Today on the third day of Pittsburgh Restaurant Week, I had my third dining experience of the celebration at Meat & Potatoes for lunch. The special for the day was an Autumn Salad, Chili-crusted Grouper Tacos and Tiramasu. The special at M&P changes each day, so it’d be difficult to send anyone back to have an identical dining experience.
Autumn Salad. The salad was good, even though I ate around the blue cheese since I’m not crazy about that. The dressing was a blackberry vinaigrette, which came atop the salad. Though you can’t tell from the picture, the candied nuts had rolled to the bottom of the bowl and were a nice crunch after eating my greens. The beets were sliced thin, which frankly made them difficult to wrangle with a fork. Overall, a nice salad, but would probably opt for something else next time.
Chili-Crusted Grouper Tacos. The tacos themselves were grouper, pico de gallo with a light slaw. Very nice flavor profile and a light but filling entree. The fries came as a surprise, or I missed when the waitress read the menu to us. They were a nice compliment to the taco, though if I had to choose between fries and a third taco, i’d choose taco every time.
Tiramasu. Dessert was served in a cute little mason jar, common for desserts at M&P. However, this dessert was either frozen and let melt too long, or the cream never set. The dessert was soupy. Did it taste bud, oh heck no. It was delicious. But I think it lacked a little on execution. M&P is certainly a hot spot downtown and my lunch may not have been their finest hour, but it won’t stop me from going back. The place has a nice ambiance which any office worker would welcome as an escape midday.
Three courses in the lunch hour is tough. (Habitat knows what they are doing with the Executive Express lunch which is four courses on one plate.) Since it was a lunch meeting, it didn’t break my heart that it ran over the hour.