Lidia's Pittsburgh

1/3/11

          When you enter Lidia's you feel like they know what they are ding there.  The hostess asked us if we wanted to check our coats, and there was no wait to find or reservation we went straight to our table.  The atmosphere at Lidia's is very rustic charm, there is a fire place and a huge chandler made of blown glass.  You can tell that the building used to be a warehouse just by looking at the ceiling because its about 40 ft high and has huge heating ducts running along the roof, but it adds to the charm of the building. The place is just so welcoming.

          There is an open kitchen so if your seated at the bar you can watch what is going on in the back of the house.  Also the bathroom was A+ clean.

          Now on to the food, we started with the Polipo (Octopus $9.50) and Brodetto di Gambei e Astice (shrimp and lobster in a brodetto sauce over polenta $12.00).  The octopus was cooked perfectly, it was tender and the potatoes and capers paired great with it.  The shrimp and lobster was very good with the polenta. 

          For our main courses my wife ordered the Pasta Trio Dinner (comes with Cesar salad and desert $29.00) and I ordered the Osso Bucco di Maiale (Pork shank w/Barley Risotto $25.00).  My wife loved the Pasta Trio(which changes daily), her trio was a ricotta filled ravioli with a garlic herb sauce, shrimp and Pena with a red sauce and a fetachini Alfredo.  I tried them too and I would have to say the ravioli was my favorite.  As for my main course the pork shank, it was very, very good.  The shank cam out with a sauce of the meat dripping mixed with orange zest cornstarch and herbs.  It was placed on a bed of barley risotto, which was cooked perfectly.

          Desert, was a Torta di Ciocolata con Castagne(Chocolate Torta, chestnut mousse, milk chocolate mousse, bitter sweet chocolate ganache and a brown sugar coco ice cream) included in my wives trio meal.  I am not a chocolate fan at all and I am not big on over spending for a desert at a restaurant at all.  Beleive me they spend $10 on ingredients to make the desert and then sell it at $7.50 a slice (7.50 x 8 est slices in a small cake)= $60 a profit of $50.  That's a little overpriced.  Anyways, enough ranting on costs.  This cake was awesome, I could have eaten a whole cake right there.  Like I said I'm not even a fan of chocolate.  It was so moist and there were so many different textures with the ganash, cake and mouses.   WONDERFUL.

          Overall, we had a great evening with a good friend.  The food was great, service great, price high but worth every penny.  If you are looking for a nice place to take a date or for a special occasion this is high on the list to go to.  Would I recommend Lidia's to anybody that asks? Yes, I would over and over.

Overall: 9 of 10

Food: 9 of 10

Service: 10 of 10

Price: 8 of 10

Lidia's Pittsburgh

1400 Smallman St.

Pittsburgh, PA 15222

Shogun, Monroeville PA

So this will be my first ever so give me a break if its not up to par yet. 

My wife, myself and my in laws went to Shogun for NYE dinner.

          First, when we arrived there was absolutely no parking what-so-ever.  We had a handicapped person in the car and there wasn't even a handicapped parking spot open.  So we dropped him off and then parked farther away.  Needless to say our experience didn't start off well.
          We got inside and it was 8 PM our reservations weren't till 9 so we had to wait around for awhile for our table to be ready.  So we headed to the rest rooms and let me tell you if it wasn't NYE and there wasn't anywhere else to go we would have left right then and there, they were disgusting, but I overlooked it because it was NYE and they were very busy.
          So, we got seated early at 8:30 which was nice they got us in early.  We place our orders, we started with a California Roll (4.99), my wife got the Hibachi Chicken w/Yaki Noodles (17.99) and I got the Hibachi Shrimp and Chicken w/rice(21.99). 
          This was the first time we ever got sushi so we started with the California Roll, it was good.  The Hibachi chef came to out table and he was very friendly and energetic.  He started cooking and put on his show with the flaming grill and flipping the shrimp tails up into his hat.  The food was average it was nothing special.  It was a little too salty for my taste maybe less soy sauce would be good.

          Overall, I feel that the price was a bit high for the quality of the food received.  If you go there you are just paying for the show that they put on.  If you are looking for a nice quite dinner this is not the place to go.  If you are looking to have alittle bit of fun sitting at a table of 8 no matter how many people you go with, then this is the place for you.

OVERALL: 6 of 10

FOOD: 5 of 10

SERVICE: 6.5 of 10 

PRICE: 4.5 of 10

Shogun

8 Tech Dr.

Monroeville, PA 15146

Getting it together

I am new to this blogging thing but I will be posting hopefully by the end of the weekend but if not then sometime next week.  Thanks for looking and I hope you come back.