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| - ***Avenue B's kitchen turns fresh and high quality ingredients into light dishes that are also flavorful, vibrant and filling; their reasonable lunch prices also make Avenue B a great option for an upscale lunch in Pittsburgh***
Avenue B sits in a neighborhood that kind of reminded me of Silver Lake, Los Feliz or Atwater Village. The restaurant has a simple café-like décor, but there are great touches. I liked the use of purple as well as the hanging light fixtures--rustic but also trendy. The restaurant has a great neighborhood restaurant feel to it.
Their lunch menu is reasonably priced and it features dishes inspired from many different cuisines. There is a Cobb salad and a potpie as well as a Thai-like dish and a banh mi. I went for one of their modern Asian entrees, which was black sesame crusted salmon served with a salad of seaweed, cucumber, surimi, and mushrooms. It also came with a sauce of sweet soy and a garnish of carrot and daikon.
The salmon entrée seemed like something you would find at a run-of-the-mill Asian fusion restaurant, but it was so much better than that. The salmon was very fresh and they got a nice crispy crust on it. The salmon was served medium rare and it was very moist, but it still flaked very easily. I also liked the great flavor of the black sesame as well as the sweet soy sauce.
The garnish of carrot and daikon was fresh with a light crunch while the seaweed salad was cool, refreshing and flavorful. I liked the mix of the warm salmon with the cool salad. It was a very light dish, but it was also a very flavorful and filling dish.
If I were going to nitpick, I would say that the entrée seemed very close (maybe too close) to the Asian ingredients and flavors that influenced it. But when the ingredients are high quality like this (especially the salmon) and they are handled so well, it is hard to complain (5 stars).
I also tried their flatbread, which was topped with cheese, grilled artichokes, prosciutto, and arugula. This flatbread had a great crust, which is where a lot of flatbreads can go wrong. It had a great flavor with the right amount of char; it was thin and crispy but also with a little bit of a chew.
The arugula was great--leafy, peppery and nicely dressed in a light vinaigrette (you often get dry arugula on flatbread). The generous portion of the arugula kind of overwhelmed the small portion of prosciutto, but the prosciutto was good (not dry, meaty and with the right amount of saltiness).
The cheese was good too. In terms of other toppings, they used the woody part of the artichoke, which wouldn't be my first choice, but it was actually a good contrast to the leafy arugula and it made the artichokes stand out in a good way (4 stars).
For dessert, I went with their blondie, which was filled with pretzel buttercream and garnished with bruleed green apple. The bruleed green apple was great. It was reminiscent of a candy apple but with the use of a tart green apple versus the more sweet red apple (the more traditional apple used in a candy apple). I think the tart apple combined with the sweet crust was great.
That candy apple-like taste made from a technique you often see with crème brulee was kind of eye opening. And when it was mixed with the sweet and chewy caramel, it became a dessert that felt very nostalgic but also sophisticated at the same time.
The pretzel buttercream was good. You do get a little bit of a pretzel flavor with the addition of coarsely chopped pretzels though the buttercream did not have a prominent pretzel flavor. What I liked about the buttercream though was how it was sweet and creamy without being overly sugary like a lot of buttercreams (4 stars).
I also tried their housemade brown butter ice cream and it was great--great flavor, smooth, creamy, dense, and firm (without being hard) - 4 stars.
Service by Lauren was great. She was personable, nice, knowledgeable about the menu, and very attentive. The food also came out at a good pace.
Prices for lunch were reasonable. Most of the entrees were in the $12-$15 range and several of the starters were $8 and below.
Avenue B is a very impressive restaurant that showcases fresh ingredients in satisfying flavor combinations. There is also a lot of talent in the kitchen as the flatbread and salmon were both perfectly to near perfectly prepared. All these great things plus Avenue B's reasonable lunch prices make it a great choice for a delicious upscale lunch in Pittsburgh.
Parking is available on the street by meter. It is not that difficult finding a space during lunchtime.
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