Restaurants in Pittsburgh, PA

Pittsburgh, o, how we love to eat in thee! Let’s start in the Strip District, which began because the city is a hub for produce coming up from the South. Along the strip are groceries of every sort, restaurants of every continent, stand-up snacks and sit-down meals. There’s famously good breakfast — pancakes in particular; but the morning meal happens to be worthy all around the town. If “morning” means 3am to you, then you can have a double egg and pastrami at Primanti’s. Once the sun rises, great breakfast opportunities include strawberry pancakes (actually crepes) at Pamela’s or a mountainous mixed grill at the Gab & Eat diner. Forget about ordinary sausage, egg, and cheese; a charming market cafe named Pear and the Pickle makes breakfast sandwiches on fluffy rolls from Mancini bakery and uses sausage beyond all expectation. Finally, of the Steel City’s many claims to culinary fame, nothing is more inviting than its abundance of European restaurants. These range from the humble, take-out only Pierogies Plus (in a former gas station) to the Hungarian home-cooking treasure Jozsa’s Corner. In the strip district, Enrico Biscotti makes stupendously good coffee-companion pastries and serves true-Italian trattoria lunches al fresco. Walking into Five Points Artisan Bakeshop smells like France, its air swirling with the delectable perfumes of just-baked peasant breads. Prantl’s bills itself as a “bakery in the German tradition,” although its insanely delicious specialty, the burnt almond torte, was conceived when founder Henry Prantl took a trip to California and brought back a carload of almonds.