Problem: What a great place. We ordered the hell out of a lunch for four with like eight dishes. Everything was fresh and seasoned perfectly. Portion sizes were good and all the dishes had very distinct flavor profiles. Good food and very reasonable as well.
How would this review be described?
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A: positive

Problem: When I first heard about the opening Savoy I was excited to enjoy a new fine dining venue in the city. The excitement quickly faded as my friend and I arrived. To start, they had a tacky red carpet outside without a single person in line to get in. Some people may not enjoy a wait to get into a restaurant, but I take that as a sign of a happening place that I want to try, especially on an opening night. Second, they had an advertisement wall with the name of the restaurant plastered all over it, supposedly you could get your picture taken there, but this is not NYC and there are not paparazzi swarming to take your picture to show up on page six, or even a well known Pittsburgh magazine for that matter. What are you going to do ask the 300lb bouncer to take your picture? C'mon! This red carpet will soon be in the used and abused section of a thrift store because I do not see this concept lasting too much longer, and as for the advertisement wall...cut into mini advertisements that people place under windshield wipers of cars at strip clubs. I am still keeping an open mind about Savoy at this point. This is then shaken again as we walk into the main bar/dining area. The lighting is all off! I am sorry, but no one fashions well in lime green and yellow hue. This bringing me to my next disappointment, the overall crowd and atmosphere could be described as "classy" urban. Now don't get me wrong, there is nothing I love more than a well dressed African American, there is just a certain swagger that is exhibited. The crowd definitely missed the target on this one! It was like there was a sale at Men's Warehouse and everyone got a suit and forgot to get it tailored. The women I can't even get into there was so much wrong with it, but last I checked a pleather uni-color suit were out! Finally the menu, well I hope you brought some cash ladies and gentlemen! We started at the bar with two Johnny Walker Blacks on the rocks. The bartender was not knowledgeable at all with her scotch or how to prepare it. First off, she had no clue what we were asking for and held up a bottle of Hennessey and asked if this is what I wanted. What part about Johnny Walker did you not get? Finally, we get what we ordered, but piled with ice...not how to serve scotch. Now, between my friend and I, we have dined at some actual classy establishments across the country and never paid $48.00 for two Johnny Walkers! Good luck staying in business with these prices! Out of disgust and curiosity we choose to just look at the menu. We should have known that it would be nothing but overpriced, mediocre, bland food that lacks anything signature to the restaurant. I respect soul food and enjoy it very much on the occasion, but fried chicken does not pair well with this "classy" atmosphere that is trying to be exhibited. I will never return to this place, nor will I recommend it to anyone, unless you are looking to spend bill, arrive in a rented Cadillac Escalade and rock your 100$ suit for the evening paired with your "Gucci" glasses.
How would this review be described?
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A: negative

Problem: Food was ok but the service was slow. Some servers ran around with their heads cut off while others just stood around.
How would this review be described?
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A: negative

Problem: I am not really certain how this place is getting the stellar reviews that it has. we just had a quick bite there last night and it was easily one of the worst meals that I have ever had the pleasure of paying for. While the people running the shop were lovely, it was not worth the $17 or so we paid. I had small cheese steak sub - asking only for mayo and lettuce. you would think that might be a nice time to let me know that they use some sort of house garlic-herb mayo instead of actual mayo. but no. So after a good bit of waiting my sub comes out with this weird speckly dressing on top of the lettuce... yes, this is that mayo - which is disgusting. I thought it was ranch and that is when he lady, with a smile, explained it was their house mayo... no, they don't use regular mayo here. so, let me tell you about this mayo: 1. it is heavily flavored with garlic powder - which tastes seriously like chemicals on a good day and just should not be considered food in any way shape or form. Mixed in with this were some dried herbs - maybe an italian mix? who knows. all I could taste was the overwhelming chemical, fake garlic flavor. Hey, I love garlic and cook with it daily - mind you I actually use the real stuff. 2. it is really thin... I mean thin like salad dressing, runny, thin. Um, isn't mayo supposed to be thick and spreadable? even the stuff you see at subway is thicker. this stuff tasted like really cheap, bad, ranch dressing. So, after giving it a good effort to try to eat this "sub" - I gave up and picked off the bread on the top of the sub - the bread was pretty stellar though. still hungry I decided to try to scrap off the mayo/lettuce disaster and go for the meat and cheese. um... salt? the meat, which suspiciously looked like those thin sheets of steak-um had zero flavor. one bite and I rejected it. While we are talking about the meat - why use this garbage? I am paying almost 6 bucks for this sub. I want to see yummy chopped up steak bits like you see at even a mall sub shop. not this grey, disgusting 1980s looking flavorless "meat". At least the bottom of the sub roll was salvageable... I ate the bread. On to the pizza. My husband had two slices of pepperoni and my daughter had a slice of plain cheese. Ok, pizza. well, this too was a massive disappointment. since I was still hungry after dumping the majority of my sub I tried both of their pizza slices. it reminded me of a nice store-bought frozen pizza. yes, bland. bad sauce with flavorless cheese. My husband is a freak for pepperoni pizza and of the two slices he almost finished one of them. yes, more for the garbage. My daughter? she is three.. she isn't really a foodie (yet) but she got thru some of her cheese pizza... she actually spit some of it out but to be fair - she is three. I tried her pizza and honestly, all I could manage to somewhat enjoy was the crust which was nothing to rave about but it was tolerable. To provide a baseline - we typically order from Rialto's and while they are not terrible they decent enough for a sub shop - pizza place. this place... ugh. never. again. ever. We ended up throwing out about 80% of what we paid for. This place insults their customers with sub-par, dated, poor quality food.
How would this review be described?
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A:
negative