Sports & Social Steel City — Restaurant in Hempfield Township

We do like the energetic, sports atmosphere and decor of the bar/restaurant, and "The Fan" 93.7 FM was doing a live broadcast while we were there which was cool, but the service and the food fell way short of what we expected. The place was busy, but definitely not as packed as we have seen it and there were many open tables available. Regardless, it took some time for our waiter to arrive after we were seated, and his demeanor and body language was less than professional -- putting off a vibe that he was already stressed, and we were not welcome showing up. We asked our waiter which domestics were included in the $4 happy hour special." He verbally gave us the list, and we chose two from it, and an order of fries to start. He told us we could wait 15 minutes to order bone-in wings on special at 7 pm. When he dropped off a water for our son we put in an additional order of Happy Hour boneless wings, but reminded him that we would still like to order additional wings after 7pm. Approximately 20 minutes later we received our beers and the fries with cheese. While the beers were nice and cold, so were the fries and cheese -- with the cheese having a nice film over the top from sitting somewhere too long before making it to our table. The waiter dumped them off quickly, said he'd be back, and left. With that brief exchange, he said nothing about the timing of the happy hour boneless wings we had ordered, nor did he ask if I was ready to order my wings from the Thursday night special as it was well after 7 pm now. He basically dumped and bolted. 10 minutes later a different employee (waiter, maybe a cook?) dropped off the boneless wings. They were slightly warm, but came with no ranch dressing. I mentioned the Happy Hour bone-in wings that we wanted to order, and he said our waiter will help us with that. I looked around for our waiter...saw him over by the bar that was near the "Fan" broadcast (he might have also been tending bar), but after looking in his direction for awhile, he never looked to us or made eye contact. At this point, with the cold fries and lack of attention, I changed my mind on the bone-in wings and was looking forward to leaving. After what seemed like an incredible amount of time in a restaurant/service environment (our beers, our son's water, and boneless wings were done and no one had checked on us), the original waiter did finally show back up and at that point asked if we still wanted to order wings. But he said it with a somewhat smirky smile like he already knew the answer (this was over an hour after we originally sat down). I said no thanks, and he went to grab the bill. The bill listed the beers at full price $8 each, not the $4 (happy hour). When I asked him about this, he said he made a mistake when he told us which beers were part of Happy Hour. I then asked him why he didn't bring it up earlier right after we ordered, or even just now as he handed us the check fully knowing there was a discrepancy by what he told us on the price? He seemed surprised by my question, did finally apologize for the first time that night, and said he could give us 20 percent off instead of the happy hour special. He returned with the new check with 20% which equaled $5 savings -- but not the full $8 expected from Happy Hour. We paid the check, and I did leave him a small tip as I know it is not always easy to work in food service, but this entire experience...

Went to the Sports & Social Steel City at the Live Casino Pittsburgh for their 7-7-7 Wing Night to try something new.

Got the Monthly Special milkshake that was Almond Joy. Sadly, it was not as good as it looked. $13 & it didn't taste like chocolate or coconut. Super bland. The almonds in the icing around the cup were the best part. 2/10

We got fries that came with beer cheese that I forgot to take a picture of, apparently. The reg fries are $5 & these were $9. They have a seasoning on them & beer cheese. Good. Not sure it's worth the $4 upcharge, though. 6/10

I was told the wings were good. We're pretty loyal to Dino's Sports Lounge for wings. But someone told me the Bee Sting sauce was like Sweet & Hot. I'm here to tell you... this is not true. The Bee Sting was more of a kinda sweet Buffalo. It was definitely some type of Buffalo. The Sweet Thai Chili was closer, but it was more sweet than heat. In the end, I ended up mixing the 2 to get the sweetness & heatness I wanted. They had a fantastic crisp, though. Here's what bothered me. We asked if we could get all flats & all drums. I like flats, husband likes drums. For a small upcharge, we can do that at Dinos. (They only do it for the drums... my flats are free to request. Lol) They told us no. I said well then could you make sure that they are at least even then? Like 4 of one, 3 of the other? She said they do that anyways. Our first order, big beautiful wings exactly as she said. (Though not as hot as I like, they were kinda cooled down. I like when they come out hot!) Second order, wings are way smaller (but hotter!) & between my husband & me (14 wings) there were ONLY 3 DRUMS. 😑 Very disappointing, especially for my husband. 7/10 If first ones would have been hot & second round would have been consistent, this would be higher. I would say that Dino's still has them beat based on this experience. S&S has the better crisp & the taste of the chicken inside, but Dinos has the slight upper hand for options & sauces along with consistent size & heat. (Their Sweet & Hot is hard to beat.)

Got our check, I had explicitly asked when they asked if we wanted dressings with our wings if the dressings were free & then I see they charged us $.50 for each sauce. Came to $4. Now they did remove it bc, as I said, I had even asked & she said they didn't cost extra. All & all... I'm glad my husband tried something new & he enjoyed it. It's hard for me to get him to try new things, but when he finds something new he likes I'm always so happy. For the price on Thursday, it's pretty good. Wish they had a legit sweet & hot sauce, though, so I don't have to Frankensauce one.

But I was honestly most disappointed that they didn't offer to remake the shake or take it off the bill. For $13 it really should be decadent & taste like SOMETHING. I've gotten better shakes at Kennywood & Eat'n Park (Banana Foster is chefs kiss, highly recommend &...

My fiancé and I usually love this spot...The food is always delicious, the vibe is awesome — especially when they’ve got the UFC fights on the big screen. The Crush Bar bartender and hostess were great. That’s why I was bummed last night when our visit didn’t quite live up to what we’re used to. Once we got a table, our server seemed she was maybe having an off night. We had to ask a few times for water, drinks took a long time to arrive, and our empty plates hung out on the table for 3 hours. One of our friends never even got the drink she ordered (despite asking twice), and at one point the server accidentally spilled water from her tray onto our other friend's lap. Accidents happen, but he barely got an apology. We ended up walking to Crush Bar to get drinks since we were tired of waiting and our table was close to there. When we went to pay our tab, our server asked our friend if he wanted change and he said yes. She never brought him his change back and maybe assumed all of it was her tip. Overall the service just felt off, which isn’t what we’re used to here. We usually have a certain server we like, so we'll probably just request her next time.

We’ll definitely give it another shot because we’ve always had great experiences before, but I hope the service gets back to the usual awesome standard. We love this place and want to keep coming back. I just wanted management to be aware this...