The Zenith

A restaurant in the back of a kitschy vintage shop.

Thank you for a warming gluten-free potato soup and delicious chickpea salad sandwich! We enjoyed a lot. They have also a great looking cakes. Very nice interior and friendly helpful staff. Vegetarian options: Everything is vegan. Dietary restrictions: Gluten-free options, naturally dairy-free.

The Zenith is great. It’s unique, fun, and delicious. What more can you ask for. One of my favorite restaurants of all time.

Very good food, great atmosphere. Cash only but very friendly and quick service. Vegetarian options: Menu changes every week but always good options.

I love Zenith! I’ve been coming here for years, and it remains one of my favorite restaurants in Pittsburgh. I love everything about it: the whimsy, the food, the ambience… I could go on forever. The aesthetic of this place is what I dream my home will be someday. If you don’t go for the food (which you should), just go and walk around their awesome vintage store. Everything there, food and items, is affordable. The music played aloud is great. The food itself is fantastic. I dream about their grape leaves. My friend had a potato leek soup here two years ago that she still talks about to this day. For my last visit, I got a (vegan) roast beef sandwich. It was a taste I haven’t had since I became vegetarian almost six years ago! It tasted like an Eat n Park sandwich on a Sunday afternoon with your grandma. Thank you to Zenith for returning a long lost flavor to my taste buds! PS I absolutely love your mismatched silverware and fancy goblets.

Great vegan food , worth the drive from anywhere

Unfortunately, my roommate and I had a profoundly disappointing experience at The Zenith. Upon entering, we were not greeted or acknowledged or any way for close to ten minutes — and we were the only customers in there at 3:30 on a Friday. The ambiance of the establishment was lacking — dimly lit and cluttered, with a smell that reminded us more of a grandmother’s basement than an establishment we’d be inclined to dine in. The entire establishment had a a feeling to it that I can only describe as heavy — it was uncanny. The greeting we did receive was by a woman who, at first, uttered a flat “hello” and walked past us. After a few moments of bewildered silence, she returned and asked if we needed help, although to describe her enthusiasm as lacking is an understatement. I don’t expect to be treated like a king, but I do expect pleasant customer service and a helpful attitude, especially considering it was our first time at this business. Our excitement that we once had on our walk to The Zenith was, by this point, replaced by a feeling of uneasiness and discomfort, as if we weren’t even supposed to be there. After finally being seated in what I can only describe as one of the most awkward initial encounters I’ve ever had in a business, we sat through another grueling few minutes of near silence at our table, barring an uncomfortably long delivery of our water and menus, including yet another awkward moment of being instructed to move our table cloth due to the previous customers, where our waiter implied that we were likely to pull the table cloth being clumsy. I understand that this was not intended to be an insult, but it felt belittling to us as customers that you felt the need to interrupt our very first encounter with that, before we were even properly sat and introduced to the cuisine. But what truly sealed the deal for us as a poor experience — and what convinced us to walk out before even placing an order — was the ignition of some sort of industrial heater in the adjacent room, which filled the entire dining room with a noxious gas or charcoal-like odor that left us feeling lightheaded within just a few minutes. The second the scent hit my nose I knew we’d be unable to dine there. I understand that we were not there at a peak time, but this experience was an unacceptable lack of customer service from start to finish. Rarely do I take the time to write a review, but our experience was so exceptionally poor that I felt it necessary. I hope that this experience was an outlier and isn’t indicative of their usual practices. We won’t be returning to find out.

It's great to see that Zenith is still open and had really expanded their shop. Love their food and enjoyed a little shopping. So fun