Luke Wholeys Wild Alaskan Grill

Luke Wholeys is a charming little restaurant in the strip district.  The space is a great little industrial building that is very trendy for restaurants in Pittsburgh.The murals on the wall are cartoonish sea characters, which are kind of tacky, but at least fit the theme.  There are also aquariums of fish in the small dining area.

I asked about the the gluten content in the lobster bisque.  The server came back from the kitchen with the response they think there is gluten in the the bisque and that answer scared me because if they are not sure what is in the the soup, they means they don't make it fresh in house.  That's OK, I'll steer clear of that.  I could assume it was thickened with flour and not corn starch, but I thought I'd ask.  I was dining in Virginia Beach once and took a shot on asking about the crab chowder and was pleasantly surprised when it was thickened with corn starch instead of flour.

One of the off menu specials was softshell crabs, battered and fried in a lemon caper sauce with mashed potatoes.  I asked if this could be sauteed instead of battered & the server returned with a yes, they would cook it in a lemon butter sauce.  She said, "Well I guess you can't have the mashed potatoes."

I told her the potatoes where no problem & that they could even add the capers to the dish, too.  We waited and waited for the food to arrive.  The place wasn't even that busy.  I feel like we waited way too long for crabs shrimp, and scallops that take less than 5 minutes to cook.

My dish didn't have capers on it.  One of the crabs was cold and the other one was mildly warm.  They were on a bed of wilted spinach and possibly kale or collard greens that were too wilted to be distinguished.  They also weren't very tasty.  It was more of a sloppy mess of green goo on the plate.

Both crabs were slightly under cooked, more soggy than crispy, and probably were cooked too early and sat on the plate fro too long before being delivered.

The mashed potatoes were definitely smashed potatoes.  They were lumpy with large chunks of potatoes throughout.  They were mildly garlic flavored and the whole meal made me think the cooks in the kitchen had little passion for what they were doing.

My companion ordered the shrimp and scallops on a bed of rice with wood fired asparagus.  He said the shrimp, which you only got three of, were fantastic.  The asparagus was charred and over cooked.  It was floppy when picked up and had no crisp left in it.  The scallops, which you got two of, were average.  The rice had clumps of undercooked, hard crunchy rice throughout.  For $26, you should at least get rice that is cooked right and a few more of pieces of seafood.


2106 Penn Ave
Pittsburgh, PA 15222
http://www.lukewholey.com/