Fuel & Fuddle

Fuel & FuddleFuel & Fuddle
Fuel & FuddleFuel & Fuddle
Bar, Eatery

212 Oakland Ave
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, 15213-4064
United States

(412) 682-3473 | map
fuelandfuddle.com
PLACE STATS
Average:
4.07
Reviews:
17
Ratings:
28
pDev:
11.06%
View: Place Reviews
Recent ratings and reviews. | Log in to view more ratings + sorting options.
 
Rated: 4.16 by JuiceMan818 from California

Feb 14, 2017
Photo of SethDrallitoc
Reviewed by SethDrallitoc from New York

4.45/5  rDev +9.3%
vibe: 4 | quality: 5 | service: 5 | selection: 4 | food: 3
Having read other reviews, I don't think my experience is common. I visited during the college offseason - so there were 0 students. Mostly older couples sitting in their booths and family's struggling to decide what to order from the rather large menu. I had 1 bottle and 1 draught - bottle was brought to the table with a glass (automatic point) Draught was fresh and well poured. Service was excellent! Our waitress seemed very knowledgeable and gave honest opinions when I asked for advice. When I asked if I could purchase one of their glasses as a momento of my visit she allowed me to keep one without charge. Beer selection was pretty good 10 draughts and 100 or so bottles - the beer menu is broken down into styles and gives a short blurb on each style (which is always nice), Though there were far more 'light beer' options than anyone really needs - lets face it, if you're ordering light beer, you probably don't need 7 to choose from. Food was average - though I wish I had noticed on the menu that the fries are mixed (russet & sweet). I can't stand sweet potato, wound up having to pick them out.
Jul 07, 2016
Photo of brother_rebus
Reviewed by brother_rebus from Maine

3.31/5  rDev -18.7%
vibe: 2 | quality: 3.75 | service: 3 | selection: 3.75 | food: 3
I had heard really good things about this place. Which is confusing. I guess I shouldn't have gone in with high expectations, or any for that matter. Ok beer list. Some good ones on tap. Standard pricing. Food was meh. The waitress was snappy, and kept calling us all "babe", which got old quick. Terrible vibe; everything from the disenchanted dumpy hipster hostess that kept standing with her friends at the table behind us, and chomping frenchfries loudly behind my ear, to the cheesy decor, to the baby sized bar and exuberant amount of undersized diner seating. Gonna pass next time.
Feb 11, 2016
 
Rated: 3.8 by JArt from Pennsylvania

Jul 22, 2015
 
Rated: 3.99 by glass_house from Ohio

Nov 24, 2014
 
Rated: 4 by JayKay412 from Pennsylvania

Nov 22, 2014
Photo of McMatt7
Rated by McMatt7 from Pennsylvania

4.25/5  rDev +4.4%
I drank KBS on tap and ate two woodfired pizzas here one night, 3 years ago. Best night of my entire life.
Oct 15, 2014
 
Rated: 4.25 by misternebbie from Pennsylvania

Sep 13, 2014
Photo of sharkfin
Reviewed by sharkfin from North Carolina

5/5  rDev +22.9%
vibe: 5 | quality: 5 | service: 5 | selection: 5 | food: 5
Reopened under new ownership on August 5th, 2014 after being closed for three due to a kitchen fire . A fresh look, new menu items, more rotating craft beers and a friendly staff. New owners are Brandon Smith and Greg Ripper. Went in during the grand reopen and it's awesome.
Aug 08, 2014
 
Rated: 3.5 by JJStorm from Pennsylvania

Jul 25, 2014
 
Rated: 4.5 by ramrod666 from Pennsylvania

May 01, 2014
 
Rated: 4.5 by veryseldon from Pennsylvania

Apr 22, 2014
 
Rated: 3.75 by JG-90 from New Jersey

Nov 10, 2013
 
Rated: 4 by ejimhof from Pennsylvania

Oct 09, 2013
Photo of LordTorgamus
Reviewed by LordTorgamus from Pennsylvania

4.01/5  rDev -1.5%
vibe: 4.5 | quality: 4.5 | service: 2.75 | selection: 4.5 | food: 4
This was my #1 go-to place for eats and drinks in college, and I always make sure to stop by when I'm back in town. It's almost singlehandedly responsible for me getting interested in beer, I never really drank before I discovered the Beer Bible challenge at Fuel: drink 100 different beers, get your name on the wall. Obviously, this means they have over 100 beers available, and there's always a good tap selection.

Kind of a dive-y vibe, but mostly for Pitt and CMU kids, so not a real dive bar. Good variety on the menu, as long as you're not looking for artsy presentation and "flavor profiles" out of MasterChef. Burgers/sandwiches are especially good.

I gave this $ instead of $$ because most food is half price if you're willing to show up late, but dinged the service because the staff sometimes get overwhelmed and lose track of tables, and (very rarely) inflate tips.
Jun 14, 2013
Photo of Garlicjosh
Reviewed by Garlicjosh from Pennsylvania

4.4/5  rDev +8.1%
vibe: 3.5 | quality: 4.5 | service: 5 | selection: 4 | food: 4.5
I was looking for a place in the Oakland area I hadn't gone to yet, but reasonable price with a good beer selection...being someone who enjoys a great pizza this place really got my interest.

The atmosphere is interesting. It's a snug fit which would explain who there has been known to be long lines. When I got there around 2pm, most the tables where full but the bar was basically empty. there is some classic looking painted on brick ad style art for the place on one wall.
The kitchen is fully visible which always brings an interesting aspect to things....However, can't imagine what that is like for them(being an ex line cook myself)

My bartender / server was fantastic, cheerful, helpful. She had no problem when I asked for a glass for the beer when she handed me just a bottle.

I ordered a classic maggie pizza. I found it a little tough to eat without a fork and knife. I'm not a fan of eating pizza with that method. But the taste was fantastic and made up for the trouble.

The beer selection is better than some people make it out to be. You'll find some great craft beers that not a lot of other places have and the prices make sense to me. It's also a place that if you have a family member who isn't into craft beers, you'll find something that they probably will drink.

As for value, on my first tab I had 2 beers and the pizza and it was 18 bucks.
I know of places in the city that it would cost me a great deal more for the same thing.
I'll be back for more beer and food for sure.
Feb 25, 2012
Photo of sholland119
Reviewed by sholland119 from Pennsylvania

4/5  rDev -1.7%
vibe: 4 | quality: 4 | service: 4.5 | selection: 3.5 | food: 4
We stopped in here on a Saturday night after our daughter's ballet performance. Arrived at 10pm and just beat the college crowd. The line was out the door by the time our food arrived.

Located in Oakland, so you expect this place to be teeming with Pitt students. All in all a pretty nice vibe, though. A lot of wood, a long old man style bar, comfortable booths and tables.

There were about 8 craft beers on tap, including two house beers that are made by Smuttynose. The Pump House Pale was quite nice. Some good regional selections complemented the few taps of macro stuff. Not a list that would blow you away but plenty good enough for a dinner visit.

Food was quite good with some nice healthyish selections, which is not always easy to find here in the city that serves fries with everything. Service was prompt, pleasant and competent.

Not a beer geek's delight, but a nice local place for a meal and a couple beers. I'd go back.

HV
Nov 18, 2011
Photo of IronCitySteve
Reviewed by IronCitySteve from Pennsylvania

4.05/5  rDev -0.5%
vibe: 4 | quality: 4 | service: 4.5 | selection: 3.5 | food: 4.5
I get a chance to stop in after work on occasion.

A: I head there after work on occasion as it is located a few blocks from where I work. At the happy hour times (4-6pm) it is mostly a professional crowd with some college students.

Q: Beer always seems to be fresh.

Ser: Ample service both for waitresses and bartenders. Never have a problem with either when it comes to attentiveness or promptness. They are willing to answer questions although the beer knowledge is not great (but it is a college town with college kids, so this does not bother me at all).

Sel: Has about 6-7 craft beers on tap and then Coors Light, Yuengling and I believe Guiness. Nothing extraordinary but an ok selection if you do not want to try macro's. The bottle selection is much greater.

F: A very wide open and diverse menu. The food is really good too!
Aug 20, 2010
Photo of woodske1
Reviewed by woodske1 from Pennsylvania

3/5  rDev -26.3%
vibe: 3 | quality: 3 | service: 2.5 | selection: 3.5 | food: 3
Going to Pitt I alwasy thought this place was overcrowded and overraided. The band was always in your face and way too loud in here, right next to thebar. Just place some music, we dont need a turd band there. The food was also just ok and overpriced for what you got.

The beer selection was just ok, mostly Sierra Nevada type beers, nothing too off the wall...lots of Macros on tap and available. Downstairs is creepy. You're eating in a painted basement, not exactly the best environment to eat in.

Not the worst place in Oakland by far, but not a very cool hangout either...look elsewhere.
Mar 12, 2010
Photo of shanecb
Reviewed by shanecb from Pennsylvania

4.3/5  rDev +5.7%
vibe: 3.5 | quality: 4 | service: 4.5 | selection: 4.5 | food: 5
One of the best places to dine in Oakland. The bottled beer selection is very extensive, and they also have options available on tap. Is not out-of-this-world pricey, but expect to pay for what you get.

The food is exceptional. Their individual pizzas that they make in their oven are some of the best in Pittsburgh. The selection is also amazing, with something that will suit anyone. Beyond their pizzas, they have a nice selection of sandwiches, salads, and other amazing entrees (usually with funny names). Plus the food is half off after 11:00pm. You really can't beat it.

Overall, definitely a place worth going to if you are in the area. Nothing beats a delicious pizza with a good beer, and this place can provide both for you.
Dec 02, 2008
Photo of perfectkaos
Reviewed by perfectkaos from Pennsylvania

4.15/5  rDev +2%
vibe: 5 | quality: 5 | service: 3 | selection: 4 | food: 4
I first found out about this place when going for half price food my freshman year at Pitt. Their old $2 Railbender special got me hooked on the place when I turned 21.

Fuel has 10 taps, 5 of which never change (Guinness, Coors Light, Yuengling, and the two house beers) the other Five are usually filled with seasonal beers, and Great Lakes has pretty much had a dedicated tap for the last year or so. The beer on the 5 rotating taps varies depending on the season, you may walk in and be faced with Molsen Canadien, or you may luck out and get some Delerium Noel.

Bottle selection is pretty wide, mostly due to JC's 100 beers cult, of which I am a 5 time member. Drink 100 different beers, get your name on the wall.

The beer can be pricey, but thats what you pay for not being crowded in by 100 people who are just 21 drinking dollar Lite drafts.

The food is great, but stay away from the crab dip. Its tastes nothing like crabs or dip.
Nov 25, 2005
Photo of tom444
Reviewed by tom444 from Pennsylvania

4.65/5  rDev +14.3%
vibe: 4 | quality: 4.5 | service: 5 | selection: 5 | food: 4
An excellent restaurant in Oakland, just a few blocks from the Pitt campus. The food is excellent, with a brick oven and an open grill in the kitchen. In addition, nearly all of the food is half-priced after 11PM, seven days a week. It's very popular with college students for this reason, and on weekend nights, you should expect to wait a while for a table (except during the summer or semester break).

The beer selection is excellent, with 8-10 beers on tap, mostly micros. Two house beers, a pale ale and a brown ale are on tap, although they're actually made by Troeg's in eastern PA. There are nightly specials 7 days a week, normally for micros on tap. The restaurant's real gem, though, is the bottled beer selection, with over a hundred different bottles available. If you're a frequent customer, ask for a copy of the "beer bible," which lists a hundred different bottles (about a dozen macros, but mostly micros and imports) for the bartender or waitress to check off when you order - finishing all 100 gets your name immortalized on a plaque over the bar.
Jun 20, 2005
Photo of Maestro
Reviewed by Maestro from Pennsylvania

4.75/5  rDev +16.7%
vibe: 5 | quality: 5 | service: 4 | selection: 5 | food: 5
This place has a lot of nostalgia for me. We used to go here before/after shows at the now defunct Club Laga. The beers served are great. Lots of unique taps...including house beers brewed up by my boys at Troegs. The bottle selection is great. I can even begin to speak of the list.

Now to the food...can you say wood-fired? My favorite sandwich in the world is served here. It is called the Veg Head and is served with a mix of french fried potatoes and french fried sweet potatoes.
All of this is right in the heart of Oakland. Go here.
May 21, 2005
Photo of bultrey
Reviewed by bultrey from New York

3.95/5  rDev -2.9%
vibe: 4 | quality: 4 | service: 4 | selection: 4 | food: 3.5
Almost solid 4's across the board for this fine little establishment in the UPitt area, just a few blocks from the Wyndham Garden hotel at which I was staying. It's got a warm inviting feel to it, somewhere in between a brick-style brewpub (though they do not brew beers) and an old-fashioned diner. There are about 20 or so booths for groups, and an intimate bar along the back, behind which is a display of the various bottled selections available. I always like beer bars to display their bottles, because it can help jog your memory for a beer you've had but don't remember. The clinetle was student body all the way.
The bartender was a laid back and pleasant fellow, who served the beers quickly and efficiently, asked whether I wanted a glass, or a lemon in my dunkel weiss (? -- this lemon thing has gotten out of hand), but at least he didn't assume.
The selection was very good - about 8 beers on draft, two of which were macro crap, and the rest of which were decent microbrews, or their two house beers (brewed special for them by Troeg's, according to the menu). I had the house Fire Brick Brown, and it was quite tasty. They claim to have about 100 or so bottles, with many excellent choices from around the world, with little concentration in one particular region. I also had a Franziskaner Dunkel Weiss bottle, and it was very good.
The food was OK, I probably should have ordered one of their wood-fired pizzas, but I got a fish sandwich, which was unremarkable, but huge, in true Pittsburgh style.
Overall, a great place to go if you're staying in the Oakland area and don't want to travel very far for a decent beer bar.
Nov 11, 2004
Photo of soilguy
Reviewed by soilguy from Pennsylvania

3.13/5  rDev -23.1%
vibe: 3 | quality: 3 | service: 3.5 | selection: 3 | food: 3
Not a bad establishment for the location. The previous review pretty much desribed the place, so I will just give my opinions. I thought it was kind of small and too many tables in the limited space. The prices were slightly higher than I am used too, but problably in line for the neighborhood. I too had the pizza, and was disappointed in its size- -it is barely enough to feed a hungry person. Definitely a cut below Fatheads.
Oct 22, 2003
Photo of slander
Reviewed by slander from New York

4.18/5  rDev +2.7%
vibe: 4 | quality: 4 | service: 4 | selection: 4.5 | food: 4.5
Located about halfway between Carlow College and the University of Pittsburgh, Fuel and Fuddle reels in a pretty big school crowd. It's not too big a joint but manages to house about 2 dozen tables and booths. The back wall is a bar and seating for a few and there's an open kitchen area off to the right of that. Interior decor is a good deal of brick, some with beer logos painted on to them and there's a few TV's riddled about here and there.
The "Wall of Beer" Chalkboard lists the 10 tap selections and specials. The tap list is not terribly inspiring. They've got 2 house beers, a Brown Ale and a Pale Ale (made for them by Troeg's according to the blackboard near the door although the website says Wild Goose makes 'em so I don't know), the Red Hook & Great Lakes Octos, Yuengling, Guinness, etc. They've got a bottled list however, which is quite nice. They've got 110 bottles, many of which are crappy macros, ciders and malternatives but also some good stuff. The beer menu is broken down by beer types (Kolsch, Alt, Bitters, Old Ales, Brown Ales, IPA's, Dortmunder, Munich Helles, Belgian Style, Pale Ales, Vienna, Porter, Stout, Barleywines, Dark Lagers, Dopples, Imperial Stouts, Scottish Ales, etc). A nicely diverse list but grouping the Mississippi Mud in with Paulaner Salvator and Spaten Optimator is just offensive. Likewise, Mike's Hard Lemonade in the Wheat & Fruit category?? Grrr!!!!
Food was good. I had the Classic Maggie, an individual sized thin crust brick oven pepperoni pizza. Very nice. Serivce was pleasant, no complaints.
Oct 19, 2003
Photo of Brent
Reviewed by Brent from Kentucky

4/5  rDev -1.7%
vibe: 4 | quality: 4 | service: 4 | selection: 4 | food: 4
Had the opportunity to visit Fuel And Fuddle during a quick business trip and found out about it courtesy of BA local beerguide aaronh. An easy walk from the Holiday Inn where I was staying. The place is a little on the small side, but that just adds to the atmosphere - brick walls and a bar and open kitchen area that take up one side of the place. Quick service and an informative menu with the beers divided by style and a short description of the general attributes. The beer list is probably three times longer than the portion on food. Several nice selections on tap. I decided not to try either of the house beers on learning that they are contract brewed (which often means an existing beer is specialty labeled). The bottled beer list was an interesting mix of micro and macro, both domestic and import, and there was at least one worthy representative for all the styles carried.

I ordered a bison burger, and it was served on a roll. The patty was oblong to fit the bun, and when I cut it in two I had enough for two burgers. Cooked to order and served with a potato/sweet potato fries mix. Certainly a place I'd return to.
Aug 03, 2003
Photo of WVbeergeek
Reviewed by WVbeergeek from West Virginia

3.98/5  rDev -2.2%
vibe: 4.5 | quality: 4 | service: 3.5 | selection: 4 | food: 4.5
Fuel and Fuddle... the establishment that got me really started into the realm of beers. A very comfortable atmosphere that welcomes all walks of life. A great place to hangout, and have some good bottled beers.

Service is always great, with friendly good looking waitresses a great place for younger guys to gather. Although the wait staff are usually lacking in knowledge of beer they are always helpful in finding out the answer to your questions that they can't answer. Where the wait staff is lacking in beer knowledge, the two main bartenders and people sitting at the bar can make up for it. Joe and JC are the bartenders, and they are always very helpful in making a selection. When they are unable to answer a question, they have books at the bar that can help field what they can't handle.

The first thing that I noticed when I walked in was a huge chalkboard on the wall opposite to the bar that contains the draft list. On draft there are about 12 or so drafts, and the only bad part is they have Coors Light steady on tap. The other regulars are Guiness, Yuengling Traditional Lager, and Fuel and Fuddle's own house brews. Well, that's what they say, but their house beers are actually contract brewed in small batches by the people who brew Crooked River and Wild Goose at Frederick Brewing in Maryland. One beer is renamed as the Pumphouse Pale Ale, but acutally it is just the Blue Ridge Golden Ale on draft. The Firebrick Brown Ale is actually the Wildgoose Nut Brown Ale. As for the other 7 taps there are always fine well thought out selections that rotate as they are kicked. The other attraction is that the bar manager JC hosts a 100 beer cult member club, and you are issued your beer bible with 100 beers with the ten beer commandments in the front of the bible. I would call seventy of the beers in the book, really good selections while the others are kind of run of the mill. I will warn everyone that the bottle prices can be a little pricey.

Now for the food, Fuel and Fuddle is known for it's Fire brick oven, and they utilize it completely. They cook many of their dishes in the oven, and it gives the food especially the pizza an awesome flavor. My favorite dish is Alligator stew, and here's a tip after 11 the food is half off. They also give names to their dishes, for example: Hawaiian pizza or C'mon Iwanna Leya, and a chicken sandwich renamed Rosemary's Breasts. So, with good humor and taste their food is awesome.
Feb 04, 2003
Fuel & Fuddle in Pittsburgh, PA
Place rating: 4.07 out of 5 with 28 ratings