OT: Old School Pittsburgh Area restuarants
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Pizza was toooooooo greasy.
Like pouring a quart of oil over a pound of cheese.
Was a great place. Remember the oyster appetizers.
Red Bull Inn, Shadyside. Worlds best salad bar. Remember salad bars???
Unfortunately the restaurant has been closed since the pandemic.
Can still get pizza and takeout.
Cigar ashes balance the oil. Culinary genius.
I loved the Lobster Pot as a kid. Went to the one in Penn Hills all the time.
LOL....another one as a kid/young adult.......Chi Chi's. Who didn't like Chi Chi's? Probably as unauthentic as it came, but man I loved that place. I used to get the seafood enchiladas all the time.
i worked at the one in south hills when i was in high school, that place did well back then.
One of the original investors/founders of Chi Chi's was Max McGee.
Max McGee was a professional football player, a wide receiver and punter for the Green Bay Packers in the NFL. He played from 1954 to 1967, and is best known for his seven receptions for 138 yards and two touchdowns, scoring the first touchdown, in the first Super Bowl in 1967.
Chi Chi’s was where I always wanted my birthday dinner .
Chicken nachos , chicken chimichanga , fried ice cream
Perfection
Kids (at least this kid, and my friends) also loved Ponderosa. The kids would get the “chopped steak” aka hamburger patty with no bun…but then you had access to the great “salad” bar (which had much more than salad items). It also was one of the original places that let you fill your own “pop.” I suppose that is what Golden Corral is today? But I’ve never been to one of those.
Was it a rule that every steak cooked in Ponderosa had to be “well done”?
I don’t think Ponderosa is around anymore (or if so not very many of them) but I remember going to the one near Century III mall… passed by it a few months ago and pretty sure it’s vacant.
Hoss’s is pretty similar in concept though and is still around I believe.
Hoss’s is pretty similar in concept though and is still around I believe.
Ponderosa was good if you are under 10 or over 70.
I don’t think I ever ventured into another one again after age 12. I never had a “real” steak there. My hamburger patty was always fine.
They can't get anybody to get off their fat asses and work. But that's everywhere.
Geez that's funny you say that because i kid you not, the first image i have of ponderosa is a very well done steak.
My favorite Pittsburgh "old school" restaurant, if we're saying old school means family-owned and home cooked meals, is Bella Frutetto in Franklin Park. It's closing for good the end of October. That will be a very sad day for me and my wife. They have some of the best Italian food anywhere around, outside of Italy. Wedding soup is to die for. Gnocchi with vodka cream sauce is mouth watering, and the angel hair with any kind of sauce is memorable. We'll miss them a lot.
Somehow it didn't fit my criteria for "old school restaurants", but I wasn't aware of that.
It was great as a teenager. I'd go there with my friends and we'd order the cheapest thing and then sit there for 2 hours eating the soup, little wing dings & rolls off the buffet and getting free refills on pop. Took my first girlfriend there. She didn't quite appreciate it like my buddies and I did.
French was the only salad dressings they needed on the salad bar.
We did that as teenagers too. Lunch was a discount price, so it ended up being about $6-7 total for chopped steak, all you can eat buffet, and a drink.It was great as a teenager. I'd go there with my friends and we'd order the cheapest thing and then sit there for 2 hours eating the soup, little wing dings & rolls off the buffet and getting free refills on pop. Took my first girlfriend there. She didn't quite appreciate it like my buddies and I did.
Yep.
The Rax salad bar was a good deal too. They had soup and a taco bar kind of thing. Used to have one at the corner of Bouquet and Forbes (across Bouquet from the O) when I was in college. The salad bar was upstairs. We would kill that thing.
Oh yeah, that Rax was a traditional pregame meal. Then Pitt started losing and we banned ourselves from eating there on gamedays.
Love this thread, probably been to about 75% of these places. But I haven't seen Grant Bar in Millvale mentioned, so I'll add that one.
