monterey bay fish grotto

bestseafoodin pittsburgh. this is the bestseafoodrestaurant in the city, and has the best view of the city as well. if you're not sure what to get, try the crab cakes, they are delicious. i've eaten sea food all over the country, and monterey bay is better than the bestseafoodthat i've had on the east coast.

the view itself made the visit to this place worth it. the service was excellent (💸), and the kitchen was quite accommodating. it’s aseafoodrestaurant but they do have vegetarian options and can customize the piscetarian dishes to be vegetarian as well. the best item on the menu was the steaming chocolate latte. which was basically a decadent molten hot chocolate cake topped with fresh cream.

had a wonderful anniversary dinner at the monroeville mall location.  was greeted in a friendly manner and seated promptly while being told about some recent awards for items on the menu.  i finished my meal by trying the award winning angel food grilled cheese sandwich dessert.  sounds odd but is perfectly sweet and creamy.  i chose the salmon & strawberry in wine which was very good but still not as good as my husband's halibut.  wow!  it sat in a savory broth with bits of andouille sausage and yet was sweetened with the taste of apples and toasted granola on top.  i have to say this was one of the bestseafooddinners i have ever eaten.  the fish fresh and cooked to delicate perfection!

great views, good seafood, dry steak. had a goodseafoodmeal with friends at a fantastic table right next to the window at night...could see everything on north side...ok seafood, but my wife's steak was very dry...said top prime beef, but certainly didn't taste like it. in sum, go for the views, drinks, and friends, not necessarily the food.

not impressed. my wife and i have dined all over the world and in the u.s. extensively. we've dined at michelin rated restaurants and those owned by the famous chefs you can see on the television. this place charges prices that put it in the category of the best restaurants. sadly the food, while fresh, is just not that impressive. they have an excellent selection of fresh fish. i liken this restaurant to taking your best fielder in baseball and sticking him in right field, or the best actor in a movie being relegated to a role as an extra. the ingredients are misused. the famous crab cake is broiled not fried, it has wet, soggy bread crumbs mixed with excellent crab meat laying on a flavourless sauce. what a shame and waste of good crab. should you find yourself dining here anyway, stay away from anything that is grilled. their grill destroys food, taking away the flavors of theseafoodand leaving an acrid taste. i sent a grilled shrimp appetizer back explaining the grill issues and they came back out the same way. i received a shrimp cocktail as recompense with a cocktail sauce consisting of ketchup and...ketchup. my wife had the crab stuffed scallop. another case of ruined ingredients. as soon as we saw the grill marks on the scallop it was over. just not good enough for $50+ per plate. period. very unfortunate because the base for a great restaurant is there. service is good.

oh and just a reminder to those who forgot: don't order pasta at theseafoodplace.

great view - mediocre outdated restaurant. other than the view this place has little to offer. touted as pittsburgh's bestseafoodresturant, there is nothing special here. they over price adn underdeliver...much betterseafoodis served at pennavenue fish company, habitat, willow and the original fish market.

very disappointed. on a business trip from la, i stopped by the restaurant to have some fish with a friend since they claim to be the bestseafoodrestaurant. the service was extremely slow in the lounge, the sashimi tuna appetizer looked like cat food. the sword arrived 2 degrees above room temperature . did i mention that they do not care to provide with a great dinning experience. i think if more realseafoodrestaurants open up in pittsburgh, the monterey bay will be closed in two years time.

always an impressive evening. i've been to monterey bay for dates, for family dinners, and to entertain out-of-towners. it has, without fail, always been an enjoyable and rewarding experience. i've never had to wait very long past my reservation time, although i like their bar/lounge area so much that i never mind the wait. it's a truly top-shelf bar with tables lining the windows, showing off the tremendous view of the city. (as with any restaurant on grandview, you're partially paying for the view...so try to get a window table in the dining room...request it in your reservation)
once called to my table, my service has always been impeccable. the wait-staff is well-trained, knowledgable, and eager to please (why would anyone at a place with such high tip-potential not be?) there's always someone roaming the floor with water, so your glass will rarely be empty.
their fish is flown in fresh daily, so their menu changes accordingly. if a fish isn't available that day, it will be marked with an n/a. (my question: if it isn't available, why print it on the menu? this place should be above padding its menu. i'd rather not be shown an option than see a fish i want, then notice it's n/a.) the crab cakes live up to the hype...almost no filler. try them as an appetizer at least. they come as part of the appetizer trio, a "special" that has been offered every time i've gone for the last 10 years. someone along the way must have decided it sells better if offered as a "special" as opposed to just putting it on the menu. you should probably get two orders of the trio if your party is bigger than 2 or 3 people.
my most recent visit was about 3 weeks ago and i ordered the halibut with an orange-basil preparation. it proved to be one of the best fish dishes i've had...period. the halibut was cooked to perfection, and the orange glaze/sauce...well, it has my mouth watering as i remember it. however, the little mound of what appeared to be canned tangerine wedges was odd and pointless, other than to take up space on the plate.
the other eight diners in my party were all very pleased with their entrees. much sharing was done, and i liked everything i tasted.
if i'm going to be let down by a course at a high-endseafoodrestaurant, i expect it to be dessert. this was not the case here. my carrot cake with caramel drizzle (presented as 4 ladyfinger-like strips stacked tic-tac-toe style) was a huge surprise. i forced my family to sample it...not because i'm a giving person, but because i couldn't get over how good it was! i had to get outside confirmation.
when this place it on, it's really on. we aren't a terribly easy group to impress, but this meal did it...start to finish.
if you want to show off or admire pittsburgh and have a great dining experience, a night at monterey bay has to be at the top of your list.

great freshseafoodand fish. i was at monterey bay this weekend and i think it is a great place in pittsburgh to get some fresh fish. i am a bigseafoodfan and was very happy with my choice of restaurant. here are some thoughts:

we were seated pretty quickly (unlike many restaurants that take a reservation and make you still wait 20 minutes for a table). the view from the restaurant is great, although if are seated away from the windows you won't see much while seated. the service was very good, and the food came out quickly and in a nice pace. now onto the most important part - the food: the daily fish menu is great and there were only 2-3 option that were n/a. i tried the crab cake appetizer and was surprised at how good/fresh it was. a nice serving of lump crabmeat, as good as a crab cake as i have had anywhere. then i had the parmesan crusted halibut (waitress recommended) and my date got the swordfish topped w/ crabmeat and asparagus. both dishes were very tasty, and each gave a pretty big portion of fish. i favored the swordfish a little more (maybe bc it was topped w/ generous portion of crabmeat and i enjoyed the thick cut of fish). i thought the parmesan on the halibut was a little overwhelming by the end of the meal (my date really liked it though). to finish off the night, we had the chocolate truffle cake, which was delicious.

the only downside is the place is just a little pricey, the fish prices i thought were fair, but with an appetizer and pricey drinks then dessert, the bill total goes up real quick (i am not cheap and i understand its fresh fish); many pittsburgh natives i know consider it almost a special occasion type of place, which is fine.

overall, the fish was very good (crabmeat was great) and i will definitely come back. i am not quite sure but there is something holding my back from giving it a full 5 stars (price or maybe inexperience of other pittsburghseafoodspots), but i still think highly of monterey bay and give it 4.5 (out of 5 stars).

phenomenal. we were seated promptly, my water never went empty, and i ateseafoodthat i would have never eaten before and it was phenomenal to say the least. yes it is expensive, but it is well worth it!

i've lived in mount washington since august, and until the monday after christmas, i still hadn't spent any time at the fancy restaurants on grandview. finally, i made it a point to visit monterey bay on one of my last vacation days of the year. ryan and i visited the renownedseafoodrestaurant for lunch on a monday afternoon. monterey bay is located up-up-up on top of a tall apartment building, and to get to the restaurant, you must endure a long ride in an elevator made partially of glass. i know that this view is what makes the restaurant famous, and if i could stand to turn around i'm sure i'd have loved it. once i had my footing inside the restaurant, however, i loved to stare out into the city. my date and i were seated right next to a row of huge windows. even on a dreary december day, pittsburgh looks magnificent from monterey bay! it's so neat to be able to see from mckees rocks all the way to oakland in one blink. of course i had to "flex" for this trip to monterey bay, and

very disappointing. first, i'm from seattle and have the luxury of being surrounded by greatseafoodrestaurants. so, i'll admit my standards are high.

second, wow, was i disappointed! for example 1) every course i had that evening was delivered cold 2) the salad was soaked in dressing (that tasted like bad bottled dressing) 3) the main course was just bad (the sauce was way too thick, without a lot of flavor) and the fish was just smothered in black olives and artichokes - i had to dig out the fish) 4) the white wine arrived right before dinner and was still room temperature (which meant it didn't come back to the table chilled until after we started eating our meals).

we were a party of 9, and i suspect a big part of my experience was because the restaurant isn't good at getting a lot of different dishes out at the same time. plus, there are a lot of tables and that puts a lot of stress on a kitchen. but, we're not talking luke warm here. my dish, and those of the other people next to me, were simply cold to the point where the fish was dry and the sauces beginning to harden up. also, 8 meals were delivered at once; the nineth came 3 or 4 minutes later. so, we had to let the food get even colder before we could start eating. this simply isn't acceptable.

giving credit where it is due, the waitstaff was very attentive (with the exception of not planning ahead on the wine) and the service was well timed (except for getting all 9 meals out at once). also, the menu is extensive - although perhaps too extensive - i'd rather see 20 things done really well than 50 done poorly. and, almost all of the wines are very fairly priced compared to most restaurants. in fact, they had wines from the pacific northwest that are hard for me to get here, and only about 50% more expensive than what i would pay retail. in seattle they would be at least 100% to 200% over retail, and hard to find.

in short, i suspect these guys can serve you a decentseafoodmeal. but, i wouldn't take a party larger than 4, and i would order meals that don't require sophisticated preparations. i'd also ask that any white wines be brought well in advance of the meal, and chilled if necessary (they seem to store their better white wines at the same temperature as their reds, which makes them too warm for immediate consumption).

nice view, eat somewhere else. extremely disappointed! it has been a few years since my last visit to your restaurant. in the past, i routinely brought out of town clients and co workers to the restaurant for the view and the great food. tonight my dinner was awful. i ordered grouper monterey style. no recipe anywhere would smother any fish with at leat 16 oz of artichoke hearts, olives, tomatoes and mushrooms. when my plate arrived, i thought i had been given a cassarole by mistake. if you are really trying to be aseafoodrestaurant you should look to the fish market or steelhead grille for guidance. don't think i will ever return to monterey bay except for cocktails and the view. i can have better meals at many other establishments. maybe you need a real chef to prepare meals. wasn't impressed with the catfish my mother had, nor was my husband impressed with the new york strip. we ate at the capital grille on sunday and the food was sooooo much better! you need to have more than a view to keep customers returning...or maybe that doesn't matter!

food allergy friendly. from the moment we arrived, they took wonderful care of me. i have four food allergies and i am also gluten intolerant. the manager took the time to talk with me at length regarding my allergies and inform the server also. the server worked with the chef to make modifications of menu items for me. they even had very tasty gluten free rolls that i yearn for now.
we had a sampler type appetizer and now i know how much i love grilled yellow fin tuna. i've been wanting to find a type of fish i can tolerate but hate the taste of it so often. i have been charmed and next time i will get an entree of it.
my steak and braised spinach were divine. i savored each piece of the steak, nearly making us late for the show we attended that night. my boyfriendsseafoodpasta dish was loaded withseafood(i forget if it was crab or shrimp) and was a large enough portion for even him to need a box.
the service was impeccable, the view was amazing, the atmosphere was divine. i thoroughly enjoyed the experience of eating food that was safe for in such a stunning setting. we will be back again and again.
the monterey bay fish grotto is a wonderful place to have a romantic dinner and is very food allergy friendly. i highly recommend them.