Matteo's - Pittsburgh

Given that Piccolo Forno is just down the street, I would expect better, much better. The food is OK. Huge portions that are reminiscent of Bravo. Nothing particularly interesting that stood out aside from the greens beans which I loved. The food and portions are OK enough that I would have returned if I was craving chain-like food not at a chain, had it not been for the service. We had made reservations for 7 of us for a friends birthday. A few major downfalls: 1. We brought a cake which the waitress just sat on a random chair when we told her at the beginning. When it was time for us to sing, we removed it ourselves and had to track the waitress down to ask for plates and a knife to cut it. They then charged us $10 for their service . Every other restaurant I have brought a cake to has immediately taken the cake to the kitchen to refrigerate it, brought it out with a candle on and cut/served the cake to us. 2. They were out of Pinot Grigio by the bottle?? They offered zero alternative options and instead we had to all have individual glasses of pinot grigio... out of a bottle. It was just confusing, like if you are out of your bottled option give us another bottled option ! There were seven of us ready to drink bottles upon bottles and instead we had to go by the glass. It honestly seemed like they were scamming us. 3. Our waitress was nonexistent. We waited over 20 minutes for her to take our orders, she rarely filled our water unless asked, and overall all was extremely rude. 4. The guest of honor 's lovely boyfriend had called in advance to surprise her and us with 2 bottles of champagne. They gave the bottles to another table and did nothing to rectify the situation.

Small cozy restaurant. The bathroom floor was filthy when we were there but that was also after a snow/rain day. The food was tasty! If you don't like garlic, you might want to tell the server. The server was prompt in the beginning until the bar got busy then she barely came around, but she apologized, was nice and made good recommendations. I had the scoglio with red sauce and penne (this is prob more like a linguine/spaghetti type sauce, but I just think penne was easier to eat). sauce was delish and garlicky. It was disappointing that for the price, they used mini scallops like the size of mini marshmallows, and it looked like someone tried to open the mussels that did not open themselves (meaning they are dead and should not be eaten). My hubby had the lamb chops, and he loved them. It came with one side I think (he got asparagus). He also got an extra side of penne in garlic oil because he felt like he needed the starch for the lamb chop's sauce. It was swimming in sauce. Lamb chops were cooked perfectly. The highlight of my meal was the chocolate mousse cake. Server said the chef's wife makes them (along with the rum cake abd tiramisu). It was perfect consistency and sweetness (not too sweet). The place is pricey, but I would recommend it for date night. My hubby's makers mark and diet coke were $10 ea, but that's up and coming Lawrenceville for ya. Overall, would go back but not a weekly thing.

I got to give it to you real for this one. We tried this place for Pittsburgh Restaurant Week and were highly disappointed. The waitress seemed irritated that the restaurant was busy--weird since she works for tips. Another table sent back a glass of wine that had lipstick on it. Instead of getting a fresh glass, she dumped the wine into a water glass and used her shirt to wipe the glass off. Then she return the wine back into the even dirtier glass--YUCK!! Our food was cold and not very good, but we were afraid after seeing what happened with the wine to send anything back.

Matt Cavanaugh is an incredible chef. Hands down. He's innovative, bold and fresh. Ingredients are traditional to creative Italian dishes that break out the difference between a good Italian restaurant vs a faux paus. Dining for groups or intimacy is good here. Outdoor dining weather approved. Specialities nightly and seasonally. Good wine list for all vino lovers. Wine tastings on Thursdays check their website for details. There's no reason why anyone shouldn't pass up this restaurant for lunch or dinner. Price point is reasonable.

So I 've actually never taken the time to review anything on yelp but feel the urge to do so deeply tonight. We had reservations for 7 for an engagement party 's the waitress didn 't even ask our drink orders til 730. She didn 't ask for our food order until 8. One hour of our lives down the tubes. While waiting for our food we ordered another round of drinks (mostly beer) which didn 't arrive until 830. Keep in mind the average ratio of customers to waiters was 2 customers per waiter so not over busy. We are currently sitting in the restaurant and didn 't get our VERY average food until 9:10. THENNNN the owner was bar tending....one of the customers with our party ordered a drink which tasted like straight sugar syrup. When she asked to have it swapped out, the owner goes what 's wrong now??? So she just skipped getting a new drink and just wasted $10. NEVER AGAIN.