The Zenith — Restaurant in Pittsburgh

Unfortunately, my roommate and I had a profoundly disappointing experience at The Zenith. Upon entering, we were not greeted or acknowledged or any way for close to ten minutes — and we were the only customers in there at 3:30 on a Friday.

The ambiance of the establishment was lacking — dimly lit and cluttered, with a smell that reminded us more of a grandmother’s basement than an establishment we’d be inclined to dine in. The entire establishment had a a feeling to it that I can only describe as heavy — it was uncanny.

The greeting we did receive was by a woman who, at first, uttered a flat “hello” and walked past us. After a few moments of bewildered silence, she returned and asked if we needed help, although to describe her enthusiasm as lacking is an understatement. I don’t expect to be treated like a king, but I do expect pleasant customer service and a helpful attitude, especially considering it was our first time at this business.

Our excitement that we once had on our walk to The Zenith was, by this point, replaced by a feeling of uneasiness and discomfort, as if we weren’t even supposed to be there.

After finally being seated in what I can only describe as one of the most awkward initial encounters I’ve ever had in a business, we sat through another grueling few minutes of near silence at our table, barring an uncomfortably long delivery of our water and menus, including yet another awkward moment of being instructed to move our table cloth due to the previous customers, where our waiter implied that we were likely to pull the table cloth being clumsy. I understand that this was not intended to be an insult, but it felt belittling to us as customers that you felt the need to interrupt our very first encounter with that, before we were even properly sat and introduced to the cuisine.

But what truly sealed the deal for us as a poor experience — and what convinced us to walk out before even placing an order — was the ignition of some sort of industrial heater in the adjacent room, which filled the entire dining room with a noxious gas or charcoal-like odor that left us feeling lightheaded within just a few minutes. The second the scent hit my nose I knew we’d be unable to dine there.

I understand that we were not there at a peak time, but this experience was an unacceptable lack of customer service from start to finish. Rarely do I take the time to write a review, but our experience was so exceptionally poor that I felt it necessary. I hope that this experience was an outlier and isn’t indicative of their usual practices. We won’t be returning...

TL;DR looks like a hoarding situation + ehh food + out of hummus, so very very limited options + A CAT ROAMING AROUND + the coup de grace....either a small mouse or large cockroach ran across the carpeted floor and dissapeared behind a pile of junk. Nope!

Met up with a friend for a late lunch/early dinner today (so yes, not peak hours) because of work schedules and we decided on The Zenith because of the good reviews and certain dietary restrictions. Big. Mistake.

Walked in and thought I was in the wrong place and left immediately. It looked like a scene out of Hoarders. A staff member came out and asked if I was meeting someone for lunch. So, he led me through a cluttered maze to an odd mishmash of tables. Cool. Menu looked fine. Then my friend said that they were out of hummus. Which ruled out multiple options because hummus is amazing and seemed to be the cornerstone of the menu. We were then told by the waiter that the hummus was being made but probably wouldn't be done soon.

The food we ordered wasn't anything phenomenal. Truly. The pineapple/tropical something wrap had decent flavor, but the texture was odd. Gave up after a few bites. Okay, no big deal. Oh. Also, there was a random cat just walking around the place. I love cats, just not strange ones around my food?

But there we are, sitting and talking and the waiter came out and told us the total bill and left? He was nice enough in general, so no complaints there really. So finally we settled the bill and were chatting and suddenly very loud folk(?) music was blasting like crazy (dead silent during our whole meal). Whatever. We were there for maybe an hour maximum and the place was a ghost town, so we took the hint and were putting on our coats when my friend's face went pale as she stared over my shoulder.

She wasn't sure if it was a small mouse or a big cockroach, but it zipped across the floor and dissapeared under a thicket of junk piled up against a wall.

Anyway, we shook out our coats and scarves and ran for the door and did the shakedown again once safely outside.

Look, I'm not trying to be rude, but cats in a restaurant and some type of creepy crawly? Not a positive experience. I know restaurants have pests, it's unavoidable, but the amount of junk in that building + food is a perfect storm in the making. Even if the food was amazing (which it wasn't anything to write home about), I would never ever consider eating...

This is an absolutely captivating (mostly vegan) restaurant within an antique store (or an antique store within a restaurant) and I loved whatever it is that they’re going for. We made it here for Easter brunch. Zenith has to be the first (and only) place where I was almost a bit disappointed when our host told us our wait time would be only 5 minutes. They have coffee/tea for you while you wait on eclectic antique couches and their entire store for you to explore.. and I certainly would have enjoyed a longer wait time. Soon enough we were seated and our coffee/tea was refilled and we placed our entree order. Their Easter brunch, inclusive of the entree, coffee/tea refills, a large buffet of salads, breads, appetizers and desserts is priced super reasonably at $11.50! The food itself didn’t quite hit the spots for me but that could be just me. I found the almond French toast a bit too overwhelmingly almondy and the Seitan meatloaf not all that great. I was mistakenly served the portabello burgundy which I took a bite before realizing it wasn’t my order.. and that tasted pretty good! I wish I’d ordered that instead of my meatloaf. Almost all the items on their buffet were tending towards the sweeter side except the one pesto pasta salad and the hummus. That plus the French toast and sweetish rice-side to the French toast was way too much “sweet” for my brunch palette. I’d initially loved the look of all those options on the dessert table but when it came time for dessert, we’d had way too much “sweet” already in our food to be able to give all those dessert-cakes their due. I tasted the orange-chocolate cake and the raspberry-coconut cake and found them just about ok. The servers are friendly and polite. I’ll go back to Zenith and try their other offerings..but I’ll go back mainly to poke around their antique store while I do that and look around a bit more. There’s a lot to take in and we almost missed the mannequin lying in a couch suspended from the ceiling above our table! Creepy... but also really cool! Gotta go back for more such interesting displays we may have missed on our...