I’ve found my new favorite food. I was working a party, and my friend Steve Salvi, of Fede Pasta provided me with homemade pasta for my catering engagement. I had never tried Fede pasta before this weekend- it’s delicious.

I stopped into Toast for a few late-night appetizers on Wednesday. The space is quaint; small, warm and inviting. The walls were delicious-red, and the lighting was dim. Small tables were positioned on the right hand side of the restaurant. There was a bar on the left, mostly filled, with patrons enjoying cocktails and large plates of food.

Cure Restaurant is described on its website as a “neighborhood restaurant with a small menu focused on local urban Mediterranean food.” I think it would be safe to expand that to include “while honoring every bit of the humble pig.” This is surprisingly good news for people who like to eat pork products.

It’s a sure sign that warmer weather is on the way when Tomato Pie Café opens up for the season. Located on the edge of North Park, the restaurant’s outdoor seating is a lovely place to dine—surrounded by pots of fragrant herbs and flowers.

Last night I had the opportunity to try out another Pittsburgh steakhouse, Hyde Park.

I had the opportunity to have dinner at Savoy Restaurant in the Strip recently. I wasn’t familiar with Savoy, buy my friend was.

Pittsburgh has been lacking in the Mexican food department- until recently. A few semi-authentic restaurants have popped up in the city. One of these eateries is Verde, in East Liberty. If you’re coming from the east, simply drive down Penn Avenue until you see a colossal lime-green building.

In a recent visit to the Quiet Storm on Penn Avenue—previously one of my favorite restaurants—our mostly-unavailable waitress treated my children as inconvenient afterthoughts.

I’m not a huge fan of chain-restaurants. I usually prefer small, privately owned establishments because they often have their own personalities, and more importantly creative, non-corporate food. That being said, we decided to go to Longhorn Steakhouse for the most important reason of all- we had a gift card.

Several months ago I wrote an unfavorable review of Del’s restaurant in Pittsburgh.