WOW have I been slacking a lot lately! I came on here and noticed I haven’t updated the blog since July, there is no excuse! Well I actually do have a few but I won’t bother you with them and will just get the getting… I have 3 places to cover today and they have all been visited the past few months, and I can say when you get to Grant’s Bar below I have been there more than once since my initial visit.
The Grant Bar & Lounge
114 Grant Avenue
Millvale, PA 15209
Phone- 412-821-1541
My grandparents and their friends have been going to the Grant Bar for years, and I have been wanting to go for a long time now. Recently I had the chance to go with my family a few times and I have to say that I understand why my family likes it so much. You get great homemade quality food for a great price. The first thing that hooked me was the Chicken Pot Pie Soup, it was the soup of the day and was fantastic! If you like chicken pot pie, I would recommend trying the soup and the presentation with pieces of the flaky crust on top just added something extra. Another soup that is always served on the weekends is the Turtle Soup, I didn’t get a bowl of this myself but my uncle did and he let me try a little bit. I was a little weary at first but to me it reminded me a lot of beef vegetable. I would recommend this to anyone.
The first meal I had was The Grant Bar Club – Triple Decker combination of smoked turkey breast, bacon, fried egg, lettuce, tomato and special dressing. A great club sandwich full of flavor and I am guessing that the special dressing is thousand island or some distant cousin. The meal came with onion rings, and let me tell you that there is nothing like a homemade onion ring if you like onion rings. These have just enough breading on them and are very light ( I think its so you order more!). My grandfathers favorite dish at Grant’s was the Fried Fresh Cod Sandwich so I made sure I got that on my second trip and you get a really nice size piece of cod and once again it wasn’t heavy it was a really light sandwich while you are eating it but it does eventually sneak up on you.
Now for what will bring you back… for dessert I ordered a piece of Dutch Apple Pie for home. Oh lord… I have never had a better piece of pie for dessert before. The apples were cut so thin and the topping was excellent. The flavor that came from this pie hit every taste bud and is the real reason I will be back to the grant bar! I don’t like cream style pies but from what I hear they are the best there and is what they are really known for, next time I might just break down and give them a try.
Silky’s
5135 Liberty Avenue
Bloomfield, PA 15224
Phone- 412-683-6141
http://www.urbanspoon.com/r/23/271617/restaurant/Bloomfield/Silkys-Pittsburgh
I started the meal with Chili con Queso, it is really tough to find good chili from a restaurant. To me there is nothing like a good homemade chili (with some cornbread, mmm!) and very few restaurants have ever even came close to a homemade taste. The good thing from this chili was when they say “con queso” they meant “con queso”! I have never had so much cheese on chili or any soup before, it was like a thick layer melted on top that you had to break into.
My main entrée was a Bacon Bleu burger and the past few burgers I have gotten with Blue Cheese they have been crumbled (which I have just started to like the past few years) but this burger had creamy bleu cheese which was a nice change of pace. The burger was nice and juicy and had good flavor to it. There really wasn’t anything to bad to this burger, I would recommend it. The problems I had with Silky’s is the service, it was bad. We went in the evening and they were not very busy but the food took forever. I went with my mom, sister, and grandmother. The biggest problem was my grandmother’s food came out and it was wrong so they had to make it again. By the time we were almost done with our meals her food finally came out. I can understand mistakes happening when it’s busy, but there might’ve been 4 tables and some people at the bar and that was it. In my book the food got an A, but service got a big F!
Tessaro’s
4601 Liberty Avenue
Bloomfield, PA 15224
Phone- 412-682-6809
Web- http://www.urbanspoon.com/r/23/271768/restaurant/Bloomfield/Tessaros-Pittsburgh
Tessaro’s is known in Pittsburgh for their burgers and most people will say that they have the BEST! I am not gonna say that the burger is bad, but today more than ever restaurants are stepping up their game and are taking little pieces of other places and putting it into their menu. At one time, and I remember growing up having one, Tessaro’s had the BIGGEST burger in town! It was years before I had another burger that equaled its size. However more and more places have same size or bigger burgers with more options for the burger as well. If you want, I guess for this I will call it the original big burger you go to Tessaro’s. For this trip I took my buddy Vic who had never been before. We both ordered the Bacon Bleu burger and this trip I got the crumbles. I like it when the crumbles actually melt a little bit but I didn’t get too much of that on this burger. It was juicy, the bacon was very crisp and the burger was everything a burger should be. The sides are my only problem with Tessaro’s I like fries or homemade chips with my burger (that’s my preference) and tessaro’s doesn’t offer either. I don’t really like potato salad but I tried it and it was bad. I think I would just like to see more options on the sides. At least something that will really stand out.
