Johnny’s

Johnnie’s has excellent food. However, the service is atrocious. My last visit, we had appetizers and then waited an hour and a half to get our entrees. We told them that we were leaving. My brother paid the bill. They did not even comp the appetizers. We paid for everything and did not receive our entrée or get it to go. Very disappointing.

Split personality alert. I really want to like this place. It’s a community restaurant nestled in the business district of Wilmerding. Walking in the door, it’s like stepping back in time 50 years… no problem there, but definitely geared toward a more traditional crowd.
The food was really good. I had the Johnny’s salad with bleu cheese, the duck wings with fig glaze, and the risotto. I also sampled the chicken romano. The fig glaze was way too sweet for my palate; but otherwise, I was really happy with the meal.
The service on the other hand was bad. I mean… really bad. It’s been a while since I have encountered a server with such a poor attitude about serving people.
— We had a large party (maybe 12 or so). Only half of us were given menus to start with. When I asked the server for more, she said «can’t you share?» and then only begrudgingly went and got more.
— She complained about everything. We wanted separate checks — complaint. We ordered a frozen drink — complaint. We ordered drinks with our food — complaint. We sent back a dish that we didn’t order — complaint. Ridiculous.
— The food took about an hour and then came out all unorganized. I get it was a large party, but geez. The first round of drinks also sat on the bar for a good 20 minutes before the bartender asked another server to bring them out.
— The person who sent back the dish she didn’t order got no apology for having to sit and watch us all eat for 15 minutes while the correct dish was made. Instead, she just got attitude because the server had to work a little extra to correct her error.
— My drinks were $ 6.50 at the bar, but magically rose to $ 7.00 when I got to the table. I didn’t notice it till I got home; but I feel quite certain that if I had questioned it, the answer would have been along the lines of «It’s only a dollar — can’t you just pay it?»
Overall, a really poor service experience, but a promising menu.

Food was ok but it took 3 hours to get it! We arrived an hour before the music so we could get our order in. our waitress didn’t take our order for almost an hour then we did not get food until 2 more hours! When we complained to the owners wife she blamed the waitress, was nasty and did not ever apologize. It seems they know they will be busy on Sat night and do not really care if their customers are happy. WILL NOT BE GOING back!!!

Lesson in Speed-​eating.
Martini, appetizer, salad, bottle of wine and entrée and out the door in 45 minutes. The food may or may not have been good. It was hard to tell. The salad came 5 minutes after the appetizer and the entrée came five minutes after the salad. The waitress seemed miffed when I said «that was fast» when I had to move aside the salad that I didn’t get a chance to taste so I could be given my entrée. This was confirmed when I got the dirty look on the way out. I guess it’s a slam down your food and get the hell out policy. No wonder the place was empty.

Growing up in Pittsburgh, we have been to many restaurants, but never Johnny’s. We came to see a very close friend sing, and decided to have dinner. What a pleasant surprise it was. The décor is slightly dated, but by no means would I call it extremely old and the restaurant was very clean. We were greeted by a very friendly waitress, who happened to be the owner and learned all of our names. She welcomed us and provided exceptional service. There were 8 of us and we all ordered something different. All entrees were served hot and very tasty. My wife said the eggplant was up there with the best. I had The Chicken Romano and it was very very good. Lightly breaded, not greasy and very juicy. The rest of our party was very pleased with their food too. After our meals, we were introduced to our watiresses husband, (part owner) and chef. He was very friendly as well. With the great singing of Sue Leslie and the excellent food, it was a great evening. We will be returning to Johnnys in the near future. We were the youngest group there that evening, where the crowd seems to be of the older version, but that did not distract from the experience.

Here’s the good (and I’m not being ironic or facetious): the overall quality of the food.
And the bad: EVERYTHING ELSE.
Reservations at 7PM (party of 10, with 5 being regulars). Ordered at 7:30, apps came at 8:15, main course (drum roll please)… came at 10 fricking PM. No lie. And place was half full on a Friday night. Moreover, there was no apology by the server or the manager/​owner. Moreover; no comps but the offer of a free drink.
The décor is straight outta a bad Staten Island joint from 1955, with the average customer age well over Social Security.
My advice: get takeout, skip the AWFUL service.

My father lived in Wilmerding when I was a kid, up on George street. The streets and alleyways of the town were my stomping grounds in the summers I would spend with him, riding my bike to the Y for summer camp, walking down to the Little Store at all hours for some of their delicious fried chicken (and playing video games in the back, before anythign as classy and the Station Break existed), buying New Kids on the Block swag at Phil’s Pharmacy (don’t be jelly)
In all of the time spent in that town I realized when I walked in the door of Johnny’s tonight that I had never stepped foot in that building before. And after dinner there I question why that had never happened.
I went to Johnny’s tonight to hear a friend sing (Liz and Duke a.k.a. Back Together) and I thoroughly enjoyed myself. The service was very good, attentive and Yinzer friendly (that’s a good thing) The food even better (Chicken Parm… huge portion of chicken, tons of yummy sweetish sauce and cheese! yumyumyum!) I had a great time tonight and cannot wait to head back to try something else on the menu.

Ah, Johnny’s! This place is like… the epitome of Family Restaurant. At least… for my family it is. No visit to Pennsylvania is complete without a group of us coming here for dinner. My grandparents 50^th wedding anniversary was here (which unfortunately, I couldn’t attend):)
Food isn’t fantastic, but it’s good, and we always enjoy ourselves. When I visited recently, I heard that the restaurant had changed management so we were all a little concerned about the quality when we went for dinner. I couldn’t remember if it had changed or not, but my aunt thought her eggplant had been better before or something, but maybe she was just being picky: P The staff is the same, still friendly and knowing everyones names. The same people still go. My gramma went to school with one of the old dudes we’d always see there without fail… I think he was the mayor? But he’s really old, and his name is Cooch or Hooch or something. Anyway it was always cute seeing my tottering old gramma with her tottering old classmate. Man… people stay in Wilmerding forever: P. Anyway… last time we went he was apparently really sick and wasn’t there): which is sad. Enough of my rambling… but you can see how its one of those great places that you have stories about and will always return to.
Also, the last time we went was especially amazing because Pittsburgh jazz legend Howard Betters performed, and it was really really fun: D He is awesome. Yeah, I was a member of that loud table right next to the stage that clapped along with every song: P