Island Park, Main Street, Williamsville, NY
Web: A Taste of Williamsville
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Desserts Festivals Sandwiches Williamsville
In part one of the 2008 Taste of Williamsville report, we looked at some of the fancy entrees and appetizers offered by fifteen-some village restaurants; this second part of the report is devoted to burgers, other sandwiches, and desserts.
Sonoma Grille: Bordering Amherst and Williamsville - its own sign said Snyder - Sonoma Grille has been visited by the Buffalo Chow crew a few times, with mixed but generally positive impressions. What immediately caught our eyes this time was the Kobe Beef Burger, a plain roll with a dumpling-sized patty of ground beef that was billed as coming from Wagyu cattle in Australia. Perhaps it did, but like much of the Kobe beef served inside and outside Japan, there wasn't anything special about this meat, which might as well have been standard ground sirloin.
Hirsch's, Part 2: After trying and liking the BBQ Ribs at Hirsch's, we went back to sample The Hirschburg, a hamburger billed as a newspaper "Buffalo's best" award winner. As with the Sonoma Kobe, we weren't impressed by this burger, which though fresh off the grill had a certain greasy, glazed look from some melted-on cheese and bacon, and was served on a roll that was unpleasantly tough.
Old Red Mill Inn: Perhaps the single biggest disappointment of the Williamsville Taste was the Old Red Mill Inn's Prime Rib Sandwich, which was delivered looking more like a fourth-rate Beef on Weck than a piece of tasty prime rib - it's actually staggering that this wrinkly gray thing can claim the same general description as the amazing Charlie the Butcher variant. Bland, overcooked, and fatty, the Prime Rib made us think again about our plans to visit the Mill.
Bonus Photo - Gate House Grill: Mentioned in part one of this report, the fine Lollipop Lamb Chops here couldn't fit into the space we had there for pictures.
The Irishman: Admittedly, we've not had an Irish Apple Tart before, so it's possible that all Irish apple tarts are decidedly lacking in sweetness, starting with the apples, continuing through to the vanilla sauce, and finishing with some dilutive, unnecessary whipped cream. If that sounds tasty to you, you'll be glad to know that the oatmeal in here was pretty good - a little soft - but to us, the Tart wasn't worth finishing and went into the trash can halfway through. We won't hold it against the place, though; we're curious enough about the menu to consider it worth a visit anyway.
Sweet Melody's: This Italian dessert restaurant came stocked with three types each of sorbet and gelato, some better than others. Straight out odd was the watermelon sorbet, which would have tasted just like its namesake but for the presence of seed-like chocolate flecks mixed all throughout the icy snack, decidedly distracting from the fruity flavor rather than adding to it. Better was the strawberries and cream gelato, a smooth and sugary milky ice cream that despite gelato's rich reputation, had a nice light flavor that perfectly reflected its named ingredients. But the best was a pineapple sorbet, which like the watermelon version tasted just like a natural version of the expected fruit, but here had no chocolate or other chunks intermixed to distract from the flavor. Real pieces of pineapple would have helped, but this was a nice sorbet as-was.
Our only regret was that we didn't get a chance to try the Gate House Grill Chocolate Velour Crepe, which we waited a while for and then gave up on when the line stopped moving at the booth. Somehow, we think we'll find a way to stop in there soon - if not, there's always next year's Taste...
