Oakland Restaurants

Oakland dining includes casual student eateries, international cuisine, coffee houses, and upscale dining. You may want to walk along Craig Street or Forbes Avenue and see what appeals to you . Or, you can try some of these establishments:

• Foster's Bar & Grill
  Holiday Inn Select, University Ctr 100 Lytton Ave.
  Pittsburgh PA 15213
  (412) 682-6200 Fax: (412) 681-4749
  

Fresh seafood and steaks grilled over hickory smoked coals, salads, and hearty sandwiches served in the heart of Pittsburgh's cultural center. Breakfast, lunch, happy hour, and dinner. Live jazz Friday. Sunday nights. No cover.

• Howard Johnson's Restaurant
  Best Western University Ctr. Hotel
  3401 Blvd. of the Allies Pittsburgh PA 15213
  (412) 681-6300 Fax: (412) 681-9945
  

Big breakfast buffet. All dinners include soup, salad, and fresh fruit bar. Daily 6 am - 11 p.m., weekends 6 a.m. - 1:30 p.m.

• Mad Mex
  370 Atwood St. Pittsburgh PA 15213
  (412) 681-5656
  

Mad Mex is a unique California-Mexican restaurant with locations in North Hills and Oakland.

• Museum Cafe, The The Carnegie 4400 Forbes Ave. Pittsburgh PA 15213
  (412) 622-3225
  

One of the best lunchtime values in town. Menu changes daily. Entrees are $2 to $3. Informal, inexpensive, wheelchair accessible. No credit cards.

• Star of India
  412 S. Craig St. Pittsburgh PA 15213
  (412) 681-5700

 

Nearby Pittsburgh Sites (and a couple others):

• Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Hall/Museum
  4141 Fifth Ave. Pittsburgh PA 15213-3547
  (412) 621-4253

  A veterans memorial building, unique in the world, housing a military history museum beginning with the Civil War, including a Persian Gulf exhibit.

• The Carnegie
  4400 Forbes Avenue, Pittsburgh, Pa 15213
  (412) 622-3360

  The Carnegie, Andrew Carnegie's lasting gift to Pittsburgh founded in 1895, comprises the Carnegie Library, the Carnegie Music Hall, the Carnegie Museum of Art, and the Carnegie Museum of Natural History. The Carnegie Museum of Art features distinguished masterpieces of French impressionist, post-impressionist, 19th-century American, and contemporary art. The Carnegie Museum of Natural History is one of the six largest natural history museums in the country. Called the "home of the dinosaurs" for its famed skeletons of Tyrannosaurus Rex, Diplodocus, and other extraordinary fossils, the museum also displays more than 5 million specimens from all areas of natural history and anthropology.

• Phipps Conservatory
  One Schenley Park, Pittsburgh, Pa 15213
  (412) 622-6914

  This Victorian glasshouse has delighted plant and flower enthusiasts for over 100 years. Phipps Conservatory is considered to be one of the largest and finest in the country: the thirteen glass display rooms feature lush tropical palms, orchids, ferns, and desert plants, as well as seasonal flower exhibitions. $5 regular admission; reduced rates for seniors and students.

• The Senator John Heinz Regional History Center
  1234 Smallman Street, Pittsburgh, Pa 15222
  (412) 454-6000

  Opened in 1996 and located in Pittsburgh's Strip District (wholesale and international food and nightlife area), the museum and research facility expores the region's story. A discovery floor is for hands-on history learning for kids.

• The Andy Warhol Museum
  117 Sandusky Street in the North Side
  (412) 237-8300

  This museum presents the most comprehensive collection of work by a single artist in the United States. The Museum holds 900 Warhol paintings, 1,500 drawings, 500 prints, 400 photographs, hundreds of films and videos, and a massive collection of Warhol's "time-capsules", boxed records of the artist's day-to-day dealings and collecting. The museum opened in 1994.

• The Frick Art and Historical Center
  7227 Reynolds Street in Point Breeze
  (412) 371-0600

  A six-acre complex of museums and historic buildings: Clayton, The Frick Art Museum, the Carriage Museum, the Greenhouse, the Playhouse and the Museum Shops. Pittsburgh's industrialist age comes alive at The Frick Art where visitors can tour Clayton, the residence of coal and steel magnate Henry Clay Frick.

Walking Tours from Holiday Inn at University Center:

Pittsburgh is a safer city than most, but caution still pays. Walking through Oakland alone at night is not advisable. Be forewarned that panhandlers line some parts of the campus, especially the heavily traveled intersection of Forbes Avenue and Bouquet.

• Pitt Tour
  The most visible landmark at Pitt and in Oakland is the Cathedral of Learning. Its many Nationality Rooms are well worth seeing. Each room represents an ethnic group that helped build the city. The architecture and building materials of each room reflect the nationality that it represents. Some groups included are: Ukrainian, Italian, German, African, Israeli, Czech, Russian, Polish, Greek, English, French, and Swedish. To get there, turn right on Lytton, then right again on Fifth. Continue about a block. Turn left on Bigelow. The Cathedral will be on your left, visible as soon as you leave the hotel. After you see the Cathdral, continue on Fifth. You may want to explore the William Pitt Union, also at Bigelow and Fifth across from the Cathedral. The union used to be a hotel. It has a jazz hall of fame inside, a cafeteria, and parts of its first floor are still sumptuously furnished like a turn-of-the-century hotel. Continue down Fifth, pass the university bookstore, and go to the Graduate School of Public Health (the building with the sculpture of a gold man on it). Turn left and walk about a block until you reach Forbes. Turn left and begin walking again. Forbes is filled with small restaurants and features an overhead walkway for students. Continue until you reach Bellefield. You will be in front of The Carnegie. You can explore the museums and library, or turn left and walk back up to Fifth. Turn left on Fifth until you reach Lytton. Turn right onto Lytton.
• House Tour and Shadyside
  Pittsburgh has many stately homes and fine gardens. Heavy rains in the spring make for lush gardens in the summer. To see part of what used to be Pittsburgh's "Millionaires Row", turn right on Lytton, then left on Fifth Avenue. Stroll down Fifth and view the homes until you reach Amberson, then turn around. On the way, you will see many interesting homes including Hillman House and a newly renovated Victorian mansion at Amberson and Fifth. If your feet aren't tired, continue walking down Fifth to Aiken. Turn left on Aiken, walk about a block to the traffic light, then turn right on Walnut Street in the neighborhood called Shadyside. Walnut Street is known for its boutiques, restaurants (including sushi and Thai) , coffee shops, and nightlife. Walk down Walnut until you come to a light. Turn right on Negley, walk about a block back to Fifth, turn right on Fifth, and walk back to the hotel.
• Carnegie Mellon University
  Carnegie (pronounced car NEG ee if you're local) Mellon and Pitt collaborate on many projects, especially in the area of technology. If you would like to view the campus, turn right on Lytton, then left on Fifth. At Craig Street turn right. You may want to do some exploring on Craig. It has many little restaurants, including Middle Eastern and Indian food, as well as a coffee shop, video store, and book stores. When you get to the end of Craig (about two blocks) you'll be standing catercorner to The Carnegie Museum of Art. You may want to take a look at the art and the dinosaur skeletons. If not, turn left on Forbes Avenue and walk several blocks. The campus will be on your right.
• Schenley Park, Phipps Conservatory, and The Carnegie
  Turn right onto Lytton and right onto Fifth. Take Fifth to Bigelow (about two blocks). Turn left on Bigelow, and pass the Cathedral of Learning on your left and the William Pitt Union on your right. Cross Forbes and pass Hillman Library. Walk to the stop sign. As you pass Forbes Quad (the enormous building behind Hillman Library), look on the ground for a brick line and small plaque marking where the winning homerun baseball was hit over the wall of Forbes Field in the 1960 World Series. At the stop sign, cross the street (be very wary of traffic). Turn left and start walking. You will pass a large fountain on your right. Keep walking, following the sidewalk as it bears right and crosses a bridge. Once you are over the bridge, Phipps Conservatory will be on your right. You can walk around the grounds and view some of the flowers and statues, or pay admission and see Phipps' extensive display of plants, including exotic herbs and spices, an English garden, a children's gardent, a Japanese garden, and a desert display. When you are done at Phipps, walk back the way you came until you come to the traffic light. Cross the street. You are now in front of the part of The Carnegie that holds the Carnegie Library's main branch. You can explore the library and Pittsburgh's finest museums, then retrace your steps back to the hotel.