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| - If you can actually get a seat, the Union Grill is quite the place.
We've been coming here for years, and although the menu is large and updated with specials, I always come back to the same thing: Pittsburgh chicken salad. It's a huge salad, with little piles of veggies all over it: cucumbers, tomatoes, mushrooms. It comes with grilled chicken, crispy, seasoned waffle fries and a hearty but soft breadstick.
The menu recommends the house garlic vinaigrette, but I really prefer this salad with the honey mustard dressing. Honey mustard and waffle fries were just meant to be together.
My husband got the steakburger this time around, which was also quite good. You can get this bunless or bun-ed, but make sure to order it with the cheese. It's a creamy blend that makes all the difference in flavor.
We also got the hummus plate at our latest visit. It, like the salad, has veggie piles, of red peppers, tomatoes, cucumbers, and onions, as well as a big heap of feta cheese. The hummus and pita were awesome, but we ran out of pita early on and still had massive amounts of dippy stuff left. The staff was super accommodating though, and I would presume we could have gotten a refill on pita if we'd asked.
They are currently promoting their $10 wine list - yes, that's $10 for a BOTTLE of wine, not just a glass - but we didn't get to check it out, as we went in for lunch. They have a nice happy hour special in the evenings (I believe it's after 6, although I'm not 100% sure, and they don't have a website to verify). Their drinks are quite good, especially their rocks margaritas. I think this is one of the reasons it gets so packed.
Oh, one other small note that I love: they have those gigantic glasses for your water or pop, like the kind Pizza Hut always had in the 80s. If you get a salty meal on a busy night, this will keep you stocked if your waiter is running around.
The biggest issue here is getting a table. On the weekends, it fills up really quickly. It's right between Pitt and CMU, and it's a reasonably-priced, but nice restaurant where you can take your parents when they come to visit, so there will be lines and waits quite frequently. But if you time it well, this is a great place to check out!
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