Vallozzi's Pittsburgh — Restaurant in Pittsburgh

Steak was rare, sent it back for a quick refire - waited almost 15 minutes....ok now Im nervous. Totally different and smaller steak arrives. I noticed right away, as did my wife. Like literally half the size of what I received the first time. Definitely NOT a center cut, probably a metro cut. And worse, it was medium rare to rare - I ordered medium. Having had food poisoning before, I didnt want to risk and just didnt eat it. When I butcher my own filets, I will cook them medium rare to even the more rare side. It is not uncommon, when a restaurant gets a tough whole filet, to tenderize it a bit. That puts bacteria deeper into the steak, so that is why I order steaks medium at least to start at a restaurant that I've never been to.

I love steak out when done on high temperature cooking surfaces like a grill or broiler. It just locks in the flavor so well, and that outside sear is so great. SO when I received my steak and saw that they were cooking with high temps, I was pleased. But unfortunately, they can only really cook it to just short of rare using this method. If they lower the temps, I dont know what the results would be, maybe the sear wouldnt be as good. I dont know what their challenge is, but as long as they are going to offer steaks at a place that offers valet parking, I think they need to figure that out. I was also happy they served it with bearnaise sauce. The sauce seemed ok but I really didnt a chance to really determine if it were fresh or packaged.

The potatoes that came with the meal were pretty good. They put it in a little crock with cheese melted on top. The asparagus was HUGE, and crunchy but cooked nicely.

So why did a I rate this restaurant 3 stars, when I didnt really get to eat and it kinda ruined our anniversary dinner?

Well there is much more to a restaurant than just the food you get. Sure that's very important but: -Wife loved her food, her sides, and the wine we picked. $80 bottle. -They took the steak off my bill, which, yea is expected but it was still nice of them. -The waitress was very nice, very welcoming, as was the manager. -The ambiance is nice -The mushroom risotto was good. I enjoyed that. -The cocktails that we ordered were amazing. -At the end, while we were waiting for awhile for our check, the manager came out with a pasta meal for me. At this point through disappointment, and munching on bread, risotto and a big salad, my stomach went back to slumber and I wasnt really interested in eating so they packed it up for me. Unfortunately I was still kinda bummed and just wanted to walk into the house to put that behind me, I forgot the meal in the car overnight in the garage so surely it was bad and I had to pitch it.

I hope to go back here some day, soon, and not get the steak but something else because I have high hopes the flavors are all there. If I see someone from my party get a steak and it turns out as they wish, then maybe I'll try steak again as well. There arent alot of nice options really in the area, so Im hopeful I can return and bump my rating up to where this place probably should be, at 5 stars.

Im attaching a photo that will cause some people to salivate and rush to this establishment to order a filet. You can see one piece with sauce on it that is completely rare, and another at the top corner. There are others as well but they were flipped over. Overall this steak was just very shy of rare when the first was rare. If this was the first steak, I might have risked it and enjoyed it. But after waiting 15 minute for them to flash my steak a bit more, and then getting a much smaller steak that still wasnt done close to what I asked for - I was PO'd and didnt eat it. And yes that is the...

Reading the reviews, I'm sure this is a fine restaurant, but unfortunately I did not get to experience that on Saturday, December 8th. We were a party of four (2 couples). Our waiter was "L.D." We were excited to try this restaurant. We don't live in Pittsburgh, but travel there fairly often, and we were looking forward to a great dinner, and we thought we'd give Vallozzi's a try. We made a reservation for 7:30pm. Sadly, I don't plan on coming back. First, on "Open Table" they are listed as having valet parking, but when we pulled up there was no one to be seen -so we had to circle a few blocks to find a parking garage. When we inquired about valet parking with the hostess she simply said "someone's out there". Our waiter, although friendly, seemed pretty "out of it"... taking a really long time to get our orders, etc. Our appetizers came - (and honestly they tasted great), but then after a bit our dinners showed up - unfortunately skipping the salad course. Not the end of the world... but it just seems like it was handled awkwardly. We just simply told "L.D." to take them off the check. As for our dinners, two of us ordered Spaghetti and meatballs... which came out luke warm, while another person's dinner was really, really hot. After all was said and done, we just asked for our checks (each couple getting a check for their meals). Upon reviewing the checks, we realized both appetizers were put on one couples check, not separated like they should have been - again, not a big deal. We just paid it -after all, we're all friends and really didn't want to hassle with getting "L.D." to fix it. Sadly, I am now home from Pittsburgh, balancing my checkbook from my weekend, and I now discover that both bills were charged on my card. Not sure if the other couple was charged as well... we'll be looking in to it. Anyway, in conclusion, I know everybody has a bad day, and nothing in and of itself was bad... but all of these incidents together made this a rather unpleasant experience. My advice to Vallozzi's... do a little more...

'Vallozzi’s seems to me like a good Italian restaurant that used to be great. I took my daughter and granddaughter to Vallozzi's after a hockey game. We had a lovely meal. The restaurant was a little over 1/2 full at 7:00 on a Saturday, and we were seated promptly. Service was attentive and prompt. The food was all good, but not great. The bread service is a nice touch - soft, doughy, bread with ricotta and olive oil to dip/spread. I prefer a bread with some crust and "chew" but the rest of the table loved it. We had the tricolor salad to start. The lettuces/herbs were fresh and crisp, and the dressing tart with an interesting flavor. A hit for the table. My granddaughter ordered spaghetti with red sauce. The pasta was al dente, with loads of sauce. She loved it, but the sauce was too sweet for my liking. I had the pappardelle bolognese. The dish was tasty, but had way too much sauce for the amount of noodles. The bolognese sauce had a good mix of meat and mirepoix, but needed to cook down a lot more to be truly authentic. The pappardelle was perfectly cooked. My daughter had a filet with Gorgonzola sauce, asparagus, and cacio et pepe mashed potatoes. The steak was wonderful - large and perfectly medium rare. Delicious! My daughter ordered the sauce on the side since she was unsure about it. The steak was delicious without it. I tasted the sauce and it seemed like a basic cream sauce with just a hint of gorgonzola. Meh. The potatoes were tasty but very runny. The asparagus spears were the size of cigars ... no restaurant should serve anything but thin asparagus. This reminded me of the mushy stalks I had growing up. The wine list is large and well curated, and I enjoyed a...