My spouse and I dined at the Cafe Carnegie for brunch on a
Sunday afternoon in early September 2019. The Carnegie Cafe is open daily for
breakfast (coffee bar only), lunch/brunch, and very early dinner (it closes at
5:00 pm except on Thursdays when it is open until 8:00 pm). Diners can book a
spot using the online Open Table reservation system. Patrons do not need to
purchase museum admission to dine at the Café Carnegie.
The Cafe Carnegie opened in December 2016 on the street
level of the Carnegie Museum of Art (the space was previously the museum
cafeteria), but is also easily accessible from the adjoining Carnegie Museum of
Natural History. These museums are located in Oakland within easy walk of the
University of Pittsburgh (Pitt) and Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) campuses.
The restaurant offers seating in three areas: at the casual coffee/wine bar
area, in the formal dining room, or outdoors (yet under cover) near the
museum’s water feature. The main dining room offers seating at stand-alone
tables, or at tables arranged around the room’s perimeter that share a
banquette. Lot of windows and high ceilings create a bright and airy space.
The Café Carnegie serves international cuisine. A full
liquor license is available. We shared the cheese plate to start, which was the
least impressive dish of our meal (the portions were really small, only three tiny
portions of cheese and three thin baguette slices). As our main dishes, we
ordered the schnitzel (this dish was outstanding, topped with corn, heirloom
cherry tomatoes, and haricot verts) and the buckwheat seafood crepes (topped
with a beurre blanc sauce and served with a side salad). We shared the burnt
almond cake for dessert.
We enjoyed our brunch at the Café Carnegie, and it taught us
a lesson: we can spend more time at a museum (we particularly visit many
museums in NYC) if we take a nice long seated lunch break during our visit.
