Bites Nearby: UNO Chicago Grill

Overview: UNO Chicago Grill offers Chicago-style pizza plus a variety of other pizzas, entrees, sandwiches, salads and desserts in a stand-alone restaurant on Freedom Road in Cranberry. It is open for lunch and dinner daily and late-night dining on Fridays and Saturdays.

Decor: UNO is a modern restaurant with booths, tables and full bar. Decor is classic brick oven, upscale bar atmosphere.

The drinks: UNO has a full bar and a few UNO specials such as the Windy City Hurricane and Uno Bloody Mary. It also has a full range of non-alcoholic beverages including soft drinks and coffee. I found it cool that they have a little tea menu featuring Harney & Sons select premium teas.  

Appetizers: A wide variety of small plate appetizers is just right for one person, prices $3.99 to $4.99. Larger appetizers (meant to be shared, as stated on the menu) range in price from $6.99 to $10.99. The Chi-Town Tasting plate for $10.99 has a nice variety of Buffalo wings, eggrolls and fries, and the Shrimp and Crab Fun-doo is a crab-and-shrimp dip at $10.49. Other appetizers include pizza skins, wings, fried calamari and “muchos nachos,” just to name a few. 

Entrees: Pizzas are the specialty here. Uno offers an amazing array of both deep dish (true Chicago-style pizza) or thin-crust versions. It offers specialty pizzas, and the Mushroom Cabot Pizza we ordered was amazing. The Deep Dish Chicago Pizza has fresh, handcrafted crust that is flaky and crunches, unlike many soggy deep dish pies! We had the “Numero Uno -- The One. The Best,” which includes sausage, pepperoni, onions, peppers, mushrooms, chunky tomato sauce, mozzarella and grated Romano. Prices are approximately $10 to $20, depending on size and toppings.

Uno also offers a wide variety of salads, soups, entrees, sandwiches and burgers. A few of the entrees include lemon basil salmon, aged Angus beef steaks, lobster and shrimp scampi and lemon herb chicken.

Desserts: You know how you always eye the selections on the dessert menu but are too full to ever try one? Uno offers a bite-sized version of several desserts for $1.99! Perfect. It offers full-size desserts as well. Selections include Bananas Foster, bread pudding with a salted-caramel sauce and an apple crisp.

Bonus: Uno offers a wide variety of lunch specials that are guaranteed to be delivered in 10 minutes. Perfect for those on a limited budget or with limited lunch hours.  There also are takeout specials for those who just want to pick up their pizzas on the run.

Services: We had Max, a delightful young man who joked with us. When I looked up from my seat at Max, who appeared to be a giant. and asked him how tall he was, he quipped, “I’m 6-feet-5, how tall are you?” He was attentive without being intrusive -- my favorite kind of server.

Address: 1294 Freedom Road, Cranberry Township. For more information, visit www.unos.com or call 724-772-1711.

Hours: 11 a.m. to midnight on Sunday through Thursday; 11 a.m. to 2 a.m. on Friday and Saturday.

Costs: Appetizers range from $3.99 to $10.99. Dinner entrees are $14 and up. Pizzas start at approximately $10. Desserts are $1.99 for small bites to $5.99. They offer lunch and takeout specials.