I was recently visiting Pittsburgh and had the opportunity to dine at Lot 17 with a few members of my Pittsburgh family. Though it wasn't an overall bad experience, the establishment hardly deserves a 5 star rating, not even a 4. I'm rating it a 2 only because there aren't half stars (2.5). My biggest issue, and it was also expressed by my family members, was the totally lack of salt in the cooking process. I'm by no means a salt-a-holic, nor is my father who has high blood pressure, but if I didn't turn up the salt shaker 5 times it might have approached 10. Anyone who knows cooking will know that unless you salt ""during"" the cooking process, you could dump a salt truck load on your plate and it would never ""repair"" a dish. Virtually everything we ordered (5 entrees and a appetizer platter) need salt and more salt. However, I'm mature enough to look past this issue and judge the food for itself, and though not spectacular, the food was at least a 2.5-3.0 star rating. My only other issue with this establishment were the waitresses. I found it odd that despite the restaurant not really being full they seemed harried... It left me wondering if along with their waitressing they might be responsible for bar duty, dish duty, etc. and thus were busier than the dining area seemed to indicate they would be. The prices were reasonable, and if in the area, I'd consider eating there again though I'd be more careful to pick items that weren't salt dependent - - a difficult task.
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