Carnivores Restaurant & Sports Bar

 

 

Figured I would do an updated review after shopping from this place for about 5 years now. As some bottle shops around have gone out of business the shop still remains as one of the best selections of craft beer around even trumping House of a Thousand beers now with over 500 bottle beers in the cooler selection.

I don't really go there for food or the beers on tap because they're so expensive but I recently went and was able to find at least 18 new beers I've never had before which is hard to do considering I've had over 2,000 brews under my belt. Mix and match price is hard to beat with $15 for most cooler picks for the six pack. Go there if you want to avoid high PA beer prices and a great selection.

 

This is basically your quintessential sports bar, but amped up on the craft beer end of things. Numerous coolers with a lot of different stuff available. Beyond that, 30 drafts. Food seems very typical, for a sports bar. Overall, this is a place that you would go to if you live in the area and not somewhere you would make a trek to.

One of the first places that I have been to since I moved to Oakmont, PA. 30 rotating taps and about 15 fridges filled with different craft beers! You can get a mixed six pack for $15 and they also sell the bigger bottles too ranging from $10-$20. They have a great assortment of beer there! It is a bit pricey when it comes to the beer

Food is pretty good, they have a nice menu, but i did have a pizza pie that the doe was undercooked and I had a chicken wing that was also undercooked. They do have great pizza and the wing flavors are great, my favorite is Buffalo Ranch

Service is good there, all the servers are very nice and plus the women wear yoga pants, which is a plus! HAHA!

Great place to watch the game or just go to hang out. Definitely recommend this place!

 

Carnivores holds a special place in my heart being that its down the bottom of hill from me. They have 30 taps total and about 24 rotate. 6 that doesn't are coors, bud or yuengling. They get some good stuff on tap but if your a local you know to look for it in bottle or can first bc it will save you 2$ on same beer. Could be a cult beer geek spot but owner gave up the booze a while back. He has some good support from locals, and their requests will allow for everyone to find something they like. Place is open with booths along walls and high tops all around horseshoe bar in middle. The service lacks at times and the girls he has working could care less about the beer and only about how they look. So do be surprised when its packed that a wait will incur. Pretty good food from sandwhiches to wings, I recommend burgers or chicken sandwhich! If something good comes out they will at least get some of it so, I try to make it in once every other week to see what's new. Overall a great spot if your near oakmont and need some reasonablely priced food and some heady beer to wash it down with.

I'd all but written Carnivores off at first after a lousy experience with service: after having grabbed a couple beers from the coolers, my wife & I sat down, looked at the menus, & sat...& sat, without anyone coming to take our orders. I always kept it in my mind as a place to maybe check out again, as their beer selection was decent. I'd even come looking for specific things on a few occasions & didn't find them, but always kept it open as an option.

Fast forward to a few years & a renovation later, & it seems they've gotten their act together a bit more. Stopped by on a Friday afternoon around happy hour. The place was pretty busy with the after-work crowd, so I was more tolerant with the service - the bartender was pulled in 30 different directions at once, but at least made eye contact & said he'd be by soon.

The atmosphere's not bad, for a sports bar - big, open room with a large horseshoe bar in the center, tables around that, & booths on the perimeter. Still plenty of TVs with sports on them, but that's the vibe they're going for.

With the renovation came an expanded tap list, with some pretty respectable offerings on it. And good prices too - pretty much all drafts were in the $4-$5 range, with a sampler deal that was great (don't remember exactly how much, but I think it was, like, 5 samples of 4 oz. for 5 or 6 bucks).

They definitely seem to be pushing the craft beer, & I noticed signs for a "Belgian tasting" later that evening. A guy sitting next to me ordered a Blue Moon, & the bartender poured him a Wittekerke & said "try this". I noticed a lot of Wittekerke being ordered that day, which was probably the result of the staff's advocacy. Nice to see.

The beers I got kind of sucked, but in no way do I hold that against the place. As this was just a short happy hour stop, I didn't get any food, but I seem to remember the sports bar/pub grub vibe prevailing. I'll have to check that out sometime.

Glad to see they appear to have turned things around, this would definitely be a place I'd stop in again, & bring some friends.

EDIT: Based on the visit described above, I went back for dinner. Food is not good: the salad was iceberg, a few red onions, & cheese, & I've had better pizza at the public pool I go to. So the verdict is beer good, food bad.