I remember when Market Square consisted of not much more than Chipotle, Starbucks, and PPG Place. Luckily things have dramatically changed for the better with the gradual addition of great restaurants.
On a recent visit we decided to visit Pizzaiolo Primo to check out their Neapolitan style pizzas made with an authentic wood-fired oven, as well as their incredible pastas that ended up being the biggest surprise of the night.
If you're looking to experience some holiday cheer this year, you should definitely plan a visit to downtown Pittsburgh where you'll find an incredible collection of Christmas displays, a European winter market, and so much more!
So what all can you expect to enjoy when heading downtown for the holidays? Â The following are some of our favorites from our latest visit!
The grilled cheese trend has not been one we've been particularly excited about, so when a few friends asked us to meet up at The Yard for late night grilled cheese, our hopes were not high.
Luckily, The Yard came through with many unique offerings, an incredible dessert menu, and for those who aren't into grilled cheese as much, a fantastic bar.
Downtown Pittsburgh is unique in that it sits at the point where three rivers, the Ohio, the Allegheny, and the Monongahela, converge. Â
The resulting land at the tip of downtown Pittsburgh has played an important role for the city throughout its history, and today is a gorgeous public space known as Point State Park that is a must see spot for all visitors to the city.
Note: Some of the Turkish pizzas and specialties mentioned below may no longer be offered at some Ephesus locations. At last check, the downtown Pittsburgh and Aspinwall location still offered some of the menu items discussed below but the Bellevue location did not.
When I first heard of Ephesus Pizza, I clung to the hope that they would actually serve some Turkish food and that the name wasn't just a pizza restaurant trying to sound exotic.
Specifically, I was hoping the restaurant would serve Turkish pide (basically a Turkish pizza), one of our favorite dishes from our travels in Turkey.
As I checked out the menu online I couldn't have been happier. Not only did they have our beloved pide complete with sujuk, a dry-cured meat sort of like pepperoni, but they also had lahmacun (another type of meat-topped flatbread), kebaps, and other gyro-esque wraps.
We just had to visit, and it only took us a few days in between hearing about this place and actually getting there. Since that first visit, we've found many reasons to return time and time again.
When we heard that Proper Brick Oven had a wood-fired oven for making their pizzas, we knew we had to check the place out. You pretty much can't go wrong with a pie baked in one of those.
On our recent visit the pizza didn't disappoint, but nearly everything else was uninspiring at best- even the service.
In April 2022, Healthy Ride formally launched a rebrand to be called POGOH. Stations are being replaced and availability is presently limited. We will update this article accordingly when the POGOH stations are fully available in the coming weeks.
Over the past several months you've likely seen Healthy Ride bike kiosks popping up all over the city. Â These bikes are one of the many new services coming out to help encourage visitors and locals to get out and explore the many bike trails the city has to offer, and with over 500 bikes and 50 stations, they're doing a great job at it.
We finally got the chance to try one of these bikes on a day out exploring the North Shore bike trail, and had a pretty interesting experience with the service.
Butcher and the Rye is one of the hottest restaurants in Pittsburgh, and guess where it is? Downtown!
We've always thought that this is one part of the city that needs more unique restaurants, and hearing about people going downtown just to eat is welcomed news.
In fact, so many people are trying to eat at Butcher and the Rye that it is quite difficult to get a reservation. We tried for weeks to get a table on a Saturday night that worked with our schedules, and after trying for quite some time we were finally able to get in at 9PM by calling just over a week in advance.
Not knowing when we'd make it back and that reservations are hard to come by, we went all out.
The following review is based on our visit to BRGR's East Liberty location which closed in 2020. The chain still has several locations throughout the city.
One of the fastest growing burger chains in Pittsburgh is BRGR, which has locations in East Liberty, Cranberry, and even PNC Park to name a few. Featuring gourmet burgers, ample side combinations, and a fully-stocked bar at their full service restaurants, BRGR was created to satisfy the burger needs of hungry Pittsburghers.
Unfortunately for us, our visit to try these popular burgers amounted to a rare miss.
Tako in downtown Pittsburgh is a modern taco restaurant with elevated and unique takes on this classic food. We hadn't been to tako (Japanese for octopus) in several years, so we thought we were long overdue for another meal at this hot spot.