notion

It depresses me that notion has or will close. Perhaps was not perfect but for what it’s worth I think there was no more exciting, more technically accomplished or better tasting food in Pittsburgh, and I wish chef Racicot the best in whatever is next.

Notion closed before I could visit. I heard great things about it… wonder what happened? Article below:

We went for restaurant week, and while everything was good and the gastronomy was impressive, I feel like the regular menu is a bit pricey.

We have been coming to Notion periodically since it opened, and think it is consistently one of the most polished and well executed dining experiences in Pittsburgh. Dave Racicot puts together plates that are well thought out, contain clever flavor combinations, and that are beautifully arranged, but that are never «too clever by half.» He uses modern techniques inventively, but only where they make sense and improve the overall dish (no esoteric powders and gels just for their own sake). The beef tartare, in whatever variation is on the menu, is a consistent winner. The black sesame cake, if it’s on the dessert menu, is also worth trying — very inventive and also very delicious.
The front of the house is one of the best ensembles in town — attentive but not hovering, friendly but a bit formal (in a good way). (We went there for our anniversary, and were presented upon arrival with menus that had a personalized greeting at the top — something I’ve not seen before or since. That is a symbol of the attention to detail…) The room is a bit spare, but is comfortable and not too loud.
Most recently, we attended a sous vide cooking class at the restaurant. Dave was informative and likable, and the ensuing meal was great — by design, he took supermarket ingredients and transformed them, while making the technique accessible enough that we’re looking forward to trying it at home.
To sum up, Notion doesn’t project a trendy vibe, but is a great place for a great meal, especially on a special occasion where a placid and sophisticated experience is in order.

It wasn’t because of restaurant week, I don’t think I’ll ever come here due to the high price. So the review is for what my dining experience during the restaurant week: $ 35 three course meal with $ 21 wine pairing.
Though I had wine with each dish, I’m not good at telling how well they go together, so I’ll skip this part. Jennifer (I figured her name out because of the reservations) did tell us about why she chose those wines, but I just cannot tell how good or bad they are.
We got watermelon soda as a sample drink to start with. My friends liked it, but I don’t like soda that much, so it was just okay to me. I prefer the simple watermelon + ice drink better.
Starters:
Beef tartare: Everyone loved it! The Korean flavors went well with icebergs, which is typical in Korean BBQ.
Corn soup: The combination of the salty corn soup and sweet cream (or yogurt?) created an interesting taste. It’s much better than what I expected from a corn soup. The shrimps were really tender.
Entrees:
Salmon: Absolutely my favorite salmon dish so far. It was so tender that we thought it wasn’t cooked though it wasn’t raw either. Since a friend wouldn’t eat any uncooked meat, we asked the waitress about it. She told us that it was cooked sous-​vide which I’ve heard a few times but never got the chance to try. We learned that the chicken and the pork were also cooked sous-​vide.
Risotto: The mushroom (portobello?) was flavorful. The risotto seemed simple but it was really good. I would love to eat more rice if they are this good. It was creamy and I don’t know what else made it so delicious.
Chicken: The sauce made the juicy and tender chicken (breast) so amazing. I always find chicken breasts to be the most challenging to cook, so thumbs up for this dish.
Pork: my friends all like it due to the tenderness, but after I had the chicken, I couldn’t say the pork was that good. It probably wasn’t a fair comparison, but I liked the chicken much better.
Dessert:
Milk chocolate: I always like chocolate.
Cheesecake: I’m not a big fan of the cheesecake while others like it a lot.
As pointed out in another view, they like to pour the sauce in front of you, which I kind of enjoy. It’s fun to see what the dish is like with or without the sauce.
We all enjoyed our dinner quite a lot.

We had the six course chef’s tasting menu. All six courses were fantastic; probably the most inventive dishes I’ve had in Pittsburgh. Three amuse bouche were included which were strong as well.
Highlights were a Korean-​influenced tartare with bulgogi and peanuts served in a tomato gel; various flavor combinations would take precedence with each bite making it a joy to eat. The «cheesecake» with fig and holy basil was fantastically intense and unique.
The wine pairings were excellent and all appropriate to the dishes. All dishes and pairings were explained well, which was particularly helpful considering the complex flavors.
A fantastic experience and one I look forward to repeating!

Run, drive, swim, whatever you have to do get here now. Well not now while I’m righting this but they open at 6 so you can even plan ahead a bit. This is the most amazing restaurant I’ve been to in pittsburgh. The food is amazing and the detail that is put into it is just amazing. The skill of Chef Dave is envious. He combines flavors from all over the world to create a single dish that is harmony in your mouth. There’s just so many small touches that make this such a great restaurant. I personally recommend the tasting menu. Just do it. I don’t like shell fish but the crab I had was just crazy good. Also the wine pairing is perfect. They know what there doing here. I have trouble justifying coming back to a place more then once with so many options

I’ve only eaten here once. I thought the décor could use some improvement. And when the chef came out front to talk to other patrons about how he was going to repaint & spruce the place up, I was glad. He never stopped at our table to say hello or introduce himself even though we were the only other diners in the place. While I found that to be a bit offputting, I’m glad I didn’t let it spoil my experience because…
THE FOOD WAS AMAZING. Gorgeous presentation, amazing flavors, fun textures. Everything was designed to please all of your senses AND make your taste buds come alive.
My friends & I did the tasting menu for $ 89 a person. Two vegetarian & two regular. They brought out a total of 10 courses & I’m not kidding — every single thing was to die for. I’m very picky & wouldn’t rave about the food unless it was worthy. The veggie tasting menu looked incredible & I was jealous I didn’t get to try some of those options as well!
We started off the meal with a complimentary glass of lemon seltzer & crushed raspberries — to open up our palates. We also had ordered a few drinks from the bar — which were fabulous. The Ginger Julep was a favorite. The wonderful wait staff then proceeded to bring out our dishes in a perfectly timed fashion. Some of my dishes included lobster & some kind of apple concotion with caviar, beef tartare with kiwi & nuts on top & lettuce cups to wrap them in, crab in a flavorful broth and… ok I really stink at describing the food, lol. I can’t remember what everything was but each dish was complex. Masterfully combined flavors, textures & colors. The food was so beautiful, we hardly wanted to eat it (but we did!). I wish I could give more thorough descriptions but it was amazing. We had several dessert courses & the best was a cheesecake «pudding», covered in freshly sliced cherries, a japanese herb whose name escapes me & some edible flowers on top. I could have eaten 10 of those! We were also given homemade chocolate truffles after dinner.
This is not a place you go to if you want to stuff yourself with typical American fare (not that there’s anything wrong with a burger & fries!). You don’t go here if you want to spend $ 10 & do an all-​you-​can-​eat thing. When I see peopel complaining about portion size or price — it’s obvious they didn’t do any research into this restaurant before choosing to dine here. The food is complex, fun, delicious & truly unique. It’s an experience. It’s expensive for Pittsburgh but in NYC, a restaurant like this would charge $ 200+ for the same tasting menu. If you can go here for a romantic night or a special occasion, I simply can’t recommend it enough.
I will be back the next time I have a special occasion to celebrate

I’d expected so much! Maybe too much. Let’s start with the cocktail. A riff on a Manhattan with kisses of St. Germain and Chambord sounded beautiful. Reality the Manhattan was overpowered by the sweet ingredients and lost its Manhattan-​ness. Our waiter was kind enough to have it remade, which was an improvement, but still far too sweet instead balanced and subtle.
First courses couldn’t have been better! The beef tartare with black garlic was perfection, as was the sweet corn soup with yogurt foam, lightly pickled shrimp and nasturtium petals. So good!
And then the second course. My selection, a maybe 2″ flat disc of risotto rice, topped with a shaved matching disc of portobello mushroom, with a squirt parmesan cream on the side was delicious, but that was a course? My companion had a small raw, room temp piece of salmon with a dill cream that once tasted wasn’t eaten. She’s a sushi fan, so raw didn’t freak her out it was the room temp that did.
Third course. We both had very small portions of sous vide chicken. It was unremarkable. Period.
Dessert? I ordered cheesecake. Adam, our very professional, quite knowledgeable waiter told me it would be unlike any cheesecake I’d ever had. He was right. It was gorgeous!
Sliced, fresh black cherries interspersed with beautiful cornflower blue borage flowers tiled the top of a lump of pudding-​like, lemony «cheesecake» filing. As the saying goes, pretty is as pretty does. It didn’t. The cherries were basically tasteless and the filling in the bottom disappointing. More pudding than cheesecake, it just didn’t make the grade.
What’s more, our Restaurant Week special menu meal (that totaled pennies shy of $ 85, and that didn’t include the cocktails Adam took off our bill or his very generous, well deserved tip) lacked such substance, that we made dinner when we got home!
Let’s see… how do I sum this up? Mathematically!
Category Rating
Atmosphere: 3
Service: 5
1^st Course: 5
2^nd Course: 3
3^rd Course: 3
Dessert: 2
Cocktail: 2
Value: 2
TOTAL: 26
AVERAGE: 3.25
Rounding down, that’s 3 stars. I expected better.

Our experience at notion with a lowercase ‘n’ began well.
I made reservations on their website, and they responded within 2 hours about some of the details I put regarding my girlfriends food allergies, specifically dairy and tree nuts. Jennifer answered me with several very reasonable followup questions to be sure that the specifics were understood, and assured me that the chef was taking it into account. So far, so good. I email the menu to her, we both discuss the $ 65 four course, excitement builds.
We arrive at the place, which is an underwhelming square on the outside. We walk in and am struck by how plain things were — the plain white walls felt like the small retail store that the building was obviously intendedly sized for. An uninspired light in the middle of the building was the only attempt to change it. We stand at the front of the dining room before the waitstaff emerged from the back wall and walked the length of the room to take our names.
We are seated, and when the waitress hands us the menus, she informs my girlfriend that if she wants to have her dietary restrictions observed as had been emailed, she needed to get the tasting menu. She did use her tone to try to imply that this might be optional maybe, but her words were that the chef specifically prepared a tasting menu selection just for her. A $ 48 dollar up-​sell using the implied threat of a deathly allergic reaction.
She then tried to take our orders right there, on the spot.
I had to interject into this and say that we needed a minute. She walked away, and my girlfriend immediately said how that exchange made her feel uncomfortable. I, not wanting to pay $ 200+ for a dinner at anywhere that thinks that sort of tactic is acceptable, agreed. The tone of the entire dinner was going to be negative.
I can only suspect that these are hard times for notion, and the server herself was forced into using any excuse at all to sell the higher priced menu item, or had been given big financial incentives.
Walked out and got seated at Spoon within 15 minutes. The dining room felt vibrant and well put together, with strong lighting and a vibrant minimal bar. They also have drinks and offer a prix fixe four course for $ 65.
If you going to make something at this price point, then the dinning environment is not an optional bonus that you can skimp on, nor is having used car salesmen on your staff.
Sat, Mar 22, 2014 at 11:01 PM
TO: reservations@notionresta…
Hi Jennifer,
I just wanted to convey my feelings on our experience at Notion tonight. After being seated, our server confirmed her food allergies… and then informed us that if she wanted to have her dietary restrictions observed, she would need to get the tastings menu. This immediately made my girlfriend uncomfortable. Instead of feeling like a luxury dinner for us, it felt like a meal that our server forced/​guilted onto both of us, which is not an experience that is worth $ 200+. Instead, I made reservations across the street at Spoon, and we were seated 10 minutes later.
If this restriction was really made ahead of time, then it certainly seems appropriate to have warned me in one of the 5 email we exchanged. Cordially,
–BFW
[no response, 48 hours later, so I’m posting this review]

One hour until the chefs from Cure and Notion create an 8 course pairing menu! So excited! I’ll post pics soon!

Went here during restaurant week — 3 courses for $ 36. For that price, I would give this place 5 stars. As their usual price is significantly higher, I give this place 4 stars.
Lets start with the food — delicious, creative, unique. The big theme I noted is that cooking is done via sous vide, enabling them to achieve unique textures you may not have tried before. One of the courses that night involved a sous vide egg yolk, which had a texture much like butter. The salmon was very moist and flaky — a beautiful medium rare. While I appreciate a restaurant which goes through the time and effort to do this, it’s really not that hard to do on your own either. Also, it’s delicious.
They also like to bring sauces and pour them on your dish tableside. These sauces show the restaurants originality — my favorite being the shellfish sauce, which was paired with a pork loin. It was creamy and very fishy — and that worked fantastically well with my sous vide pork.
Oh, and before I forget, the beef tartar was probably the best I’ve ever had. If it’s on the menu, don’t miss it!
Service was decent — they only had 2 servers for the restaurant that night, and given the intensive level of service required for this restaurant (changing silverware between courses, explaining each dish as it is served, etc.) it was sometimes slow. But the servers were very nice, well informed about the food, and helpful when I managed to get their attention.
Overall, this place is a tad too pricey for what it offers. I likely won’t go back until the next restaurant week because of this. Nonetheless, I enjoyed my meal here very much.

Went to notion about 5 months ago. I so want to give it 5 stars but I just can’t. Very interesting meal and I when I went with it was byob. I ate at Lautrec a few years ago and that was the best meal of my life. So I had high hopes going into this meal.
Things that were amazing: the beef tartar app with gelled soy balls was insane, the beef, oh the beef was melt in your mouth. Between courses chef sent bites that were so delicious. The second dessert was amazing black sesame cake, coconut, cherry, white chocolate.
But there were some missteps– the ambiance sucks. It’s uncomfortable to sit for the meal. Our 6 course tasting included 2 desserts. I thought that was cheap and who wants 2 desserts? The scallops that were processed into gnocchi. Not good. The night we went there were 5 other tables seated around the same time as us and then no one came in for the second seating. Chef could have come and said hello to the few diners he had. And he didn’t. When we went he was relatively new to our neighborhood and it would have been nice if he had said hello.
But, having said all that. I’ll be back. I want to eat his fall menu– hoping to see some game meats and try him out when he has a liquor license. I will not be getting a tasting menu unless it only includes 1 dessert.

Notion is clearly aiming to be THE white-​table cloth, fine-​dining establishment of Pittsburgh.
We went recently on a Saturday night and found the restaurant to be relatively busy. Diners are presented with two menu-​options: a four course $ 65 tasting menu where you get to pick what you want from several categories, or a 6 course $ 85 tasting menu where the chef picks the dishes for you.
We opted for the $ 85 chef’s menu and found the food to be a very good, high concept take on New American with Korean influences. Re: alcohol, as others have mentioned, the restaurant is in the middle of getting its liquor license, which means that you can currently bring your own wine with no corkage fee.
Standout dishes were: a delicious Korean flavoured beef tartare that was served with Korean ssam style lettuce wraps; a beautifully moist sturgeon, cooked sous-​vide and served with horseradish, dill and a cucumber reduction; a pork belly with clam, kale and shellfish sauce; a starter course that featured an interesting, subtle take on three different types of ancient grains. Another winner was a hibiscus soda that was mixed table-​side, served as the first of two amuses. All of the dishes were beautifully plated and there was an interesting mix of table wear used, which added to the presentation.
In other words, it is clear that the chef running this place has talent.
That said, given the price point (cheap in some ways because it is temporarily byob, noting however that this will soon be in «fine dining» territory once the liquor license comes through) I do have to make several comments on the service level and ambience of the place, which in my opinion require some work.
1) Ambience: The décor of this restaurant is not good — it was neither trendy nor classically elegant. The dining room was a sea of beige and the walls were very bare. It was also lit a bit too brightly and just plain did not feel fancy. Another unusual thing was that there was no music playing for much of the dinner (and when music was eventually switched on it was so low as to be almost imperceptible) which made conversation feel a little uncomfortable as you could hear everything that anyone within a two table radius was saying.
2) Service: Overall the service was decent — our waiter was both friendly and accommodating and was knowledgeable about the food being served. That said, there were a lot of little things that the restaurant did that lacked polish. Flaws, albeit minor ones, were numerous: our table was quite wobbly; candles were lit (with a Zippo) after we sat down, even though we had made a reservation beforehand (and so the table should have been fully prepped for our arrival); there was nowhere to put my wife’s sweater so she put it on the banquette beside her; the restaurant was quite chilly, etc. etc.
As a result of all the ambience and service shortcomings, I’m inclined to give this place a 3.5÷5 (but will give a 3 on Unilocal). I think this is a fair score because the food, as mentioned, is very good (but not outstanding) and provided decent value noting our dinner, including tax + tip was about $ 225 (remembering again, that this did not include wine however). That said, this also means that dinner for two at Notion once it gets its liquor license will be a $ 300+ affair which in my opinion knocks it into a whole different dining category and similarly invites additional scrutiny.
Some may think that I am being unfairly nitpicky for some of the items above, however once you get into the fine-​dining price range, the service and experience of the restaurant are every bit as important as the food. People go to these types of establishments to celebrate special occasions and accordingly they want an extraordinary experience. What Notion delivered was a well prepared, interesting menu with a very ordinary dining experience.
The good news is that all of this could be fixed pretty quickly and pretty easily and then this place could achieve the potential it clearly shows.
I will keep an eye on this place and may come back the next time in town for another taste.
–Brian

I love the food and the service. I also like that Notion is currently a BYOB. We had the 4 course dinner, and because we shared we were able to taste most things on the menu that evening. The service was well timed and impeccably gracious.
The ambiance was very muted and simple, I liked the art glass hanging from the ceiling.
We had a wonderful experience at Notion and I would love to return in the near future.

I had heard so many good things about notion. But I was not prepared for how fancy pants it is! I’d have to say this is maybe the fanciest place I’ve been to before. And I’m not just talking about the interior. I’m talkin’ bout the whole package!
For $ 65 you receive four courses. You get to pick between three different items between every course. It’s really a nice mix of food and my eyes went straight to certain picks. But what I didn’t realize was that we got what I’ll call the «bonus rounds.» I wish I could describe to you all of the bonus rounds, I’ll leave you with the surprise. Let’s just say they were all incredibly unique and a fun little treat (and I can’t describe them for the life of me, so there’s that).
Here were my dish picks:
Beet with blueberries, hibiscus, crème fraîche
Scallops imitating gnocchi with peppermint, parmesan broth
Tenderloin with burnt onion, thinly sliced portabella and hazlenut
Milk Chocolate Nutella Cake, orange and banana pudding
I will first say I loved all the sauces they add to the dish right in front of you! I love a good sauce and the added bonus was watching them compliment the dish with the pairing sauce (see, fancy!). I thought the beets were great. I was a bit disappointed with the scallops, as I felt it could have used a bit more flavor. I loved the tenderloin though! They don’t even ask you how you want it cooked, it just comes out medium rare, like it should be cooked all the time! I also really enjoyed the dessert. I loved the little bits of banana pudding mixed with the Nutella cake.
All the plates were small, but I was full by the time I was done. Not stuffed, but totally satisfied. And I lied, one of the bonus rounds was chocolate truffles, chocolate sticks and chocolate wafers. I was totally into this bonus round and even may have finished off others truffles. Oops.
But dining here is an experience. It’s not just a dinner out. The way the wait staff caters to your every need, describes every single dish to you as it comes out and replaced every single napkin if you get up. Now THAT is a good waitstaff!
No corkage fee, but they’re getting ready to get a liquor license so BYOB will be coming to an end soon. I imagine the cocktails will be just as inventive as the food!
It’s hard to put too much of the dinner into words, you just have to go for yourself!

Small bites, large price tag, amazing food adventure! If you are looking for a food experience then look no further, you’ve found it in Notion. I think to enjoy the experience and the food you have to be prepared for the type of place this is. It’s the sort of place where you get this huge plate with an itty bitty smattering of food in the middle. Lucky for you that they give many plates on the prixe fixed menu so that you don’t leave hungry.
Right now it’s BYOB but they are applying for their liquore license. No corkage fee — woohoo! The decord is simple, clean and modern — I liked it. Small inside but there wasn’t too many people so weren’t bothered by noise of other tables since we were spaced adequately.
They started with a palate cleansing limeade type drink with chia seeds hanging out in the bottom. I don’t know about you, but I love me some chia seeds. Our group ordered the 4 tasting menu and I chose the Beet, Scallops, Beef Tenderloin and Strawberry Cheesecake.
Beet
Delish! I think you need to really like beets to like this dish. I mean you get a beet bulb smack in the center of your plate with about 4 blueberries holding it captive. Then there’s some lip smacking good sauce they drizzle over it and a dabble of crème fraîche.
Scallops
Meh! This was the disappointment in my food journey. They were mini scallops served cold with mint and some green sauce that didn’t sit well with my palate. I wanted them to jump back in to the ocean or whatever body of water they came from. I tried a taste of my friend’s Halibut dish and was envious because it was soooo good. Learn from misstep and order the Halibut instead of the scallops.
Beef Tenderloin
Yum! Highlight of the food trip. It was soo good that I scarfed it down. The beef was tender and perfectly salted while the mushrooms were lightly marinated. They poured a sauce over this dish as well but honestly, I’m not sure it did much to enhance the taste of the dish as this stood strong on its own.
Strawberry Cheesecake
Mmm! This was a deconstructed cheesecake of some sort. The cream cheese part was on the bottom covered with a cheese like slice of strawberry gel… please note that it was not cheese, but look like a Kraft cheese slice but red and strawberry flavored. There were some graham cracker chunks to the side with a few tiny dollops of strawberry pudding, rhubarb jelly-​like mounds and basil jellyish dots. I had the opportunity to try the other deserts since my friend’s ordered them and this was the best amongst the milk chocolate and yuzu. I wouldn’t recommend the Yuzu unless you want to eat earthy leaves on top of vanilla pudding… that’s what it tasted like to me.
So there you have it, food journey at its end. I would definitely recommend folks try this place just for the experience alone. I enjoyed the experience, the company and the food… probably in that order. The food is amazing but it’s the whole package that makes this place great in my mind.

One of the best dining experiences Pittsburgh has to offer. I took my boyfriend here for his birthday dinner, and it ended up being a present to myself as well! There were far too many details that encompassed each dish to write in this review. The craftsmanship and presentation of this food is unrivaled in Pittsburgh. And for the price — $ 65 for a four course meal — that is unbelievable! Especially when you take into consideration the price of a similar dining experience in other large cities. I cannot wait to come back and try one of the tasting menu options.

It doesn’t take much to get a 2 or 3 from me, but I don’t give up 5’s easy. No, it takes a very special restaurant to romance me and take our relationship to that next level.
Notion is such a place. No words can do full justice to the delights that await all your senses. Calling their food good is like calling the surface of the sun warm or the ocean slightly damp. Expect dynamic flavor explosions, beautiful presentation, incredibly friendly and knowledgeable staff, and psychedelically creative blends like barley with espelette cream, cauliflower and manchego custard, scallop cucumber gnocchi, and deconstructed nutella chocolate cake.
I went with a group of 4 and got the tasting menu which includes 4 courses, an appetizer„ a fish, a meat, and a desert. Between the 4 of us we tried every single thing on the day’s menu and none of us had anything we didn’t love. They change up the offerings daily. I would recommend going with a group so you can all order and try everything. Alternately you can get the 6 course tasting menu with smaller courses of more dishes.
If Notion was in any other major city they would charge $ 200 a head. Notion isn’t cheap at $ 65 for the 4 course tasting menu (it’s top secretly 7 courses since they include 2 amuse-​bouches and a bonus desert) but given the sky high quality of every aspect of the experience, and that it’s byob so you don’t get slammed with additional wine surcharges, Notion felt like one of the best values in Pittsburgh. I think this is the beginning of a beautiful relationship!

Disclaimer: This review is based on notion’s soft opening.
Thank the blogosphere that I caught wind that notion was having a donation only soft launch. I decided to surprise the fiancée and whisk her over to East Liberty one day after work for what I hoped would be a unique experience… notion definitely didn’t disappoint.
Eliminating any inconsistencies from the rating (can’t really ding a new restaurant on that), our server did a great job explaining the four course meal with wine pairings plus the bonus two complements of the chef. Every plate was well artistic, well presented, and complex yet refined relative to the ingredients, which are the true star of the show here. Notion ever so slightly transforms their ingredients to meld into something that overall satisfies the palate.
Alas, that is also what prevents me from giving notion a 5-​star review. Although ALL of the dishes were pleasant to eat and I would order again, NONE of them managed to blow my socks off nor leave me craving for more. At the end of the day, we donated an amount close to what the meal would of cost anyways (we thought it was worth it), but I wouldn’t find myself ever proactively seeking notion out again.