My spouse and I dined at Sienna Sulla Piazza for an early lunch
on a Saturday afternoon in late October 2014. (Sienna Sulla Piazza is also
called Sienna on the Square.) We did not have a reservation; however, the
restaurant participates in the Open Table reservation system. The restaurant
was busy on the afternoon that we dined, but the server sat us at the table of
our choice in the dining room. (The downtown area hosted several cultural and
sporting events on the day that we dined, which accounted for the crowds.)
Sienna Sulla Piazza is open for lunch and dinner Monday through Saturday. The
restaurant closes on Sunday.
Sienna Sulla Piazza is located on Market Square in Downtown
Pittsburgh, amidst other restaurants that open onto the grassy common area. No
on-site parking exists; however, street parking and parking lots and garages are
nearby. Sienna, as well as other restaurants in Market Square, offers al fresco
dining. Sienna has a heavy, ornate wooden “garage door” that swings open via hydraulic
lifts to merge the outdoor and indoor dining spaces in appropriate weather.
Indoors, the front of the restaurant contains the main dining space. Small
tables are positioned along one wall, many of which share a common padded
banquette seat on one side. A larger table for eight diners is available at the
front of the restaurant. A few steps up from the street level is the bar area,
which contains the bar itself and a few regular-height tables as well as
several high-top tables. The bathrooms are located at the back of the
restaurant past the bar. The dining space features high ceilings with brick
walls on both sides, on which are hung 1920s Leonetto Cappiello reproduction prints
that feature labels like Cinzano, Cognac, and Campari.
Sienna Sulla Piazza is part of a restaurant group that also
owns the Mercato property on Penn Avenue in Downtown Pittsburgh. (Mercato is also
called Sienna Mercato.) Mercato offers three floors of dining: the street level
(called Emporio) serves Italian food (particularly meatballs) all day, the
second floor (called Mezzo) serves wine and charcuterie in the evenings, and
the rooftop terrace (called Il Tetto) serves drinks and snacks at night.)
Sienna offers its regular lunch menu on Saturdays, which we
appreciated because we are not brunch (eggs and pancakes) eaters. The lunch menu
is expansive, and contains appetizers, soups, salads, sandwiches, pizzas, and
pasta entrees. Because so many of the items sounded wonderful, we had
difficulty deciding what to order! While we perused the menu, our server
delivered chewy Italian bread with a delicious spread made of white beans
combined with house-made marina sauce (in lieu of butter or oil). As
appetizers, we ordered a beet salad and the liver chicken liver mousse. The
restaurant served both appetizers on square slates, which provided a blank
canvas for the interesting presentations. The mousse was delivered in a small latching-lid mason jar,
which contained chicken liver topped with honey and crushed pistachio nuts,
accompanied by thin slices of buttered grilled Tuscan bread. The beet salad
contained a mixture of frisee, red and yellow beet segments, goat cheese, and almonds
tossed in a vinaigrette dressing. For entrees, we ordered a meatball and
ricotta flatbread and the pappardelle Bolognese (ground veal, pork, and beef with
carrots, cream, and nutmeg). The restaurant makes all of its pasta in-house. We
also ordered one of their famous mozzarella-stuffed meatballs as a side dish. For
dessert, we shared a warm bread pudding made with fall fruit (like tart apples),
and topped with finely chopped marinated apples and spiced pecans (savory, not
sweet). Prices were reasonable, portions were large, and quality was excellent.
We loved our lunch at Sienna Sulla Piazza, and we will
return sometime soon. In addition, we are more interested than ever to try one
(or all!) of the options at Mercato.
No comments:
Post a Comment