rev:text
| - This Italian restaurant is located slightly off the beaten path off of University of Pittsburgh's campus. When you walk inside and walk past the bar, the restaurant opens up to one semi-large room with approximately 15-20 tables, with various eclectic items on the walls ranging from swords to photographs. You will be seated easily as there are rarely more than a few groups dining at Zarra's. For this reason, you might expect to be waited on fully and quickly. However, in the four times that I have been to Zarra's this has not been the case. All four times it has been approximately thirty minutes from sit down to order, followed by an hour from order to dinner, with another thirty minutes from the end of dinner to check. Although I am happy to have dinner at a relaxed pace, it seems unnecessarily long at Zarra's given the lack of patrons present.
Along with the lethargic pace of dinner, the service is performed at a sluggish attitude as well. Servers often disappear for tens of minutes at a time, leaving first time diners to wonder where they have gone. Despite the fact that there are few tables being served at once, there never seems to be a server nearby when assistance is required.
As far as the food goes, Zarra's serves classic Italian-style food. The food is a decent value for the price, with most entrees being prices in the 20-30$ range. The pasta dishes are especially tasty with "Judy's" sauce making the dish regardless of which plate you choose. For this reason, the food is what makes this a place that I have come back to multiple times. If you are willing to set aside 2-3 hours for dinner, and don't mind a little quirkiness, Zarra's is worth checking out. Overall, the food is decent and the experience is something you wont likely forget; for better or for worse.
|