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| - I had a chance to dine here after a work meeting recently. From the outside the place looks pretty unassuming - the building is small and painted in such a way that it doesn't stand out much from the road or gray Pittsburgh sky, and "Carl's" is written on it in fairly small print. You could easily drive by and totally miss it on your way to Monroeville. But once you get inside you're in for a treat, as Carl's is definitely one of the nicer bars and dining areas I've eaten in around this general area.
Their menu, while not enormous, is pretty impressive to read over - lots of appetizers, multiple sandwiches, a few pizzas, some pastas...add on their daily soups and specials and you have a surprising number of options to pick from. I didn't expect that from such a little watering hole! My coworkers and I all ended up ordering the fish sandwich due to a recommendation from a local earlier in the day. Let me tell you, this sandwich is HUGE. The slice of breaded fried fish you get on this thing is almost twice as long as the sandwich bun, and as a result some of us just ate half of the fish with tartar sauce rather than as a sandwich. The sandwiches were so big that the three of us regretted getting the two orders of fries we thought would make a good side. Not because the fries were bad, but none of us really had the room to eat many of them!
Then again, we might have eaten more fries except for a great act of generosity on the staff's part. One coworker had ordered provolone cheese on his sandwich and received American due to a mixup. The staff apologized for this and, to our surprise, brought out some amazingly delicious fried cheeseballs filled with pepperjack cheese to make up for the error. They were so fresh, they literally melted in our mouths as we ate them. We may have been full from the sandwiches but we still devoured those cheesy goodies!
Since we stopped in during the work day we didn't drink anything alcoholic, but I'd definitely consider stopping in again for a bite and a beer in the future. The food was good and the staff were excellent - that makes for a great albeit little place!
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