers, wraps, and soups.
To get a decent cross-section of these, we opted for an order of a mushroom omelette, a breakfast wrap with spicy Italian sausage, and a side of corned beef hash to round out the meal.
The first thing you'll note here is that the portions at Father's Diner are ample. The omelette was roughly on par with a traditionally sized omelette but had heaping amounts of mushrooms inside plus potatoes on the side.
The breakfast wrap was of generous size much like you'd expect from a larger burrito and was primarily packed with potatoes, cheese, and (for my order) sausage. One thing I noted in this particular wrap was that the ingredients weren't mixed together all that well, and one half of the burrito was primarily sausage while the other side was the rest. Still, it is really hard to beat sausage from Tom Friday's (who the restaurant uses for their meats) and really the only thing I wanted more of here was some kind of sauce to tie it all together (hot sauce at home helped this one).
We tied our meal together with a side of corned beef hash which had a nice balance of finely chopped corned beef, onions, and potatoes and helped add even more richness to the meal all the same.
While our meal here was conventional short-order diner fare without many frills, we have to appreciate that Father's Diner goes a step further in sourcing products from two local stores we love- meats from Tom Friday's in Brighton Heights and bread from Breadworks. As frequent customers of both of these establishments, we will never say no to seeing them on a menu- at a diner or otherwise.
Overall, if a quick breakfast is what you seek, Father's Diner in the North Side just across from the Strip District makes for a decent stop.
Father's Diner is located at 876 Progress Street in the North Side.
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Also try the Allegheny Sandwich shop on the Northside. It’s also So delicious!!