The Factory South Shore — Restaurant in Pittsburgh

Since it was our first time visiting Pittsburgh, my husband and I decided to celebrate my birthday with a view of the city at the Factory Restaurant. Sadly, my meal was underwhelming and quite disappointing to say the least. I looked on the restaurant’s dinner menu on their website beforehand and decided to get the “Jumbo Lump Crab Cake For The Table.” It states $23, but if you’d like to add a crab cake, it’s an additional $10, which I was fine with given the good reviews posted. When we were seated, we noticed a price discrepancy for the crab cake. One menu, stated what I read on their website and the other menu said $32, but without the verbiage about adding the crab cake for $10. I asked the waiter which was correct for the crab cakes and he stated the menu with the $32 price. He said the restaurant recently changed the verbiage because it wasn't making money with how it was written on the website and in the first menu so they changed it to just say $32 instead for the crab cakes. Since I was planning to get 2 crab cakes anyway, I didn't have any issues with the $32 price tag. When the crab cakes arrived it was just 1 crab cake and extremely small! It was about 2 inches in circumference and could be eaten in one bite and the french fries were also surprisingly soggy. To list this under "For the Table" and to use the words "Jumbo" is laughable. I shared my disappointment with the waiter and he agreed that he should have specified that the $32 was for just 1 crab cake.

Our waiter spoke with the manager about my dissatisfaction and told us that the manager would not do anything to make the situation amicable. I was in shock that the manager didn't even come to speak to us knowing our disappointment or just to stop by himself as what most managers would do. Shame on the manager. His response just tells me they don't care about their guests. I guess our expectations were unrealistic for the manager to at least honor the $23 price for 1 crab cake that is still listed as such on some of their physical menus AND on their website (even now as of 5/9/2024) as "$23, but if you’d like to add a crab cake, it’s an additional $10" particularly since the waiter didn't properly communicate when I asked initially, but that would have been the right thing to do in my opinion. Even our waiter was surprised by the managers inactions.

I expected more from a place with such a reputation, but sadly, it fell short of expectations. $32 for 1 bite size crab cake and soggy fries is completely absurd. I guess our expectations of the manager to remedy this situation appropriately was too high, as zero effort or...

I'm sorry to say our brunch experience here was very disappointing. The staff seemed incredibly unprepared, overwhelmed and not sufficiently supported. The Factory was not very busy during our visit, but the Sheraton hotel was. There was a packed lobby, a dance competition and a conference all adjacent to The Factory. It seemed like we arrived shortly after a huge rush of business. There also appeared to be literally just one woman waiting on everyone and every single table. However, these reasons alone are not enough to justify a poor experience. Staff attentiveness was just not enough. And I don't just mean our waitress, who I want to recognize (Betina) was trying her very best, but the hostess was incredibly inattentive and unprofessional. There's just no excuse for the flippant way she greeted us and seated us at an undressed table missing three out of the four chairs... She haphazardly retrieved two additional chairs for our party of three but never bothered to get us water glasses and place settings. The food was good enough, but nothing special. I could have made the same dishes the same way at home. My brioche French toast wasn't prepared as described. It wasn't served with sugared berries and walnuts. I didn't taste orange in the batter that the toast was dredged in. It's unfortunate when there is absolutely no effort made to make a dish stand out or to be special. It's menu description was completely ignored and disregarded. This may not have been the best time to visit The Factory but if this is what happens when the staff is under pressure I won't be back. There just wasn't enough effort to redeem any mistakes. I'm sure The Factory is just good enough for out of town travelers but it's certainly not worth a visit for the meal...

I was looking forward to having dinner at this restaurant because of the rave reviews. Unfortunately, I left with an unpleasant experience. I was immediately taken to a table by the host, so no complains there. However, after I sat in my table it just went downhill from there. I watched as other guests were sat down immediately getting drinks served to them. I watched at least 4 servers walk by me without saying a single word. I finally stood up and as I am walking out, a manager approaches and asked if I chose not to order, I simply stated that they had very poor service and left. I know several waiters saw me sitting at my table, but did not acknowledge me or even offer to take me a drink. I watched them chat away next to the bar with other staff, so clearly they weren't busy. The restaurant was not busy either, so that was no excuse. Hopefully they can get it together and teach the staff that customers matter. I will say thanks to the two managers who approached me as I was leaving. You clearly saw my displeasure and hopefully you can teach the staff better service etiquette to avoid this...