Or Eating in Pittsburgh (an opinionated guide)

Pittsburgh is a great town for eating food in restaurants. But don’t take my word for it, listen to the New York Times! Given the plethora of options, we have compiled a Google map of places we like to eat around town.

We’ve also put together some specific recommendations near the conference venue, but if you are interested in venturing farther out check out the following neighborhoods:

  • Downtown (or Dahntahn as we say in Pittsburgh) - Downtown Pittsburgh is BACK! Be sure to check out the cultural district along Penn Ave and Liberty Ave for good places to eat and drink. You can eat Meat & Potatoes or Täkōs.
  • Lawrenceville - The hipster capital of Pittsburgh has many cool places for eating and drinking along Butler Ave, especially around the intersection of Butler and Main St. If you are willing to trek to Upper Lawrenceville check out B52 and The Buttonwood Bake Consortium.
  • East Liberty - An “up and coming” neighborhood with an Ace Hotel, fancy cocktails, and The Home Depot.
  • Squirrel Hill - A neighborhood with a solid business district in Pittsburgh’s east end with lots of bus accessiblity. If you like east asian food check out How Lee for Chinese or Everyday Noodles for good ramen. Forbes and Murray are the two main drags.
  • Shadyside - If you need to stop at the Apple store or really need whatever this is, this neighborhood has you covered. Walnut street and Ellsworth are the places where stores that sell things are located.

Eating around Oakland

There are many options in the Oakland neighborhood from traditional American to Indian to East Asian. Most of the restaurants are clustered on Forbes Avenue (near Pitt) or South Craig Street (near CMU). Here are a few selections

Breakfast

While we will be a light breakfast served at the conference, there are several options in the Oakland neighborhood.

Lunch

  • The Porch at Schenley has pizzas, salads, and sandwiches.
  • Conflict Kitchen is a fun lunch spot that serves ethnic fair from countries currently in conflict with the United States. They are currently serving Iranian food.
  • Spice Island Tea House is a delightful Southeast Asian restaurant. Their pumpkin curry is awesome.
  • Ali Baba is a middle-eastern restaurant on Craig street, near CMU, with falafel n’at.
  • Hello Bistro is another local chain serving burgers, but also substantial salads (with things like kale and quinoa). Salads are good, so they can get a bit busy at lunchtime.
  • Mad Mex is a local Pittsburgh chain serving tex-mex (burritos, tacos, enchiladas, etc) about a 10 minute walk from Hillman Library.
  • Primanti Bros serves things with french fries on them.
  • There are also many chains like Chipotle, Five Guys, and Panera.

Dinner

Most of the lunch options listed above are also open in the evening, but here are a few other places more suited for dinner:

  • Legume is the Oakland neighborhood’s most fancy restaurant. Very good, but also pricey.
  • Butterjoint is next door to Legume and has very good cocktails. They only serve burgers and pierogies (TIL: The OS X spellchecker does not know how to spell pierogies)
  • Tamarind and All India are both delicious Indian options on North Craig, just a bit farther up from Legume and Butterjoint. All India also has a great lunch buffet!