Pittsburgh: Huszar (October 2019)



My spouse and I dined at Huszar for dinner on a Friday evening in late October 2019. Huszar is open for lunch, dinner, and drinks on Tuesdays through Sundays (closed on Mondays). Diners can book a spot using the online Open Table reservation system. (The word “Huszar” [alternate spelling “Hussar”] refers to soldiers/horsemen from the 15th centuries.) Reservations are recommended; the restaurant was full on the night that we dined.

Huszar is located on the ground floor of a building/house at the corner of East North Avenue and East Street, close to the Veteran’s Bridge and the I-279 Parkway North and Allegheny Hospital. Prior to Huszar, since the mid-1950s, the property operated as a neighborhood bar called the Recovery Room. Huszar offers live music on certain nights. The long, dark dive-bar-ish space features a big L-shaped bar with some tables adjacent, and towards the back of the room, a few booths on one side with some high tops across from them. 

Huszar serves Hungarian food, which makes me reminisce about my childhood. We started with two dishes, langos (a kind of fry bread topped with sour cream and shredded cheese and only available on weekends) and the lecsos (cooked tomatoes, peppers, and onions served atop fried potato wedges; this dish is actually an entrée, and is also available served with steak.) As our main dishes, we ordered the chicken paprikash (shredded chicken covered in a paprika cream sauce served atop homemade noodles/dumplings called nokedli that resemble German spatzle) and the schnitzel. For dessert, we tried the apple retes (strudel) and the palacsinta (crepes) filled with sweetened cottage cheese.

We don’t often have the chance to sample Hungarian cuisine, so we enjoyed our dinner at Huszar.














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