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| - I had my first Meat and Potatoes experience a few weeks ago as part of Pittsburgh Restaurant Week. My friend and I made reservations for a weekday and I basically spent that entire workday looking at the menu and salivating.
We decided to go with the prix fixe restaurant week menu, which had a fitting "meat and potatoes" theme for each course.
The first course was beef carpaccio with cute little crispy potato chips, arugula, quail yolk, and a taleggio foam. The carpaccio was melt-in-your-mouth delicious. The portion was very generous, especially for an appetizer course. I would go back just to have this again.
Second course was grilled flank steak, potato gnocchi, and basil salsa verde. The meat was perfectly cooked--extremely tender and full of flavor. We loved the pillowy gnocchi, which were a delicious companion to the steak and the salsa verde. My friend and I both later agreed that this was our favorite course. The menu referred to this as a "stew" but I'm not sure I would use that word as I was picturing a hearty soup of some sort. Regardless, this dish was perfect and we loved it.
The third and final course consisted of crispy short ribs, pickled Swiss chard, baby carrots, and potato croquettes. Again, the meat was tender and packed with flavor. The crispiness of the fried croquettes added great texture, and it was nice to have the carrots and chard to add in some other flavors. This was served with a very rich gravy and overall had the feel of comfort food, elevated.
For an additional $20 or so, M&P offered a paired cocktail for each course. My friend and I had gone to happy hour prior to dinner so we decided against the three drinks (I wanted to actually remember the meal...) but we did each order a cocktail off the regular menu. We had a Clover Club and the Seven Year Itch, both of which were great. They had a nice selection of both classic and new craft drinks.
The restaurant itself has a nice, trendy vibe but doesn't go overboard. The staff was friendly and we didn't run into any service issues.
Overall this was a positive experience and I'm excited to go back. Based on other reviews, I think my next trip here will be for brunch. The words "Bloody Mary bar" are enough to draw me in!
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