Rear End Gastropub & Garage

Great atmosphere, great service, good beer... great way to spend a Saturday afternoon! We really liked our food but especially the fried pickles which were chips vs spears, and done perfectly. Best we have had !

I'm so torn by doing this review, I want to be honest but I believe Rear End has potential. For starters, I walked past the bar and noticed their impressive wall of whiskey and liquor. When I asked our waitress for a whiskey list, she was clueless. She offered to get a list, when she returned I got three options of limited availability in Pennsylvania. In my opinion, Rear End offers a generous mixed menu claiming to be known for their smash burgers. While Pittsburgh was late to the smash burger scene, they do have some pretty impressive new arrivals to the area. Most people are used to 5Guys, but Moonlit who recently came around has some decent Smash burgers. This burger that I received at Rear End was far from a smash burger. These patties from Rear End, which claimed to be a special blend were perfectly round shaped. Not smashed! With a frozen patty consistency and taste, Rear End patties flavor was almost off putting. I won't bother giving a guess on what Special blend of meat Rear End uses. I can only assume that it's not locally sourced and ground in house. To be fair, every burger place in or outside of Pittsburgh has its own unique way of cooking smash style burgers. To me, the biggest difference besides taste was not having that thin smashed patty with a little char on one side. I also got an order of chili cheese fries which our waitress Brittney recommended. These to me were good, borderline just ok, definitely not bad. In my honest experience, fresh cut fries is the only way to go and this is where Rear End did good. Big, thick cut Idaho type fries cooked perfectly. Not too well or crispy, not soft and mushy, I was impressed with whoever at Rear End prepared the potato itself. Now, the cheese sauce was good by itself, I would've been thrilled and maybe ecstatic with a bit of fresh peppered bacon. But, what lost me was the chili, this screamed canned chili, not Hormel but still the same. I've tried many canned and frozen big name chili sauces like Skyline and those at the local grocery stores. They all have a similar taste and texture as what was used at Rear End. My last comment is more geared towards attention to detail, as a past employee of a few restaurants this is something I've always felt passionate about. People say our eyes are the first judgement of food. This is very true, a sloppy mess is very distasteful and starts the meal off wrong. But, if the nicely put together plate doesn't match the taste of the food then your eyes were lied to. To both my wife and I, the biggest disappointment in our dinner at Rear End is the same. My wife's burger came with Brioche bun, while mine was a Kaiser roll. Neither was fresh and both could've greatly benefited from being buttered and grilled. We live outside of Pittsburgh, about 45 to 50 minutes away so we don't normally eat in the surrounding areas. But, I can't say I'd return to Rear End if I was near their establishment. To many other options in Pittsburgh when comparing price to quality when it comes to food.

I had a birthday party here last year and we all enjoyed ourselves very much. I think we had a party of around 10 people, they put us at a long bench-style table in the back. It was cozy and service was spot on. I'm told that the burgers are very good. My usual here is a salad and a glass of wine. Everything has always been fresh. It might sound like a strange compliment but I really enjoy the plain fries!The Tuesday trivia nights are a lot of fun, especially in the summer when you can sit outside. It's competitive! Seating has never been difficult but definitely make a reservation if you are making advance plans. It helps everyone out :)

The gathering was small for a Sunday and nice to a burger and beer while enjoying a little football. The company was good. Served at the bar and was very happy with the way the set up was going. Meat was a little lite on the beef but I had no complaints on my chicken and fries.

I suspect this is a fun place to grab a beer. The beer list looks to be well-conceived with plenty of quality local brews available. The food, on the other hand, seems fairly uninspired. We ordered takeout, and the food was what it claimed to be but with the bare minimal amount of effort put into its preparation and presentation. The southwest veggie wrap was more of a dense burrito with limited vegetables than a wrap. The "inconceivable burger" (an Impossible Foods burger) was fairly plain and required some extra vegetables and sauces from my own fridge to transform it into something interesting. The shop salad was exactly what it claimed to be and nothing more.All that having been said, the space was nice, open, and inviting. The staff were very friendly and helpful, and our order was well packaged and ready to go exactly when they said it would be. If you're looking for a beer and some bar food, this is probably a reasonable destination: just don't expect anything more than that. I wouldn't exactly place it in the gastropub category.

Ordered on 6/1/24Ate List:- Smash Burger, Score: 7.4- Fries, Score: 8.3Cool restaurant, lots of space, great atmosphere, and the location is in a solid spot in Etna.Service was fast and very polite.Was steered toward the burger. It was tasty. The patties are definitely on the more "charred" side for smash burgers which depending on your preferences will either be wonderful news or very much a turn off. The Fries were delicious! Thick cut and yet light. They were VERY addicting.Would happily go back to try something else, their menu was overwhelming in the best ways (everything sounded good).

Good burger, good beer, great place to sit and have a cocktail after work, the bar is open to the patio and street. Great al fresco dining and drinking.

I drive by here and always wondered so my roomies and I got it today , staff was good , the building was unique to say the least and the menu was classic but had some items that were different I got the Korean which to mean could have used more sauce 4/5 The fries were a bit of like the bottom of a bin to me 2/5 Overall I would stop by and if you got a bland day you should too ! 3/5

What a great hidden gem!! Rare to have a bad meal. Staff is always fun. Great for boys as the restaurant is an old gas station.

We met Brian before the Steelers game and we were looking for a place to watch the game with good food. He told us that he worked at the Rear End and told us about the great food and beer selection. We decided to stop and try it.The bar was cool and did have a great craft beer selection. We tried the Mississippi cheesesteak. The bun was really good, a little bit too big, but the cheesesteak was delicious. We also tried the fries. They were really good.