Once upon a time, diners were a staple of the American lifestyle.\n\nHard-nosed waitresses who didn't take anyone's crap would serve you piping hot coffee.  Experts who didn't really look like experts would sling the best tasting food, their processes visible to those sitting in the front of the dining room.  The regulars and the staff knew each other well enough to hold a conversation and trade jokes and barbs with a great sense of humor.\n\nThe diner was once a palace of comfort.  The food, the people, the atmosphere... everything felt like home when you came in for a simple cup of joe.\n\nIt's nice to find a haven like this in the modern landscape of franchise wars.\n\nKeep your Denny's.  Forget about Bob Evans.  You can even tell Eat n' Park to have Smiley take a powder.\n\nUnbeknownst to some, there is a real-deal diner of legend still standing in Pittsburgh, and it only really came into being in 2007.\n\nHot Metal Diner, a rapidly growing establishment of the South Hills area, is a Mecca for the person who misses the days of the tried and true diner. The waitresses have attitude, the coffee is always fresh and hot, and the food is always incredible. \n\nThis reviewer was disappointed to discover this place so far after its original opening.  If I had known the environment, I would have been eating there since their inception. As it stands, I'm there a minimum of once a week, not disappointed in the least if I spend two lunches straight going there.\n\nEverything about this place screams attitude.  From the rules posted at the front door (which you'll want to abide by if you value your life) to the fire-engine red, limited edition, Harley-Davidson on display in their newly completed party room.\n\nAs far as the food is concerned, the menu offers a bevy of breakfasts and lunches, each more incredibly tasty than the last.\n\nMost things on this menu are not for the small of stomach.  You certainly get what you pay for with things like the Mancakes (two pancakes roughly the size of truck rims which hang over the edges of the plate), the breakfast burrito (over a foot long and stuffed three inches high), or even the club sandwich (served on thickly sliced bread so as to make one's mouth unhinge to take a bite).\n\nOne of the main reasons for the tastiness of the food, particularly to the Pittsburgher's palate, is the exclusive use of some local ingredients.  Hot Metal Diner serves only Uncle Charley's sausage and Mancini's bread products.  These are all put to good use in the hands of their more than capable kitchen who use extra thick slices of bread to craft the French toast and smashing the sausage patties flat enough to fit with some eggs and cheese on the Fatboy breakfast sandwich.  (incidentally, Hot Metal is one of the only places in Pittsburgh who will serve you hot sausage with your breakfast, if you should so choose!)\n\nEven if you are a Hot Metal virgin, the waitstaff is known to pull up a chair to your table while taking your order, usually engaging you in some friendly, if not incredibly sarcastic and cynical, conversation.  This place has personality, unlike the sterile chain restaurant environments which have become the standard.\n\nThe personality of Hot Metal Diner is as much a factor as is the food.  From the first time I went in, I felt like I knew the entire staff. They are as comfortable around their customers as they are their family.  It's this warm (if not sometimes chidingly hostile) environment that makes this place a true reincarnation of diners passed.\n\nThe food, the people, the place... everything is incredible at Hot Metal Diner.  Going here once just isn't enough and soon you'll find yourself bringing friends along to indulge in the diner's incredible food and entertaining people.\n\nI highly recommend Hot Metal to anyone looking for a good breakfast, a good cup of coffee, and a whole lot of attitude.