Article 1709 of pgh.food: Path: fs7.ece.cmu.edu!crabapple.srv.cs.cmu.edu!bb3.andrew.cmu.edu!news.sei.cmu.edu!toads.pgh.pa.us!hudson.lm.com!foxholly.lm.com!not-for-mail From: peterb@foxholly.lm.com (Pete Berger) Newsgroups: pgh.food Subject: Abruzzi's - Italian Date: 15 Mar 1994 13:43:30 -0500 Organization: Telerama Public Access Internet, Pittsburgh, PA Lines: 29 Message-ID: <2m4vki$h82@foxholly.lm.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: foxholly.lm.com X-Newsreader: TIN [version 1.2 PL2] I heartily recommend "Abruzzi's", on 10th Street in the South Side. This place will renew your interest in Italian food. The menu is diverse without being a "sampler" type restaurant. The spicy dishes are spicy, and everything is very rich. This is a good thing, here. Try any of the calamari dishes -- it is fresh and tender, not like the rubber O-rings you get at many other area restaurants. This is a restaurant that understands that "seafood" means more than shrimp. Fish, scallops, squid ... all of represented here. The sauces for their pasta are tasty and authentic; the spices come through, not just salt and sugar. If you get one of the more substantial sauces, I suggest using penne' as the pasta of your choice. Recommended sauces: fra diavolo (if you've only ever tried Pasta Piatto's, you've never had real fra diavolo. Try this. It is hot). Also, if you are not at all weight conscious, the tomato-cream-vodka sauce is incredible. The dining space is wonderful, too. Very roomy and comfortable. A nice change from the sardine-can atmosphere that forced me to stop patronizing Pasta Piatto. The only drawback to the place, in my opinion, is an understocked and overpriced wine list. Peter Berger System Administrator Telerama Public Access Internet, Pittsburgh. Article 2162 of pgh.food: Path: fs7.ece.cmu.edu!crabapple.srv.cs.cmu.edu!bb3.andrew.cmu.edu!andrew.cmu.edu!dc6b+ From: David Chinn Newsgroups: pgh.food Subject: Abruzzi's Date: Mon, 27 Jun 1994 16:07:34 -0400 Organization: Doctoral student, Psychology, Carnegie Mellon, Pittsburgh, PA Lines: 30 Message-ID: NNTP-Posting-Host: po2.andrew.cmu.edu Having read an enthusiastic post about Abruzzi's (10th st between Carson & the bridge) we decided to try it. The decor is a little plain, but they have decent tableclothes and the atmosphere is pleasant. The service was surly and slow. We ordered our food and then waited over half an hour for a plate of mixed antipasti - several rolls of cold meats, some sticks of ordinary yellow cheese and 5 steamed mussels with three olives. We were informed that the chef had been on his break and that was the reason for the delay. I have never heard that excuse before. We both ordered from the extensive pasta menu. I had a dish with sausage and meat sauce and my wife had the meat and tomato sauce on spaghetti. Both dishes were what we have come to recognize as standard Pittsburgh Italian: heavy and greasy. Also, it always puts me off my food when I am given a portion so large that two people couldn't finish - though I appreciate that some people consider this a positive feature. My meal was very ordinary, overly greasy with almost tasteless sausage. My wife's meat sauce was almost inedible with an unpleasant taste and an equally nasty aftertaste. I don't know what the two reviewers who have posted here complimenting Abruzzi's ate, but we were very disappointed and will not return. /=========================================================\ \ David Chinn E-mail: chinn+@cmu.edu / / Psychology Dept, \ \ Carnegie Mellon University, / / Pittsburgh, PA 15213. Tel (412) 268-8112 \ \=========================================================/