The Porch — Restaurant in Upper St. Clair

I came here last weekend w/ my Husband for the first time since it was our anniversary weekend and we wanted to try something new. The food was great. The service was not. I’ll start w/ the food. We got:

Confete wings - were very good. Nice and crispy but still very tender & flavorful. They were seasoned perfectly & we loved the dipping options provided.

Brussel sprouts - they were out of this world! They’re sweet but not too sweet because the tartness of blue cheese cuts it while providing a creamy contract to the crispy sprouts 10/10 on those. Get them. We highly recommend.

Bianca Pizza - it was very flavorful & fresh. I personally enjoyed the goat cheese & the amount put on it. It wasn’t so much that it became overwhelming. Very balanced.

BBQ Chicken Pizza - I didn’t have any of this but it smelled divine. My Husband enjoyed it very much. He said everything was fresh & the chicken was cooked perfectly.

I know you’re wondering well if you loved the food so much why only 2 stars? Well our Waiter ruined our experience. Everyone outside of our personal waiter was wonderful, smiling & attentive, but not him. We chose to sit on the patio as it was a beautiful night last Saturday night.

The minute he saw us sat at his table he frowned. He barely greeted us when he came over. When he took our order for the apps I asked for a straw. It never came. My husband had to go to the bar and get us bar straws for our water. When he brought over our apps, we told him we’d just need a few more minutes to select our entrees & he said ok.

He left us sitting there for 20 minutes. Didn’t check in or anything. He was talking to other staff, making jokes, completely ignoring us & maybe that would have been better understood if the place was busy but it wasn’t. Not by a long shot at that time. So after 20 minutes my husband asks another staff member to grab our waiter bc we had finished our apps & were ready to order.

He came over begrudgingly, took our order and walked away. Didn’t even acknowledge the time that passed. Didn’t apologize or anything. When our pizzas came we asked for to go boxes immediately as we were over it. Wouldn’t you know he showed up VERY quickly with the boxes AND the check.

Overall, we could feel that we weren’t wanted by our waiter and that’s such a horrible feeling to have knowing you’re spending your hard earned money to be treated with care. Our tip reflected our experience. As much as we enjoyed the food I don’t think we will be returning to this...

The menu is small, but very interesting. My dad said that the mushrooms on his pizza actually were different than the standard mushrooms you'd get in a store and I had asparagus on my pizza for the first time. The portion sizes are large. The mixed drink I got was great. There are some strange things... They definitely wasted a lot of pepper flakes and some oregano by putting piles of those and cheese on the plate instead of allowing us to choose if we wanted it. They also didn't give us a spoon, so we were scooping the cheese and oregano (and a few pepper flakes for him) on our forks, which isn't the best way to get something off a tray onto anything.

The service was great and friendly, but when we had leftover pizza, she gave us weird containers where we had to stack the three leftover slices on top of each other. Dad had gotten a half pizza box when he had been there before. I asked about them and they weren't out of them. She'd just chosen to give us boxes that required us to stack our food on top of itself. I suggested that she might want to go with pizza boxes for pizza in the future. She offered to get me one, but I'd already stacked my pizza and I didn't want to waste the container I'd been given.

Their water glasses are super small, but at least they leave the bottle of water on the table, too. Their restroom was clean. However, you're required to touch the handle on the way out and they only have the air dryers/germ tossing around machines. Better than the Dyson enclosed germ machines, but still risky. So, I had to wipe my hands off on my clothes AND maneuver my sweater so I could use it to open the door. If you're going to leave me without an option to dry my hands safely, you should at least let me get out of the restroom without having to TOUCH the door. I can't imagine how I'd have gotten out in short sleeves. It was hard enough in the sweater I was wearing.

Oh! Dad had been there for lunch before. For lunch it's more of a counter service place where you order your food and drinks and they give you a number to put on your table, then deliver the food. For dinner, they have full wait...

2nd time at the porch for our wedding anniversary with the kids. The first time was ok for lunch we decided to give it another chance for dinner.

Waiter was friendly but absent most of the time. It was 30 min to get our meals which were not very good when they arrived. It was not very busy and the food came to us warm at best. I think the waiter was trying his best and he was great when he was around…he just wasn’t around very often. Honestly by the time the food arrived and given how loud a table nearby was I think everyone was just ready to go home. My wife thought her pizza was decent, my son ate part of his meal, the other 2 picked at theirs and my seafood pasta special was just ok (should have gone with a pizza).

Son received some odd sauce (tasted like Heinz or some bbq sauce) instead of ketchup for my his burger, messed up my 2nd beer order, and they took awhile to get our check. Initially told my kid to just eat it and it probably was ketchup (ketchup is not the same tasting everywhere) but I tasted it myself and the kid was correct it was some odd bbq tasting sauce (similar to that old Heinz 51 sauce)…my other kid did get ketchup with her meal so we made it work and I still tipped 20% (waiter was friendly and good with my kids) but decided we would not be back.

Honestly with so many other restaurants around the value is not there and the service is lacking. Pizzas and appetizers seem like a safe bet, other than that…I wouldn’t bother.

Not the restaurant’s fault either but the section we were in was loud. Normally you would expect kids to be loud (we have 3 I understand the stigma). There was a party of 4 or 5 women in their 40s to 70s that were extremely loud to the point of being disruptive. I honestly felt bad for another waiter having to deal with them. If my kids are complaining about the level of noise…it’s bad.

The restaurant was by no means full and they could have easily sat us in another area away from the constant noise and disruption. If the staff were more attentive I would have been able to ask to please sit...