Papa J’s

Our extremely poor service overshadowed our visit to Papa J’s. We were seated in the upper area and had a group reservation. Before our waiter even introduced himself, he told us how we need to hurry up and order because they were «about to get busy». When we asked for more bread, he told us we could only have a little bit more. This was us asking for a second helping of bread, not a 3^rd or 4^th. And we were rushed out with a speech given TWICE by our waiter that made us feel like we had to leave. He also commented that our table ate a lot of food — we had not ordered any appetizers or desserts, yet he had to comment on this? A server should know better than to make these kind of comments. Not sure if we will return — would absolutely hate to get this waiter on our next visit.

Worst service of all time. 2 hours for a pizza and had to repeat ourselves to the waiter 5 time throughout the night. Then asked for the bill and was given a bill 3 times the amount ours should have been with a bunch of items that should not be on there. Place is a total joke.

We were a party of 18 and every aspect of our meals was disappointing. My $ 7 salad consisted of lettuce with dressing, the calamari tasted like it was freezer burned, the shrimp in my pasta tasted like it was straight from the Mon, and others at the table had similar experiences with their meals. Then to top it off they wouldn’t spit the check between couples even though they asked who the couples were when they took our orders. This was my first and definitely last visit.

The only reason I give it 2 stars is the wedding soup and bread were good. However I had the spinach and feta frittata and it was so overloaded with spinach. In fact not sure if there was any egg at all! My daughter had a sausage sandwhich and also very bad. It wasn’t even on bread just some sort of pita. The whole thing fell apart. Service was very very slow. I wouldn’t have minded if at least the waiter would have apologized for the long waits. He didn’t.

My husband and I dinned at Papa J’s last evening with another couple. We came equipped with up to $ 14.00 off coupon we had planned to use, and they planned on using their Entertainment Book coupon. We were told, rather harshly and rudely that we could only use one coupon per table… hard and fast rule of the establishment. But we protested, there are 2 couples here, paying on separate checks, so can’t understand this rule. Said they would take up to 3 Entertainment Book coupons per table, but not the one that drew us in from online Clipper Magazine. What difference does it make which coupon you use??? If you allow one, why not the other! Not building a «come back» attitude for us customers, and we don’t intend to go back. Some food was really good, while other meals were just ok, esp. in portion size. All menu items are ala carte, so pretty pricey, so coupon discount would have been nice. Waiter we had, though he said he had been there for 21yrs, was pretty abrasive and a little neglectful with his service.

A large group of us have enjoyed an excellent dinner for the past three years and each year it gets better and better. We order entrees from all areas of the menu. The bread and antipasto are exceptional. Attentive and friendly staff with strong knowledge of the menu.

We visited on ¹¹⁄₁₅ with a party of 15. While I know a party of 15 can be overwhelming, we did call in advance for reservations. Thus, allowing proper staffing. We arrived early and headed to the bar. The bartender there greeted us quickly and took great care of us. When it was time for our reservation we were seated immediately. That is where the efficiency and service took a turn for the worst. We sat for 20 minutes before a server came to our table. At that point, she said I’ll grab you water and bread. Another 10 minutes go by and members of our party went to the bar to grab drinks as the server vanished (still no water or bread). She finally comes back to the table with bread (no waters) and takes our drink orders (about 40 mins into sitting at the table). Next thing we know, a nice gentleman by the name of Patrick is our NEW server. He really stepped up the service and should be commended. However, we ordered the veal stuffed banana peppers which arrived cold. We also ordered the «incredible white pizza» which was incredibly cold. While Patrick stepped up the service the entire experience was fairly terrible.
Not once did the front of house manager come check on us.
This is the second time I’ve visited and the 2^nd time I’ve been disappointed.
Also, I wrote to the restaurant and received no response.

One of my favorite places in Pittsburgh! Reasonable prices & delicious food. Only one weird quirk — they don’t bring the delicious fresh bread until you order — but it is complementary (sometimes they will if you ask nicely, but it doesn’t come automatically).
Everything is super fresh — my friends & I always order a salad or two as a starter (they are huge & don’t offer side portions) — I strongly recommend the panzanella salad.
Then, any of the pastas. Seriously, they are all good!
If you remember to save room for dessert — the cakes are all GIANT! Definitely enough to share (probably with a large table).

I stopped by here a couple of Fridays ago with my wife and 3 other couples. Another couple in our party had made reservations before hand and when we arrived a couple of minutes after that time, we were immediately taken to our table. Whenever you first walk into Papa Js you immediately head past both their dessert case and bread making area. That is pure genius on their part as both their desserts and bread look good! Then to get to our table we also walked past a bar and up a flight of stairs. After that I didn’t really see much else of the restaurant.
After our whole party had arrived and our waitress had taken all of our drink orders she came back up to our table and promised us that she would be back shortly as she had some desserts to take to a table. After about 15 minutes or so she finally did make it back to our table. For my dinner entrée I decided on having the Romano chicken. It came out a short time later with a side of broccoli. The chicken had a nice golden color to its breading and tasted pretty good although a bit salty. I can take at least some credit for that though as I may have used the Parmesan that was on the table quite liberally. Meanwhile the broccoli was over cooked for my tastes and seemed mushy whenever I bit into it.
The bottom line for me is that I might stop by here again in the future. I wouldn’t be the person to recommend it but I also wouldn’t turn it down. I feel like the prices were fair for what you got and only wish that the service was a little better.

Great restaurant. Had the Eggplant Parmesan and it was very good. Bradley was our server and he was on top of things all the time. Prices are reasonable and the décor is inviting. Can’t wait to go back.

Yummy Yum, Let me get me some. This place rocks!!! Went here with the wife and had a great dinner. Portions are very generous and the food is delicious. Be prepared to pay top dollar though for the entrees, but they are worth every penny!

This is it. My favorite in the Pittsburgh area.
I moved out of the area for 10 years and this was the first meal I had back. There was a table of Italians speaking Italian behind me — how much more authentic can you get?!?
I bring all of my out of town guests here and not one had been left disappointed. My recommendations are to order the mozzarella carozza (or however it’s spelled) and then one of the specials. If you aren’t into a special, you’ll be fine — order off the menu. But the specials are typically amazing.
When my better half was living 4 hours away, he drove into town and I made him get back in he car to go here. Instead if complaining, he asked if we could take his parents next time.

I wrote a letter to the Papa J’s, but did not receive a reply therefore I will share my experience online.
Tonight a friend and I dined at your location. We were seated in the bar area by the sidewalk, which is what we requested because of the great weather and the happy hour specials. Our server took our order of a gingerale, fried zucchini appetizer, side salad, wedding soup, eggplant rolotini and chicken piccata (correct spelling).
We thoroughly enjoyed the bread & wedding soup.
The side salad was rather bland and unexciting, lacking flavor & texture. The Spring salad consisted of leaf lettuce, a single slice of tomato and one black olive. I would have expected some additions such as onions, peppers, cheese, cucumbers, croutons, carrots and the like.
We enjoyed the fresh air while waiting for our appetizer, but were growing concerned that it would arrive too close to the meal, so we asked the server (bartender) about the appetizer and he told us that he had forgot to «put it in». He offered to put it in at this point, but advised us that our meals would be out soon. We decided to just wait for our meals and forgo the appetizer which were looking forward to.
The main dishes were acceptable, not outstanding. The eggplant was very tasty and well prepared. The Chicken Piccata was flavorful, but not as expected.
The chicken seemed to have been steamed or baked. It had no signs of being coated and sautéed to a rich golden brown. The chicken was just pale white.
The sauce was a simple lemon flavor, it lacked any depth that would have resulted from the browning of the chicken. I tasted no garlic or shallots. The sauce lacked that famous tang usually supplied by capers, which were absent. No pasta was served with the chicken. The side of vegetables were well cooked, buy again lacked any real flavor. The would have benefited from a roasting which would have produced a rich savory taste produced by extraction of the natural sugars.
Once our meals were finished our plates were taken and we waited another 20 minutes for the check. The server seemed more concerned with what was on television rather than his customers. The total was $ 43 and change.
I would have expected the salad and soup would have been removed from the bill for the error of not putting in our appetizer order, but no such offer was made and
I saw no manager come around and check on the customers, as is customary.
I am hesitant to go back to this restaurant or recommend it to anyone after tonights dining experience. I hope this feedback will be beneficial to your business.

We came to Carnegie to check out the Black Lamb consignment shop. Lucky for us that we also discovered PaPa J’s – we loved it! The fried calamari appetizer was excellent, as was the fettuccine carbonara. We’ll be headed back to this place as often as we can for a real Italian dining experience.

A unique and great find in downtown Carnegie. My fiancé and I came here for a weekend lunch and wanted something different from our usual weekend spots. We had the sausage stuffed pepperoncini’s as an appetizer (these are never my favorite and were just OK, but the marinara served with them was very tasty, as was their homemade bread), I had a really great wood fired meatball/​ricotta pizza and fiancé had the chicken parm sandwich. Our waiter was very attentive and friendly. I ordered a cannoli on the way out the door and it was FANTASTIC. Not overly sweet, crunchy-​chocolate dipped shell stuffed with thick cream and mini chocolate chips. Amazing. We will definitely be back here!

Did dinner with my GF last Saturday at PaPa J’s prior to going to the Off The Wall Theater. This was the first time we’ve been to this restaurant. We usually stop a Riley’s Pour House across the street for a bite before seeing a show in this town but today we decided to shake it up and do something different.
The place is deceptively larger than it looks from the outside. It was also busier than we would have expected on this particular evening and we got one of the remaining tables which was located near the entrance and the bar. The traffic from both the customers and the staff that flowed past us was a little noisy and distracting and we could tell that’s why it was one of the last tables available. But our waitress came by promptly, got us drinks (I had a Hoegaarden and my girl ordered an Absolute water and cranberry), gave us menus and recited the specials of the day.
After viewing the menu for a bit, I decided on the Veal Parmigiano; my date went with one of the specials, a chicken and broccoli gnocchi dish. The plates took about 15 minutes to arrive and the portions were humongous… enough for a filling lunch the next day. My veal was tender and delicious but it’s really the gnocchi that left the biggest impression. You could tell that it was house made; it was like little fluffy pillows dissolving in your mouth with each bite. I never tasted gnocchi like it before.
Over all I give PaPa J’s a big thumbs up. The food was good, most of the dinning area’s seemed cozy, the building itself has a certain charm with its high ceiling and the tables draped in white table cloths give it a pristine appearance. Although I thought it was a bit pricy, I didn’t feel as if I’ve been taken. Other than the location of our table, it was the pre-​theater perfect meal. I only hope get a more intimate table next time we stop for dinner.

I struggle to write this review simply because this dining experience confused me. First, the restaurant itself is on a convenient corner st in downtown Carnegie’s main street. When you walk in you the first thing you see is a counter filled with desserts and amazing looking house made breads. It rather looks like a deli counter. You have to walk around to get to the hostess station and then can go left to the bar or right to the dining area. A bit confusing layout, but tastefully done. The dining area is brighter than the rest of the restaurant. It felt much more upscale once in the dining area, but I did find the overall restaurant tastefully unique.
The food — A wide range of Italian dishes and seafood. We ordered the crab hozel as an appetizer. It was an average serving of lump crab meat, I had to ask for cocktail sauce. It was tasty, but cost us $ 18. We then ordered the veal and shrimp entrée with sauteed veggies like artichokes, eggplant, peppers, etc. There were 4 smaller sized cutlets of veal and 3 shrimp. $ 28. There was no salad or pasta side offered. The dish was prepared properly and was OK. We just felt it needed something else.
Now the bread that was offered to our table came in a small basket and was filled with a variety of their house made breads. The pepperoni bread was AMAZING! I mean really delish. This alone I would have given 5 stars.
The service — Our server was… well…I’m not sure what he was quite frankly. Annoying? Confused? Hyper? He appeared to have no idea what he was doing half the time. Bouncing around the table, asking the same questions over and over, forgetful, spastic, etc. At one point one of my colleagues said, «Is he on crack?» We chuckled, but seriously! He forgot to even ask us if we wanted dessert, which was too bad because we saw some amazing looking offerings in the cases as we were leaving.
Overall — If I were in the area again I would definitely stop in to get some pepperoni bread to go, as they do sell it by the loaves. However, I think I would try somewhere else to dine.

Wonderful food. Some items a little over priced. But never disappointed.
I have friends that LOVE the white pizza. I have seen two people eat their weight in the stuff.
I love their fresh salads. HUGE. The house dressing is perfect every time. We have been there many times and it just doesn’t get old.
We always have the beans and greens. The meatball appetizer is superb. By-​pass the chicken parm, it’s the only thing we have ever found lacking… it’s just really plain. The alfredo is excellent.
We, almost never go anywhere else in Carnegie because we like this place so much.

Talk about overpriced. $ 18 for a fairly basic pasta with some obviously frozen chicken chopped up over it. The latter was terrible, thin and flabby and rather unappealing. The pasta itself was ok, as was the sauce. The desserts are pretty good. But honestly, that is a $ 10 dish whose price has been inflated.

Food was NOT GOOD at all! My husband & I ate here a couple weeks ago for the first time. I ordered a salad & basil pesto cream pasta & my husband ordered the spinach & feta pasta. The salad was just a huge plate of spring mix (nothing else in it) with WAY to much vinegar dressing. My lettuce was drowning in the vinegar. My pesto pasta had no flavor (did not taste like a cream sauce to me) & the pesto was so runny/​watery & way too much sauce not enough noodles. My husband’s pasta had even less flavor than mine. We ate about a quarter of the food & couldn’t even finish it. We took it home & it was so bad I didn’t even eat my leftovers. And I hate wasting food! Plus the prices are expensive for the amount of food you get & of course the poor quality. Don’t waste your time eating here. There are much better Italian restaurants in Pittsburgh.