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| - I went here for my birthday with the SO. We sat in the patio area, which is really nice. There's cute lighting out there and a big iron stove that wasn't lit while were there, but looks awesome sitting in the corner. The inside of the restaurant is also something to see. Unfortunately, it's not a good enough reason to come check this place out and I can't offer you another.
For starters, we asked our server about one of the wines and her answer was simply that she didn't know. There was no offer to ask someone else nor any effort to find the answer, just she didn't know. Not a big deal, we decided to just risk it on the wine, but not the best way to start dinner.
We ordered the Manicotti di Antoinette and the Melenzane Romano. They both came with dinner salads and bread. The lettuce in the salad was all romaine and it was crunchy and fresh. Everything else in the salad came from a can, maybe a jar, I don't know, but the freshness ended with the lettuce. The salad was topped with chickpeas, beets, olives, and a couple slivers of roasted pepper. The dressing was homemade, but nothing special, a very basic vinaigrette. The bread was so utterly disappointing I'm not sure where to start. The bread was served in a basket wrapped with a towel, but it wasn't warm. It was dry and bland. It wasn't served with butter, which is good because even room temperature butter would have ripped right through this stuff.
Service was already completely lacking at this point. We waited 15 or 20 minutes for our salads, which wasn't so bad, we had wine after all. We didn't see our server much during that time, but we did see her again shortly after we got our salads because she had our entrees. Fine dining at its worst! Timing is important, but nobody at Zarra's seems to care.
The entrees were underwhelming as well. I ordered the Melenzane Romano, which is described as "Fresh eggplant lightly battered and browned in olive oil, layered with marinara sauce and grated romano cheese; then baked to perfection. Includes sautéed mushrooms and sautéed spinach. $18". The eggplant was really good and their marinara is great. The mushrooms and spinach on the plate were so, so, sooooooo disappointing. The mushrooms were boring and the spinach was just a blob of tasteless right-from-the-freezer ickiness. The SO ordered the Manicotti di Antoinette "Another house favorite. Each homemade crepe is individually prepared and filled with Judy's special ricotta filling, then topped with tomato sauce, a sprinkle of grated romano and baked in the oven. Served with your choice of meatball, sausage, or eggplant romano. $18". Again, great marinara & the eggplant he ordered with it was good stuff. Not bad, but not worth the price, not even close.
Since we still had some wine, and it was my birthday, we decided to stay for dessert. Turns out, we shouldn't have bothered. We ordered the Tirami-Suzy. It's good that they don't actually call it tiramisu since it's made with cream cheese and not mascarpone. And, ordering dessert added about 45 minutes to the whole experience. Their version of tiramisu is heavier than it should be and not good. It's just wrong. That kinda sums up everything about this place, it's just wrong. The service was bad (we ended up getting up and going inside to pay our bill), not much that we were served seemed fresh, and their prices are ridiculous for what they serve and how they serve it. They get two stars because the place is actually pretty cute. Lucky for you, it's not the only cute place in Pittsburgh.
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