Critic's Review
I planned to go to a buffet in Sunrise, but I had trouble finding the place and I don't like going to lunch buffets at 2:30pm. Nobody is going to put out fresh food after 2pm. So I went to Primanti Brothers instead.
This location is in Sunrise officially, but it's as far east as you can be and not be in Plantation.
Let it be said that I'm no fan of the 2 places in Fort Lauderdale. I'm not a big sandwich guy as it is; and gimmicky sandwiches from Steel Town don't remind me of anything I've been dying to try.
This store is a bit larger than others; They have a full bar and the layout screams Sports Bar. I don't like to eat lunch at the bar, and there were plenty of booths available.
They're not real booths; they're all wood with no cushions. The one I was seated at was too wobbly so I moved into another booth in the corner. A server took my beverage order right away.
They have a large, sport bar like menu, but I've never had one of their signature sandwiches before, so I was determined to get one of those. The tea arrived before I'd made my decision, so I needed a few more minutes.
I finally decided on the corned beef with cheese.
Based on the banter with other customers, I'd say that just about everyone here was from Pittsburgh. You can call me on this but I have my sources.
They play good music; old guys own these places and old guys remember when music was good. The Police. Aerosmith. Cindi Lauper. The Beatles. Classics.
13 minutes later a sandwich arrived in a paper boat.
I thought it was strange that there was a plate on the table and the sandwich was served on paper. I didn't see a good way to transfer it, however, so I left it as it was delivered.
The concept here is that instead of fries and cole slaw on the plate, they stuff it into the sandwich. Get it?
The reason for this is that they don't give you much meat; just a couple of sliced of corned beef on this seemingly big sandwich.
The corned beef was grilled, which is the opposite method of warming beef from what good deli's do; Katz's boils the beef; grilling it sucks all of the moisture out of it leaving only the bad part of the lean meat.
After disassembling the sandwich (and taking a bite). I failed to detect any cheese. Something was needed as the meat had no flavor. I decided to send it back. "I hate to be a stickler", I said, "but there is no cheese on this sandwich".
What's interesting is that when I processed the photos I noticed a few flecks of cheese; so they didn't in fact "forget" the cheese. They just don't give you enough to detect.
A bit more waiting. They have both yellow and brown mustards for your dining pleasure. Oddly the ketchup is on the table but not the mustard; you have to ask for mustard.
13 minutes later sandwich #2 arrived. Apparently it takes 13 minutes to make one of these sandwiches.
I could see the cheese in this one.
Same slice of grilled corned beef. Sometimes when they remake something they do a more careful job on the re-make, but this is assembly line stuff.
I didn't like the french fry and cole slaw sandwich, so I tried deconstructing it. The tomatoes were mush; the fries "ok", the corned beef dry and tasteless; there wasn't one thing I liked about this sandwich, including the bread. The cole slaw looked like sauerkraut and tasted like cabbage.
What you get is a big pile of stuff when you're done.
I asked for my check as I'd been here a while. Checkout was quick which is an unusual plus.
Conclusion
Nothing about this place makes me want to go to Pittsburgh, although word is that their dining scene has improved in recent years. Good cole slaw or french fries on a sandwich isn't completely unique; but when the cole slaw sucks and the fries are ordinary it just ruins the sandwich. The promotional pictures I've seen had green cole slaw and a lot more meat, so I think they've just become a bad chain restaurant at this point. Because I can't believe that anyone could build a business with the junk I had today.