Recommendations For WNY Visitors & Tourists
See More Restaurant Reviews For:
Beef on Weck Chinese Coffee Favorites Hamburgers Hot Dogs Japanese Pizza Wings

" 'I don't care much about the other stuff at Ming Teh,' said our friend, 'but I have to have that Chewy Dry-Fried Beef Strips dish again.' Thankfully, he'd brought his passport."

You've probably been on one side of this experience before: a friend from outside Buffalo comes to visit for a few days - maybe longer - and you need to quickly pick some places that show off Western New York specialties. As of today, we have three sets of suggestions for you. On our new Famous Buffalo Foods page, we list a huge variety of top destinations for everything from wings and weck to pizza, Chiavetta's, Sahlen & Wardynski Hot Dogs, coffee, steak, sponge candy and much more. Additionally, our Top 100 Buffalo/WNY Foods & Restaurants Guide contains links to individual food items we'd recommend around the area. Since there are so many picks in those articles, this one is a quick and easy summary of the places we actually took an out-of-town friend to visit this week while he's been visiting the area - our "where we'd actually go with limited time" list.

Ted's Hot Dogs Yes, we grill our own Sahlen hot dogs at home. But when friends come to visit, Ted's Hot Dogs is an easy way to demonstrate the power of the char-grilled hot dog. Taste-wise, properly home-grilled versions may be basically identical to Ted's, which uses Schwebel's and other hot dog buns for those who care; we saw patrons ordering their buns toasted and their dogs with extra grilling. This time, we went with the normal versions, trying a foot long - a favorite - with hot sauce (tomato paste or ketchup, chili pepper, and vinegar, we think) and onions, plus a standard dog, Italian Sausages, fries, and an interestingly light Loganberry Shake. Everything was typically good, and a prime example of why so few people around here care about national hot dog brands. Ted's is a strong pick if you don't have your own grill or just want someone else to handle all the cooking.

Duff's: Anyone who's visited us before inevitably wants to visit Duff's for chicken wings a second time, then a third, and so on. It was one of the first things mentioned when he got into town, and we wound up ordering 10 mild (for him), 10 medium, and 10 hot wings, along with a couple of Beef on Weck sandwiches and some Onion Rings. Though he later expressed regret that he'd ordered his wings too mild - one or two steps higher would have been better - we loved the wings, which were otherwise exactly what we were hoping for in terms of spice levels and flavor; the Beef on Wecks were typically good, and the Onion Rings were, as well.

Spot Coffee: Our friend is a big fan of coffee, so we've visited Spot Coffee a few times during his visit, trying everything from the previously familiar drips and Cappuccinos to the blended frozen Italian soda slushes. Spot continues to be a real standout, great or something close every time we visit.

Fuji Grill: Of the many Japanese restaurants in the area, Williamsville's Fuji Grill is probably our favorite: in addition to the food quality, which is almost invariably good to great, the servers include some of the sharpest people at any Japanese place in the area, and the prices are generally reasonable. Our group of five enjoyed everything from sushi to grilled squid (Ika Yaki) to various fresh salads and steamed vegetables; this was one of the healthier meals we've had in recent days.

Ruzzine's Rock Bottom Eatery: Cajun at Chester's? Another wings and Weck meal at Brennan's? We discussed a number of relaxed, familiar options and ultimately opted to make another visit to Ruzzine's Rock Bottom Eatery - a place that impressed us enough on our prior visit that we were willing to take another shot with our friend. Once again, we were pleased: in addition to the inevitable burger and Banana Pepper re-order - again, great - we tried the vaunted mussels, the Beef on Weck and a BLT. Our updated review will reflect the restaurant's 3-star rating, which we held off on assigning last time.

Just Pizza: We've said it before: Buffalo's pizza is world-class, so much so that 99 out of 100 cities would be thrilled to have the pizza quality and options we have around here. Our friend is from Chicago, a one in a hundred city where the locally famous pizza, deep dish, is equally excellent at the right places - better than anything else, in his view, and nothing else can compare. He previously wrote off Bocce's, our favorite, so we tried Just Pizza this time, in an effort to see whether the Fra Diavolo would do anything for him. It didn't; he said that he'd prefer Bocce's next time, if anything. He might just want to stick to his deep dish.

Ming Teh: "I don't care much about the other stuff at Ming Teh," said our friend, "but I have to have that chewy beef dish again." Thankfully, he'd brought his passport, and we did the quick drive over to Fort Erie to revisit Ming Teh - a place that hasn't seemed ultra busy the last few times we've been there. Not surprisingly, the Chewy Dry-Fried Beef Strips with Ginger and Garlic was typically awesome - something like Szechuan carnivore candy - and two other dishes we ordered, Curried Chicken and Stir Fried Fish with Snow Pea Pods and Onion, were quite good, too. Ming Teh may well be on the upswing; we were very glad to have made the effort to visit.

Charlie the Butcher: Amazingly enough, Charlie the Butcher was on our friend's list of top three places to re-visit, alongside Duff's and Ming Teh, and after trying (no joke) seven or eight different restaurants' Beef on Wecks over the course of his visit, he let us know that Charlie's was the best overall: the right size, the right quantity and quality of beef, and the right bun. While he also really enjoyed the bigger Eckl's version we sampled together, Charlie's is his top pick; it remains amongst ours, as well.

These are just a handful of the hundreds of Buffalo and Western New York restaurants we've reviewed; there are many other picks worth sharing with visitors from outside the area, spanning a wide variety of different cuisines depending on how broad the individual's palate may be. Those looking for fine dining options can skip straight to Tempo, LeftBank, and Buffalo Chophouse, with other top picks in our Top 100. Expect many more reviews in the very near future!