With friendly service and fantastic food, Calamari’s Squid Row Restaurant offers an exceptional eating experience.

The atmosphere is relaxed and laid back, allowing customers to walk in and seat themselves wherever they like. Within 30 seconds, a server appeared at our table, ready to take our drink orders and give us menus.

The menu has a wide variety of foods, including flat bread pizzas, salads, wraps, soups and burgers.

A portion of the menu is devoted to the Strip District of Pittsburgh, with sandwiches made in the style of Primanti Brothers restaurants.

I ordered artichoke dip as an appetizer and the Keystone Burger for an entrée.

After ordering, the appetizer only took about 10 minutes to arrive at our table, hot and ready to eat. The creaminess of the dip and the saltiness of the deep-fried pita chips went well together, and the burger had flavor to match.
Liz Zurasky photo: Calamari’s offers an artichoke dip appetizer.
It was cooked exactly the way I asked and was smothered with American cheese, bacon and barbecue sauce. The side of onion rings were nicely breaded and had a good crunch.

Throughout our meal, many of the staff stopped at our table to see how everything tasted. They were extremely friendly and seemed genuinely interested in making our meal enjoyable.

The location of the restaurant, however, is not the greatest.
Calamari’s is located at 1317 State Street, close to the Cell Block. This can make it very difficult for car-less Mercyhurst students to reach the restaurant.
Liz Zurasky photo: The Keystone Burger is offered at Calamari’s.
The location is the only off-putting aspect that I could find about this establishment for college students. The food was incredible and the service was unbeatable. I would highly recommend this restaurant to any student on campus, provided you can get there.