What To Do: Maple Weekend + Buffalo Pizza-Bash (Née Fest)

Looking for something interesting to do (and eat) this weekend? We have a couple of options to offer you today. Every year, the New York State Maple Producers Association holds a Maple Weekend to celebrate the start of the maple...

Posted on March 20, 2010

Semi-Precious Eastern European Food: Williamsville's Krystall

By comparison with Main Street's Prosit, which feels distinctly like entering the quaint old house of a European grandmother, Maple Road's Krystall Eastern European Cuisine is surprisingly conventional, and a little more upscale - at least, in decor - than...

Posted on March 18, 2010

Williamsville's 78 Degrees West: Familiar Location, So-So Food

Since Zetti's Pizza & Pasta lasted for only three months in an expansive Transit Road location before shutting down last December, the building's new occupant 78 Degrees West doesn't have much of a record to beat. But even though we...

Posted on March 12, 2010

Quick Bites: Lockport's Indian Grill + Bamboo China, Reborn

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...

Posted on February 22, 2010

The Pomegranate: Williamsville's Shiny New Kabob/Pita Shop

Two things stand out immediately about Williamsville's just-opened Middle Eastern restaurant, cutely named The Pomegranate: as the latest place to open following a ridiculously slow project to expand Transit Road, it is - like its similarly recent Italian neighbor Amaretto...

Posted on February 9, 2010

At Williamsville's Red Mill Inn, Age As An Asset And Challenge

Rarely do our editors' opinions diverge sharply on any facet of a review, but it happens, and this time, the subject is Williamsville's Red Mill Inn - a landmark on Main Street near Clarence. Once known as the Old Red...

Posted on January 25, 2010

Quick Bites: Snyder Bar & Grill, Jojo Bistro + Chipotle Updates

Most of the time, we struggle to condense our thoughts about the restaurants we visit into something short enough for people to enjoy reading, but on occasion, we come across a place that we don't have a lot to say...

Posted on January 18, 2010

At Williamsville's Creekview, Good Food Near Glen Falls Park

If the three most important decisions a business owner can make are "location, location, location," as the old saying goes, the natural advantages enjoyed by Williamsville's Creekview Restaurant are obvious. While beautiful waterfalls at Glen Falls Park are only a...

Posted on December 28, 2009

A Strong Kitchen Helps Amaretto Bistro Shine In Williamsville

If you ever wondered how Western New York's needlessly endless construction projects - one-month jobs in California that take two years here - hurt our economy, a drive down Transit Road six months ago would have said it all. New...

Posted on December 20, 2009

Update: Five Guys In 2010 + Replies From Other Top Chains

We were thrilled by the response to this week's list of Ten Great Chain Restaurants Buffalo Should Pursue: readers added many great suggestions, including Yard House, Mongolian BBQ, Legal Seafood, California Pizza Kitchen, and Joe's Crab Shack, amongst others, but...

Posted on December 19, 2009

Comfort Food + A Cozy Bar At Williamsville's Glen Park Tavern

Some restaurants are so filled with teens and twentysomethings that older patrons stay away; at others, such as the Glen Park Tavern in Williamsville, the average age is in the 50's, and younger diners may overhear - as we did...

Posted on December 17, 2009

From Five Guys Burgers To Original SoupMan's Soup + Salad

We don't disagree on much, but we stand on separate sides of the burger divide: he only wants them flame-grilled, she prefers but doesn't require them to be fried. So bear that in mind before reading our split opinion of...

Posted on December 5, 2009

Riva's Pizza: An Object Lesson In Impressive Food Marketing

Great modern design is rare in Western New York, so we make a special effort to spotlight design-conscious restaurants whenever we spot them. This week, it was an advertisement of all things - one in the dying print format, no...

Posted on December 3, 2009

Jojo Bistro: A Beautiful Bar And Smart Menu With Shaky Food

If you're the sort of person who is won over to a restaurant based more on its decor than its culinary merits, Jojo Bistro - a lower-priced sister restaurant to its immediate Sheridan Drive neighbor Black & Blue - is...

Posted on November 28, 2009

Quick Bites: Bar Louie, Gate House Grill + La Scala Ristorante

As we prepare for our next major food journey outside of Buffalo - details coming soon - we wanted to fill you in on a few of our recent restaurant visits inside Western New York. The places are very different...

Posted on November 10, 2009

Dave & Busters + Updates: Carmine's, SoupHerb, Quaker Steak

We're going to make our recent drought of articles up to you with something really special in November - we promise. But for now, another very busy past week has led us to assemble another wrap-up article, including one brief...

Posted on October 19, 2009

Picasso's + Second Helpings: Zetti's, Eastern Pearl + Sake Cafe

We're unusually crunched for time this week because of our work on iLounge's 2010 iPod and iPhone Buyers' Guide (enter the contest, cast your vote), but we wanted to post a summary of some of our recent local dining experiences,...

Posted on October 9, 2009

Yogen Fruz: It's Not Pinkberry, But It's Frozen Yogurt in Buffalo

If you've been reading Buffalo Chow for the last year, or even the last month, you know that there's a frozen yogurt craze sweeping the United States, and that we're huge fans of the reformulated "Italian" recipe, popularized by several...

Posted on October 4, 2009

O.C. Chow: Trader Joe's Is Coming + A Look At Whole Foods

When people from outside of Western New York visit Buffalo, they're almost always blown away by Wegmans, yet surprised that such a food-obsessed area doesn't have a Trader Joe's or Whole Foods Market - two of the country's other supermarket...

Posted on September 23, 2009

Verbena Grille: On The Upswing, Standing Out In Williamsville

Though we could say as much about many other restaurants, we really weren't sure what to expect as we headed to visit Williamsville's Verbena Grille. Located on the former site of Daffodil's on Maple Road, this place had apparently undergone...

Posted on September 16, 2009

From Appetizer to Focus: Tasty Soup At SoupHerb Gourmet

Conventional wisdom suggests that soup is an appetizer, too minor to justify the existence of a restaurant, but that's not always true. We've visited cities where a good bowl of soup - authentic Japanese ramen or Vietnamese pho, as just...

Posted on August 23, 2009

A Simple Menu With Good Picks at Williamsville's Protocol

Only one thing is on our minds when we visit a restaurant: we hope to have a truly good or great meal. Unlike the average diner, who finds a handful of comfortable places to visit repeatedly, we so frequently eat...

Posted on August 23, 2009

Markets: Clinton Bailey, Bidwell Parkway & Williamsville

For decades, Western New Yorkers have debated the correct balance between supporting local businesses and patronizing national ones. Some people - many, actually - err on the side of buying as much as possible from smaller neighborhood and village shops,...

Posted on August 22, 2009

Williamsville's Eastern Pearl Rises From Chang's Ashes

"Cautious optimism" is the trite, overused weasel of a phrase that enables critics to obliquely suggest that they're concerned about something they've tested but hopeful that it will improve. We've read the words a million times over the years, and...

Posted on August 19, 2009

At Arby's, Curly Fries & Milkshakes Surpass Sandwiches

Before we say anything else about Arby's, we want to make one thing clear: it mightn't be the biggest or the most popular fast food restaurant chain out there, but we like it. For years, the roast beef-focused Arby's has...

Posted on August 11, 2009

Is Wendy's Content To Be Number 3, Or Thinking Bigger?

Oh, to be back in the 1980's, the halcyon days of fast food - when "burger wars" made the covers of national magazines, and big chains fought to see whose oddball character - Wendy's old "Where's the Beef?" lady, Burger...

Posted on August 11, 2009

Oy Vey: So-So Deli Fare at Transit's Nosh Cafe & Jonny C's

From a storyteller's perspective, there's plenty to say about Nosh Cafe in Williamsville and Jonny C's NY Deli in East Amherst, two Transit Road delicatessens we've visited over the past week. Nosh is a true rarity locally - a glatt...

Posted on August 5, 2009

Taste of Williamsville 2009: A French Debut & Elvis, Too

How often does a Western New York food festival include the debut of an as-yet-unopened restaurant? Where else do items such as fancy french fries and a Kobe Beef Hot Dog compete with fancy gazpachos and high-end seafood dishes to...

Posted on August 4, 2009

Restaurant Bathroom Report: The Beauty & Chaos Of Butterwood

Back in May of 2008, we visited Williamsville's Butterwood - a dessert restaurant that we felt was a study in contrasts, combining beautiful decor and impressive plating with individual items that were highly disappointing. What we remembered most positively about...

Posted on July 31, 2009

On Authenticity: Lebanese Festival & Spring Lake Winery

If you've ever tried "Buffalo Wings" outside of Western New York, where all sorts of crazy chicken concoctions masquerade as our hometown specialty, you know this already: authenticity matters. Authenticity is the difference between experiences that please novices and ones...

Posted on July 26, 2009

Samples: Steelhead Irish Pub, Coulter Farms & Pizza Plant

With temperatures in the low 70's and two full days of possible adventures ahead of us, we decided this weekend to do a little driving: on a tip from a reader, we took a drive out to Lockport's Coulter Farms...

Posted on July 19, 2009

Restaurant Bathroom Report, Pt. 2: Fogo de Chao & 800 Maple

While our first example of area restaurant bathrooms demonstrated how deliberately wild - or, "user-generated" - a pair of men's and women's restrooms could become, today's examples illustrate how classy they can be when the owners put a little extra...

Posted on July 15, 2009

The Value Play, or, Filled Up For $15 a Head at Dandelion's

"Value play" is the phrase we've taken to using when we visit restaurants that aren't extraordinary on food quality, yet deliver such quantity for the dollar that they're hard to take issue with. Tucked away for decades behind a plaza...

Posted on June 24, 2009

In El Greko!, Williamsville Has a Homey New Greek Option

Some restaurants are worth rooting for. Williamsville's now-defunct Bravo! Italian Bistro - not to be confused with Cheektowaga's Bravo! Cucina Italiana - wasn't one of them, as the food sickened one of us, and we didn't mind when it closed....

Posted on June 13, 2009

Suburban Sugar, Part 2: Di Camillo Bakery & Anderson's

When friends from outside Western New York mention places here that they know by name, we pay attention: which local companies are capable of making such an impression? Add Niagara Falls' and Williamsville's Di Camillo Bakery locations to that list:...

Posted on June 2, 2009

Suburban Sugar, Part 1: Ohlson's Bakery and Sweet Jenny's

Old-fashioned charm is in short supply at restaurants these days, too often replaced by crisp service in high-end establishments and either polite or impolite indifference at low-end ones. Ohlson's Home Bakery in Clarence is old-fashioned. It's also charming, once you...

Posted on June 1, 2009

At China King, Cheap, Forgettable Chinese Food In Quarts

No matter how much we have come to appreciate the culinary traditions of Japan, Thailand, Vietnam and Korea, Chinese food will forever have a special place in our hearts. It was the first of the Asian cuisines to really gain...

Posted on May 4, 2009

One Room, Two Bellies, 15 Pizzerias: Buffalo's Pizza-Fest

We came. We saw. We ate - probably too much. And after the two of us had finished nine total slices of pizza at Buffalo Pizza-Fest, a weekend event held at the Hearthstone Manor in Depew, we didn't feel as...

Posted on May 2, 2009

Hot or Frozen, Spot's Coffee Soothes In Flavor & Freshness

Published statistics suggest that Americans consume 400 million cups of coffee per day, an average of 1.3 cups per person that accounts for 75% of all caffeine consumed in this country. Of course, not every cup is the same: some...

Posted on May 1, 2009

News: Spot Coffee's Williamsville Debut, 2 Chinese Updates

After many months of waiting and the unexpected opening of a very good competitor just down the street, Spot Coffee has finally announced the grand opening date for its Main Street, Williamsville location: Friday, May 1, 2009. Even given the...

Posted on April 29, 2009

Canada's Coffee Culture Makes a Splash on Main St., U.S.A.

Suburbanites may have been waiting for months to patronize Williamsville's still unfinished Main Street location of Buffalo's well-liked Spot Coffee, but now there's an attractive alternative just down the street: at the end of March, Coffee Culture seemed to have...

Posted on April 26, 2009

Fourteen iPhone Apps For Buffalo's Foodies and Drinkers

Every once in a long while, our work at iPhone and iPod web site iLounge overlaps with our coverage at Buffalo Chow, and this is a prime example: an article discussing 14 different food and drink applications for the iPhone...

Posted on April 22, 2009

For T.G.I. Friday's, Glory Days of Flair & Food, Fading Fast

Restaurant critics have ignored chain restaurants for years in favor of local ones, a practice so pervasive that the Association of Food Journalists warns new freelance reviewers to ask their publications in advance whether chains are off-limits. At Buffalo Chow,...

Posted on April 20, 2009

Subway vs. Quiznos: Who Makes Better Sub Sandwiches?

It's easy to assume that local is better - Western New Yorkers know that it's all but impossible to find authentic Buffalo-style wings or pizza whenever they leave town - but is that always true? Of course not; there are...

Posted on April 2, 2009

For DiBella's Old-Fashioned Subs, Fresh Bread's a Big Deal

For a time, Buffalo's sub shops weren't just places that you wound up visiting on the way to or from somewhere else; their submarine sandwiches were, at least by local standards, something close to destination-quality meals. But over the past...

Posted on March 29, 2009

Historic Eagle House Soars With Strong Food, Great Venue

Thanks to a combination of fond memories and less than kind gossip, The Eagle House has been idling on our "to do" list for months. We still recall visiting this 180-year-old restaurant on Main Street in Williamsville back 25 years...

Posted on March 22, 2009

For Surf or Turf, Marinaccio's is Unpredictable, Intriguing

During the many years we drove past this place on Main Street, we knew it as The Little White House - a large, imposing, and historic restaurant that we'd never actually visited. But in 2003, the building was renovated and...

Posted on March 22, 2009

More Mediterranean: Natalie's and Rachel's Cafes & Delis

While Western New Yorkers may lack for fancy Mediterranean restaurants, we have no shortage of Greek souvlaki and gyro shops - every Erie County city and town seems to have at least a couple, and Buffalo has many more, including...

Posted on March 1, 2009

Tasty, Not Thrilling Take-Out at Transit's Pesci's & Mr. Pita

In the months that have passed since WingFest '08, we've been thinking about Hawg Wings - the pork version of chicken wings, apparently invented at Braun's but spreading like wildfire to other restaurants inside and outside of Buffalo. Last week,...

Posted on February 24, 2009

Taco-Off: Mighty Taco & Taco Bell vs. Real Mexican Food

Call us food snobs or just critics, but after living in Southern California and honeymooning in Mexico, we can't pretend to be passive about the quality of Mexican food. Once you've had the real thing, it's obvious that there are...

Posted on February 15, 2009