| rev:text
| - Mediocre and Disappointing. (Pittsburgh restaurant scene way too competitive for this sort of thing).
Saturday evening dinner with friends, a party of 4.
NoN has a formal atmosphere and an impressive looking menu, but it failed to deliver in both service and in preparation and flavor. We had spotty service, with attention, followed by long gaps of inattention. I won't go into detail, but it took too long for each part of our order to be taken, too long with empty glasses on the table, too long to deliver bread (like 45 min after arriving), drinks delivered and dirty plates not removed (from a small table).
If you're going to be this formal, even bordering on stuffy, then you're going to have to hold up tour end of the bargain. NoN did not.
Appetizer of octopus salad: Large oblong plate, with salad on one half, and a streak of sauce on the other half. Sauce was weakly flavored, and the octopus grilled to dryness. Unremarkable. The other salad was a Beet salad. Again fussy looking, but nobody commented that it was actually good tasting.
Then the mains. Pork Osso Bucco described as "maple root vegetables, porter reduction, blackberry, corn shoots" The pork was tender, but over salted, without any other contrasting notes. The root vegetables were roasted, and served with the now ubiquitous roasted kale (or was it brussels greens, I couldn't tell). No contrasting flavors, no maple, blackberry, etc. just umami roasted veg.
Now the truly telling dish. The "Daily Vegetarian Offering." A plate with rice and chick-pea mini "burger patties" that were flavorless and dried out, with just a sprinkling of greens and small potatoes for garnish. Another nondescript sauce. The waiter said it was "really good." It was not. This is always such a disappointment. If you can't cook vegetables, just say so. If it's too hard to not fall back on something with "short rib" in the name, then just fess up. We understand. Not like there aren't entire cuisines that are almost entirely vegetarian with absolutely mind-blowing flavor combinations and inventiveness. We'll just order another salad for the main, and save it for a trip to any of a dozen local Thai, Indian or Vietnamese restaurants that know how great a veg dish can be. Or, while we're at it, any one of a dozen or so new entrants to the local scene that really care about the food their serving, even the "vegetables".
Friends don't let friends take out-of-towners to NoN. Pittsburgh does so much better elsewhere.
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