wrote in message news:bd0c8o$aps$ ... > Well, she accepted "Italian" as ethnic, In that case, Serafino's in Crafton is quite nice. Small and intimate. Good food, no liquor license. > Hungarian > Polish Old Europe on the South Side. I can't think of any truly chi-chi ethnic places...most of the best are little holes-in-the-wall, IME. Spice Island Tea House in Oakland, for example. - Marci
Pittsburgh, PA
Please Suggest Excellent Ethnic Restaurant for Major Anniversary
Well, the view at Monterrey Bay is good. And the Crab cakes are REALLY, REALLY, REALLY good. At least for Pittsburgh. For Maryland, they're slightly above average. wrote in message news:bd065d$218$ ... > Our anniversary is coming up next week and my wife suggested we go to > Pittsburgh for a few days. I'd like to take her to a "special" > restaurant, and mentioned Monterrey Bay to her for the view. > > She suggested that she always prefers an ethnic restaurant. > > Price is no object for this evening. > > Any suggestions? > > Thanks, > Rob Lake > [email removed] >
Old Europe on Carson in the South Side Basking in the Balkans The new Old Europe shines with Old World hospitality. By Ann Haigh You'll feel welcome just walking through the door of Old Europe. Even the live trout stocking the fish tank seem to swim about excitedly to greet you -- though such hyperactivity more likely reflects their status as a popular menu item. At any rate, this new restaurant fills a void left by the closings, years ago, of the old Old Europe and Sarah's restaurants. Focusing exclusively on traditional dishes of Eastern Europe and the Balkans, the menu definitely offers a change of pace from the usual. A warm decor evokes the interior of a modest Bulgarian home, replete with hand-painted pottery and old artifacts collected abroad by owner Nick Jordanoff and his Bulgaria-born wife, Desi. The staff, dressed in neat black slacks and Bulgarian hand-embroidered shirts, provides friendly, helpful service. And everyone seems to smile so readily. Jordanoff himself beams the broadest. This restaurant fulfills a life-long dream. A restaurant veteran of Bulgarian descent, he grew up immersed in Eastern European culture (his father directed the Duquesne Tamburitzans). For many years, he chaired the Bulgarian food group for the Pittsburgh Folk Festival. Here, in his own establishment, he cooks, manages the front of the house and says he's having fun. And so can you. Don't be embarrassed if your tongue won't roll out those menu items. The staff is trained to explain. The wine and spirits list presents the first challenge. A small, but pan-global, wine collection includes six French beaujolais, a smattering of decent California labels and gutsy Eastern Europeans, such as Egri Bikaver (Hungarian Bull's Blood). Prefer beer? Try some of the many you've never heard of. Or you can brazen into the meal with a specialty vodka cocktail, then, after dinner, down one of the Balkan firewaters, such as slivovitz. A glass of that may get you conversing fluently in Bulgarian. The menu tours Ukraine, Bulgaria, Serbia, Russia, Croatia, Hungary, Turkey and Greece. The food is not precisely that of every ethnic table. Jordanoff lightens and tames traditional tastes to meet a broader, modern market. In general, the appetizers come off better than the main courses. Gathering a group of starters to share shapes a good initial visit. First up, a complimentary banitza arrives: delicious phyllo filled with leeks and Bulgarian feta. A suavely pungent and creamy sheep's milk cheese, Bulgarian feta differs profoundly from the more briny Greek variety. Spiced up, this appealing cheese fills a sautéed fresh roasted sweet red pepper in savory pepper bjurek (breaded and fried pepper). Find it also topping chopped cucumbers, sweet peppers, onions and tomatoes in the refreshing sopska salata that accompanies each meal. Photography by Ed Rieker Start your Old Europe experience with shrimp Dalmatia as an appetizer -- or make it your main course. Served with warm pita, a colorful trio of dips flags three countries: Bulgaria (roasted red pepper and eggplant), Serbia (red pepper and feta) and Greece (homemade yogurt with cucumber and dill). Croatia contributes a tasty shrimp Dalmatia -- large shrimp on a mound of rice, splashed with a paprika cognac sauce (available as both an appetizer and a main course). Grape leaves stuffed with ground veal, pork and rice, topped with homemade yogurt, hail from Bulgaria. Saganaki (Greek kasseri cheese sautéed in butter, flambeed in brandy, then doused with lemon juice) runs as a delicious special. The flaming cheese show should be a tableside performance as it is in many Greek restaurants. Somehow, the grand-sounding ingredients in the marinated mushroom dish don't add up to much flavor. The vareniki, Ukrainian pierogis, potato-stuffed and served with melted butter and caramelized onions, fall on a palate jaded by too many church festivals. Now about that fish tank. Point out the rainbow, brown, brook or palomino trout of your choice. The staff will harvest and cook it Greek style -- head-off but whole, seasoned with garlic and lemon, wrapped in grape leaves and grilled. Absolutely wonderful. Jordanoff tells of one customer who tried to catch a fleet-finned fish himself, with bare hands. Surely he was sipping slivovitz. Chicken paprikas and chicken Kiev are other popular main courses, but try the excellent mixed grill of spiced veal sausages and pork shish kebab, served with roasted red pepper dip and roasted red-skinned potatoes. Veto the seven chieftain stew, a listless rather than hearty goulash, with dry and stringy meat. On weekends, the kitchen offers long-marinated, but too long-roasted, leg of lamb. In addition to the banitza and sopska salata, main courses come with warm bread and butter and a vegetable side dish -- generally stewed carrots and green beans. For dessert, order dynamite apple strudel, made with Granny Smith apples and lots of nuts. Old Europe, 1209-1211 E. Carson St., South Side, 412/488-1700. Tuesdays through Saturdays, 5-10 p.m.; Sundays, 4-8 p.m. Closed Mondays. Appetizers $3.50 to $7.50. Entrees $12.95 to $16.95. Desserts $4.50. Liquor service. Designated smoking areas. Someone wrote: > Our anniversary is coming up next week and my wife suggested we go to > Pittsburgh for a few days. I'd like to take her to a "special" > restaurant, and mentioned Monterrey Bay to her for the view. > > She suggested that she always prefers an ethnic restaurant. > > Price is no object for this evening. > > Any suggestions? > > Thanks, > Rob Lake > [email removed]
Someone wrote: > Our anniversary is coming up next week and my wife suggested we go to > Pittsburgh for a few days. I'd like to take her to a "special" > restaurant, and mentioned Monterrey Bay to her for the view. > > She suggested that she always prefers an ethnic restaurant. > > Price is no object for this evening. We had a wonderful anniversary dinner at Le Pommier on the South Side of Pittsburgh a few weeks back. It's French, but not horribly expensive and not "up-tight." The view isn't much, but it's a short drive up the McArdle Roadway to see Pittsburgh from Mount Washington after dark.
If price is "no object" then I would go with Le Mont. I know it's not ethnic but if it's a major anniversary why not pamper the the hell out of your wife! John Mc wrote in message news:bd065d$218$ ... > Our anniversary is coming up next week and my wife suggested we go to > Pittsburgh for a few days. I'd like to take her to a "special" > restaurant, and mentioned Monterrey Bay to her for the view. > > She suggested that she always prefers an ethnic restaurant. > > Price is no object for this evening. > > Any suggestions? > > Thanks, > Rob Lake > [email removed] >
I absolutely love Le Pom. Excellent French food & nice French country decor without any snotty pretentiousness. John Mc Laurie M. wrote: > > > Someone wrote: > > Our anniversary is coming up next week and my wife suggested we go to > > Pittsburgh for a few days. I'd like to take her to a "special" > > restaurant, and mentioned Monterrey Bay to her for the view. > > > > She suggested that she always prefers an ethnic restaurant. > > > > Price is no object for this evening. > > We had a wonderful anniversary dinner at Le Pommier on the South > Side of Pittsburgh a few weeks back. It's French, but not horribly > expensive and not "up-tight." The view isn't much, but it's > a short drive up the McArdle Roadway to see Pittsburgh from > Mount Washington after dark. > > > > -- > ** Laurie D. T. Mann *** *** *** ** *** *** http://www.dpsinfo.com ** > And if the Supreme Court says that you have the right to consensual sex > within your home, then you have the right to bigamy, you have the right > to polygamy, you have the right to incest, you have the right to adultery. > You have the right to anything. Does that undermine the fabric of our > society? > I would argue yes, it does. It all comes from, I would argue, this right > to privacy that doesn't exist in my opinion in the United States > Constitution > -- Senator Rick Santorum, Republican from Pennsylvania >
Someone wrote: > > Our anniversary is coming up next week and my wife suggested we go to > Pittsburgh for a few days. I'd like to take her to a "special" > restaurant, and mentioned Monterrey Bay to her for the view. > > She suggested that she always prefers an ethnic restaurant. > > Price is no object for this evening. > > Any suggestions? > > Thanks, > Rob Lake > [email removed] I would highly recommend Old Europe on the South Side. Their food is excellent and it's a classy restaurant. And not all that expensive. Even I can afford it on occasion. Wonderful Eastern European food - Hungarian, Bulgarian, Yugoslavian, Russian, Polish, etc. I highly recommend the Het Vizir Tokany (Seven Chieftains Stew), a Hungarian stew served with galuska (Hungarian noodle dumplings). I also liked the Bulgarian feta-stuffed pepper thing - can't think of the name - banitza, maybe. Kate
The best place with a view is Isabella, but is it expensive, on Mt Washington. I guess it is "Continental" cuisine. Fairly imaginative, not stuffy, fabulous views and food. Prixe fixe, lots of food. My favorite place is Baum Vivant, which is I guess Continental with a Portuguese touch; it's technically in Shadyside. > Well, she accepted "Italian" as ethnic, Lidia's in the Strip District near downtown is consistently delicious, interesting, reasonably priced, and central. Caffe Allegro on South Side and Alla Famiglia in Allentown (very near Mt Washington) can be great sometimes. > Chinese I wouldn't say any place particularly stands out. Spice Island Tea House mixes southeast asian cuisines interestingly and is in the Oakland/university neighborhood. Jimmy Tsang's in Shadyside is a very tasty version of an unchanged place from the time when there were neon 'Chop Suey' signs in front of such eateries. The New Dumpling House in Squirrel Hill has a bigger vegetarian selection, and sushi. > Japanese Umi (in Shadyside) and Chaya (in Squirrel Hill) stand out. Chaya has a big menu of authentic dishes that they will only serve to Japanese speakers. Umi tries hard to be fancy. > Korean Sushi Kim in the Strip District is by far my favorite. > Viet Namese None are fancy, but most are good. Tram's in Lawrenceville is my choice. > Thai Lemongrass downtown and My Thai in Shadyside are good, but I find the women owners of Thai Cuisine in Bloomfield the best hosts (it is not expensively decorated). > Greek Christo's downtown is acceptable. The "Meditteranean cuisine" at Ali Baba in Oakland is better, and the down-and-dirty Kassab's on South Side is sure bet. > German Otto's on the North Side is great. > Slovenian Sort of available at Old Europe. > Morroccan Not here, that I know of. > Jewish Kazansky's fakes it fairly well. Poli's has an ethnic clientele but not an ethnic menu. > Hungarian Sort of available at Old Europe. > Polish Chiodo's in Homestead is a 100-year-old place with authentic steelworker atmosphere, 150 beers, a great back porch, and OK food. Bloomfield Bridge tavern is another blue-collar joint with OK food. > French Le Pommier is the place. > Russian Would love to know about something like this here. > African We need Ethiopian food desperately here. > Jamaician There are a few little joints in out of the way spots. > Cambodian Phnom Penh downtown is tasty. > Lebanese Ali Baba, in Oakland. > Afghani > Persian > Turkish > Iranian > Mongolian > Australian No, no, no. Sorry! Try Beyoglu in NYC for great Turkish, near the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Cheers, Rich