APTEKA — Restaurant in Pittsburgh

CRAPTEKA REVIEW!!!

It was my roommate's birthday on Monday and after I sang the praises of Apteka, she wanted to go, so I took her for her birthday. Upon looking up the menu, we found out about the burger joint event, and were cautiously thrilled for a different experience. The wait was longer, but we waited as they opened to be put on a list, so we were able to go home and come back an hour later. CRAPTEKA'S service is incredibly fast, all of our food came within 10 minutes of us sitting down other than our desserts, but the bottom line is that these meals were ridiculously good. It's incredibly flavor forward, and every menu item had us shocked that it was vegan/vegetarian. We got the kebab, the swamp burger, and the yuba BBQ, along with two orders of fries (very generous servings) with fantasy mayo (amazing). We drank a hurricane and a whiskey sour, which were great. Dessert was the cake and the shake, both were divine, but that cake was uniquely amazing. If you can make it out before CRAPTEKA is done for the year, you'll have an incredible experience.

//I've been hoping to go to Apteka for quite some time, and finally I was able to go last week. We showed up a little before open, and there was a short line. An employee came out, gave us menus, and explained that we order at the bar and then are seated. We got the choice to sit inside or outside (we chose outside), and were able to keep our menus. The wait was very short, and gave us plenty of time to peruse the menu. I was glad we chose to sit outside, the tables were further away from the tables inside, the heat lamps kept it warm, and the atmosphere was spectacular. We joked that we felt like we were drafting up military movements. To drink, we got the nasza gorzka and the gin drink with orange wine I believe, which were delicious. We took a while to drink them, and they were delicious all the way down, never felt like they got watered down. For the appetizer, we got the placinta, which was lovely, a great and filling appetizer, but the real show came with our entrees. We had the smazone pierogi and the pierogi z ziemniakami. The smazone had two types of fried pierogi, and they were absolutely delicious; I'd recommend this for a first timer as it was very approachable. I really enjoyed the dandelion greens pierogi, it had so much umami flavor, but the sauerkraut one was also amazing. The ziemniakami was definitely something you have to slow down and enjoy. It's a very classic potato and cabbage pierogi with çwikla (beet and horseradish) and czarna salsa (like a salsa negra but the peppers are replaced with Zanzibar black peppercorns and mixed with smoked and black garlic and spices for days). The czarna salsa is absolutely what makes this dish, it's divine and unique to Apteka, and if you get a bite with everything and focus first on the peppercorn, you go through a beautiful exploration of these incredibly simple ingredients that truly is a gift. I recommend trying everything on a bite of the pierogi first, then breaking it all down and appreciating each bit. We finally had the smazone jablka w ciescie, which you have to let the waitstaff know you're ready for about 10 minutes in advance. This is an absolutely mind-blowing dessert. It is thinly sliced apples lightly battered and fried into indescribably delicious flat donuts. It's what you always wanted apple pastries or apple pie to taste like for every single bite. This is to die for. I was so grateful to have this experience, and I recommend everyone comes and takes their time with their food. This is an experience where if you take the time to get to know the flavors, you will be rewarded. I cannot wait...

We had high hopes for Apteka, but ended up walking away dissapointed. Their ordering method is wonky; you wait in line, place your order, get a number, then wait for a table to eventually clear up. Our party of four was strongly pushed to order out instead of waiting for a table, as the front staff assured us there were several reservations and groups ahead of us, and it would be 30-40 minutes ~ up to an hour wait before we got seated. We reluctantly agreed, and found a couple of seats at the bar we could sit at while we waited.

We were immediately told that we could not sit at the bar, as that was for "sit down and waiting customers only" and that we would have to wait in the corner by the front door (no seats or tables to be had).

Strike one.

The place cleared out pretty quickly and we noticed several tables opening up. We asked if we could change from "take out" to "sit down" and the mnager was called out. While friendly, it seemed like we were asking for something incredibly exceptional at this point, despite showing zero animosity towards anyone there.

During this time, several people walked in from the street, skipped the line at the counter, and sat down at the bar without anyone questioning them (how a bar should work), which irked us a bit, as we were JUST told we were not allowed to at the bar.

Strike two.

We got our table (keeping in mind we had already paid for the food at this point) and some of our party wanted to get drinks so they headed up to the bar. They were then told that the drinks have to be on the original order, and to order drinks they would have to go back through the main line (10~15 minutes of waiting), order the drinks again, and they would be brought over with the food. They made another "exception" for what should be a standard process (go to the bar, order a drink, pay for drink/start a tab) and we noted that we were not made aware of this when we originally ordered food, else we would have ordered some drinks (probably because we were getting pushed out the door with "take out" for no reason).

Strike three.

Food finally comes out and it is exceptionally good (per my group's reviews of the food) hence a 2 star instead of a 1 star review. However, we were missing my meal (plate of pierogies) and I was unable to eat anything else that was ordered due to a recent medical procedure. I had specifically asked for those pierogies to be with the nut-free option (and they had already been paid for way back when this misadventure first started). The bigger issue was that despite seating others (even around us), our server (the manager we spoke to earlier) completely ignored every time we tried to flag us down. There was no check up on us, no asking how the food was, nothing. I ended up eating nothing at all while there, and was debating if it was even worth the time tracking down the manager and asking for a refund for the food we never got. We eventually did on the way out, and that was that.

Strike four.

Apteka really perplexes me; we were not rude, snide, or otherwise deserving of the treatment we got, but some we were treated like we were not wanted there at all. Ironically, there were always a few empty tables in the place after we were seated, and I just found out that their reservations are for parties of 6 or more (we had a group of 4), so it shouldn't have interfered with our seating to begin with. Overall, the very confusing and poor service overshadows what should have been a great experience for myself, my wife, and an out-of-town couple visiting us (including one completely new to Pittsburgh; what a great experience for him!).

I will definitely not...

[First Visit] December 2023 My friends and I went there on Sunday night at around 7 without a reservation. We did not have to wait to be seated at the patio. The service at the restaurant is nice. We ordered an appetizer, three dishes and a dessert. The food is amazing and the price is really really good.

The appetizer is Zakaski. It has several kinds of pickles and is served with 4 pieces of bread (2 pieces / kind). All the pickles taste good. The pierogi ziemniakami tastes good. I love the stuffing. It tastes good with the cream and the sauce. The Kluski Slaskie is the potato dumpling, which is quite different from the dumplings I had. The dumpling has no stuffing inside. It tastes like flour ball, but super chewy and the sauce is tasty. The Golabki uses the cabbage to wrap the rice and other stuff. It looks astonishing and tastes good. We ordered the peirnik for dessert. It tastes amazing. If I had not been so full, we would definitely order another one.

In summary, I enjoy all the dishes we ordered and I am willing to go to the restaurant again and try out all these dishes again.

[Second time visit] April 2024 This was my second time visiting APTEKA with 3 friends. We did not make a reservation and arrived at around 5:30 PM to join the line. Luckily, we were able to get in the restaurant without waiting (We are a group of 4 people). Other groups with two people need to wait for an hour. I think it is due to the setup of the seating in the restaurant. Again, the food is fantastic.

We ordered two starters, three main dishes and a dessert.

starters: Placki ziemiaczane is a potato pancake dish. The outer ring of the pancake is well friend and so crispy. Pirozhki is a piece of pan fried bread with potato inside. It is pan fried so that outside layer of the bread is hard and crunchy. With the sauce and pickle, it tastes really good. I am so amazed at these two starters.

main dishes: The main dishes we ordered this time is the same as the ones I ordered last time. They are still really statisfying. The Pierogi z Ziemniakami is a dish with potato stuffed pierogi. This time the dish has a different sauce, but I still like it a lot. The Stabo Golebi is a must order in this restaurant. It is a dish with rice wrapped in cabbage. The seasoning of the rice is so good. Also, this time we received 5 smaller pieces instead of 2 larger pieces. My hypothesis is that the number of cabbage wraps served is group dependent. Because we were a group of 3 people last time, we were served 2 large pieces. The Kluski Slaskie is as good as last time, but, this time, there were a bunch rutabaga and carrot on top of it.

Dessert: I was so excited about having the cake I had last time as our dessert. However, it seems that they change the dessert menu. Thus, we order the Lody ze Slonecznika, whichis a vegan ice cream. The dessert tastes so good. The ice cream is not too sweet. The chocolate and nut layer outside is crunchy. Overall, I think it is as good as the cake I got lat time.

Overall, I still ranked this restaurant a must visit...