Although banh mi sandwiches have been trendy for a while now and regularly pop up on all sorts of menus around the city, there are relatively few restaurants in the city solely dedicated to Vietnamese cuisine. Enter Banh Mi and Ti in Lawrenceville, a cute new spot with a self-explanatory name.
Restaurants
Altius Pittsburgh Review – Fine Dining With a View
Altius on Grandview Ave in Mt Washington is a relative newcomer to the fine dining scene in Pittsburgh set among establishments such as Le Mont and Monterey Bay Fish Grotto.
With all of these restaurants, you’re understandably paying a premium for the Pittsburgh city views, so we recently dined at Altius to see if the food and experience was worth the cost.
Taiwanese Bistro Cafe 33 Review – Holding Its Own in Squirrel Hill
We’re slowly working our way through the plethora of Asian restaurants in Squirrel Hill, and on our most recent trip we found ourselves at Taiwanese Bistro Cafe 33.
This spot on Shady Ave. right next to Starbucks is housed in what used to be the neighborhood laundromat, and it serves up a huge menu that’s a mix of Taiwanese food as well as Americanized Chinese food.
With stiff competition just steps away, we wanted to find out how this one stacks up.
Piccolo Forno Review- Tuscan Cuisine in Lawrenceville
Piccolo Forno in Lawrenceville is a rustic Italian restaurant serving up wood-fired pizzas and pastas.
This place has been around for over 12 years, meaning they were in Lawrenceville before Lawrenceville was cool. We hadn’t visited in several years, so we were eager to see if it was still as good as we remembered. In short? Yes!
Onion Maiden Review – Vegan Food and Heavy Metal
Onion Maiden closed for dine-in service in March 2023, but has frequent weekend take-out popups. This review is from an in-person experience prior to closing the dining room.
Vegan restaurants seem to be popping up all over Pittsburgh nowadays, and even though we’re not vegan in the slightest, we have really been enjoying these new spots like Onion Maiden in Allentown.
I’ve always thought it takes more creativity and skill to make restaurant-worthy vegan dishes than meat dishes, and Onion Maiden definitely gets this right.
Pizza Fiesta Review – No Frills Pizza, Delicious Fiesta Rolls
When we write about pizza in Pittsburgh, we often write about the corner pizza shop phenomenon where most every neighborhood pizza joint tastes almost identical to each other.
If you want a quick, cheap, and often greasy pie but aren’t in the mood to go out of your way for a favorite spot, they are the kind of place you would go to out of convenience more than anything else.
As much as I don’t want to say it, Pizza Fiesta is one of those places.
Caliente Pizza and Draft House Review – Go For the Pan Crust
Caliente Pizza and Draft House is a Bloomfield favorite that is known for popular Pittsburgh pizzas, nationally award winning crusts, and a tap list that includes a decent selection of local Pittsburgh beer.
But as this one is a pizza place at its heart, we had to visit to check out their critically acclaimed pies to see what the fuss is all about.
Golden Pig Review – Korean Food Worthy of the Drive
Golden Pig is a hole-in-the-wall Korean joint in Cecil, PA, that has pretty much everything you’d expect from such an establishment: super welcoming owners that will treat you like one of the family, delicious Korean food made from scratch, and an abundance of kitschy pig knick knacks located just about everywhere.
Condado Tacos Review – Tacos Without Breaking the Bank
One of the biggest complaints we hear about taco joints in Pittsburgh is that they are, for lack of a better term, overpriced. Throw in the premium of downtown Pittsburgh and it is pretty fair to say that you have a hard time getting a decent taco in the area without breaking the bank.
So when Condado Tacos, a Columbus-based budget taco restaurant, invited us to check out their first Pittsburgh location right in the heart of downtown, you knew we had to go. Thankfully, we have to say that this one comes in to fill that void with more appealing prices, roughly $3-$4 per taco, meaning you could walk away with a full meal for under $15 per person quite easily.
When it comes to restaurant dining in downtown Pittsburgh, we’ll call that a win.
Rowdy BBQ Review – A Road Side Staple in the South Hills
There is something about a barbecue shack on the side of the road that just gets me excited.
You don’t need a fancy restaurant, a unique ambiance, or even real seating to be a good barbecue joint in Pittsburgh. So when you find one that is literally just a small building with a window to order from, two picnic tables, and a portapotty outside, you know something good is going on.
At Rowdy BBQ, you get just that.