Cioppino in the Strip

A few of us decided to try Cioppino in Pittsburgh famous Strip District.  I had heard so many good things about this place that I was highly excited to give it a try.   But, for me, I only saw a lot of negatives and not many positives.

I’ll start off with the positives:  Excellent Service.  Our server was really great, very friendly, highly informative about the food, well prepared for any questions we may have had and paid good attention to when our water or wine glasses needed filled.

Nice atmosphere. Cioppino offers a nice atmosphere while dining.  Its comfortable, relaxed and a nice place to enjoy a meal.

Presentation: Everything we ordered was presented nicely to us and looked amazing.

Now the negatives:  When entering, you enter in between the dining area and the bar.  The bar had a band playing which was nice music but way too loud.  I’m not sure how anyone was able to even sit and enjoy a drink in the bar with the music that loud.  The sound carried into the dining area but wasn’t too bad in there.

The Food:  All in all, the food was just OKAY.  As a table we started off with the Antipasti Platter, we had a nice mix of meats, cheeses, redpeppers and olives.  This was really good and a nice way to start of dinner.

Then, we all took a little of our friends Caesar Salad that was also very nice and refreshing.  The dressing wasn’t overly strong and was good as well.
Then the disaster came.  I ordered the Scallops that came with risotto and a lobster cream.  Sounds amazing, right?   Wrong!  It was so salty!  I had to down water and my wine in order to finish my dinner.  Seafood is salty to begin with, we all know this, but to add more salt and seasoning than needed is overkill.  Even the risotto was highly seasoned and hard to get down at times.
The major disapointment with this is the fact that Cioppino is know heavly for their seafood.  I was expecting something so much better and satisfing.

Cioppino on Urbanspoon

All in all, I still believe that Cioppino is a cool place to go, but ill probably just go for happy hour for a drink and go someplace else for dinner afterward.   For the price you pay I would be very cautious on going to Cioppino.