Rich Z.
Yelp
I hate to write this, because I had an amazing meal here with my wife and two kids the first time we went a year ago. But we didn't interact with the owner. Just recently, my parents were in from out of town, and I really wanted to take them here. The first sign of trouble was when I tried to make a reservation for a Thursday, and the owner grilled me on how old my kids are. The subtext was clearly that she didn't like kids in the restaurant, something I've seen confirmed from other reviews here. She also started grumbling when I mentioned it would be six people. She started giving me every reason why it wouldn't work (there's not enough people, the kitchen closes at 7 [even though I was asking for 5:30], etc). She then went into a bizarre tirade where she condescendingly told me that her place is not Applebee's, basically assuming that I was going to be some overly demanding customer who doesn't appreciate good food, even though I told her I had been there and loved her food. I said it sounded like Thursday wasn't the best day, so maybe Friday would be better at 5:30. I was very polite and thanked her for working with us, and I expressed excitement. On Friday, traffic in the tunnel was particularly bad, and we were commuting from an hour away, and I had told her we were driving all the way there just to go to her place. I had to inflate one of our tires unexpectedly, and my parents said they'd be late because of the traffic. I thought it courteous to call the restaurant and let them know. When I told the owner, she got very confrontational, saying 5:30 is 5:30, and the kitchen closes at 7. I told her we'd be just a few minutes late. She said something like, what am I supposed to do, just go with the flow and you show up whenever? I was thinking, we're just going to be a few minutes late, and it's Pittsburgh, so this can't be the only time a customer's gotten stuck in traffic. And you're a restaurant, so yeah, you do sometimes have to go with the flow. At any rate, the rudeness was a deal breaker for me, and I thought, why should we drive to Pittsburgh to patronize someone who not only doesn't want us to be there but will likely treat us rudely the whole time? Other reviews here have validated my experience. I called her back and cancelled the reservation and told her she was incredibly rude and lost our business, and you don't foster lasting customer relationships through hostility and resentment, no matter how good the food is. It was interesting to me that at the beginning of this final call, she said her restaurant was empty, but at the very end, she said she had 10 people waiting to be seated. At any rate, don't go here, no matter how good the food is. No meal is worth the experience of being resented simply for existing and for things out of your control.