Located in Duquesne Heights, you must visit this restaurant. If for nothing else, just the night time view of downtown Pittsburgh. It was wonderful. There is an upper and a lower level to this restaurant. The upper-level is fairly pretentious and filled with lots of glitz and suits. The lower-level is where the bar is located and it contains a small amount of window seating. Many people go to sit upstairs. Why? I don't know. It is so bright and contrived and you cannot get a very good view. I prefer the darker lower level where people are more down to earth and real and the fact that you can actually see the city lit up at night. Don't let the coat check fool you. If you feel uncomfortable, just head to the lower level.\n\nWe were greeted by our server and handed the menus. We were able to look through and asked our server for her suggestions. We placed our order for the recommended appetizer that was not on the menu: \n\nCombo Platter: Ichiban (tuna, salmon, and swordfish grilled on a skewer), Crabcake, and Cajun shrimp\n\nI was continually distracted by the view. You can see the Duquesne Incline, the Southside, Downtown and the Northside and it is amazing how the night coupled with lit buildings can create such a sublime and dramatic image on the horizon -- Beautiful. I had to focus, though, and was ready for our server when she returned with the appetizer:\n\nFrench onion soup\nButternut squash soup\nMahi mahi with garlic- feta mashed potatoes\nYellow fin tuna with, garlic-feta mashed potatoes, and tomatoes with balsamic vinaigrette\n\nThe tri-partite appetizer combined three of the more popular appetizers on the written menu. I was quite glad they had this option tonight since I would have been very disappointed to have ordered the Ichiban and the Cajun shrimp as their own dish. Both were not great and were lacking in flavor. The fish cubes on the Ichiban skewer were somewhat tough and overcooked with very little flavor. The shrimp were slightly rubbery and did not taste Cajun. The price of this appetizer was only $1 more than the crab cake appetizer. The crab cake was quite good. It is the best crab cake I have had in the Pittsburgh area. It was well cooked, moist, tasted of lump crab and had minimal filler.\n\nAs we were finishing the appetizer the soups and tomatoes appeared. My butternut squash soup came in a two-part series to preserve the scant heat in the soup itself and to protect the crab that came at the bottom of my bowl. The soup was poured over the seeds and crab at the table. It tasted very good, but unfortunately it cooled rather quickly -- this is on of the issues with Creme Fraiche, you cannot over heat or it will curdle. I thoroughly enjoyed the flavor of the squash in the smooth soup coupled with the fresh crab, pumpkin seed, and creme fraiche. The French Onion soup had a good flavor. Not over-seasoned, the onions were actually cooked, and a good consomme as its base. \n\nOur dinners arrived and I was surprised by the size. The portions were quite large for both entrees and one could have easily been split between two people. A bit apprehensive after the Ichiban, I tried the tuna to find that the flavor was much better for the entree. The same held true for the mahi-mahi. The tuna was cooked to a nice medium rare, had good texture and flavor and was not filled with gristle. The mahi-mahi was tender, moist, and flavorful. The blackening seasoning had a good flavor and was mildly piquant. \n\nI moved on to the mashed potatoes and my tomatoes. There was just a hint of the feta and garlic in the potatoes that complimented the potatoes very well. The tomatoes were good and the vinaigrette was also tasty. I do wish that they would have used a better oil and vinegar, though. The oil was a cheaper brand without much flavor and the balsamic was fairly weak, but with good flavor. \n\nUnable to finish our meals, we decided that we wouldn't bother with desserts. Next time -- and there will be a next time -- the appetizer will be crab cake only and we will be splitting a meal. With more than enough food for two, this will also cut the bill considerably. I will continue to sit on the lower level and I hope that I get our server again.
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