Pittsburgh Restaurants????

 Cheryl,

 I've visited friends in Pitt a few times now and have been to a few "cool"
 places.  They aren't fancy 4 star spots, but the food was above average
 and the atmosphere fun.

 Kaya (downtown tapas with great beer selection and beautiful interior)
 Mr. Jones (owned by the same group as Kaya.  Kinda quirky northern spot.)
 Buffalo Blues Bar (great bar food, yummy drinks, not too loud tunes at
 dinner)

 there were others but these were my faves from the last trip!

 Rick

 Okay, I'll quit goofing around.

 Here are some of my favorite Pittsburgh restaurants.  Just so you
 know, I don't like expensive, upscale places, generally, so most of
 these are slightly more humble establishments.

 Himalayan Tibetan - 3531 Forbes Ave. (Oakland section)  My favorites
       are the steamed momo, the potato salad, the potato/spinach
       thing (I don't recall the exact name, but you can tell from
       the description), and the tang soup (spinach, tomato, egg
       threads - add a little of the hot chile paste to spice it
       up).
 India Garden - 328 Atwood (Oakland section)  A little more ritzy
       but still not too expensive) (moderate, I would say).
       Everything I have had there is excellent.
 Taste of India - 4320 Penn Ave. (Bloomfield section)
         Best Indian food in Pittsburgh.  ‘Nuff sed.
 Lemongrass - 5846 Forbes (upstairs) (Squirrel Hill section
       Very good Thai food-
       I think it's the best Thai in town.  Try the Mussamun
       Curry.  I don't care much for their Pad Thai, though
       but I'm very particular about Pad Thai.  The best I
       ever had was at a Thai restaurant in L.A. and I've
       not found anything close ever since.
 Marlina - 500 Liberty Ave. (Downtown)
         Brand new.  Indonesian and Southeast Asian.  Owner/
         chef from Indonesia.  Food very good.  Excellent gado
         gado but it's not on the menu.  She'll make it if you ask
         for it.
 My Ngoc - 2120 Penn Ave. (the Strip District)  Excellent
       Vietnamese, Thai food.  My dining group went there
       a few months ago and absolutely gorged ourselves
       for very little money.
 Thai Binh - Century III Square (West Miflin) Chinese and
         Vietnamese.  I go there for the Vietnamese food - some
         of the more unusual dishes that the other Vietnamese
         restaurants don't do.
 Sushi Kim - 1241 Penn Ave. (the Strip)
       Their food is Korean and very good although they
       don't make their Be Bim Bap the way I am used to.
       (There used to be another Korean restaurant in
       Oakland that made the best Be Bim Bap in the world
       :-) but they "sold out" and changed to an American
       menu to make more money :-(  Boo Hoo)
 Kotobuki - 9801 Old Babcock Blvd.  (Allison Park - N. Hills
         area) Very good, upscale Japanese place.
 Cafe Sofia - Forbes Ave. about 1 block east of Craig St.  (Their
         address not listed in phone book yet.)  Fairly new.
         Excellent Bulgarian cuisine.  Very small, very inexpensive,
         and very limited menu.  But what's there is exquisite.
 La Filipiniana - 5321 Butler St. (Lawrenceville section -
       a rather run down area but don't let that discourage
       you)  Great Filipino food.  Limited hours so call
       first and make reservation.  This is a one woman
       show so service may be very slow.  Just relax and
       enjoy.  Plan to spend several hours.

 Well, that about covers the main ones that I like.  There are
 lots of Middle Eastern/Greek restaurants in town but I don't
 care that much for any of them although I like that kind of
 food a lot.  Ali Baba's in Oakland is good sometimes and
 other times it's not so good so I just gave up on it.

 What you really ought to try is typical "Pittsburgh cuisine"
 One of our local specialties is pierogi.  A good place to
 get them and other Polish delicacies such as Czarnina (duck's
 blood soup - trust me, it's GOOD) is the Bloomfield Bridge
 Tavern in the Bloomfield section near the - you guessed it -
 Bloomfield Bridge.  I just tried to look up their address and
 would you believe they're not list in the phone book - white
 or yellow pages!!  I KNOW they're there!  Anyway they're
 just a door or two from Del's at 4428 Liberty Ave.

 Kate