BFG Café

This is an East End secret. Great pizza, perhaps the best gyro in the Burgh, and John the owner is awesome. A good man, he lives right in Garfield and is an old school neighborhood cat. We get our food here regularly, and you just can’t beat the price and quality. I mean, 2 pizzas and 4.5 toppings for $ 20? And great service? GO HERE.

Oh this is the best gyros I’ve had since that place in Chicago. Portion, price everything just amazing.

Great place. Average food but you can’t beat the price, variety, people, or atmosphere. I live less than a block away and it’s definitely a staple of the neighborhood. You get more than you pay for and I think this adds value to the neighborhood.

Very reasonable prices on good food. Portions are very nice size so when ordering a large be prepared for leftovers. $ 1 slices of pizza are delicious and you will not have nicer service anywhere. I can’t wait to try some of the new menu sandwiches!!!

Solid pizza and pretty inexpensive at that. I order the spinach and feta with tomatoes on top when the mood strikes me. Put on a movie and I’m all set for a night in. Yeah, I’m putting my phone on silent. Smaller menu selection but I usually only order a few things anyway. Oh, get their moussaka. You can thank me later.

This place is delicious and reasonably priced! I love their pizza and the hummus is awesome.

Everyday I want Vegetarian Moussaka! The gyros are really big and really really good. The pizza is amazing! The prices are the craziest thing about BFG Café, they’re soooooooo low!
Anyone who doesn’t give BFG café 5 stars is a fucking retard!

Great local pizza place! We decided to try something new and weren’t disappointed. We ordered a Gyro Specialty pizza and a Steak Ranch pizza. Both were delicious and the Gyro had huge chunks of delicious meat on them. The price point is very reasonable. We also learned that two large pizzas for two people may be a bit too much and will last a while…

Since I’ve been here several more times and tried several more items since my original review, I feel that an update is called for. I may have been a bit too harsh in my original review, so I’ll try to be more balanced and articulate this time.
There are several things that I like about BFG. I like that it’s an unpretentious community eatery that serves the neighborhood in which it’s located, a fact that’s reflected in the type of food that they serve, the price point, and the employees (yeah, that’s right, I refuse to use the term «help») that they hire. This contrasts with some other eateries along Penn Ave. in the vicinity, which draw a more yuppie East End crowd. (Disclaimer: I’m an East End yuppie!) BFG’s commitment to the community is even reflected in the wall art, which is from local artists, as I mentioned before. The owner and staff are very friendly, and are gracious hosts to a group that I attend that meets here on Mon. evenings.
On the other hand, I find the food to be rather hit-​or-​miss. Some of it, such as the grape leaves and pita with tzatziki, the fries, and the baklava, is pretty decent. Other items, such as the pizza (which I find too greasy for my liking) and the chicken gyro I mentioned in my previous review, leave room for improvement. Given the price point, though, I can’t complain too much, and since I return regularly, I’ll figure out what I enjoy and will stick to ordering that.
As a side note, BFG was broken into the weekend before last, and is still struggling to deal with the repercussions of the break in (when I visited last night, the glass on the front door was still broken). If you’re in the neighborhood, consider stopping by to show some support!
3.5 stars for providing good hospitality and A-​OK food on a consistent basis.

I came here with a group of about twenty people for lunch on a weekend. There kitchen is in the back, and you can see everything they’re doing, which is pretty cool. The area by the door is more for carry out; there’s a couple tables. Inside, though, there’s a lot more seating. The restaurant area is roomy and, although it’s not fancy, it’s homey. The owner and employees also really contribute to this feel. I got the impression that the owner knew everyone who walked in, and customers made it a point to say goodbye to everyone working there on their way out. There was also a mix-​up in our group about when we would eat, but the owner was extremely patient and accommodating.
We only ordered pizza, so I can’t speak for the Greek items on the menu that they’re named for (Big Fat Greek). I did hear they have good gyros, though, and their prices seem pretty low for everything.
I watched them roll out preportioned bags of pizza dough and add sauce, cheese, and toppings. The pizza was served hot and delicious. Their pizza sauce has no sweet taste like others I’ve tried in the area. The pizza overall was good, but not particularly spectacular. I did really enjoy the crust, though – it was crispy on the outside (including the part under the sauce and cheese, which is often soggy) and soft (almost too soft and doughy) inside.
Although this place is a little out of my way, if I’m ever in the area, I’ll definitely try other items from their menu.

Let’s be honest, a lot of people haven’t gone here. But they seriously should. The prices are great, but the food is better than its low price suggests.
Great vegetarian options and great pizza, and the service is fast and surprisingly attentive for how big a place it is.
Make this place a stop you go for lunch or dinner, order more than you can finish and be happy that it didn’t break the bank. An easy 5 stars.

Advice for the owner: You need to change the look of the exterior of the building so that people actually know that a) you are a place of business that serves food, and b) you’re open.
The confusing look of the building that I just mentioned is the reason it took me months of living near BFG to actually go in. It was the other positive reviews on Unilocal that made me take the plunge. I am now officially a BFG junkie. Best Gyro’s in Pittsburgh (sorry mike and tony’s, but I’m over it), and the prices are obscenely low. Also, the employees and the owner are wonderfully nice. Give BFG a try, you’ll be hooked

Fantastic food at an even better price! So glad we’re just down the street!

Excellent food I don’t know how it can be this cheap and be this good but it is. I was looking for something inexpensive to eat lunch during the week and boy did I luck out! They’re hoagies are excellent their gyros are real and amazing! And the pizza is fantastic

Ordered a grilled chicken Greek salad to go. The salad had a sh$t ton of melted cheese and fries on top. So gross! This is not a Greek salad. I also asked for a side of Greek dressing or vinaigrette. Got home to find out ranch was on the side. I also ordered an order of hummus and pita bread the hummus looked hard and gritty. I won’t be back. Not good! Didn’t even try the hummus it looked that unappetizing. Straight to the trash w that hummus.

My first time here and I was extremely happy with the decision. It was a little gem I didn’t know existed. Ordered a gyro and had a slice of plain pizza. The gyro was absolutely delicious. The service was phenomenal too. The prices we perfect; about $ 5 for gyro and $ 6 for 12″ pizza.
Oh and the jazz music in the background was just the icing on the cake. They’ll be getting my business a lot more now.

The food is all homemade and very affordable. Better hurry up and eat here before he realizes how good the food is and raises his prices!

While waiting for the monthly Garfield ‘art’ walk to commence, we were walking around the general area, and saw the handful of up-​priced bistroids near the Pittsburgh Glass Center, and decided to keep walking. We then came across the hipster painted façade of BFG Café, and jokingly thought ‘Hmmmm…what does BFG stand for? Big F***ing Glutton’? That could be cool. So we crossed the street to check out the menu posted on the window, and discovered it was kind of a general pizza and burger joint, but with a Greek edge. Since we weren’t looking to mortgage anything for a meal, we decided to give BFG a try.
We walked into what kind of looked like a giant sectional unfinished space, and approached the man with the Prince Valiant haircut at the counter to place our orders. One gyro, one burger with a side of hummous and pita, and one vegetarian combo, not to be confused with the vegetarian platter. Mine was the vegetarian, even though I’m not a vegetarian by any stretch of the imagination. The combo was felafel, grape leaves, hummous and tsaziki (cucumber salad) and pita. It had been eons since I’d had felafel, and really had a taste for it.
After the order was placed, the owner, Prince Valiant, whose name was really John, said we could sit anywhere inside, and he’d bring our food to us. It wouldn’t be hard to find us, since we were the only people there.
The space was three large rooms, and John was still in the process of ‘decorating’ the space, with art from local artists adorning the walls.
The beverages were sold from a machine in the main entrance room, Coke products, yay.
After we’d been seated, John came in and asked me if I’d wanted the ‘combo’ or the ‘platter’, and I said ‘combo’ and he told me he’d been confused, and had to adjust my credit card since he’d charged me for the platter. He was incredibly nice and came back with the receipt of the difference credited to my card. Then he told me that due to a large catering order earlier in the day, he was out of the felafel, since they needed a day in advance to prepare it, making everything from scratch by hand. He offered some moussaka, which I’ve never been fond of, and was happy to replace the felafel with gyro meat. Since I’d not gotten a soda from the vending machine, he also brought a pitcher of water to the table.
The food came, and I do have to say… inexpensive, accommodating, and YUM. You could tell that, except for the pita, everything was made from scratch, full of flavor, good portions and quite satisfying. The grape leaves were very tasty, warm, with the right hint of dill, the hummous had a roasted pepper flavor, the tsaziki was creamy, cool and fresh, and the gyro meat was good quality meat. I’ve had gyro meat that was quite simply lamb spam on a pole, greasy and over-​processed, and I’ve had gyro meat that was juicy and flavorful and ‘meaty’. This was the good version.
John was quite enjoyably chatty and friendly, helpful and hospitable, with lots of info about his experiences in the restaurant and bar biz, his family’s restaurant history in da burgh, the neighborhood and its ups and downs, and the art he had hanging in the space. By the end of our experience, John seemed more like a friend and a community man than just a business owner.
And he also shared, as another reviewer has already pointed out, the meaning of ‘BFG’, which has a duality, ‘Big Fat Greek’ and ‘Bloomfield-​Friendship-​Garfield’.
Well, as a guy sold on the quality of his food, I can still stand by my original joke comment of ‘Big F***ing Glutton’. The atmosphere may not be fit for a ‘foodie’, but the FOOD is definitely fit for someone who likes to eat. And the prices are really incredibly affordable. And quite frankly, he’s just a great guy business owner who deserves support for creating something pleasant and NOT the least bit pretentious in a neighborhood with the drooling wolves of development dripping venom down the necks of anyone without the budget to join in their exclusive club.
Kudos my friend!

It’s taken me a year to find out that the BFG café wasn’t named after a weapon in Doom, and that it therefore wasn’t some sort of internet café as I had expected. No, in fact, BFG café stands for Big Fat Greek café, presumably because if you eat here regularly you will be big and fat, and the fact that they serve gyros. Additionally, BFG stands for Bloomfield-​Friendship-​Garfield, the three nearest neighborhoods to the café (Well actually East Liberty is probably closer than Bloomfield but nobody wants to eat at the Enormous Large Fat Greek café, it’s simply too verbose).
Walking in to the café is a big open kitchen, well over half the room, a few vending machines for drinks, and a seating area to the side. Seating is actually plentiful here as it appears the café is two spaces combined. The food here is my favorite kind: cheap. The most expensive item on their menu is a large speciality pizza for $ 13. 9″ hoagies and gyro sandwiches are $ 5 and under, fries are about a buck, and «pittsburgh-​style» salads and 12″ pizzas are about $ 5 – 7. Simply put, they’re hard prices to beat: a spinach-​feta pizza and a gyro (big enough that I didn’t even make it to the pizza) cost me $ 11 after tax.
The gyro was excellent, and though not enough to usurp my stomach’s other Big Fat Greek champion (My Big Fat Greek Gyro), the price and convenience of this place easily makes up for it. The pizza had a very thin crust and had a nice seasoning to it. Toppings weren’t skimped on, but I had a little trouble finding the feta on the slice I did attempt. They also threw tomatoes on it for free, because the guy on the phone thinks they’re a nice touch, and, I did too.
Shockingly, BFG didn’t replace Salt as my favorite restaurant in this stretch of Penn ave, but for cheap sandwich while I’m working from home or for a pizza dinner when I don’t feel like cooking, this is a great place to have in the neighborhood

The place is really spacious and the folks are really nice. Pizza is decent but it’s not Mineo’s

BFG is a great addition to the growing set of local businesses on Penn Ave between Garfield and Bloomfield.
It has tasty comfort food (pizza, hot dogs, gyros, subs, etc.) at rock bottom prices. A gyro with everything on it is $ 4.50. The meat, veggies, and bread were all very fresh. Pizza’s run as low as $ 5 for a whole pie. Hot dogs are $ 2. The owner is friendly, and the restaurant itself is simple and clean. I wouldn’t come here for a romantic dinner, but it is great for take out or a causal meal.