Hoffstot’s Cafe Monaco

Had dinner 2 times there in the past week. Both experiences were great. We had the apple gorgonzola salad, stuffed pepper appetizer, and soup. Everything was delicious. Service was very good. Everyone was very friendly and attentive. We also had the best chicken Marsala! Again, great calamari appetizer and their coffee was delicious. Would definitely return.

In response to the owner of this formerly wonderful restaurant, you sir have an interesting way of skirting the truth. By virtue of the way you responded to my nephew (Sean F. — 5÷7÷16), yes it was my birthday, you sound like a guilty man. If it was the case that larger parties are usually concluded after 2.0 hours, don’t you think it would have been helpful to let my husband know that information when we made the reservation? As far as leaving the table to watch the derby, my husband DID tell the young lady when he made the reservation that watching the derby every year is one of our family traditions. She told my husband that it wouldn’t be a problem. It seems like both of those situations could be solved with a little better training. Oh yeah, I wonder who should be doing that?
The final straw was your contemptible response to me when I asked if you cared that you were ruining my 60^th birthday. You said, «I DON’T CARE, IT’S MY 70TH & I’M MAKING MONEY.» So anyone in Unilocalland looking to celebrate a special occasion with special people in your life, don’t go to Hoffstots in Oakmont. This guy will kick your family out as he did ours. It doesn’t matter how much money you spend, this owner wants more. That goes for you, all potential golf professionals & staff from the U. S Open — don’t plan a leisurely meal at Hoffstots, the owner will kick you out & won’t care how important the day was for you.

Well let me tell you about this place. My family gathered here tonight for my aunts birthday. 16 of us total, probably closed to a grand in total purchases. Two waitresses were rude to us all because we had the nerve to ask for a couple tables to be put together. Then, another waitress walked by and rolled her eyes because she had to walk around my Grandmother who was holding her great grandson. None of these ridiculous situations were worse than when the OWNER of the business came by and gave my 90 year old grandmother a completely unnecessary and impolite attitude. No man should speak to a woman the way this man spoke to my grandmother. We were told «you’ve been here two hours, I have tables to turn, and you’re holding people up.» …we had just finished dinner. Literally just finished. The owner is rude and so is his staff. I’ve worked in customer service for many years and I can tell you that no service person should ever treat anyone the way these people treated us. I, and my family, will NEVER return to this establishment.

I wanted to like it. It was my late grandfather’s favorite! The restaurant itself was packed and the décor was nice. I had a caesar salad to start, and it was very good! I got a pasta dish, and honestly it was disgusting. I took a bite or two and then went back to my salad. I would give it another try. Maybe it was a fluke. We shall see.

Meh. Stopped in on a Wedesday night. Went to bar first. Barry Manilow on juke box, loud mouth Hummer owner at bar, tilapia dinner special. Perfect. One and done.
4÷26÷16 Don’t know if I’ll back to HCM as I don’t go to Oakmont very often. Neverthess, props to Dan for watching his social media.

Went here recently for a date night. The food was outstanding, the entire wait staff was very attentive and nice. The place was packed, but there was no wait, staff was attentive and the food came out quickly. The variety was great, my hubby is picky and I like to eat something healthy other than salads, and there was something for both of us! Very satisfied customers. Definitely will go again and recommend it to others.

So I haven’t been to this place in a long time and we decided to stop here for dinner before heading to downtown Pittsburgh for a show. I made reservations a head of time so we were seated right away. Our waitress was excellent great service and my drink was always refilled quickly. We ordered the calamari as an appetizer and the Shrimp Monaco for dinner. The calamari was delicious some of the best I ever had! The pieces were big lightly bothered and melted in your mouth. The house made marinara and mustard sauce that accompanied it were superb.
As for dinner we split the Shrimp Monaco it came with 5 jumbo shrimp with lump crab meat on top. It was just enough for both of us and ended out meal perfectly I will be ordering it again!

I was so disappointed. I loved the menu options and so we decided to check it out. But when the food was presented to us, the bread was cold and the eggplant parmesan was sad. I was served luke warm, dried out, hard eggplant «disks» that were covered with sauce. The cheese it was topped with didn’t even pull apart like fresh cheese should. I can only believe that it was either previously frozen or yesterdays leftovers.

Food was fair at best. Seemed pre-​made. Bread was served cold. Pasta was over cooked and all served smothered in sauce. Won’t be coming back here.

I celebrated my birthday here with a party of 25 and it was awful. My meal came out incorrectly twice, substitutions were made on many of our meals without our consent. This included switching out various nuts when we shared up front that we had a child with us who has a nut allergy at the time of reservation and also multiple times that day.

Horrible! Had to sit in the bar area and my husband is hearing impaired (too much noise). Salads came quickly and were good, but the eggplant arrived and it was barely warm. Waitress disappeared, never filled the water glasses. Just to get over the new Oakmont bridge it took 30 minutes. My advise, stay out of Oakmont until the bridge is completely open. This place could possible be good if you get a seat in the dining area, otherwise avoid it entirely. Don’t think owners care because it looks like a «gold mine», so anything else is «so what».

My husband and I came here for a little celebratory dinner after I read an interview with the restaurant’s executive chef in a local magazine. Unfortunately, I was terribly disappointed. We kicked off the experience with some sparkling wine, and our waitress had to find another server to open it, as she didn’t know how. The poor server who came over to help cut her hand on the bottle’s wire cage and started bleeding all over. We had to politely point out to her that there was blood all over the napkin she was using to open the bottle, because she didn’t notice. They took the bottle away and got the bartender to open it, and it frankly grossed me out a bit to go ahead and drink the wine out of it, but I wiped the top with a napkin to see if any blood remained on it, and there didn’t seem to be, so we let it go and didn’t want to make a fuss.
The bread and oil were good, but I ended up using some of that oil on my salad, since the dressing was flavorless. We got the cod and chicken pistachio for our main dishes, and I was very surprised to see that the only vegetable preparation they have for their sides is steaming. The magazine article I read emphasized that the chef sees vegetables as the next big thing, and as a veggie-​lover, I expected something really interesting. Unfortunately, unless you liked the gray, over-​steamed brussels sprouts your grandma made thirty years ago, you will be disappointed at all the veggie sides at Hoffstot’s. A more current preparation would be roasting them with olive oil and salt, which is what other restaurants are doing. I had to send back my chicken because it had literally no flavor whatsoever, and appeared to have been pounded thin and then steamed. I actually almost grabbed the waitress to tell her she’d brought me fish by mistake, because the chicken had a flaky, fish-​like texture. I took a few bites and tried to like it, but there was just no taste there, only a sea of buttery, flavorless sauce. I got a side of penne pasta in an equally flavor-​free sauce that also went back.
Still hungry, having struck out on the salad, main course, and side dish, I decided to try out dessert. Their dessert menu says «Innovative Desserts» at the top, but every dessert is named «Old fashioned such and such,» so that’s a bit of a clash. We tried to order a pumpkin pecan dessert, but the server said they didn’t have any. She said they had some crème brûlée for a short time only, as a special dessert, so we ordered that. It came out looking unlike any crème brûlée I’ve ever seen. It was covered in strawberries and whipped cream, probably to disguise the fact that it was made far in advance and stored in the fridge, such that there was no «brulee» to it. The characteristic crackly sugar crust had melted and softened, so they should have just called it a baked custard at best, since people usually order crème brûlée for the torched sugar crust. It tasted fine, it just wasn’t crème brûlée.
We gave in at this point and called it a night. We won’t be back, since the folks running this restaurant seem to be out of date and allergic to flavor.

UPDATE: The owner of the restaurant reached out to me after my review and apologized for the experience I had! Super nice people and they offered a gift card to make up for it. We will be going back.

Must update my previous, mostly negative review… not sure if it was a full moon or just a bad day during our 1^st visit but tonight was the polar opposite… fantastic food & service… from apps & salads to seafood, steak & Italian faves it was all top notch! Glad I gave Hoffstot’s another shot!

Excellent! Our party of 7 had an excellent meal. All guests enjoyed their appetizer, meal and desert.
Service was excellent.

There is something magical that happens on Friday nights around 9:30 PM if you’re sitting at the bar at Hoffstot’s. Picture this: you’re hanging out with your friends, sipping your second glass of sangria (p.s. stay away from anything with mango vodka in it– it’s disgusting) and out comes the bartender with plates and plates full of pizza and hummus and hotdogs. The bartender sets them down on the bar and you’re free to dig into whatever carb you desire… without charge! The friends I was with said that they had breakfast apps last time they visited at the magic hour. This is the only way I’ll be visiting Hoffstot’s from now on.

I once had the biggest, most delish, well prepared plate of scallops here! It’s what keeps me coming back. The sausage stuffed pepper is a good one too.
At my last visit we had the clam chowder and apple blue cheese salad. It was good but I wanted more! The waitstaff was friendly too. As always, Oakmont is a beautiful place to walk after to work off the calories.

Very crowded local’s place in Oakmont with an intimate setting if you want to come out for date night — I recommend making reservations, even during the week night because of this restaurant’s popularity with the locals, it fills up quickly during the week AND weekends.
The Gorgonzola Apple salad was excellent! The pasta dish with white sauce was excellent!
Service was excellent!
Nice restaurant!
Crowded!
What would make it a 10: Tables seem a little too close together with the wait staff and customers coming a little too close at times. Need a little bit more elbow room. It was winter time and alot of people were carrying their big coats.
Overall Score: 9 out of 10

Attending a funeral down the street. My dear friend recommended. His father used to come here and order the Scrod sandwich with a pint of black beer.
I’m italian and can be very particular when reviewing italian restaurants. This place is solid. Everything was perfect!
Stuffed Sweet Peppers appetizer, Seafood Linguini with white sauce, Veal Romano, espresso almond cookies perfect!
Ericka was an excellent server very attentive.

My absolute favorite place to eat in all of the greater Pittsburgh area. Amazing service, kind owner, lovely atmosphere, and wonderful chefs!
It’s a very quite place with a mostly older crowd on weekdays until around 7pm when the younger crowd picks up. On weekends, it’s a constant mix of all ages.
My suggestions:
— Eggplant Parmesan — so good and a huge portion. Very good for sharing! I substitute the standard spaghetti pasta with fettuccine Alfredo.
— Gorgonzola Apple Walnut salad — amazing, best salad
— Beans and Greens — I don’t think it’s on the menu anymore, though I could be wrong, but it’s amazing
— Citrus Tea — literally the best drink you will ever have