Rumors Bar & Grill

I went here in October 2014. The burgers and fries were excellent but the atmosphere was a bit shady for non-​locals. As it was a smoking bar, the smoky smell hit you square in the face as soon as you open the door. It was very dark inside despite it being a sunny day and the windows were a bit dusty too but the food sure did make up for that. Overall it’s off the beaten path, nice and quiet at lunchtime (at least when I went there) and quaint for locals.

I stopped by here this past Friday for lunch with 3 other coworkers. I had been prepped ahead of time by my coworkers that smoking was allowed inside of the bar and so I should not wear anything that I didn’t want to smell smoky. Whenever we got into the bar though there was only one other person sitting at the bar and he was not smoking. The smell that I did notice was a perfumed type smell that was not thoroughly unpleasant. The bar is mainly built around a u shaped bar with seating on all sides of it.
For lunch I decided to go with two of the items on the specials board and so I ordered the pierogies (4 for $ 1, what a deal!) and then the fish sandwich that came a choice of two sides for which I chose mac and cheese and fries. Normally I would not have gone so heavy on the starch/​carbs but I had a large trail race the next day and appreciated that I was able to. The pierogies ended up coming out first and there were four decent sized pierogies on a plate with the right amount of onions and what I imagine was a half a stick of butter. You can’t really have pierogies in the Pittsburgh area without the onions and butter and so I was happy to see them. The pierogies had a good potato filling that was still hot as I was eating them and I really enjoyed them with the onions and butter. After I had finished that my fish sandwich and sides came out. The fish sandwich was almost comically place upon a hamburger bun as it was at least three times the size of it. So I ended up eating the two ends of it first before eating the middle part as a sandwich with the bun. The fish was cooked nice and flaky and had a breading on that while not bad, did not do too much to enhance the flavor. As such I ended up putting some hot sauce on it. The same went for the Mac N Cheese which while looking like it came directly out of the Kraft box ended up thankfully not tasting like it. It was pretty cheesy but needed the extra kick that the hot sauce provided. Finally my fries were also good. Even though it may not have sounded like it from my above description I really did enjoy my meal.
The bottom line for me is that I would definitely head back here again in the future. The one thing that would give me pause is that they do allow smoking but the food is good and you can certainly get a lot of it for your money here!

Pub burger is excellent. Fries are very good too. Rumors is a great place for locals. It is a smoking bar.