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| - The comment someone made about the suits was amusing as I noticed a fair amont of them after dining at Habitat during the first night of my stay at the Fairmont. Nothing against the suits, but some are more rambunctious than others. I guess Pittsburgh is no longer a blue collar town and the Fairmont Hotel and by extension, the Habitat represent the 'new' Pittsburgh.
Don't get me wrong, I'm happy to see that Pittsburgh has more food options and that the Habitat is following the 'locavore' movement. I just wish they would do a better job of preparing the food as the seasonality component is lost if the food is not great.
Although my dinner at Habitat was just okay the first night I tried them, I decided to give them another try, partly because I was tired and didn't feel like seeking out another restaurant in the city and taking a cab back and forth that cold blustery night.
In any case, I had dinner in the lounge this time and started out with the arugula salad with spinach. The dish was supposed to come with pomegranate, goat cheese and almonds. The salad came out on a large plate with a minuscule amount of arugula and a few spinach leaves with no pomegrante and almonds in sight. I'm by no means cheap when it comes to good food, but I've had much better salads for $10, especially since the arugula lacked that earthy, pungent taste I get when purchasing fresh arugula from the farmers market.
For the mains, I went for the wall eye, since I haven't had this particular fish in quite some time. Overall, the fish was good, but again, the accompanying items didn't show up with the fish. The dish was supposed to come with turnips,squash, broccoli and winter greens. I got the squash but the broccoli was missing unless it was ground up with the bland and cold winter green purée.
Bottom line, I wouldn't discourage anyone from checking out Habitat (on the contrary) as the place is good for the city and your dining experience will largely depend on what you order for dinner. In addition, the breakfast and service are top notch and I found the hostess to be really on top of her game.
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