The Cafe Carnegie — Restaurant in Pittsburgh

Easily one of the worst dining experiences I've had in Pittsburgh. Avoid. Go to Eat N' Park instead, you'll get better food and service for 1/5 the cost.

The meal started with us waiting an unusually long time to order drinks. Our waitress eventually walked up and explained that she did not realize that we were her table and apologized. This was certainly forgiveable, but did not bode well.

We had two starters: the deviled eggs and the artichokes. The deviled eggs were bland and the included prosciutto was mediocre at best. The artichokes we're fine, but the included sauce was lackluster. It was a bit of a bummer, but I was definitely excited about the salad.

Next up was the pulled chicken salad. The chicken, as far as I can tell, was completely unseasoned. The sourdough croutons (all 5 of them) were somehow both burnt and soggy (which I wasn't even aware was possible - impressively bad, I'll admit). The dressing was lifeless and the greens were almost too gigantic to eat without cutting them up first. My partner's salad was no better. Her's had equally enormous lettuce leaves and was absolutely drenched in dressing. At this point, I'm concerned.

My main course was the shrimp roll. Their version of a shrimp roll was a sad pile of cold shrimp piled in a weirdly shaped, cube bread monstrosity. The shrimp were coated in lemon juice, killing any other flavors. At this point in the meal over 90 minutes had passed, so I had to run out and feed the meter. By the time I got back, the paltry handful of fries on my plate were cold. Honestly, the fries were probably the best part of the meal, and they tasted like something I'd bake at home out of a bag of Ore Ida I got from Giant Eagle. My partner's sandwich was burnt. At this point, my partner and I were having a debate if this was the worst dining experience we'd had in Pittsburgh, or if it was the time I got food poisoning from an Indian restaurant that smelled like a bathroom. The Indian restaurant food poisoning incident won out, for many obvious reasons, but it was a spirited debate.

The check came and it totalled over $100 for two people including two alcoholic drinks, two sad appetizers, two depressing salads, and two subpar sandwiches. The waitress barely stopped to check on how things were. It took us almost 2 hours to eat a pretty basic lunch, and not by choice. As I walked by the Quiznos down the street (Quiznos still exists?) I laughed and said "We should have gone there instead." My partner agreed. We had froyo afterwards, which salvaged an otherwise really awful lunch.

The cafe is both expensive and had poor service. If the food was good, I would say the experience would at least have been acceptable. But, the food was just flat out bad every step of the way. Pittsburgh has a ton of amazing food options these days. The Cafe Carnegie is not one of them. You're better off...

2023 Update: Cafe was packed at lunch on a Friday, we needed to make a reservation! We did and they seated us later that day. Food was delicious. Service was attentive and professional. I would be able to take my kids here, but also meet adults for a nice lunch and drinks. The club sandwich was solid. The Bahn Mi was open faced, which was a surprise. Updated decor and menu experience. All very pleasant and cushy. I plan to return, and you should, too!

2015 Review: Maybe I shouldn't be surprised, but I really enjoy the menu at the museum cafe. They do a great job! The decor of the space is a bit dated but the food is great - better than the expected freezer-to-deep-fyer stuff I see in add-on eateries (food places secondarily attached to a main event).

I do wish they offered a full menu during their weekly evening hours. If they did, I would be much more inclined to bring my family to the museum for dinner and enjoy a nice evening afterwards roaming the galleries. The nearby Phipps...

Okay.

The coffee and the scones were good, and the guy behind the bar was helpful and courteous.

The menu looked particularly well developed for a museum cafe.

But there seemed to be an unnecessarily convoluted seating system at play which resulted in us not being able to have a glass of wine outside, as I understood it--and I may not have understood it. I'm not particularly smart about these things.

It's not exactly a complaint, but we had that sense that to order the wine, or say, a bowl of soup, would create an undue inconvenience to the staff. If it was not impossible through logistics it seemed so through...manners.

Of course we then proceeded to make things worse by waiting behind the register instead of at the bar, impeding the flow of customers.

Embarrassed and not wanting to be any more of a nuisance, we got our scones and coffees, and ducked outside, where pleasant if mercenary little birds darted around eating our crumbs and cheeping happily. 11/10...