Mola — Restaurant in Pittsburgh

Probably the highest quality sushi in Pittsburgh and competes with the best sushi places in more "cultured" cities. Pricey but absolutely worth it! Bonus: their boba is also great. They also have a secret omakase menu, and it's very clearly the best omakase in Pittsburgh by quite a distance.

This place is definitely not your everyday sushi place. Their prices are too high to be, but they don't advertise to be an everyday sushi place, either. There are many positives to eating at Mola that only a couple in Pittsburgh can also claim: Basic sushi items (salmon, yellowfin tuna, etc.) are probably the freshest in Pittsburgh One of 3 places in Pittsburgh that does sushi rice correctly. I was only able to get similar sushi rice from other well known sushi restaurants around the US. I'm also sending multiple expletives to people claiming that the rice is brown rice. It's not. Come on people!! Wasabi is from a REAL grinded plant. It's mixed with wasabi paste usually (like most high end sushi restaurants), but they will sometimes have 100% real wasabi. They have quality cuts: many varieties of toro (non just tuna), bluefin Tuna (magoro, chutoro, and otoro), etc. And their bluefin Tuna is fresh and tastes 1000x better than yellowfin tuna, which is expected. And their non-bluefin tuna tastes better than other competitors. They have elevated salmon, such as king salmon, and in the form of toro. Actually mind blowing. Specials (ex. Kama Toro, otoro) are out of this world!

At first, I discounted Mola. Looking at the menu, I thought it was another one of those "hipster" restaurants that overprice their food, but after eating here, I was totally wrong. The serving sizes are small, and I only got full after paying around $40-$60. Again though, it was money well spent. Sushi is FRESH, their cooked foods are also good (especially their fish collar), and the sushi chef knows what he's doing (see the bullet points above).... It is by far the best here in Pittsburgh.

Also, try out the boba. They don't have a lot of options but they're definitely on the better end of Pittsburgh boba options.

Just to set standards of how good Mola is.... I've tried a couple different sushi places around the US (omakase and popular sushi stops). The sushi here is definitely on the higher end of quality. The sushi quality here I thought is as high are even better quality than some of the Omakase sushi I tried, too.

And if you think the sushi is already great, wait until you try their omakase. It's probably the best restaurant experience in Pittsburgh. DO NOT SET A $60 LIMIT PER PERSON LIKE THAT ONE GUY WITH THE ONE STAR REVIEW. Like many other omakase style servings, don't limit your wallet..... Many go for $200+ per person but ours was less than that and it is either as good or even better than even the expensive ones!

The only thing that that would improve the omakase experience is a special omakase room, because otherwise the restaurant is too loud and casual for the absolute extreme quality of food that's coming at you.

The step up in quality between a basic sushi restaurant and Mola is already gigantic. In fact, Mola is closer to US big city high quality sushi and cheaper. And if you think the sushi is already ridiculously good, there's a clear step up from their normal menu and their omakase. Truly a ridiculous restaurant of the...

It took me long enough but I finally tried Mola a few weeks ago... and have ordered almost once a week since. The otoro is pretty incredible, and if you're into that you'll know there aren't many places in the city to get it. (Even rarer: They have kama toro. I haven't tried it yet but boy, do I want to.) There's no fishy taste, and it has a melting texture like it's meant to. The cuts have been done well, too.

The rice is perfect; each grain separate but sticking to its friends. The color is from the vinegar they use; it's not brown rice, don't worry. It's a good partner for the fish; after all, sushi is originally all about the rice. If a place can't get that right... well, I enjoy what I think of as "fast food" sushi, too, but it's not the same category of food.

Also very good are the king salmon, salmon belly, ikura, and sakura masu. (Look: I like salmon, OK?) They have a toro shiso roll; I like shiso a lot and its sharp herbal flavor contrasts so well with the fatty tuna. The roll is super generous, and they do a good job actually forming the rolls and cutting. The pork belly bao is very enjoyable, too, with contrasting textures and great flavor.

Prices are quite reasonable and they have plenty of things besides tuna and salmon. I've just been obsessed. Scallops, lots of kinds of white fish (shiromi), amaebi, and at least 3 grades of uni. The availability changes, but their online ordering (not 3rd party) will show what they have. I've spent between $30-50/person, getting some of the slightly higher-end items, and you could reasonably stick to the $30 end and have a very good meal.

I'm writing this review now because I ordered delivery this evening, and the delivery service (not the restaurant) messed it up. The driver ended up not bringing my food. When I spoke to the restaurant they offered to have one of their employees drive it to my house. I don't live that close, either! They remade the whole order, added a free dessert, and drove it. To my house. That's above and beyond for service and they've ensured I will continue to order as close to weekly as possible.

PS: If you like salmon as much as I do, the salmon chirashi is super. I have never had so much ikura in my life. Next time I'm...

My husband and I came to Mola for my birthday dinner. Prior to this it has been my favorite place to get sushi, mostly from the terminal location. This was my first time dining in at this location and I was excited.

The food was phenomenal as expected, however a distasteful situation with the owner left me very discouraged from returning to Mola. While my husband and I were waiting to order, holding hands across our table, a patron who ordered take out saw us and told our waiter he would like to pay for our meal and left with his order. Our waiter, John, told us this and when we asked for the patron's name he said he didn't know and didn't mention it further. We thought this was odd and were not surprised when our check of $80 came. We paid and left having not thought much of it.

The next morning my husband called the restaurant out of curiosity due to the bizarre interaction. The owner admitted that yes, a patron had left $200 for our tab. However, because we 'didn't know who it was' they elected to keep the money and not apply it to our bill.

I find this particularly greedy for a restaurant that is not cheap to eat. While we were sitting at our table easily three other tables had tabs in the $100s just by listening to what they were ordering over the hour we were dining. Take out was flying out the door. For a successful restaurant such as Mola with a dedicated customer base this behavior was troubling. If my husband had not called the restaurant we would have not known the details and the fact we were cheated out of a kind person paying it forward on a...