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| - The newly-arrived Whitfield is already one of my favorite spots in Pittsburgh. The space is beautiful--the rehabbed old YMCA in East Liberty, with a spacious dining room, coffee bar, and bar/lounge area. The decor is spare, which creates a feeling of roominess and allows the architecture and building features to stand out.
The menu is incredibly solid, for both brunch and dinner. Some dinner standouts include the duck with honeyed beets, which is perfectly cooked (all fat rendered, crispy skin, rare-to-medium rare), the butcher's steak (a rotating daily steak special, which has been perfectly cooked each time I've ordered it, with crispy fries and bearnaise sauce on the side). The brunch menu is uber. Almost too many hits to list, but worth mentioning the bruleed grapefruit, with its sour, tender grapefruit sections under a crackable sugar crust, the parsnip bread served with honey and jam (dark, earthy, sweet), the out-of-this-world blueberry pancake with lemon creme fraiche (a single plate-sized, pillowy, thing), and whatever their donut special is. I also love their sandwiches--especially the beef with peppers and the pastrami sandwich.
Be aware that there are two different cocktail menus and I have a strong preference for the cocktail menu at the bar, where I have yet to experience a bad drink. The cocktails on the restaurant menu are a little more hit-or-miss, and a little bland. There are also a few special items on the bar menu that deserve mention, including the pierogies and the delightful affogato dessert (espresso poured over vanilla ice cream).
Dessert menus in Pittsburgh are sometimes a little weird. Here, the Whitfield truly excels. Desserts are flavorful, well-balanced, and I've yet to try one I didn't like. The shortbread and lemon mousse is particularly bright tasting, with the acid from the lemon balancing the sweet.
The service has been pretty standout. Wait staff is well-informed about the menu, pleasant, cheerful, and attentive without the weird hovering feeling you get. The place is always hopping, yet service is expedient without seeming rushed. A few weeks ago, we had a couple of weird visits where there seemed to constantly be food mix-ups in the kitchen. Wrong plates delivered to us and tables around us, items misread from the order, etc. However, we've noticed that these issues seem to have been very quickly resolved. A table numbering system in the bar area is helping with this a lot.
Really hoping to see the quality at the Whitfield continue at this level. Awesome place!
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