As a Pittsburgh transplant, the fascination with Primanti's always seemed a little ridiculous. The sandwiches are okay, but they're hardly good enough to overcompensate for their lack of quality service, and pure arrogance that I've experienced from their staff.
This particular location is the perfect example of how Primanti's thinks that living on "Pittsburgh legend" status is enough. Why should they provide decent service when your seat will just be replaced by some other fool looking for a sub-par meal because it's "famous?"
We only agreed to meet our friends at Primanti's because they advertise that they have NFL Sunday Ticket and we assumed that they'd actually show a variety of games...you know like every other bar that pays for the service. With our group made up of two Steelers fans, one Ravens fan, and one Eagles fan, we were hoping to be able to watch all of the games, but despite this location having a ridiculous abundance of televisions, we were denied the ability to watch the Eagles/Giants or Ravens/Bengals games. We were told that the Steelers would be on all of the televisions, and one TV at the bar would be turned to RedZone, and that since RedZone shows highlights of all of the games, that should suffice. This was coming from the manager, nonetheless! Thanks, man...thanks for not even trying to help your customers out. God forbid, not every one of your customers cares about the local team. Especially at a touristy spot. We saw 3 Ravens fans, and a Texans fan...all roaming around trying to find a TV with their games on. But, hey, they can't possibly change the channel on one of their 50 TV's.
Meanwhile, I look across the bar and we realize that one TV was turned to the Falcons game for ONE fan in a corner booth. Another TV actually had the Giants/Eagles game on it, but that, too, was in a corner booth and the only person who seemed to be watching it was our friend...who was forced to squint to watch from across the bar.
So, in the end, the manager and bartender both contradicted their "policy" of only showing the Steelers game. Too bad we couldn't get any reasoning for their decision.
As if that wasn't enough, the service at the bar was laughable. The bartender acted like customers were bothering her when we wanted a drink or to order food. She didn't get our order right, either. So to round off a horrible experience, we didn't get to watch our games AND we didn't get what we ordered, despite being charged for the things they didn't bring out. No apologies, no positive customer service, and nothing but arrogance coming from both the manager and the bartender.
It's a good thing their name will keep the money rolling in, because any other restaurant would be out of business with Primanti's level of service. We definitely won't be back.