Cellars Speakeasy — Restaurant in Pittsburgh

i don't really like to leave negative reviews.. but there's an obvious lack of upper management and oversees of the operation as a whole, and a lack of overall passion for the space as a restaurant. This is a great little spot to get a drink with friends! But, to make it into a "finer dining" style place, it's a lousy attempt ... at best. My boyfriend and I went here on Valentine's Day as a date night, and it was probably my worst experience for an anniversary in the city. He made reservations for 10 PM, called ahead, and made sure the kitchen would be open for our "dinner"... We arrive, sit, and look at the menu... obviously. Our server comes over and informs us that "because of the time of the night", they no longer had any entrées. She didn't say the kitchen was closed... so it sounded like they didn't prep enough. Why would anyone reserve a dinner table for just appetizers? At least call us so we know you guys don't have any food! So already, I was confused and disappointed, before even ordering. We order a salad and meatball sub (classy!!). Server brought our food and basically slams it on the table, announcing "meatball.", and walks off. The service was honestly laughable. Boyfriend gets up to wash his hands, and a strange noise comes from under his foot. Server looks and its .... a lot of broken glass!! She kicks it to the side of the wall and walks away. She never brought a broom out to sweep it up, which is probably some sort of code violation honestly. Chicken and meatballs were both undercooked, borderline inedible, and plated terribly. I didn't finish my salad, which my toppings were also all on the bottom of.... Server didn't really check in, maybe once, mid-bite. We overhear the waitress in the opposite section talking to her table. "I've been here since 10;30 AM, wont leave til 1:30 am, and have to be back here at 10:30 am!!!" When is that ever appropriate to say to a customer? We finish our food and get the bill. $55 for a sub, salad, and 2 egg rolls.... literally just appetizers. I'm actually so glad that we didn't spend $100+ ordering subpar entrées as well. I check the receipt and it says "$5 Late night happy hour" under the egg rolls, with only a discount of $3 applied to the $15 egg rolls. So I ask for clarification with the receipt and menu discrepancy, and the server stares at the receipt for a solid 15 seconds saying "uhhhhhhh..." and then decided to take it "to the manager". She comes back and brings the same receipt in a new check presenter and says "Well, the computer isn't updated from the old happy hour promo, so actually you should have never gotten the $3 discount. But don't worry.. we obviously won't make you pay that $3 now that we already took it off." Okay, great.. We pay and she doesn't ask how our meal was or anything a waitress would typically say, just kinda runs off strangely in the middle of saying thank you and have a good night. Me and my boyfriend are talking afterwards, trying to enjoy ourselves, and the cherry on top of this experience was the waitress reaching over us and taking the signed credit card slip from our table while we were still sitting down. The other server's section had tables gone and checks on them still, so it wasn't a deadline in the computer. Just some good ol' tackiness.

Terrible experience overall, and will never return because of the dining.

Though the bar...

We came here to celebrate a birthday party with 14 people. We made the reservation a month in advance and clarified we were able to bring a cake and balloons in. The interactions over the phone were great. But that’s where it ended. The second we walked out of the elevator we were treated poorly by staff and felt very unwelcome. I tried to leave it to it was a holiday weekend (the weekend after Valentine’s Day) but every interaction with staff kept getting worse and worse. Due to the amount of people we had the waitress had an automatic 20% gratuity added to each of our checks, industry standard. But that clearly made her feel entitled to treat us however she felt. We did have an extra person show up- entirely our fault and we apologized profusely- when we asked for an extra chair she said she didn’t have one but she would check again- if not there was nothing she could do- again fair. Looking around there were atleast three tables with empty chairs not to mention empty tables in the room. She did bring us a chair from somewhere and we apologized again and thanked her. She continuously scolded us throughout the night and told us to not move seats or it would make her job hard- we never once moved out of our original seats so why she felt the need to say this three times with such an attitude was baffling. After her lectures of not moving we still had food forgotten, given to the wrong person, or the checks were incorrect- all things we could handle ourselves but it was very off putting. The food was below par to say the least. Most of our main dishes came out ice cold, the chicken sandwich was so badly burnt it was rock hard and black in some areas, and the chicken rose was a single piece of breaded chicken with cheese and pesto on it. That’s it. We were uncomfortable complaining or returning our food because of the waitress so we all just grinned and beared it. The appetizers and drinks were amazing however. We paid the $3.50 per person cake cutting fee so it would look nice and we wouldn’t stress her out more than we clearly already did. After we paid our bills we realized the cake had not been brought back out so we asked if there was any left to which she said “I’m Not sure I’ll go check” and a few moments later brought out half the cake. That felt very off to us, whether she genuinely forgot or they were just going to keep it. At one point our waitress was even swearing while talking to us which was off putting and unprofessional. All in all- this place is great for appetizers and drinks and some cool photos in the tunnel. But I would recommend going else where if you are looking for great service. Especially with a...

I have been to this establishment multiple times. I’ve never had a bad experience until now. We had a party of 15 celebrating a birthday on valentines weekend. I know on a holiday weekend the staff might already be stressed out, but any table over 8 people has an automatic 20% of gratuity added-which is fine, but it seems like our server felt like she could give us a terrible experience because she knew her attitude would not reflect in her tip. Pretty much as soon as we walked in it felt like we were causing a disturbance to the entire staff and they just made us feel so uncomfortable and unwelcome. As soon as people starting arriving and sitting down she made sure to tell everyone to find a seat and stay there and not move around because of the amount of people it would confuse her-which is totally valid! Yet she still messed up the checks! We had an extra person show up and we apologized profusely and asked if we could be brought another chair. Our waitress said “I’m sorry we don’t have anymore chairs, but I’ll check.” There were multiple empty chairs around the dining room. They had a special valentines menu and I got the chicken rosé. Whoever is doing their menus is amazing because they sold me a $32 singular piece of breaded chicken with mozzarella and pesto on top. It was good…but NOT $32 worth. Multiple dishes at our table were also ice cold and others extremely burnt. And because of our service we felt uncomfortable sending things back because we knew she would give us attitude. We were celebrating a birthday and brought our own cake and we agreed for the cake cutting and plating fee of $3.50 a person—which is more than most fine dining restaurants, but we knew the chef would do a good job and that would be one less thing for us to stress about. We finished our cake and paid our bills, but the rest of the cake was never brought out. I asked our waitress if there was any cake left and yet again she said “I’m not sure let me check.” A few minutes later she comes out with half the cake. I don’t know if they were planning on keeping half of the cake for the staff or she just genuinely forgot, but we were absolutely floored. The atmosphere is amazing, but the staff were absolutely terrible. I would recommend this place on non holiday weekends and maybe a...