church brew works

go for the beer, not the food. church brew works has two strengths. the first is being one of the more interesting restaurant settings in pittsburgh being housed in a former church. the space is wide open and there is a patio for outside eating when nice to make this a unique setting for a meal; it is similar to a beer hall in some ways. seeing all the original stained glass is neat and the wide open setting is a bit loud but not overbearing. the second strength is the beer. one of the better local microbrews in the city you will enjoy at least one recipe. it’s a pretty standard fair in terms of the types of beer they offer but they are good.

the food though is another matter. it’s okay, but that’s it. you can find most of what they offer at other restaurants and nothing particularly stands out as special. i can’t think of any dish that makes me want to eat there in terms of originality or flavor. on top of that all the food needs a price reduction to be more in line with the quality.servicevaries; i’ve had good and bad at both peak and non-peak hours so it’s hard to judge that as a whole.

if you go here, go to drink with some friends. if your insistent on eating, i suggest sticking to the more limited bar menu over the standard entrée menu to limit how much you overpay for exotic sounding but average food.

tasty food, sub par service. despite what all the reviews had said about poor food, my husband and i decided to try this place out with some friends. the food was tasty, butservicewas not great. i recommend sitting on the outside patio deck. french onion soup and sweet potato fries delighted my taste buds.

i want to rate the food excellent and theserviceterrible, but i'll round up, since the atmosphere is cool.

the food was wonderful. everything we got (especially the pierogi of the day, which was avocado, potato, cheese, and chives, i think) was great! the guys enjoyed the beer they drank (i don't drink beer), though they were out of a lot of the beers they tried to order. my hawaiian mimosa was yummy, but getting my second one took a lot of work. my friend actually went to track her down after it hadn't come in ages and we hadn't seen her. it's a neat restaurant and i'd go back, but apparently their pizza is really great and though it's still on their website, they do not have pizza at this time. their oven burned. not sure if they're going to have pizza in the future or not.

also, many of our menus had extra pieces of menus for food that was no longer available that day and we only got 2 of the menus with the sandwiches on them for our entire party (6). another area where theservicelacked in addition to the poor waitress.

first visit. food was excellent and well priced.servicewas quick and prompt...

stunning service. a meet up group of about 15 initially that expanded to 18-19 over an hour period ate at cbw about 2 weeks ago. the food was fine. this posting is about the service.

excellent. the waitress, clearly experienced and helpful, did separate checks (not normally done), and managed the group's initial seating of about 15 to expanded to 18-19 over the next hour. this was a juggling act for her and she did it graciously -- the place was packed and very busy so for this to be so adeptly managed is testimony to a customerservicefocus. drink and food orders were managed without a hitch.

the beer sampler was fun -- highly recommend it.

cbw -- a great pittsburgh venue.

love it!. defiantly give this place a try. great beer and great food. you have to try the pulled pork tacos.servicewas good and the staff was knowledgeable.

underwhelming. my wife and i have been here twice now and we were, frankly, disappointed and underwhelmed. we went there for their valentines day specials two years ago. both meals were sub par. i got the lamb lollipops. the sauce was great but the lamb hadn't even been trimmed so all i got was fat and gristle. my wife got the pepper crusted parmesan steak and she said it was just way to peppery. at first i didn't believe her because she tends to be super sensitive to heat but i tried it and even i thought it was too much which is saying something because i love lots of pepper. definitely not worth the money which, if i remember correctly, was at least $70 before beer. speaking of the beer, i like that a lot. they have some unique brews. definitely not my favorite, but unique and well crafted.

the 2nd time we went, which was last weekend, we wanted to get some appetizers to go with our beer because we were sitting with friends and were going to be there a while. first we got the untraditional pierogie of the night which was a chicken and pork pierogie with a tomato sauce over the top of it. they were cooked well but were really really really bland. on top of that, they were $7 and you only got 4 very small pierogies. after that we got the spinach feta and gouda dip. it was delicious, but again they only gave you a small amount of dip. it was in a soup cup and was only half full so you can imagine that it didn't do much for the wife and i. keep in mind we are small people and they didn't even come close to filling us up. this appetizer was $7.75 and, again, i felt jipped. the one good food item i tried was a piece of my friend's pepperoni pizza. really good stuff from their brick oven and at $15.25 it's at a good price point for a scratch made pie. the only other thing i'd have to say is that ourservicewas ok. they kept bringing me pints when i asked for glasses.

so, in summation:

the beer is good but not my favorite in the area
some of the food is good, some is not so good and, in general, is a little over priced.
service is average.

if you want to go to a brewery in the area, i'd recommend north country brewing in slippery rock for a less cafeteria like atmosphere and better food and beer. if you want something in the city, go to penn brewery any day over cbw.

service issues. i've had badserviceat the church brew works several times before, but my latest experience will definitely make me think twice before returning...

i brought a friend who's not just a guest in pittsburgh, but to our country. i wanted to show him the most spectacular brew pub in america. the physical structure did not disappoint, nor did the beer. but the waitress was perhaps the most unfriendly, inattentive server i've ever had. she even copped an attitude when i asked her to explain the beers to my friend, which struck me as odd because a. it's her job, and b. she should know more about them than i do. turns out she didn't.

when we did get our food, we had to wait until we caught her attention before we were able to request silverware to eat it with. again, delivered with attitude.

our beers went unfilled, and we would have ordered more food if we were offered, but instead we decided to get the check (then headed to the sharp edge, where we were treated very, very well). incidentally, we seemed to have woken up the hostess on our way out, who then half-heatedly mumbled good night as we left.

i have to wonder what the cause of the poorserviceat cbw is. is it the management's treatment of the waitstaff? if not, do they even screen prospective employees, or do they just hire anyone with a heartbeat? i've actually seen a waiter be so rude to a customer at another table that i thought about intervening and giving him a piece of my mind.

i've sat at the bar before and been ignored. when i've not been ignored, i've been treated like an idiot or some kind of undesirable person, even though i'm absolutely polite and respectful.

it's sad, because the cbw is otherwise a jewel of an establishment.

we are in town from maryland. we found this restaurant to have a unique atmosphere.servicewas excellent. the special fall menu seemed more interesting than the regular menu.

aligator perogies!. let's start with the idea of a restaurant (micro brewery) in a catholic church, you walk in thinking you'll see the organ pipes....oh no no, its the brewery! we sat outside, the special aligator perogies, were fantastic. i ordered the pork tacos, and could not ask for anything more tender.servicewas good, a nice explanation of the beers available, pizza oven was inop, but plenty of other choice. there is no parking available except for on the street, so the weekends are very busy, we were here on thursday evening, and was a good steady stream of diners.

great beer...bad food. i have gone here in the past because they have great beer. but their food is overpriced and not very good. the last two times i went here the food was too salty. in addition, i have found the wait staff to be rude and not very pleasant. if you like good beer and crappy food andservicethen this is the place for you. i will not be going back here.

nice evening out. i recently ate at church brew works with my cousin, a student at carnegie mellon, and another relative who was visiting pittsburgh. i really enjoyed the physical space, and it was cool to be in an old church now full with brewing equipment. the beer was good, and theservicewas fine, though the entrees were unmemorable (i honestly can't recall what any of us ordered.) despite the size of the space, i found it easy to have a conversation, and i never felt rushed by the staff, even though it was a friday evening. the food may have been a bit overpriced, but i don't know pittsburgh well enough to say for sure. overall, a nice evening out.

cool building, bad everything else. wandered over to church brew the other day for the first time, since we happened to be in the neighborhood. the restaurant/brewery is located in a beautiful old church, which was a nice, if slightly eerie setting for lunch.

the problem was everything else at church brew. to their credit, a few people in our party seemed to enjoy their sandwiches. but the pizza (served after those with sandwiches were finished eating) was pretty terrible. starchy, heavy, oily, and just... not good.

i really don't know what to say about their beer. i enjoy good craft/micros such as dogfish head, stone brewery, sierra nevada, etc, and was excited to try theirs (dunkel & stout). bad idea. how this over-carbonated, thinner-than-water stuff can be called beer i'm not sure. good for them for trying, honestly. but let's not sugar-coat it; these were some of the worst beers i've tried.

theservicewas below adequate, and we were left waiting on most occasions for simple things -- water, check, etc. it took so long to bring the check after asking that i was starting to consider leaving cash and walking out. wish i had; the bill was more than expected.

as for the brew-on-altar setup they have at the front of the church: i don't necessarily find it offensive that they have beer on the altar -- just that they have their beer on the altar.

a little thin.... we picked the cbw as part of our, "pizza, beer and dogs" weekend in pgh. the atmosphere is cool, it's true. it was oktoberfest, and the liederhosen were in play as were the accordions. the menu was mainstream, and while the beer choices were varied, all of them (the gold, ipa and stout were tried) tasted a bit watery. nothing was bad,servicewas quick and friendly, price was what we expected.

a one-time-only experience. some restaurants, the draw is not so much the food as the physical plant itself, and cbw is a perfect example. it inhabits an old deconsecrated church, complete with stained glass windows. we were visiting family in pittsburgh, and they thought we would enjoy the experience, and we did -- but our single visit is probably sufficient. the food wasn't bad -- in fact, the pierogies were excellent, and the crab cake sandwich was very interesting and pretty good. speaking as a resident of louisiana, however, the "jambalaya" is a complete joke. theservicewas okay, too, but unless they come for the beer, this probably isn't the sort of place most folks eat out at on a regular basis.