Grant Bar

My husband and I went last night after reading the article in the Pittsburgh quarterly magazine. At 6pm we had about a 30 minute wait. We had a couple drinks and waited at the bar. (We were the only people actually drinking at the bar. Everyone else was eating). We shared a fish sandwich (which was plenty big to share) and had room for pie. The sandwich was good but the pie is were it’s at! Reminded me of my grandma’s cream pies. Delish!!!

Very good. Has some old school menu items you’d see in the 70’s or 80’s, but everything I’ve had has been good.
Good service, awesome turtle soup!

Pretty standard old time Pittsburgh place. The food is about what you’d expect, but a little expensive for what you get. I liked their fries and homemade ranch dressing. I did not like the fact that they use miracle whip on their club sandwich; miracle whip probably should never be used instead of mayonnaise at a restaurant, it kind of crosses a boundary if you ask me. Also the décor is weird… they use fake bricks and trees for the walls. I will say that they make one hell of a pie.

We had dinner at the Grant Bar last night. We have been there before and always enjoyed it. After reading reviews here it seems everyone likes the shrimp and few like their «signature» marinated steak. Living dangerously I ordered their surf & turf to try both. Portions were small with 3 shrimp and a small steak. The shrimp were excellent and the steak was medium as ordered and also very good. It was neither over tenderized nor tough. I did have to use my knife to cut it but it had a juicy pink center and was not chewy. My wife had the cod almondine and she thought it was different than the last time she had it but she enjoyed it. The mushroom soup was excellent containing lots of fresh mushrooms.
They had no happy hour specials so we first stopped at the Grist House 3 blocks away. I highly recommend that or Draai Laag for beer but both have limited hours.

I ate here on Saturday with my family and was very impressed. It is an old fashioned setting but the prices are reasonable, the service was excellent and the food was very good as well. I would definitely come back.

When Rick Sebak says it’s a good place to go, you go! So I went, and while the food may not have blown me away, the pies are totally worth the drive here!
You can totally tell this is a spot that sees repeat costumers day in and out. We had an early dinner at 5pm and it was packed with families and couples. The décor reminds you of a ski chalet, it’s quite cozy. All you needed is a roaring fireplace!
We read the reviews about the battered shrimp, so we started off with that as an app. They were very good, and I believe that breadcrumb family recipe is legit. Plus, the cocktail sauce was surprisingly good. But the main dishes we split, between the rainbow trout, almondine cod and seafood platter were a little bland.
The real treat is the pies, as I stated earlier. Most are cream pies, offering their famous coconut cream pie, but also banana cream, chocolate cream and an apple pie, among other choices… I kinda zoned out after my excitement set in for the coconut pie.
It was light and fluffy and delicious, just like you’d expect it to be. Toasted coconut flakes just topped it off. I hear the owner bakes a bunch of pies in the morning and you get what you get by the end of the day, so I was glad to enjoy the coconut one!
While I probably wouldn’t be back for dinner, I’d definitely be back for a slice of pie… or the whole pie!

This was the first and last time I will ever set foot in this place. If you don’t read this entire review I would like you to take away these adjectives used to describe this failure of a restaurant; disgusting, dated, bland, nauseating, repulsive, and low quality. I do not recommend this restaurant to anyone.
My girlfriend drove into town late and we wanted a place nearby to eat so we went to Grant Bar and Lounge. We walked in and were seated quickly. Our waitress was fairly busy and working a handful of tables but was quick to give us menus and take our drink order. I should have known by the quality and cleanliness of the menu that we should leave immediately. My menu was stained with unknown foods or fluids and crumpled like someone used it to practice their origami homework.
We shared the Fried Jumbo Shrimp ($ 13) plate as an appetizer although it is not listed as an appetizer. She ordered a glass of lambrusco red and I ordered a Yuengling. The drinks arrived fairly quickly and the shrimp were a few minutes after that. 5 battered and deep-​fried shrimp on a plate with cocktail sauce. They were tail on, 12 count, de-​veined and butterflied, then dipped into I believe house made batter and deep-​fried.
We then placed our main course orders. She got the Broiled Seafood Platter ($ 23) — Comes with 8 – 10 36 count tail on shrimp, 2−3oz salmon, 4 scallops and a crab cake. Turtle soup and baked potato were the sides for her. I ordered the Marinated Top Sirloin Angus Steak ($ 20) — Supposedly this is a ~10oz marinated piece of angus top sirloin… sides were turtle soup and fries. We also pre-​ordered two pieces of apple pie to go for friends.
The turtle soup arrives shortly thereafter with a breadbasket and crackers. The dinner rolls were the cheap kind that you can buy in a tray (think Sam’s club) and bake a sheet of like 48 of them at once, then pull them apart. These are the type of white bread flavorless rolls that you would get at a fire hall chicken dinner or an all you can eat gun bash. I had a roll, regretting it shortly thereafter. I then tried the Turtle Soup. It tasted like Campbell’s Vegetable Beef soup and I question whether there was actually any turtle meat in it.
I ordered my steak medium rare. The steak was rare on one end and medium at the other. However, that is not my main complaint. This piece of beef, or whatever it was, must have been pounded for ten minutes to tenderize it. The muscle fibers were smashed and flattened like a Swiss steak from a high school cafeteria. The meat was somehow folded over itself with sinew and tendons holding pieces together. I literally think that after hitting this thing for 10 minutes with a tenderizer, the cook took it outside and backed his car onto the meat and did a burnout on it and shot it onto the grill. Hands down, this was the WORST steak (if that’s what you call it) that I have ever eaten. I did not finish it because it was DISGUSTING.
About the time I found out that my meal was going to be horrible, I look over at my girlfriend and see utter disgust and thought she might throw up. She tried the «crab cake». I put that in quotes because whatever this oil soaked, filler laden patty of failure was, it was not a true crab cake. She picked it apart and we find IMITATION CRAB all through it. I could not find an actual piece of lump crabmeat anywhere in that heap of nastiness. I was so embarrassed that I brought her to this butt crack of a restaurant. I tried it just to see if she was correct and let me tell you that this was honestly the worst thing I have tasted… since my steak 30 seconds prior. But now I was embarrassed for this restaurant and the people in charge of it. The management and owners should be embarrassed and ashamed that they serve swill like this to humans… and charge them for it.
She did not eat any more of that FAILURE CAKE or the salmon because it was swimming in a pool of butter. She ate the shrimp, scallops, and her baked potato. I ate my fries and we were out of that horrendous dining experience. When the waitress came back she asked ‘Was everything OK?” because she noticed that neither of us finished our food. I responded with something to the effect of ‘Not really… is that crab cake… made out of… imitation crab?” The waitress responded with ‘It’s a blend”.
The bill was $ 83. Food this deplorable should be around $ 30. I will never go back to this restaurant and will adamantly tell anyone that asks about it to run and hide.
NOTE TO MANAGEMENT/​OWNER: You need to immediately investigate what is happening with the food served to your customers. If you cannot figure out how to make a crab cake without FAKE CRAB, filler, doused in OIL then you should remove it from the menu. Also, I have eaten angus meat for years and your claim of top sirloin angus is laughable. You may be able to pass this filth off as steak in Millvale however I’m not buying it.

This restaurant was featured on a Rick Sebek PBS show about pie. The gentleman who makes the pies has been there for 60 years! Had to make the drive.
I made a reservation and was glad that I did. The place was packed by 6. I ordered the combo — 4oz marinated steak and stuffed shrimp. I seriously didn’t need my knife to cut the steak; tender and flavorful. The stuffed shrimp was tasty. My dining partner had the rainbow trout which I also tasted — probably the best I’ve ever had.
I took a piece of the banana cream and the coconut cream home — goodness they were both wonderful — nice homemade crust and the topping was not overly sweet. YUMMO
Please try this gem — I love off the beaten path — mom and pop — homemade food — getting away from the chain restaurants– don’t think you’ll be disappointed.
Nancy was our waitress. She and the staff will take good care of you.

Great service, great food, great old fashioned bar!!! Awesome place!!! Definitely recommend this place to anyone in the area!!!

This was the worst dining experience I had in ages. We waited over an hour to get our food while other diners came and went. We finally took it to go. The waitress said it was because we ordered an appetizer. No apology and a total lie. When I got home I sadly discovered the fresh crab cake was actually fake crab! $ 16 for fake crab? Ridiculous.

I’m a huge fan of the Grant Bar. It’s wonderfully old school and authentic, visiting there is like stepping back 50 years in time. I highly recommend their pork chops. Their Coconut Cream Pie is a specialty that will be featured in the upcoming national Pie show by the very talented Rick Sebak of WQED. It is light as a feather, flavorful, and everything a great Coconut Cream Pie should be.
This place is authentic Pittsburgh, nothing fancy, but reasonably priced and a real slice of restaurant history. The bar part is in the front, but the dining rooms are in the back and the atmosphere is like hunting lodge.

I have only been here for the pub and have not tried the food. But the atmosphere is great. The bar staff is always nice and attentive. There are okay options for beer. I will certainly be back.

Tried the fried shrimp (very good), fresh green beans, onion rings are great. Just a bit pricey for the food/​atmosphere.

Not bad, not great. Nice atmosphere with kind and professional staff. Food? Typical bar food, nothing spectacular at all. Great place for older folks.

Our group of 22 had reservations for over 3 weeks in advance. No additional staff was on hand., service was poor. I had the famed shrimp and it was good but not jumbo shrimp as advertised & only 4 pieces a baked potato & iceberg lettuce salad for a whopping $ 17.99. No happy hour. This venue is riding on it’s past fame. I don’t think I’ll be returning.

Recently, I finally got around to trying the hallowed fried shrimp. Neither underbattered or overbattered to donut consistencies, the quintet of butterflied shrimp was cooked to an ideal stage. Also coated in batter were the above par french fries. However, aside from the chipper service, the rest of my pre-​concert (Enslaved, Ancient VVisdom, Royal Thunder, and Pallbearer at Mr. Smalls!) dinner at Grant Bar was a downhill ride on a bad road.
My side of cole slaw, and the apple pie (with rock-​hard ice cream yet) I had for dessert were both almost completely flavorless. The cup of Turtle Soup, something I had been dying to sample for most of my life, tasted like a Campbell’s can of tomato-​based fraud with microscopic cubes of mystery meat playing the role of the tortoise. For years my father has told me that area bars catch turtles and make soup from them. What I had last night came off as storebought and warmed over. Urban myth? Considering the harmless neoteny of these shelled critters, I am ambivalent.
Regardless, consider my experience to be a half-​horsed one.
P. S. That shrimp was very good, though, easily beating out the faux (?) crabcakes I had during my last visit.

I’ve been to this place about three times now, and it’s always been good. The staff are pretty friendly, even telling us the history of the bar and it’s past as a hotel. They make a mean burger and their Saturday Prime Rib is pretty darn good given the price. The marinated steak however is more like dried out chuck roast. I won’t be getting that again.
Overall though, it’s a place I will enjoy going to again. It’s earned it’s atmosphere, and after 87 years, it’s earned it’s spot as a landmark.
P. S. One more thing, we found out that if you want the Prime Rib on Saturdays, you’d better get there early, or call ahead and reserve your cut.

great food, great bar, great staff.