52 Pittsburgh Restaurants Open on Monday Nights
PM Dining Critic Hal B. Klein tracks down a year's worth of options from upscale to casual for a night of the week when many restaurants are closed.
PHOTOS BY LAURA PETRILLA
A question I’m often asked: “Where can I get dinner in Pittsburgh on a Monday night?”
Monday typically is a slow day for the restaurant industry, so many Pittsburgh establishments, especially those with a small roster of employees, choose to remain closed. Fret not. Even if one of your favorite restaurants isn’t open, you have options. A lot of them, in fact.
Looking for somewhere swell to take a date, relative, business client or simply to treat yourself? Legume, Morcilla, Spoon, Spork and Union Standard, all of which are Pittsburgh Magazine Best Restaurants, are open on Mondays.
Pittsburgh’s two major restaurant groups — big Burrito Restaurant Group and Richard DeShantz Restaurant Group — offer a lot of choices. big Burrito’s Alta Via, Eleven Contemporary Kitchen, Casbah, Soba and Kaya, plus all Mad Mex locations, are open; between those, you have a wide variety of options (but you’ll have to wait until Tuesday for sushi at Umi). Four Richard DeShantz establishments — Meat & Potatoes, Butcher and the Rye, Pork & Beans and täkō — are open, too.
Or, go international. Chengdu Gourmet, Sichuan Gourmet, Taiwanese Bistro Cafe 33, Everyday Noodles, Noodlehead, Salem’s Market & Grill, Northeastern Kitchen, Mola, Sakura Teppanyaki and Sushi, Udipi Cafe, Nak Won Garden, Kavsar, Yuzu Kitchen, Nepali Asian Restaurant and Himali Kitchen rank among my favorite restaurants in Pittsburgh … and all of them are open on Monday.
Alternatively, point yourself to a hotel, institutions which need to cater to their clientele every day of the week. Let them feed you, too. Whitfield (Ace Hotel) and fl.2 (Fairmont Pittsburgh) all have menu items that range from light salads to decadent steaks. Look up and you might find something at a hotel, too — newcomers Spirits & Tales (The Oaklander) and Over Eden (TRYP Hotel) add stunning high-floor vistas to their menus.
Still hungry? Here are a few more for you. Baby Loves Tacos and Smoke Barbeque Taqueria offer tasty spins on tacos, plus a few other items. There are hamburgers a-plenty, too: Burgh'ers Brewing in Lawrenceville (there is another location in Zelienople) has one of my favorite hamburgers in town; if you’re in the South Hills, you could go to The Fairlane in Mt. Lebanon for another of my favorites, plus more outstanding dishes; Tessaro’s in Bloomfield is a Pittsburgh classic. B52 in Lawrenceville serves vegan Levantine cuisine, even on Monday nights.
Pizza better suits your mood? Pizza Taglio has some of the best in town … and it’s open on Monday, as are Badamo’s Pizza and Il Pizzaiolo. Want choices within choices? Go to the North Side food hall Federal Galley, where there are four restaurants in one space. Jazz up your dinner with live music at one of my favorite new openings of 2019, Con Alma in Shadyside; Acorn, is also in the neighborhood. Stagioni, the beloved Italian restaurant on the South Side, is open, as is upscale Italian Alla Famiglia in Allentown. How about dinner with a view? You can have that at Altius in Mt. Washington, even on a Monday night. Or, go casual and head to a diner such as Ritter’s Diner in Bloomfield for a classic easygoing breakfast for dinner.
Want to pair beer with your Monday dinner? Cinderlands Warehouse in the Strip has you covered. Or, head to Squirrel Hill, where Jamilka Borges, one of Pittsburgh’s best chefs, runs the kitchen of the most excellent Independent Brewing Company.
There you go. Your next 52 Monday dinners are planned.
