Pangea in Shadyside - reviews? (Washington, Bellefonte: neighborhood, live, restaurants)

[hempfield mania]

Thinking of taking the wife there for an anniversary dinner. Most of the reviews I have seen have been pretty positive.

We did Eleven last year and liked it. We also like the Back Porch ambiance and have been there. Looking for someplace like that or maybe a little more modern would be ok and I think Pangea would fit that mold.

We both lived on Mt. Washington and been to most places up there multiple times.

Thanks in advance..

[hempfield mania]

Decided to go with the other online feedback on restaurant review sites and had dinner there last night. Everything was a thumb's up from my wife and myself.

They were not busy which was a little surprising but that made it all the more cozy. The service from our waiter Greg was excellent.

We ordered some cocktails while we pondered our menu choices. My wife got her standard top shelf appletini (delicious) after being overwhelmed by the many choices on the martini menu and I went with a mojito, which was excellent (mint picked fresh).

The wine list included several choices for wine flights (best bargain) but none struck my fancy. I asked Greg if they could put together a chef's choice flight to match my 3 courses to which they kindly obliged. 3 choice wine flight was $14 while a single glass of pinot noir that my wife ordered (after tasting my choices) was $14. If I had any complaints, it would be that single glasses and bottles of wine seemed overpriced, even for this level of rest. The wine flights seemed to give you almost as much wine in each choice as the single glass of wine did.

We started out with salads; the wife had the warm brie and strawberry over greens salad and I had the poached pear. Her's was better than mine but they were both excellent.

We then had a round of tapas/appetizers which there were plenty to choose from. I had the mongolian beef lettuce wraps and she had short rib sliders (not on the menu). Both were excellent. There were several others I would love to try (lamb sliders, scallops) and when we go back, we will probably just order salads and tapas because at this point, our appetite was satisfied.

Alas, we had ordered main courses and my wife ordered the highly recommended bone-in veal chop served over a anduille and bean mixture with crispy green beans on the side. It was a great choice. I had the pan seared scallops which came with bonus shrimp that I neglected to see on the menu. Portions were very large and we struggled to eat the remainder of our food.

Listened to the desert menu but there weren't really any good choices with chocolate in them, so, we decided to hold off (not that we could have eaten it anyway).

I'd have to give it 4.5 out of 5 stars and we will definitely return but as stated earlier, we will most likely just order salads and tapas which will be more affordable and definitely filling.

They are located just off Walnut St. on Bellefonte. I forget the names of the last couple of restaurants that have been here but hopefully Pangea lasts longer because it was very good, IMO.

We topped off the evening with some coffees from Coffee Tree and took a stroll through the neighborhood before our long ride home. Only downer to the evening was sitting in the 1/2 hr of stopped traffic on the turnpike due to repaving b/w the Monroeville and Irwin interchange.