Bar Marco — Restaurant in Pittsburgh

4.5 stars

Bar Marco is housed in an amazing restored and repurposed building in the strip. It's a bit easy to bypass it when driving because the building is a gorgeous red brick building with the sign "No 7 Engine Company".

I came here for Saturday brunch. When you walk around in the strip seeing all the great food, you have to wonder if a sit down worth it? I will tell you that YES, Bar Marco food is incredible and definitely worth it!

The same restored and yet authentic aged distress look is also inside. The dining area is not very big... maybe 20 tables. There's a great chandelier and really interesting art work. Overall, just a great casual and hip vibe to the place. As mentioned there isnt a lot of tables. When 10:30 am came around, it was fully packed and had to turn people away. I totally recommend reservations or come at 10 am to not be disappointed.

One cool and interesting thing about this restaurant... they don't allow tips. The restaurant is paying a living wage for everyone on staff and its just another reason to come here and support them... I think that's amazing. Service here is helpful and relaxed... perhaps a bit too relaxed in terms of pick up dishes or the bill ready to be processed. But in terms of friendliness and filling water glasses, you can't ask for better.

The brunch menu is short and well curated with sweet and savoury options. We were very tempted to order a donut for the table but the brunch entrees here are quite substantial so we didn't have any room! Another thing about the menu, we were told they rotated the items a lot and it follows whatever is in season. The staff here knows whats best and their recommendation of the baked eggs were perfect.

Baked Eggs - 3 cracked eggs were cradled and baked in a tomato and pepper sauce (pepperonata?) with a healthy dose of parmigiana cheese to give it a nice savoury sharp and slightly nutty note. The eggs yolks still molten and cutting into them allowed them to ooze into the sauce. I used the bread to help sop up every bit. I would have loved a bit more heat or perhaps another herb. Excellent brunch dish 4/5

Tiramisu French Toast - A generous plating of the best French toast we had in the city. Curiously, the flavour note may have given someone pause on ordering but once it was tasted, I'm pretty sure eyes were closed and the sounds of 'mmmm' were only heard. I only got a small piece... that should tell you how good it was. The custard filled every nook and cranny and had a really nice subtle coffee flavour to not overwhelm the entire dish. The mascapone cheese was rich and was a much better flavour to the usual sweetened whip cream you see in other places. I really liked how they had these cute small white chip looking meringues. A cute detail! 5/5

If I had more time, i would have definitely returned for dinner. I loved the atmosphere, friendly service, and the amazing food. Definitely one of the best restaurants we tried...

Not my cup of tea. To be fair, others in my party loved it. It is much more of a place for "foodies." I found it physically uncomfortable (small room with tables close together, very loud, hot, chairs uncomfortable). I felt the waiter was rather snobbish about food and drinks; others in my party enjoyed him. I prefer more basic food, and I don't want to feel as though I need to eat after I've had dinner, especially with their prices. My pasta was okay, as was the risotto I tasted off of someone else's plate. There was a short ribs dish (I believe that's what it was) that someone else got that did look tasty; the other dishes were not things that interested me. Their olive oil cake dessert really was WONDERFUL! It was light and refreshing, but I'm not sure worth the price. What constitutes "value" varies from person to person, so someone else may feel differently about the cost. I held off on rating this, as I debated how "valid" my opinion was, given I don't think I'm the clientele that they cater to. But when a 2nd request came, I thought about it, and my rating is actually based more on the experience than the food. As I said, I found it to be physically uncomfortable, I felt the service was only fair. There was a VIP party in the upstairs, and those folks kept traipsing through the restaurant in the small area, and it seemed as though they were more valued by the mgt./staff than the rest of the customers. The pasta dish that I ordered was something that I do like, but I found their preparation to be only so-so. Perhaps my tastebuds are not sophisticated enough...The most important part of the evening was to get together with folks I love very much! While it was wonderful to be with them, the physical environment made it difficult to visit with them, and difficult to relax. One exceptionally nice touch -- our reserved table wasn't quite ready, so we were all given some sparkling chablis. One the other hand, the wait was a little longer than what they said, and there is no space to wait, and the very small area there was provided only a wooden horse to sit on. Once the wait became a little longer, my elderly mom needed to sit, and it was unsafe and...

Can not recommend and would absolutely not suggest relying on this business for your special event such as a wedding!

First, food does not live up to their hype. Average taste at best. Salad was decent, the risotto needed some acidity to cut the richness (was better than the pasta course originally suggested that tasted like plain boxed pasta and a jar of pesto was added). The steak was good, however the small portion with 4 tiny slices per serving for my husband and I was pathetic, not to mention the side of plain potatoes drenched in oil were served cold. *more on that later. In addition the bread course was a total rip off. $5 per person for bread that turned out to be very thin slices of clearly store purchased bread sliced thin and cut in half was pathetic. Also we skipped the dessert course… can’t remember their pretentious name for chocolate pudding, that was also mediocre at best for a cake from an outside vendor.

Second, the restaurant staff was dressed atrociously for a formal event such as a wedding. Our florist and his staff was dressed better when they unloaded the flowers before the event than the Bar Marco staff was attired for the event. Homeless hipster was not appreciated or appropriate. Not to mention one of the staff “was cold” so they decided to turn off the a/c and switch on the heat in the room before the event on a hot humid day. Add 40 people and candles and the space despite switching back to a/c was warm and uncomfortable, even guests complained about the warm space. Staff also rolled eyes when the cold potatoes were served to us.

Third, the room… already mentioned the heat on was also loud and echoed despite being told that would not be an issue.

On one of the most special days in your life you want everything as close to perfect and this was overall a disappointment. I do have to give 1 star in the review to the facility for accommodating one guest with a food allergy and 3 others that do not eat red meat.

Look elsewhere for a facility to host your wedding so your memories of your special day are not clouded with poor food, surly staff, a humid warm space and a venue that clearly does not live up...