Recommendations for fine dining in Pittsburgh?
 

We do a "discover American cities" over Memorial Day weekend with our sister and brother in law and love to find great fine dines in the cities we visit! For example, 5 years ago, Michael Simon's LOLA in Cleveland was a huge hit! Any suggestions for Pittsburgh? Many thanks! SV

Fine? No idea.

But Abay Ethiopian Cuisine is very good. That was my into to Ethiopian food a couple years ago and I still yearn for it.....

If you want to drive out to Bedford, 1796 Room at Bedford Springs is good, and you can walk around the resort and see some neat historical artifacts.

I've not been to the others listed below, but I've heard good things about them:
Cioppino
Eleven
Isabela on Grandview
Six Penn Kitchen
SOBA
Umi
Toast
Meat & Potatoes

Meat & Potatoes sounds interesting to me, but then again, I'm a big fan of comfort food. :D

While a beautiful little town, Bedford is a bit of a hike from Pittsburgh - more than 2 hours on the not-so-wonderful Pennsylvania Turnpike or even longer on US 30.

We ate at Meat and Potatoes last September. Per our web research, it seems to be one of the nicer places in town (we were visiting from PHL). We did not reserve in advance and were told (at 7pm) that they were booked solid but we could wait for a space at the bar, which we did. They were short a bar tender, so service was slow that night. Food was great though.

Depending on where in Pittsburgh one is, Bedford is probably about 90 minutes away.
Comfort food?

Couldn't pay me to go back to Six Penn
I wouldn't call it fine dining but one of my favorites. More of a trendy place.

Nine on Nine is very good.
Cafe du Jour is also very good.
I'm a fan of Andrew's Steaks in Rivers Casino. But I get that casino dining isn't for everyone.
Hyde Park near PNC Park.

Oh, and if for some odd reason you decide to on Capital Grill, just go to McDonalds and send me the difference. You'll have eaten better.

Me and my wife (who is a bit of a snob :p) really enjoyed the fairly new 'Eleven' restaurant in the strip when I was home last x-mas.

Hyeholde, out by the airport.

Lautrec, if you can travel all the way to Nemacolin. Forbes 5 star, AAA 5-star, etc. (Google says it's closer to downtown than Bedford :p)

other options: 25 Best Restaurants, Pittsburgh eating heat map

I always generally forget about Nemacolin. :)

The Pittsburgh food scene has actually built up some pretty decent places lately, as a food focused person that lives here, I hope that I can offer some places.

I agree with the other folks that Meat and Potatoes is good, food is good, but quite a trendy place and there are better places if you are looking for food.

Nine on Nine is nearby to there, and I think the food is great. Its gourmet American, nothing too innovative but well prepared food with good service.

Salt of the Earth is one of my favorites, is a farm-to-table focused place with a rotating menu, chef Kevin Sauza has been quite a hit here in Pittsburgh lately with pushing the Pittsburgh food scene. Would be one of my highest recommendations.

He also has a BBQ restaurant called Union Pig and Chicken which is not far away if you are looking for BBQ. I've been told by true BBQ snobs from the south that it is edible but will not compete with true southern BBQ.

Cure is in Lawrenceville, which is one of the trendy neighborhoods, and it has been a hit as well. I would highly recommend this place if you can get a reservation, they are known to be booked well in advance. No bar, BYOB (or BYOW), which is a feature I actually like.

Toast as mentioned before is in an odd location and you wouldn't suspect it from the outside, but great food and an excellent wine selection. Try the tasting menu with the wine pairing, quite a good value in my experience.

Root 174 is in an area called Reagent Square, quite a good restaurant that is small and not as well known.

Legume is in the Oakland area, recently moved from the exact location where Root 174 is now. Restaurant is good, but the bar next to it is even better if you like good cocktails.

Eleven, SOBA, and Umi have all been mentioned below and are part of one restaurant group here in town, Big Burrito group. These are all good, but I can't say I would recommend them for a visitor if you are looking to do food highlights of Pittsburgh. They are solid backups.

Can't say that any of the steak houses mentioned below are highly recommended. I really enjoy a great steak, but at this point have reserved that luxury for when I travel to cities that have great steak.

Finally, if you are looking for more "hole in the wall" places or ethnic places, let me know and I can offer some recommendations for that too. These would be my top picks for dinner for someone looking for good food in Pittsburgh.

The 25 best restaurants article posted by CPRich has most of these plus a couple other ones that I have not yet been to. But I forgot about Point Brugge, which has some of the best mussels around.

For what it is worth, was at a new place in Lawrenceville called Tender this weekend. It is a place to go if you are looking for great cocktails, something that PIT has been missing. Good bartenders, interesting drinks. The food was okay, I would not suggest going there for dinner.

And I was back at Salt of the Earth for dinner, that is a top recommendation. Every time I go the food is solid and the people clearly take pride in what they do.

For anyone who may be looking, the 2013 Best Restaurants issue is out - http://www.pittsburghmagazine.com/Pi...ttsburgh-2013/