Luma Restaurant - Pittsburgh

We sat outside and felt a world away from the city The bisque had amazing flavor you can tell they make it fresh in house

TLDR: Skip and go to another place if you want a quiet and upscale experience for a date night or something similar. Service was great, waitress checked in consistently and was very welcoming. Atmosphere made me wish i brought noise canceling headphones. Listened as an elder gentlemen regaled loudly, shouting, how him and his wife took turns throwing up over the side of a boat for about 15 minutes and then spent the rest of the night listening to a woman shriek like a stuck pig while laughing, it was enough that even the table behind us commented on how obnoxious the woman was. Food was ok, not sure everything came out with the sauces they were supposed to...more misses than hits. Food: Did the restaurant week course pairing with a friend. Complimentary bread and olive oil Only thing going for the bread was that it was warm. Olive oil had zero taste, just oil...olive garden bread sticks would have been better. Starters: Lobster bisque amazing, flavorful and delicious Pear Salad no flavor...is supposed to have an apple cider vinaigrette but I'm not sure it was even applied. Was just dry salad with a spritz of olive oil maybe. Main Course: Steak cooked nicely to a medium rare but zero flavor.... its supposed to come with a roasted garlic demi glace? the broccolini was also extremely tough...didn't even eat it because of it. Also the steak knife looked comically like a large blunt butter knife...i think the butter knife had more serrated edges than this thing. Salmon bread crust encrusted with a fresh fruit compote Extremely good. Was surprised with how well the fruit compote paired with the encrusted salmon. Salmon was nice and juicy, not over cooked or under cooked. Desert: Warmed Chocolate Chip brownie delicious, classic pairing with the ice cream and whipped cream.

Beautifully designed restaurant with top notch service and phenomenal food!

July 2024 We had a disappointing experience compared to our last time, six years ago. The place has not changed, but the quality of the staff and food certainly has, and to the negative side. Four of us came out to dinner. We sat down and perused the menu. Just as we sat down, one of us had to take a call. He went outside so as not to disturb the rest of the people in the place. The waiter came to tell us the specials. We asked him to wait for our last member, who was on his way back in. However, he chose to walk away after telling us he’ll be back in 20 seconds. We watched as he wandered around the restaurant and spoke with five or six other tables before coming back to our table 15 minutes later. He told us the special and we ordered an appetizer. It was the Crispy Buffalo Cauliflower which we thought was OK. It was just as advertised with the standard Red Hot wing sauce coating the dried cauliflower florets. When we ordered the main dishes, we asked our waiter whether he was comfortable pairing wines? He said he was, but then recommended a wildly inappropriate wine for the dishes we told him we were ordering. Needless to say, we did not order the wine he recommended. The next negative surprise was the food itself. As it turned out, three of us ordered the stacked panko chicken dish. When they came, all three were different from each other! One was good, it was hot, and it had a good amount of sauce on the chicken and the couscous as well as mushroom chunks. That’s the one I have a picture of. The second one was cold, had no mushrooms, but was sauced properly. The third one had no couscous and was swimming is so much of the sauce that it looked like a soup. We sent that one back – when it came back, it was lukewarm chicken served on a bed of couscous with absolutely no sauce at all! How is it possible to have four or the same dish come out of the same kitchen during the same service in four different ways? This lack of consistency is a really bad sign. The other dish we got was the Baramundi. It was served on a bed of Basmati rice that was tasteless. It was dry, and then some butter was mixed in to try and cover up that problem. Really, making rice properly is not that difficult! By the way, after we gave our orders, we never saw our waiter again. We were served by several female waitresses and someone who appeared to be a lead or manager. The male waiter was there, he was just wondering around and talking with other tables. Spending $50 per person for these kinds of experiences? No, just no. Between the food and the service problems, I am downgrading my rating from a five star rating to a two-star rating. Previous Visits Quiet place with very good food. Menu has a little bit of everything and all is well prepared. It's off the beaten path and has an interesting light arrangement that changes colors all the time but subtly. Good wine list to boot Second visit showed an updated menu with the same ambience and quality.

FANTASTIC food FANTASTIC staff fantastic place to eat