round corner cantina

what are the requirements to be considered a gastropub anyway?. the decor and clientele meet your usual hipster expectations, but remember this is lawrenceville and push on. the bar is old, raucous, and staffed by pretentious bartenders. all of this aside, swallow your pride and pbr with some great tacos. handmade guacamole is a great start . tacos al pastor were my favorite, with the pineapple adding a hint of sweetness to the savory meat. the carnitas too were well done- the meat was well-seasoned and slow cooked, but not chewy. all tacos come 2 per order and the quality of the food comes to a fair price (remember this isn't taco bell). table side hot sauce will add some heat.

i have visited round corner cantina in the past just for happy hour or something but i recently made my first trip to round corner cantina just for the food. i haven’t ventured to too many restaurants in lawrenceville yet, that will be on my to do list in 2014. however, i wasn’t that impressed with my trip to round corner cantina. we ordered some chips and guacamole to start, i wasn’t crazy about the guacamole. to me it really lacked flavor. they give you a dish of it with lime and jalapeno but it just did nothing for me. i stuck with the salsa and that was pretty much forgettable. onto the main event, i ordered 2 types of tacos: carnitas and chorizo. each order comes with 2 tacos. carnitas – slow roast pork, cucumber, onion, radish, cilantro. my sister told us this was her favorite and we should try it. this was my least favorite. what really ruined the dish for me was the cucumber. i like cucumber but it tasted like the cucumber had been pickled and well pickles just don’t go well wi

this really is one of my favorite places to go to. if you are looking for some good tacos and guacamole around pittsburgh, i highly recommend round corner cantina.

great sangria. love the food. specials are on point. $1 tj dogs on sunday are you kidding!? the bartenders are always cool. wait staff is pretty good. you can't expect to go to a place that's jam packed on friday happy hour and get your food in 3 minutes. this place is always a good time and its at its best when you can sneak in at a time when there isn't a massive hoard of boat shoes wearers or ppl dressed like a civil war reenactment.

beach bar feel & drinks. after dinner at the coco cafe across the street, went here for drinks. bar seemed a little intense, but saw the sign for the patio & felt like i was at a beach bar. the crowd skewed younger, but the drinks were tasty. great place to be on a warm summer night.

great spot to hang out. always packed because the food and drinks are great! great salsa and taco's.

shame. i really love the back porch and the food. but the service is always terrible.

once, i reacted because they carry one of my favorite vodkas by saying "wow. great to see that you have luksasowa vodka." the server looked at me and said "i am suppose to say something? is that important?? i think she was trying to be clever. i felt sorry for her attempt. another time, the one bartender took 23 minutes to get a bottle of beer. blamed it on the service bar up front. i didn't buy it. i think it was that fact she was talking to a group of friends at the bar.

i spent 7 years as a server/bartender/cook. i can't forgive intentionally poor service. the food is great and the environ is awesome. i may go back, maybe. but not tonight. going to get a frank instead where the staff is really cool and nice.

friendly, service-oriented bartenders. not!. went early for happy hour on a friday. while waiting for friends at the bar i ordered a classic margarita (after waiting 10+ minutes to be acknowledged, at a time when the bar was largely empty). their margaritas are odd in that they are heavy on the oj - more of a tequila sunrise. not my preferred mix but so be it. after finishing the first, i ordered a second (made by the same bartender), but this one had twice as much oj as the first. not being a fan of oj to begin with, i asked if it was possible to make me one with less oj - "like the first one," i said. he replied - and i'm not kidding - "well i just made you that one. do you want to pay for another one?" (of course i don't. who would?) i was incredulous, particularly since i asked as soon as he put it down, before i had even touched it. seriously??? any other bar would have said no problem and made another. naturally, he kissed his tip goodbye.
on a prior visit, while dining at the bar, i asked the bartender if i could have a few fresh jalapenos for my tacos (a large jarful of them was sitting right in front of me). she said no, i could not, that they were for her bar setup. again, seriously? can you really not spare 3 jalapeno rings? i didn't realize they were so scarce and expensive. i want to like this place, but the bad attitude of their front of the house employees makes it difficult.
as for the food, the tacos are decent, but be warned, they have the greasiest tortilla chips ever. they literally glisten with oil. gross.

the food and drinks were excellent, and the atmosphere at the patio bar was awesome (if you don't mind wading through hipsters) but the service was awful! we had no clue who our server was, a server came through maybe once or twice, only after requesting service from another girl. it took forever to get our checks, someone in our party got up to find anyone who could get our checks and she found all the servers sitting down having a smoke break! not one waitress had been on the floor that whole time. i'd give it another shot, since the food and drinks were so good, but if the service is like that again - i'd write this place off and forget about it.

this is a great place to go for drinks, food was very mediocre. great selection of beers and mixed drinks, sangria was good. the food is ok, nothing special at all. back patio was a great place to hang out. our waitress was fantastic. will be back for drinks only

horrible staff. waitress gave my friends tonic water instead of water. no big deal. probably hit the wrong button. we brought up the mix up and our waitress flipped her lid saying we were wrong and this is a waste of her time. super awkward. we then sat there wanting to spend a lot of money on drinks but she didn't come back for half an hour. i won't be back ever.


-----05 may, 2012-----

great bartender. haven't been here in a while because of bad service in the past but was dragged here last wednesday by a friend. i was really surprised how much fun i had. i skipped food and just had drinks but they were all amazing. try the el escobar. bartender was nice and attentive too. will be going back now.

round corner cantina is no frills nitty gritty meets comfort food mexican. as lawrenceville is one of pittsburgh's oldest neighborhoods, it is home to many historic row houses including the round corner cantina (it is right on the corner in case you couldn't garner that from its name). homes like these were incredibly small and in some instances, extremely narrow. upon stepping in you are immediately in the bar area which features a couple of tables in addition to seating at the bar. however, if you just take a few steps further you are then in a rather dark room that features about half a dozen high

found myself trying to kill an hour on butler street.. stumbled upon this place at 4:55 and didn't realize they didn't open till 5. surprisingly someone came to the door imminently and opened it and welcomed me in. bartender was very friendly and helpful explaining the menu to me. great happy hour specials on beer. can't wait to go back!

the bar has a local charm to it. the seating arrangement is definitely tailored to the younger, more forgiving crowd and the twenty-one and over rule gives the round corner cantina an aura of credibility that i think supports the business...

always good. once again i had a great time hanging here on a sunday. i probably won't be back on a friday to saturday because its too packed but sundays are perfect. food and drinks were great and not a long wait.