Root 174

I love this establishment for a list of reasons. It’s quaint. The dishes are delicious and change often. The drinks are always perfect. And to save the best for last, the Star Wars artwork on the hallway to the bathroom. They make me smile every time I pass. The food, the ambiance, the drinks, every bit of it is lovely.

I’m vegetarian — so now that we are done with that disclaimer we can move onto the review of the food.
It’s a small place so things could get cozy. DW had the Lavender cocktail while I opted for the Corpse raiser. The drinks were OK — I’ve had better for $ 10 /​$ 11 a pop. For appetizers we ordered the Falafel dish which turned out to be the best dish of the night. For entrees we had the vegan meatloaf and Cavatelli pasta. The meatloaf was a bit dry but nevertheless had flavor and texture. The pasta was probably the worst dish of the night.
So in summary not a good place for vegetarians.

Really yummy, unique food. Yes, it’s expensive. If you want big portions of decent food, Applebee’s is right down the street. The food here is creative and unlike anywhere else that I’ve eaten in Pittsburgh.
Despite the small space, I’ve never had an issue getting a seat here (and I never make reservations) unless they have a private party. Although I do tend to be really lucky getting seats in busy restaurants.
I love the Devils Riding Horseback, brussel sprouts, all of the soups, and the pork belly dish with the pop rocks and rice krispies treats (yes, you read that right). The also have different kinds of loose tea that they serve in a French press that you get two presses of (about 4 cups of tea).

One of the best meals I’ve had in a long time. We started off with the coffee confit wings and mussels, both delicious. The wings were crispy and well seasoned and the mussels were cooked perfectly with an aromatic and tasty broth.
For entrees we had the cavatelli pasta, chorizo stuffed chicken, and pork belly carbonara. All were cooked to perfection, with colorful and eye pleasing presentation, but the pork belly carbonara was our favorite of the 3.
Finishing off the meal with the flourless chocolate cake was the cherry on top of a delicious meal, and just enough for us to share and each have a few mouthfuls.
Without a doubt — we will be back! Service was friendly, attentive, and full of great recommendations. And the atmosphere was calm and enjoyable. A+ Root 174!

Always quality. From service to food to beverage… it’s a restaurant that will always be on my «must dine» list.
Dinner is always consistent, service on point, drink menu is exclusive to the restaurant and wine list is unique.
Shared apps: devils on horseback, chickpeas, beets, brussels.
Dinner: Lamb, Wagu, Pork Belly Carbonara

Filed under fancy plate Pittsburgh. It might have taken me four years to get here, but I finally made it on a Wednesday evening looking for something casual but impressive for my NYC companion. While I wasn’t crazy excited to tell everyone to get here ASAP, it was still great. For as much food boom as we’re having here, it’s hard to find items outside of brussel sprouts and pork belly (although they do have both here too!).
The place itself is small and intimate, so luckily we were one of three or four tables. We grabbed the window booth (which are screened so you don’t have that weird passerby looking at your table thing going on – yaknow?) and listened to a hoard of frantic specials I can’t remember. Overall, Brit dinner mate thought it was «brilliant,» while I thought it was good enough for me.
Started with two lavender gin cocktails, which I expected to be flowery corpse reviver (lillet was included!), but received more of a mild purple gimlet. That isn’t necessarily a complaint, just different! My colleague had about five negronis (negrono?) so I can only assume they were delicious.
I tried brussel sprouts for the first time. Ha! They were roasted in a vegan wine sauce and tasted like spring rolls. Tiny bowl. I ate ‘em all. Luckily it was small because I then ate a huge vegan meatloaf. I’ve also never had meatloaf (look at me, wild and crazy!) as a non-​beef eater but I’ll assume this was close. It was highly recommended to me so I was a little disappointed when it was just good. Layered with asparagus and a light «almond cheese», I was a fan. A bit dry? I was kind of into it. Everyone who is a regular eater would probably think it’s odd. Dinner mate had a super pretty plate of real cow that he was very impressed by. I’m a sucker for sauce dots and swirls and all that frou frou stuff (read: yinzer goes to dinner somewhere other than D’s sixpax).
This is the most underrated spot of all the Pittsburgh restaurant boom. Root 147 deserves a majillion more accolades than the Penn Ave joints, but I think it’s getting lost in East Regent Jabip or just that it’s been around now for a whole four or five years. It’s really worth it to cross Fort Frick Park for these fancy lil’ plates.

Headed here with my hubby for restaurant week/​birthday celebration with high hopes from all the great reviews. I went with the restaurant week spread consisting of salmon tartare, chicken, and the red velvet cake. Salmon tartare was tasty. Chicken was AMAZING, it was crispy on the outside and juicy on the inside, with colorful and flavorful additions to the plate. Red velvet was a poor choice, the cake was really heavy with a dollop of some fatty tasting cream that was just no good (could only eat a bit of the dessert, the rest ended up in a to go box which eventually ended up in the trash). My husband got the mussels which we shared and they were very tasty with an excellent sauce and a cornbread. He also got the short rib which was «okay“as he called it and notably was very dry. We headed on home after dinner…
…jump forward to midnight, uh oh I feel nauseous and my stomach starts to hurt. I spend the next 2 hrs throwing up. I’m not sure what exactly it was — salmon tartare? mussels? fatty cream on the dessert? Something in that dinner made me pretty ill that night and for that, I don’t know if I’ll be returning anytime soon.

I was super-​psyched to try out this place, having heard lots of good things and looked at some mouth-​watering pics of some really pretty plates of food on the website. In the end, it’s getting a mixed review from me though…
Let’s start with the bar — 5 stars there. I got there early and hung out for a while. It’s a little bar — just a few stools. The bartender was great. The cocktail menu really isn’t my style, but it didn’t matter because before I really even looked at it, the bartender told me that if I didn’t see something I liked, he could make me whatever I wanted. I did end up ordering from the menu, but the offer was much appreciated.
The table service was a whole different experience — this was a 1 star. Our server was super-​slow and had the personality of a napkin. He couldn’t have looked more bored and annoyed by his job and it was really off-​putting.
The food is somewhere in the middle. I ordered three things:
— Spanish devil on horse back — dates stuffed w/​chorizo, manchego cheese, port wine reduction: These would have been fantastic IF they had been served hot (or even warm). My plate was cold in the middle and room temp on the outside. Not sure if that was intended or not, but I didn’t dig it.
— Crispy brussels sprouts with bacon-​black pepper glaze: I love Brussels Sprouts and these were fine, but the glaze was really very sweet. They were pretty and I ate them all, but probably wouldn’t order them again.
— Pork belly carbonara — house made gnocchi, egg, cream, garlic, shallot: This dish was absolutely beautiful, but I felt like it was missing something. It’s a rich dish and needed something to cut that just a bit. Again, I ate it all, but probably wouldn’t order it again.
Overall, I’d probably go back and probably enjoy it (as long as I didn’t get that server again), but I can’t say the experience made it a go-​to place for me.

I decided to take myself out for a splurge kind of meal here. I had the oysters with fingerling potatoes and cornbread — the oysters and the potatoes themselves were definitely good and in a nice hearty stout broth — if not super-​memorable.
However, the cornbread itself was out-​of-​this-​world melty-​crumbly-​creamy-​perfect-​deliciousness and completely made the meal.
I may have given it a higher rating, but the ambiance (it’s close-​quarters, not-​too-​comfy seating with other diners) didn’t delight me for the price point (those oysters were on the appetizer menu and ran $ 18).
There’s not another high-​end dinner option that I can think of in Regent Square though — and that cornbread just may have been worth the $ 18 in itself.

After eating next door at the Thai Cottage, we ambled on over to Root 174 for cocktails. Little did we know that we should have parked ourselves here originally and forgone the Thai!
The small, unassuming storefront opens up to an intimate dining room with a half bar at the back. Though there were many tables open (rather surprising for a Friday night at 8:30), we opted for the bar. We typically enjoy talking to the bartenders, and they always give great recommendations. Root 174 has a unique list of cocktails. I started off with the Royal Oligarchy, a slightly sweet blend of rye, St. Germain, and Cava. I loved the added bubble provided by the Cava. My boyfriend chose the Mezrita as his first (he is currently nursing an obsession with mezcal) and enjoyed the bitterness of his drink.
As we sipped our drinks and looked over a local pittsburgh events magazine, a heavily tattooed man showed up behind the bar and asked how we were enjoying our drinks. After we assured him that they were delicious, we realized he was the chef and owner! We then asked him for appetizer recommendations (who better to ask, right?). We needed some food with substance after our subpar dinner next door. He told us to try the coffee confit duck wings, and when they came out we were so happy to have taken his advice. They were crispy and literally falling off the bone. The coffee rub was slightly sweet and gave the duck a lovely flavor. The skin melted in your mouth. The wings normally come with a vanilla crème sauce, but since it included dairy we asked for it on the side. Our waiter was very helpful and gave great suggestions on other options for me with regards to my numerous allergies.
While we ate, the owner walked around the space and spoke with patrons, even sitting down with some to enjoy a drink. I appreciated his hands-​on approach, and his eagerness to please his customers. He has an obvious obsession with Star Wars (you can purchase a Star Wars koozie, ha) and will unashamedly tell you all about it.
After one more delicious drink each, we headed out into the cool night, already planning our next visit to this unique and fun place.

Root 174’s still trying to figure itself out in every way. unacceptable at this price point
Rustic ambience with Old Hollywood gold paint and red velvet cushions. Earthy brown tables are never more than ¹⁄₃ full during Wednesday’s dinner «rush». The result is an awkwardly quiet restaurant on par with Babu Bhatt’s restaurant on Seinfeld. Root could sit 34 but instead has as many patrons as workers. 4 – 5.
Our awkward server made no effort to connect with us, not even eye contact. When asked «how’s the short rib», he gave evocative adjectives like «good.» Literally said «We can’t make that». it’s a fucking old fashioned and you served me a sazarac moments later. What cocktails they did serve were risk-​less, simple, and sweet.
Mixed-​quality food was largely in need of better spicing. The mushy dates had exceptionally earthy chorizo, a nice counterpart. The Indian-​esque shrimp terrine needed salt but delivered in acid, earthy lentils as balance despite boring shrimp. Pesto dominated the lamb neck, which needed salt to help elevate the too-​earthy carrots. The lamb itself was super juicy though. Juicy med-​rare short rib was all over, large jalapeño slices dominating one forkful before the bitter taste of bok choy next. The promised kimchi made no appearance. And yes, in need of salt.
Best was definitely caeser salad, the only well-​salted dish. Cavier and anchovy blend superbly alongside a nice crunch and excellent dressing.
You can mess up one of service, drinks, or food for this price. All 3 means «not good», or cue Babu. «very, very bad.»

It was my first visit here today and I thoroughly enjoyed it. However to future goers: don’t expect an extensive menu or a large space. Root 174’s menu is pretty small and the restaurant itself is also small.
Parking: Street parking.
Service: Great! Our waitress was very attentive, but it might have been due to the fact that we were the only customers there.
Food: I don’t usually eat pork because I don’t enjoy the flavor. I also don’t really like gnocchi because I find the pillowy texture to not be enjoyable (I like chewy, al dente pasta textures) BUT I did get their Pork Belly Carbonara which has pork and gnocchi in it. WOW, I was not disappointed. I loved this dish. The gnocchi was different — the texture was chewier (maybe cause of the ricotta), which I loved. The egg was perfectly cooked. The pork belly was wonderfully seasoned. I thought the flavor combo of this dish was great and all the textures worked.
Dessert: I had the Lemon Lavendar Cake, which had a spongey cheesecake (similar to Japanese cheesecake, but not quite as good), some lavender powder, and lemon curd. The dessert was good — great lemon flavor, great cake texture — but I couldn’t taste the lavender in the powder nor in the rest of the dessert. It would’ve been more appropriate to just call it Lemon Cake.
Overall: I would go back to this place to try a different item on their menu if they changed the menu items (the other items on the menu didn’t appeal to me besides what I had today). I would definitely recommend this place. I don’t give 5 stars out often, and I hope if I go back I can change my review and up it to 5 stars!

I travel internationally and my lovely wife is a New York foodie. We have been in Pgh for 14 years and Finally!!! we truly have an exceptional restaurant without pretense.
Without a doubt, this is a must do. Better than eleven or nine on nine or soba… The flavors, servers, plates … Bravo!
We used to live near hear and sadly moved away else would be here many nights.
Enjoy and experience.

Came for restaurant week and loved our meal! Not much to update from my previous review, but we just really enjoyed our meal and especially to desert. I was so stuffed by the time our dessert came, but I still ate it all.
Port terrine: pretty good, I could’ve used a little more of the mustard. But, that’s personal preference, as I love mustard. A good combination of relishes, to accompany the terrine.
Pork belly and scallops: good flavors, again in the sides/​relishes that accompanied the pork belly and the scallops. The pork belly was a little bit on the dryer side, I think it was supposed to be more of a crispy style. But still, yummy and the scallops are cooked very well.
Japanese cheesecake with lavender, lemon curd, and pistachio: The cheesecake was just so light, almost fluffy. But, still creamy like cheesecake. And, I love the tartness of the lemon curd. I want to go there every day and order this!

Interesting. Fun. Inventive. Intimate. There’s lots of restaurants around the country reinventing dishes and deconstructing others. This one is about average for the genre for me. I would come back and try some other dishes because I’m not sure exactly how good this place is yet.
I started with a really good house cocktail. They make a manhattan that tastes like it met a camp fire. Smokey and a little sweet. Very tasty. I had the brussels sprouts and their version of a cassoulet. I’ve had a lot of brussels sprouts these days. Seems everywhere I do there’s a rendition. These are tasty. Bacon, a little sweet, a vinaigrette, crunchy, a little rich. I liked them. The cassoulet was good, it had some highs and lows for sure. I liked the chicken hearts and the fried chicken wings but the sausage and pork belly weren’t my favorite components. The sausage was over seasoned for the dish or maybe the wrong seasonings for the dish. I’m not sure but it bothered me a little. I am sure I would have liked them in something else. The pork belly wasn’t the unctuous braised melt in your mouth kind I really like. Cassoulet is always very rich and this one was as well. I liked the tomato base as it cut the richness and added a bright note.
I ordered the lemon lavender cake and some french press decaf for dessert. The dessert is excellent. It comes with a slightly salty pistachio tulle. Nice! Decaf is very good. My wife had a decaf and a cocktail and the total was $ 125 with a tip. It’s a really small restaurant but it wasn’t full by any stretch at 7pm on a Friday night. Still, I would call for a reservation. We got lucky with parking on Braddock. I’m not sure where you would park otherwise.

I went back here for the first time in quite awhile: the food was 5 stars, but something about the ambiance/​service left me a little cold. To get the minor negatives out of the way first:
1) the service was not inattentive, but it was definitely slow at times. There were only three tables, and the waiter kept disappearing to the kitchen so we ended up waiting quite awhile for him to take our dessert order and then later bring our check.
2) I had sky-​high expectations for the ambiance, because I love the space and the tin ceilings, but it felt too brightly lit and made me feel a bit like I was in a diner, not one of the nicer places in town. They could stand to dim the lights and dress the tables with candles a bit more.
The food was awesome though! We split the Brussels with the port reduction as an appetizer, and these were perfectly sweet and bacon-​y. I had the chorizo stuffed chicken, which was both tasty and unique, with Latin flavors and yummy grits. The star of the night was my date’s gnocchi in cream sauce with pork belly. It was pretty close to perfect; definitely try that one.

I’ve been wanting to go to Root 174 for a lonnnngggg time. Probably since I moved to Pittsburgh 5 years ago. I finally made it there for my birthday dinner this year, and it did not disappoint.
We shared the tomato bisque which was a perfect way to warm up from the chilly evening. Savory yet slightly sweet, a great start.
Next the grilled octopus — I’ve never had it before. I’ve had calamari and that’s either fried or grilled with a light lemon juice, but this octopus was different. It was a savory dish with ethinic spices… that’s the only way to describe it. I enjoyed it, but I probably wouldn’t order it again.
For my main course, I ordered their special of sea bass. Nicely cooked and flavorful — I enjoyed every bite.
Finally the birthday dessert of bread pudding with hazelnut whip. It was decadent and savory and I didn’t want to share! Mmm so good…
I’m pleased to say that my hopes for Root 174 were sufficiently met. I will be visiting Root 174 again… I’m not waiting another 5 years.

So torn between 3 and 4 stars – several items we had on the tasting menu were standout, but this was not the case for every item, so we’re sticking at 3.
Service was prompt but fairly impersonal. We were celebrating, as we informed our server, but he didn’t ask what. Our courses came out extremely quickly – we had 5 courses in just over an hour, and at one point, we had two and a half courses on the table simultaneously. To top it off, there was a large party with two loud young children seated next to us, and this is not a large restaurant. This was pretty distracting and disappointing considering the price and potential ambiance of the restaurant.
However, the tomato bisque was very good, and the chorizo and octopus bolognese was absolutely sensational – best octopus I’ve ever had. The fish course didn’t really come together, and the caviar caesar, while creative, lacked balance in the elements (strange to say it but there was too much caviar!). But we appreciated that we were served different items for some of the courses, although in general, the items weren’t things we would have picked. I feel bad about the 3 star rating as some items were 5-​star and we’d definitely return to try another iteration of the tasting, but the cold service and high variance food keeps them down at three stars for now.

My friend (another Unilocal Elite!) and I love to try new restaurants. We had discussed trying Root 174 in the past but finally came here last week.
We made reservations for 6:30 on Tuesday evening, and I was the first to arrive. Now, when I say that I was the first to arrive, I mean that quite literally. There was no one else in this small restaurant other than a waitress and bartender when I entered. I had my choice of approximately 20 tables in the single room. Sometimes, being alone in a restaurant can feel a bit odd, but the waitress was very kind and helpful which made things feel less awkward. Plus, a few other people trickled into the restaurant around 6:45/7:00.
Let’s get down to the important details… the food. Ahhh… it was so incredible. We started with the Brussels Sprouts, which were perfectly crispy and served with some sort of bacon glaze. Delicious! I really enjoyed Brussels sprouts at Butcher and the Rye a few months ago but thought that these were even better. I had been eyeing the Pork Belly Carbonara on the menu all day while at work, so I just had to try it when the waitress mentioned that it was one of Root 174’s best dishes. The pork was pure rich and fatty decadence while the gnocchi were soft and fluffy little pillows of dough. The dish was served with a runny egg on top, which took this already incredible dish up even another notch for me. Heavenly! Even though we were full, we just had to try a dessert and shared the deconstructed bread pudding served with a ridiculously good Nutella ice cream and white chocolate shavings.
I had a great time here and definitely plan on returning. My husband needs to try this place asap!

This is the third ultra fancy restaurant I’ve had the pleasure of visiting this year, and our experience on a random Wednesday evening truly was remarkable.
We made a reservation for 6:30 but when we walked in we were the only ones in the place. My friend had been buzzing about this place for years, as he lives right down the street, and finally convinced me to try it despite me being less than enthused about the menu prices.
Well, I can honestly say that everything I had here was fantastic. We tried the pork belly with pop rocks, the crispy brussel sprouts with sweet glaze, and the Spanish Devils on horseback for a start. The brussel sprout app was a reasonable size for the price, but with the other two I found myself wanting more for the price per dish. If you can’t tell yet, I’m all about getting my money’s worth. All of the starters were delish, even if the two aforementioned ones were small. The chef himself hand delivered them to our table. Not sure if that’s normal or if it was because we were the only table in there and he was bored, but I thought it was a nice touch.
My main dish was SO good. All that sauce on the hangar steak plate and it all went together so well. I don’t really like raw tomatoes, but I ate up every last one that graced my plate. Also had some delish croutons up on the plate and I loved it. Chef knows what he’s doing.
I tried my friend’s vegan meatballs and while the flavor was good, the quinoa has a mushy texture that I wasn’t expecting. Not bad, but just… mushy. It was more like a stuffing ball.
I’ve never had bread pudding before here, and I’m forever changed. It was so rich, buttery, not on my diet plan and so amazingly good. Cannot shut up about it. So good! The beignets were tasty but the texture was a lot more crispy than expected and certainly not nearly as great as the bread pudding.
Two things: our main server was slow with the service. It seems like they have the bartender/​manager guy and only one other server working the front of the house. It was fine when it was just us, but towards the end of our meal the place started to fill up and she was nowhere to be found. It’s also incredibly dark in there, and the all wood furnishings make it loud when other parties come in and talk like they’re in a sports bar.
I cannot afford to frequent this place with any sort of regularity, but it’s certainly marked on my list if I ever need a fancy place to celebrate a special occasion or I want to try something different.