Restaurants in West Mifflin

Unlike a shark's instinct to bite stuff and never stop swimming, most sea creatures are known for their anti-survival instincts, which include tasting delicious and come-hither claw gestures. Wright's starters highlight ocean fare's succulent Freudian death drives with a rich lobster bisque ($4.50), seared Ahi tuna over seaweed salad ($12), and baked New Zealand green-shell mussels with aged cheddar ($12 for 12). The New Orleans shrimp or oyster po' boy ($10.50) and an Angus steak burger ($9) headline the bread-padded entree selections while Wright's crab cakes ($21.50) mimic their hot- and pound-cake brethren in deliciousness.

Buon Giorno Café serves up fresh, homemade, and upscale Italian breakfast and lunch fare to famished downtown workers and hopelessly hungry romantics alike. A small breakfast menu offers a tasty break with veggie-stuffed frittatas ($5.50), fresh pastries ($1.25–$4.75), and caffeine-infused coffee creations ($.85–$3). The daily lunch menu rotates house-made dishes, unique to each location, every giorno. Permanent lunch staples such as the antipasto salad ($8.25), pasta ricotta ($8), and Italian hot sausage sandwich ($6.75), are stuffed full of imported Italian specialty foods.

Providing authentic Middle Eastern eats crafted from the finest, freshest, and most personable of hand-picked ingredients, the menu at Tyma’z serves up a variety of home-style, family-friendly dishes with complimentary aromas and sporks. Guests can begin with a selection of appetizers served with pita bread, such as the hummus ($5) or the laban ($3), a thick, creamy yogurt dish. Post-warm-up, diners can slink into more substantial entrees served a la carte or as a dinner with a side salad and rice pilaf. Experience dishes such as m’loukhieh ($10/$13), a plate of seasoned chicken and greens cooked in spicy juices, or the vegetarian-friendly sleek ($8/$13), a serving of kale telepathically cooked with onions, black-eyed peas, and spices. Bottomless beverages such as soda, lemonade, tea, and coffee are available ($2), or guests are welcome to bring their own libations for a small fee of $2 per person.

Visitors to Common Plea find their culinary desires sated by elegant fare in a quiet, conversation-friendly setting. At tables swathed in starched whites, guests can sample delectable appetizers off the dinner menu, such as the clams maison with grilled lemon, which glide across palates like a citrusy hovercraft ($8), and prosciutto-wrapped scallops that tempt mouths through a seductive veil of brandy gastrique ($13). More urgent stomach pangs with reservations in hand can take the fast track towards entrees, including Roman-American regalements such as the house-made cheese ravioli crowned with tangy roasted-garlic aioli, parmesan and bomboloni ($19), or the house-made gnocchi, where pine-nut-adorned shrimp and roasted tomatoes debate neoclassicism in a bath of herbed garlic butter ($20). Fishy dishes, including the Humbolt Fog crusted fillet, which sails a pappardelle raft over an ocean of porcini mushroom demi cream ($38), and the asparagus-paired rainbow trout crab almondine ($25) round out the school of seafaring succulence.

At Elements Contemporary Cuisine, executive chef Robert Courser champions the Japanese concept of kappo, which emphasizes capturing fare at its freshest, purest state. In this spirit, Courser forged partnerships with local farms to save fresh produce from dull careers as still-life models.

He tweaks his menu of upscale international cuisine to showcase seasonal ingredients, earning the restaurant a nod from the New York Times. At the Spanish marble bar, chefs arrange trays of cheese hailing from Lancaster and the Delaware River Valley, as well as morsels of cured venison and pork. The rest of the dining room proves as elegant, with chocolate-brown tablecloths and steel-gray chairs.

The Ibiza menu showcases more tapas options—over 45—than the total number of US presidents. To keep their food as fresh as the most recent Internet content, the staff uses seasonal ingredients. Their elegant South American and European cuisine isn't the only fresh thing available to guests—fresh air can be imbibed on the outdoor patio, where candlelit tables present a romantic setting or extra work for off-duty firefighters holding a glass of water. Two stories of windows permit peeks at the interior, which conjures a Mediterranean ambience with pastel paintings of sailboats. Elegant stone walls backdrop large-leafed green plants, and a well-stocked bar quenches thirsts.