Fat Head's Saloon

Fat Heads Saloon

  Fat Head's is one of the better known bar/restaurants on the Southside of Pittsburgh. Fat Head's is known for having a large selection of beers and headwiches which are sandwiches as big as your head. They even garnered national acclaim in 2004 when their one headwich, the Southside Slopes (kielbassa, fried pierogies, American cheese, grilled onions and horseradish sauce)  was named 5th place in Maxim magazines top 10 list of sandwiches.
  Me and my companion arrived around 12:30PM on a Sunday. There was a wait so we went over to the bar and ordered a few drinks off of their extensive beer menu. It was nice to see that Fat Head's was carrying cider from the Arsenal Cider House out of Lawrenceville. This is some great hard cider and I really recommend you give it a try.

 They also have their own Fat Head's beer on tap in a few different styles such as Belgian Saison, IPA, and German Lager. While I am not a big fan of most in-house beers that a lot of restaurants seem to have these days,all the Fat Head's brews were excellent and  good representations of the different beer styles they are trying to replicate.

 Extensive Beer Selection

    After about a 20 minute wait we were seated and approached by our server who did a great job of taking care of us during the meal. The server was one of those that did not need to write down our order which I always find impressive since I cant remember what happened 5 minutes ago.
 To start the meal off we ordered two appetizers which were brought out to us within 10 minutes of placing our order.

Garlic Parm Wings 10 for $9.95

    The Garlic Parm wings my companion ordered were jumbo sized chicken wings in a garlic sauce and dusted with parmesan cheese. The garlic sauce was hardly noticeable, and the overpowering flavor was from the parmesan cheese that was generously coating the wings. The wings were cooked perfectly and were crunchy yet juicy. They were a little to much on the mild side for me however and I recommend that if you want spicier wings that you try their spicy parmesan wings which have a more traditional buffalo style sauce instead of the garlic butter sauce.

Smoked Chicken, Spinach & Artichoke Dip $9.95

   This could be one of my favorite appetizers of all time. The smoked chicken provides a nice slightly smoky and savory flavor. While the artichoke hearts and spinach give the dip a brininess that contrasts well with the chicken. You spoon some of this on top of one of the fried pita pieces and you have an explosion of unique flavors in your mouth. It is worth going to Fat Head's for this appetizer alone.
  For our main course we ordered two sandwiches. My companion ordered a headwich which made me laugh as I don't think she knew what she was getting into.

Double D $10.95 (Shaved steak grilled with onions and mushrooms topped with hot Italian sausage stuffed banana peppers, pepperoni, tomato sauce,provolone and parmesan cheese).

 This headwich lived up to its name in that it was as big as a persons head ( not mine though, I have a big head). This sandwich was so over the top it was comical. While this did not sound like the best combination of ingredients to put on a sandwich it actually worked.

Double D

  It wound up tasting like a really good hot sausage sandwich. The sausage stuffed peppers were excellent and put off a good amount of heat. They were the overriding flavor in this sandwich with everything else taking a backseat to the stuffed peppers.  The additional steak and pepperoni just added more flavors to what could have been an excellent sandwich even without them. My companion was only able to finish a 1/4 of the sandwich which winds up being the case most times people order a headwich.

The Big Dipper $9.95 (Smoked Beef Brisket with grilled onions, provolone cheese, and rosemary mayo, Au Jus on the side for dipping)

   The Big Dipper is Fat Head's version of a French Dip sandwich. The smoked beef brisket was tender and nicely smoked, tasting almost as good as you would find in a Texas BBQ joint. The rosemary mayo added complexity with its slightly herbal taste. When dipped into the au jus, this sandwich tasted perfect. This was my first time that I tried this sandwich at Fat Head's and I must say that it might be my new favorite.

Big Dipper

   Both sandwiches came with homemade potato chips which we dipped in a side of ranch dressing. For those ranch snobs out their ( which I was surprised to find out includes almost every Female reader of Pittsburgh Eats) the ranch is homemade and tastes great. Nothing worse then getting that abomination which is bottled ranch dressing with your meal which tastes nothing like good homemade buttermilk ranch.

Yum

Yuck

 Having been to Fat Head's on numerous occasions I can honestly say that I have never had a bad meal or experience ( not counting when my friend had me try their killer wings in which I could only finish a quarter of one wing and my tongue was so numb that I couldn't taste the rest of the meal). Fathead's is the epitome of good bar food in Pittsburgh. When someone comes in from out of town, I without hesitation take them to Fat Head's, as I feel it shows them more of what Pittsburgh is about then say some swanky joint, hipsters eat at in East Liberty.
 A bonus is if you are out on a Monday or Saturday night, Caseys Draft House is right next door to Fat Head's. Caseys has midget madness in which a midget known as Manboy comes out of a box and pours the entire bar shots for $10.00. So what could make for a better evening then midgets and great food.

MANBOY

 Rating
Garlic Parm Wings: 7/10
Smoked Chicken, Spinach and Artichoke Dip:  9/10
Double D: 7/10
Big Dipper: 9/10


Overall: 8/10