I had been wanting to visit the Church Brew Works ever since seeing it featured on the Food Network show Outrageous Food. In that episode, they featured the restaurant's "rattlesnake pierogies" I was disappointed to find this was not a regular menu item, instead they offer either "traditional" or "untraditional" pierogies- on the night of our visit the untraditional ones were Bufflale Chicken style, and boy were they good! I still want to try those rattlesnake ones though...
I also had the onion soup and the bison meatloaf which were both delicious, especially the meatloaf. My spouse enjoyed the jambalaya which was nice and spicy. As to the beers, there was a decent selection of styles from lager to dunkel to belgian to stout....and our server accomodated our request to sample some of the brews before deciding. Our favorite of the night was the Thunderhop which had a wonderful hoppy flavor.
As to the ambiance- well I think it is well worth a trip if you are in Pittsburgh. The restaurant is a converted church complete with stained glass windows and wooden pews (ok they are not the most comfortable seats but it adds to the effect!) and where the alter would have been are the giant beer tanks.
We found the service to be very prompt and our server answered all our questions concerning beer and food.
I thought this restaurant was a good value for the money. Dinner for two was just under $70 before tip- and our meal included 4 pints of beer, 2 appetizers and 2 entrees.
Visited August 2011