With over 70 restaurants to choose from, Pittsburgh Restaurant Week (January 13th-19th) is a great opportunity to experience what the Pittsburgh food scene has to offer without emptying out your wallet. The participating dining locations offer dining deals, such as prix-fixe meals, that range between $14-$36 dollars. But if you are feeling absolutely lost as to where to go, here are some suggestions:
If you like meat and potatoes…
Meat and Potatoes
“Located in the heart of the Cultural District” (don’t fret if you don’t know where/what that is, it’s just a fancy way of saying Downtown), Meat and Potatoes, as per their website, aims to serve as “a stand-in for ‘bread and butter’ as shorthand for the staples we need to function”. Nebulous description aside, this gastro pub excels in creating no-fuss, meat centered dishes. And when I say “no-fuss”, I mean they elevate their dishes in a way that makes so much sense, it’s stupid. Take, for instance, their crispy buttermilk fried chicken paired with a savory cheddar jalapeño waffle and bourbon bacon syrup off of the brunch menu: stupid good. Menus for each day will be posted on FB/Twitter.
If you love meat and are kinda okay with potatoes…
Texas de Brazil
For $35, it’s all you can eat meat- Brazilian picanha, filet mignon, and leg of lamb to name a few of their offerings- at this churrascaria (normal price: $45). If you don’t know what a churrascaria is, it’s basically a Brazilian steak house where servers walk around with different cuts of meat. You get this fun little card that makes your mouth a kind of intersection: one side is colored green, which tells your servers, “Go, please serve me, ME HUNGRY, ME EAT” and the other side is colored red, meaning “Stop, I’m taking a breather”. And if you still have room, there are also 50+ salad bar options to gorge yourself with.
If your idea of a romantic night ends with taking a dump…
51 Wings
Their deal consists of 13 wings per person, an order of bacon cheese fries to lovingly share and two sodas to wash it all down. 51 Wings has (surprise!) 51 different sauces to choose from. Sounds to me like a sure-fire way to spend some quality time in the bathroom if there was one!
If you love mispronouncing entrees…
Paris 66
The entrée for their dinner deal is listed as “Magret de Canard aux Chanterelles, Pommes Salardaises”. I mean, you could have just ordered that duck breast and potatoes cooked in duck fat regularly but trying to get your French on is half of the fun. The restaurant goes great lengths to get you feeling like you’re in a classic Parisian brassiere, from the coziness of the storefront to the vintage wallpaper. Oh, p.s, it’s pronounced Magreh de kah-nahr oh shaun-tah-rell.