http://www.buffalochow.com/ The Real Deal on Western New York Restaurants and Foods. en Copyright 2010 Wed, 10 Mar 2010 20:18:00 -0500 http://www.sixapart.com/movabletype/ http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss New Orleans drinks and seafood dishes, here, as well as a huge New Orleans food photo gallery with more details here. ]]> http://www.buffalochow.com/2010/03/new_orleans_chow_sandwiches_sw.html http://www.buffalochow.com/2010/03/new_orleans_chow_sandwiches_sw.html Dining Outside Buffalo Chicken Desserts Donuts Favorites New Orleans Sandwiches Wed, 10 Mar 2010 20:18:00 -0500 New Orleans sandwiches and sweets is available here.]]> http://www.buffalochow.com/2010/03/new_orleans_chow_the_powerful.html http://www.buffalochow.com/2010/03/new_orleans_chow_the_powerful.html Dining Outside Buffalo Alcohol Drinks Favorites New Orleans Seafood Wed, 10 Mar 2010 08:42:00 -0500 An engaging discussion of the experience of eating and drinking in New Orleans could be confined to examples from a several-street radius around a certain corner or two in the city's French Quarter, but in truth, this area is but a microcosm of the city - an especially accessible one. The further one gets from the intersection of Conti and Royal, a set of corners where music, shopping, and eating all seem to run together, the thinner the bars and restaurants seem to become, though some of the most noteworthy are a taxi or mule-drawn carriage ride away. Others are only steps from the touristy and debaucherous Bourbon Street, offering seafood, drinks, sandwiches, and sweets that were invented in the city decades ago, spreading out - sometimes without attribution - all across the United States. http://www.buffalochow.com/2010/03/new_orleans_photo_gallery_post.html http://www.buffalochow.com/2010/03/new_orleans_photo_gallery_post.html Dining Outside Buffalo New Orleans Mon, 08 Mar 2010 17:13:45 -0500 asked Twitter fans for their favorite cajun restaurants in Western New York, only two answers came up: Shango and Chester's. This isn't a surprise, as they're two of only three area places specializing in New Orleans-style cooking, and they were both worthy of including on our Top 100 Buffalo Restaurants list. But how do they actually compare with restaurants in Louisiana? That's what we're going to tell you this week as we pay a long-awaited visit to New Orleans, a city that even today is still recovering from 2005's Hurricane Katrina, yet basking in the glow of last month's Super Bowl victory. "Who Dat?" signs and t-shirts are everywhere, with fleur-de-lis insignias covering everything from Saints jerseys to scarves. The Big Easy mightn't be so easy these days, but it still has a lot to offer, especially for big eaters.]]> http://www.buffalochow.com/2010/03/cajun_creole_contemporary_cook.html http://www.buffalochow.com/2010/03/cajun_creole_contemporary_cook.html Dining Outside Buffalo Cajun New Orleans Thu, 04 Mar 2010 14:13:21 -0500 Reincarnating an old brand only makes sense when it was truly well-known and well-liked, and the Thirty One Club (aka 31 Club) fits that bill: from the 1940's to the 1980's, the restaurant at 31 North Johnson Park in Buffalo was a favorite of our grandparents' generation - a place where celebrities, politicians, and well-to-do locals could enjoy expensive meals and drinks with classy service. One year ago, it reopened under new management as a "swanky, upscale supper club," featuring "fine dining in a classy environment," and now that the new restaurant has had a chance to settle into the old building, we paid it a visit to see whether it lived up to its predecessor's high standards. http://www.buffalochow.com/2010/03/buffalos_31_club_a_classic_reb.html http://www.buffalochow.com/2010/03/buffalos_31_club_a_classic_reb.html Buffalo Restaurants American Buffalo Fine Dining Italian Tue, 02 Mar 2010 19:25:00 -0500 Wikipedia entry, yet it suffices to say that this is one of the area's cultural treasures - the sort of charmingly restored piece of American heritage that's worth visiting just for fun - and the fact that it happens to have a really nice restaurant on site is just gravy. Great gravy.]]> http://www.buffalochow.com/2010/02/restored_east_auroras_roycroft.html http://www.buffalochow.com/2010/02/restored_east_auroras_roycroft.html Buffalo Restaurants American East Aurora Favorites Sat, 27 Feb 2010 21:27:00 -0500 four days a week, including the day we tried to visit - so we instead wound up at another supposedly incredible Hamburg restaurant, a Chinese place called Ginger and Garlic. According to some Urbanspoon reviews, it's "the best in WNY!" But to make a long story short, it's not, and not even close. Phony or otherwise ridiculous 'reviews' are amongst the reasons we screen our comments, and why Urbanspoon recently added a "shill" button to its reviews to let readers mark obvious fakes. Even with human screeners, however, it's sometimes hard to know whether the "reviewers" are totally fake, just have limited experience, or are expressing subjectively bad taste.]]> http://www.buffalochow.com/2010/02/hamburgs_ginger_garlic_or_usel.html http://www.buffalochow.com/2010/02/hamburgs_ginger_garlic_or_usel.html Buffalo Restaurants Chinese Hamburg Thu, 25 Feb 2010 19:31:00 -0500 We have some big adventures planned for the next few weeks, so we took this weekend easy with visits to two small and affordable ethnic restaurants. One was the Indian Grill Restaurant and Bar in Lockport, and the other was Williamsville's Bamboo China, which closed its freestanding restaurant in 2008 and subsequently reopened as a take-out closer to Snyder. Though we weren't really impressed with either place, and haven't assigned either a star rating, this article takes brief looks at each one and offers preliminary thoughts. http://www.buffalochow.com/2010/02/quick_bites_lockports_indian.html http://www.buffalochow.com/2010/02/quick_bites_lockports_indian.html Buffalo Restaurants Chinese Indian Lockport Williamsville Mon, 22 Feb 2010 08:49:00 -0500 O Restaurant and Lounge, Amherst's Hucklebuckets has shifted into a lower-end American "family grill and sports bar," serving dishes with a huckleberry barbecue sauce, and using colorful plastic buckets to carry both food and garbage. The changes are initially somewhat jarring, but due to slow service from the kitchen - not a great sign given how few people were in the place when we visited - we had plenty of time to sit around and take everything in. Below, we share our preliminary, pre-rating thoughts on this new venue, which may or may not be updated into a full review in the future; read on for all the details.]]> http://www.buffalochow.com/2010/02/hucklebuckets_amhersts_o_is_no.html http://www.buffalochow.com/2010/02/hucklebuckets_amhersts_o_is_no.html Buffalo Restaurants American Barbecue Bars Fri, 19 Feb 2010 09:00:28 -0500 high-profile Parisian culinary rivalry back in 2002, began to take off in the United States several years ago, and these days is being described as the cupcake of 2010 - a highly portable dessert that pastry shops can customize in numerous ways and sell profitably for low prices. We're not going to repeat what's in the linked articles, and we're honestly not sure whether anyone in Western New York is actually serving macarons, but after a gift arrived in the mail from a family member (thanks, Beth!), we thought that cookie fans around here might want to learn a little about the sugar world's next rising star before it really hits the mainstream.]]> http://www.buffalochow.com/2010/02/a_brief_look_at_macarons_the_n.html http://www.buffalochow.com/2010/02/a_brief_look_at_macarons_the_n.html Editors Notes Desserts Favorites Thu, 18 Feb 2010 19:14:00 -0500 bustling Kenmore plaza full of Asian food destinations, and this week, a strip mall in Getzville added the brand new Rocky's Indian Restaurant to its existing collection of Chinese, Mexican, and American options. Located on Millersport Highway right next to Elmo's, the venue that houses Rocky's has been under renovation since at least December of last year, offering little clue as to its scale until its covered front windows announced a "grand opening" this Monday. Since Rocky's is literally only three days old as of today, we're posting only an opinionated preview; like all new restaurants, it deserves some time to settle in before receiving a rating and full review.]]> http://www.buffalochow.com/2010/02/rockys_indian_restaurant_joins.html http://www.buffalochow.com/2010/02/rockys_indian_restaurant_joins.html Buffalo Restaurants Amherst Getzville Indian Wed, 17 Feb 2010 00:01:00 -0500 On very rare occasion, a good meal ends so well that we find ourselves anxious to return again immediately, and this week, we had one of those experiences at Nektar on Elmwood in Buffalo. In brief, Nektar presents a familiar American and Italian menu with atypical flare, serving meals that will range from and merit roughly $35 to $50 per person. As always, we'll tell you about this restaurant's look and feel, as well as some of its interesting appetizers and entrees, all of which contributed to a really enjoyable dining experience. But the thing that really sealed the deal was Nektar's desserts, particularly the one featured in the first of our photos, which we'll discuss below. We're holding off on a final rating pending a follow-up visit in the future. http://www.buffalochow.com/2010/02/at_elmwoods_nektar_splendid_de.html http://www.buffalochow.com/2010/02/at_elmwoods_nektar_splendid_de.html Buffalo Restaurants American Elmwood Fine Dining Sun, 14 Feb 2010 12:58:00 -0500 Lake Effect Diner - and then there are retro diner-like chain restaurants with retro diner-like food. Most of these chains, like Johnny Rockets around here and Ruby's elsewhere, offer burgers, fries, fountain drinks, milkshakes, and a few items for health-conscious customers, but rarely do any particular item in a really special way. Cheeburger Cheeburger in Amherst is a little different. It is, like the others, part of a chain that sets up faux diners in nondescript locations, and its menu tracks exactly with the items just mentioned. But as reader Caroline said in a tip late last year (thanks, Caroline!), it offers the sort of burger and milkshake customization that will blow a first-timer's mind. ]]> http://www.buffalochow.com/2010/02/cheeburger_cheeburger_deluxe_b.html http://www.buffalochow.com/2010/02/cheeburger_cheeburger_deluxe_b.html National Chain Restaurants Amherst Burgers Thu, 11 Feb 2010 00:03:00 -0500 Amaretto Bistro - sparkling new inside, with ethnic decor touches. And fans of its namesake fruit will love that it doesn't shy away from offering ways to sample the taste of pomegranate: the ingredient shows up in juice, bottles of Vitamin Water in the glass display case up front, a soup, and a stew, conspicuously absent only from the limited dessert options. This list mightn't be enough to get Pomegranate's cooks onto the TV show Iron Chef, but it's a good start - enough for us to write this rating-less preview of the restaurant as it gets established.]]> http://www.buffalochow.com/2010/02/the_pomegranate_williamsvilles.html http://www.buffalochow.com/2010/02/the_pomegranate_williamsvilles.html Buffalo Restaurants Mediterranean Middle Eastern Williamsville Tue, 09 Feb 2010 01:09:00 -0500 "The Premier Group," notes that it is "an advertising group" with three individually owned member stores, actually named Prime Wines, Premium Wine & Spirits, and Prestige Wine & Spirits. We really like these stores, and in other states, there are legally operated chains just like them - arguably even better.]]> http://www.buffalochow.com/2010/02/discuss_it_is_it_time_to_chang.html http://www.buffalochow.com/2010/02/discuss_it_is_it_time_to_chang.html Editors Notes Alcohol Drinks Editors Notes Open Discussion Fri, 05 Feb 2010 09:00:04 -0500