Dee’s Cafe

Been coming here long before the scenesters and hipsters. 1990 when it was just an old man neighborhood bar. Still like to stop in for a beer. Super cheap with a kick ass staff including my amazing friend Michelle. She’s one of the best bartenders in the city. Great shot and beer bar.

Retarded security asked for Idenentification really softly and when we walked passed because we didn’t hear him he told us that we was rude and kicked us out instead of just asking us again.

This could compete for the Wikipedia picture to accompany the «dive bar» article. Long bar and a few booths. Mercifully dimly lit. No food except for a vending machine. No inflation here, though, 50 cents for popcorn, chips, etc. Sweep the floors and maybe you can get a buck. Diet cokes are $ 2 though, the guys down the street may want to raise their price.

A great dive bar in Pittsburgh. Beers are dirt cheap, especially when you go for the pitchers but be sure to check on the drink specials. Bartenders have always been attentive, friendly and quick with a refill.
Dee’s often has an older (though it may not be more mature) crowd. And this place can get crowded, especially on the weekends. If you’re luck enough to score a table, don’t go anywhere. If you can’t find a seat, be sure to wander to the other side of the bar where there might be more room to move around. I remember dart boards and pool tables, too. There’s also an upstairs that people often forget about.
As a non-​smoker, I’m not thrilled that you can still smoke here. It is also a cash only establishment. On the plus side, though, they have an amazing jukebox.
Dee’s has never let me down. And with it’s down to earth atmosphere, it is a great place to show out-​of-​towners some local flavor.

One of the cheaper if not the cheapest places in Southside. Bartenders are nice and quick to refill an empty glass. The countless times I’ve been there it was not crowded at all. The younger college kids seem to be pulled further down the street to the loud music and date rape prospects. There is a very eclectic mix of people that seem to be regulars. If you are meeting up with people in Southside to cruise all the other bars this place is a great meeting spot and you can pregame with a couple reasonable/​cheap prices drinks before you go elsewhere and pay $ 8 for a rum and coke. They don’t have a big selection of beer but they have bottles and draught of the standards. Their juke box is a touchtunes or ami, I can’t remember, with Internet access that you can play from your phone and has an amazing catalog of music. They have pretty good happy hour and run specials during sporting events (I think one may be $ 2 pbr during pirates and penguins games). Overall I would rate this 8.5 out of 10. I can’t think of anything bad to say but if you are the partier type and looking for the whole Southside vibe it’s not your place. HOWEVER if you want to avoid affliction t-​shirts, girls with broken heels, or people lecturing you about quitting smoking and starting vaping then you will enjoy this place. It is a smoking bar. That might be a turn off to some but the upstairs area is large enough that it isn’t a filled with second hand smoke and I think they have smoke eaters by the upstairs bar. When you first walk in don’t judge the first impression. Directly inside the door is a bar with I think booths against one wall. It looks like a 60s diner kind of, and not on purpose. It is actually old and not just trying to attract the nostalgic crowd or the hipsters. My suggestion is walk directly passed the downstairs bar and turn left then go into the other half of the downstairs where there are two pool tables and a little window to the bar where you can order drinks from that side. Also what my group of friends or even just my girlfriend and I do is go upstairs where the bar is usually empty. There are two more pool tables waiting. These four pool tables are not dive bar pool tables. They are fast and level. The felt is in good condition and obviously taken care of. There are no divots or uneven areas on the surface. The house cues are straighter than almost any place I had been to. You can come in and rent a table for as long as you want I believe. I been on one for 3 hours without a word being said. Just ask the bartender and they will give you a tray of balls. The balls are in great condition and alive. I do suggest treating the tables with respect though. Drunk girls trying to dance on the tables or people sitting on them is not cool. I just realized I am reviewing their pool tables more than the bar but in my opinion they are a big reason why the place is so great. I suggest next time you are in the area stop in, afternoon or night, it doesn’t matter. It is Southsides best kept secret.

It’s a dive with super cheap drinks. Why spend more elsewhere when you can get your night started on the cheap? Very laid back atmosphere, too. They were offering $ 4.50 shooters, so we had a couple loopy vodkas with red bull, a delicious shooter with sentimental value.
Smoking is permitted and mostly a very old crowd, neither of which we were looking for, so it was one and done for us, but at those prices and plenty of comfortable seats at the bar, who could complain?

Yes, it is a dive bar and never pretended to be anything more. Cheap drinks and smoking is allowed so if it bothers you than maybe not your place. Best pool tables around. Bartenders are loved by many unless you act up. Yes, Dee’s has barred many people for drugs, fighting and disrupting other customers. This is why you can feel safe at Dee’s because they don’t take that nonsense. However, they do not barr you for going to other bars like another reviewer stated, people often get bitter if they are barred or their friends are barred. Very simple, don’t act like an ass and your fine. The older guy that may be behind the bar won’t get you a drink due to the fact he is retired and just comes to socialize with some regulars. You will however meet some of the coolest laid back people that want to have a place they feel comfortable and can hang and listen to a good jukebox and not have to spend their whole paycheck.

The liquor was cheap, but the service was some of the worst I’ve ever had at a bar. When asking for a second round, the guy behind the bar straight up dismissed me and walked away even though I was perfectly polite in asking. Add that to the run-​down, nicotine soaked atmosphere, and you have to wonder why there is any hype surrounding this place. I won’t be going back, and certainly not be recommending it to anybody I actually like.

Awesome spot to chill with friends. Not the busiest of bars, at least when ive been there. Pool tables and darts offered. The selection of music you hear is very wide range.

Cash only. No frills. No fuss. Cheap beer and beer specials during games. Smoking is a must. The bartenders are friendly. They highly recommended the pudding and Jell-​O shots. My party was skeptical, but the ladies behind the bar tell no lies. The banana pudding shot nearly brought me to tears. Far from pretentious. Clean but smoky. You may have to contend with death metal playing on the juke box. Always a good time.

I should preface this by saying that I am more of a hip lounge than a dive bar type of gal, but my friend and I were looking for a place to throw some darts and have a beer and we stumbled upon Dee’s. We walked into a rather mellow scene and sat down at a booth for some PBR (because, well, when in Rome…) and tried some Pudding Shots. The former was actually not THAT bad (better ‘n Iron City, IMO), and the latter blew our minds! Eventually we wandered up to the second level to see a quiet pool hall where only one table was busy, and alas, the dart board was Out of Order. So, we sat down at a table and finished our beers and caught the end of the Pens game before moving on. I’m not sure if dive bars have a «vibe», because using that word seems too hipster-​ish for a dive bar, especially on the South Side of Pittsburgh, but if it DID have a vibe, I was enjoying it. Just some nice people enjoying their beers and quietly watching the game. And pudding shots.

Cheap drinks, pool, cheap drinks, rad people, cheap drinks, and a «could give a shit» vibe that I live in a good dive. Don’t be an asshole and you can basically do what you want here. My kinda place.

By far my favorite dive bar within a 50 mile radius of Pittsburgh. Cheap, good music and seems to be the last haven for the people who made the South Side cool about 20 years ago. Any time of day, good times are to be had with good (though sometimes a little weird) people.

I use to hang out here quite a bit back in the nineties But now I find the average age is about 22 or 23. Despite the prior reviewers mentioning it being open-​minded and whatever, Dees can be very very cliquey and i-​just-​escaped-​from-​the-​wealthy-​suburbs kind of bratty. We used to joke about all the «trust-​a-​farians» that were here on any given night. An extreme amount of cigarette smoke in the air. Disgusting. The policy of not accepting credit or debit cards is extremely backwards. The bartenders are legendary for banning people for the slightest offense. A Penguin hockey player or 2 used to come in here back in the day. Not sure about now.

Pretty spacious. Mixed crowd. One of the better bars on carson IMO

Its a dive bar, through and through. Lots of pool tables, a dingy atmosphere, a colorful variety of patrons and cheap, strong drinks.
Its nothing out of the ordinary, it doesn’t have a lot that makes it stand out from other bars — but its a solid night out if you are just looking for a few kicked back games of pool and some drinks.

It was a 3.5-star experience for me, but I can see how this place is loved by many.
All the reviews I read about Dee’s are true: the cheap drinks ($ 1.25 for a pint of PBR on tap), the laidbackness, and the eclectic crowd (locals, hipsters, nerds, etc). It definitely stood out compared to the plethora of bars we saw on Carson St.
Because perhaps we started our Saturday night there, it was hardly packed. After one drink, we felt ready to go elsewhere. Well, if I am back in the Pittsburgh area, then I would give this place another shot.

The lighting is TERRIBLE. For a dive bar, it’s lit too well. The drinks are cheap. The bartenders are grumpy. Just the way I love it. This place is always a staple in any Pittsburghers life. You go through a phase of hating and then loving. My biggest gripe, it’s in the southside and the lighting sucks

It seems that everyone I know in Pittsburgh has had their Dee’s phase. You have to love a place that has mixed drinks that are stiff and cheap. For 10 bucks you can get pretty messed up.
The crowd is an ideal mix of open-​minded hipsters, punks, outcasts and nerds. It can feel a bit cliquey because everyone knows everyone, but people are actually really friendly. You can pretty much start a conversation with any random stranger. It’s one of the few places on the south side where you can get away from the college meathead crowd.
The ping pong table upstairs is great and so is the jukebox. Sometimes I try to mess with people by playing something like Bell Biv DeVoe. But nobody ever minds. That’s what I love most about Dee’s — the complete lack of pretension.

A favorite place for me and my crew. We’re fans of getting drunk and playing games, so the selection between darts, pool and ping-​pong (available at the upstairs bar, which I believe is open 9 – 2 thurs to sat) is definitely a plus.
Yuengling bombers, a pretty sweet juke box and smoking inside. These things are all good. Definitely a divey sort of bar, but that’s my style and I love it. Always a good array of people to watch when you arrive. Lots of characters for sure. And that’s one of the things that makes Dee’s so great! Cheapest drinks on E Carson doesn’t hurt either.
Say hello if you spot me! It’s always a stop any time we’re in the area.