Hook, Line and Sinker – The Original Fish Market making a comeback

Remaking a classic isn’t always easy, but that is what the Original Fish Market is about to do in Downtown Pittsburgh.  In its hay-day, OFM used to be listed among the premier seafood restaurants in Pittsburgh.  Sadly, they have been challenged to keep up with the times and their name has slowly been left out of those rankings over recent years, but it appears that the winds are starting to change and the restaurant is vying to regain its distinction among Steel City seafood restaurants.

Updated Post or Revisit:
April 29, 2014 – Downtown Pittsburgh Sushi from the Original Fish Market

If you’ve ever been to the OFM, it is clear that they are inside of the Westin hotel, however many folks are interested to know that though they are physically inside the hotel, the are not the “hotel restaurant”.

Recently, before saying so-long to a fellow employee, I took a gaggle of co-workers out for lunch to enjoy some of the fishy lunch items on the OFM menu.  To my surprise, I was the only person in the group who had eaten at the OFM in quite some time.  After making a reservation on OpenTable, we were greeted and sat promptly.

Being in the “in-foodie-crowd,” I’d recently discovered that OFM had a new executive chef at the helm and it wasn’t difficult to see that he has already started making his mark on the menu.  The OFM menu tends to change daily with the available ingredients, but I was pleased to discover that the verbal special from my previous visit just a few weeks prior had made it onto the printed menu.  And, I wasted no time ordering it again – the Tilapia Bahn Mi Sandwich with Old Bay french fries.  The sandwich is a seafood spin on the Vietnamese staple.  Having the sandwich for the second time, I found it to be less spicy than before – frankly I missed the spice.

It was nice to go to lunch, have a great meal with pleasant service and get back to my co-workers back to work within the lunch hour.  I look forward to my next visit to OFM when they open up their back patio.  I hope that they do something fun with kabobs and drinks for a happy hour so I can nibble and sip my way into the start of a summer weekend.