Orchid Asian Bistro: Kenmore's Nice Japanese + Thai Option

When you hear the words "hotbed of Asian restaurants and shopping," Kenmore probably isn't the first place that comes to mind, but that's changing: a single plaza on Elmwood near Sheridan now hosts T&T Asian Market, the Chinese barbecue shop...

Posted on February 3, 2010

Wok 28: Getzville Chinese + East Amherst's Samurai, Updated

Only a handful of Chinese restaurants in Western New York are actually known outside their immediate neighborhoods, and then, the almost complete disappearance of truly distinctive places - the semi-fancy New York, N.Y. and Rita's Crystal Palace, or even nice...

Posted on January 1, 2010

Next Door Bar & Grill: Wegmans Remolds Pittsford's Tastings

Since businesses know that artificial scarcity creates the perception of popularity, we're always a little skeptical when a brand new restaurant has a waiting list during its first or second weekend of operation. But then, the Next Door Bar &...

Posted on December 29, 2009

Leftovers: Final Thoughts On 2 Weeks of Real Japanese Food

Though our time in Japan has come to an end, and we used the opportunity to explore the wide range of outstanding foods available there, we had many more stories and pictures left to share. So we've created this Leftovers...

Posted on November 26, 2009

Japan's Awesome Snack Foods: A Little Ahead Of Our Time

As we write these words, we're in your future: Japan is 14 hours ahead on the clock, such that its today is your tomorrow, so when we leave here, we will actually arrive back home two hours before we departed...

Posted on November 25, 2009

Katsu Curry: Big In Japan, New To America, Missing In Buffalo

Convincing you to read past a single word in the next sentence is the most daunting challenge we face in telling you about one of the very best foods served in Japan today. The word is half of its name...

Posted on November 22, 2009

On Sushi, Or, Japanese Art In Raw, Diverse, Bite-Sized Fish

Tokyo is surely a city that never sleeps, but four in the morning is probably as close to rest as it comes. As we exit our hotel onto the streets of hyper-kinetic Shibuya, the two-story video screens are off or...

Posted on November 21, 2009

Ramen, Or, Noodles In Cups That Come From Superior Stock

Imagine living somewhere where the word "car" meant only a cheap subcompact vehicle, because no one sold or drove anything better. What would people think when they saw a Mercedes? A Porsche? Or an SUV? Believe it or not, there's...

Posted on November 19, 2009

Number One With A Bullet (Train): To Tokyo Via Shinkansen

After spending our last day in Japan's Kansai region - home to Osaka, Kyoto and Kobe, neighboring Nagoya - we've just finished taking one of the famous Shinkansen bullet trains to our favorite place in Japan: Tokyo. Having already covered...

Posted on November 18, 2009

Nagoya Chow: Yamachan's Chicken Wings + Miso Dishes

Nagoya is Japan's fourth-largest city, and though one mightn't guess as much from its staid streets, it's obsessed with miso. Known best for its role in the common Japanese soup, miso paste - actually, pastes - are made from fermented...

Posted on November 18, 2009

On Eating Deadly Pufferfish + Sushi From Plastic Fridge Boxes

A big article on sushi is coming later this week, so we wanted to preface it with some thoughts in an Editors' Note. Right before we arrived in Japan for this series on Japanese cuisine, we chose a photo of...

Posted on November 17, 2009

Kyoto Chow: On Kaiseki, Japan's Gentle, Colorful High Cuisine

Though the phrases "high cuisine" and "low cuisine" suggest classism - meals for the wealthy and discerning as opposed to items that are cheap and simple - the reality is more complex: regardless of the patron's income level, there are...

Posted on November 15, 2009

Kobe Chow: On Great Steak, Making Sake + Lessons Learned

Once in a while, a meal completely changes the way you'll look at the same food in the future, and yesterday in Kobe, Japan, we had one of those meals. We weren't expecting it - in fact, we thought it...

Posted on November 14, 2009

Osaka Chow: Japanese Chicken Wings + More at Tori No Mai

Picture this: Buffalo, New York as the literal world capital of chicken wings. Easy to imagine, right? It would be a huge draw for tourists, and a natural fit given our history. But wouldn't it be boring if every restaurant...

Posted on November 13, 2009

Oshi-zushi, The Sushi You've Never Heard Of, Plus Takoyaki

Depending on whether you're willing to ignore the literal meaning of its name - "sour, vinegared rice" - two or three types of sushi are commonly found in the United States. Nigiri sushi, known in Japan as "nigiri-zushi," is a...

Posted on November 12, 2009

Editors' Notes: We're in Japan, And Here's Why You'll Love It

The Japan we are going to present to you, dear reader, may not be the one you think you know. It is not, in fact, the one we knew the first time we visited, or even the third, but rather...

Posted on November 12, 2009

Spicy Tuna Saves Elmwood's Me-Too Tokyo Shanghai Bistro

We're close to purists when it comes to Asian cuisines, but we make exceptions for certain especially excellent fusion items, and Japanese spicy tuna rolls are generally at the top of that list. For whatever reason, however, the spicy tuna...

Posted on October 25, 2009

SoCal Chow: Izakaya, Ramen & Markets, Or, Asian Done Better

Buffalo Chow's editors are serious fans of Asian cuisine: Japanese is a common favorite, but whether we're at home or abroad, our reference points for what's great, good, or bad often come from meals we've enjoyed in Singapore, Thailand, China,...

Posted on September 28, 2009

Elmwood's Wasabi Offers Great Sushi, But Fewer Options

Despite the growth of dedicated izayakas, curry shops, noodle parlors and shabu-shabu restaurants elsewhere in the United States and Japan, Western New Yorkers have three primary options for Japanese food: sushi, hibachi, and tempura-teriyaki houses, plus places that do two...

Posted on May 25, 2009

Eight Great Local Places Out-of-Town Visitors Should Try

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...

Posted on May 25, 2009

NYC Chow: What We Lack From Japan, Vietnam & China

As much as we love Buffalo, we acknowledge its culinary omissions: compared with 15 years ago, the city and suburbs have declined in authentic - underscore authentic - Japanese and Chinese foods, and these days, it's difficult to find a...

Posted on March 15, 2009

Vietnam, Writ Small or X-Large: 99 Fast Food Restaurant

Pho. If you don't know it already, learn the word - pronounced "fa," as it has been amusingly co-opted by "What the Pho!" restaurants elsewhere - and know that it describes an increasingly popular Vietnamese beef broth soup, typically served...

Posted on January 25, 2009

San Fran Chow: Trapped in America's Nicest (?) Food Court

To some, the very idea of eating at a food court is repulsive: at most malls, these collections of chain mini-restaurants serve little more than fourth-rate sustenance to keep local workers alive long enough for their next shifts. But there...

Posted on January 12, 2009

Bubbly: Buffalo Chow on Japan's Modern Sparkling Sakes

We previously published a single article discussing two versions of Japanese rice wine: traditional sake (pronounced sah-kay, not sah-kee), and a newer, gentler option: "sparkling sake." After three updates to the article, we decided to split it into two pieces,...

Posted on December 31, 2008

Bubbly: Buffalo Chow on Sake, Japan's Smooth, Classy Rice Wine

How much do we love sake? We keep a good bottle around. We sealed our wedding vows with one. And we even named one of our dogs after the Japanese rice wine, years before it began to climb in popularity...

Posted on December 31, 2008

Kuni's, Or, Why Fresh Fish Alone Doesn't Make Great Sushi

Forgive us, but this must be said: restaurant reviews in The Buffalo News aren't worth the paper they're printed on. We've considered them a point of local shame for decades, so embarrassingly bad that we'd blame them for damaging the...

Posted on December 16, 2008

Kauai Chow: On This Hawaiian Island, Food is No Paradise

Writing about bad meals is, at least for us, a joyless affair. Some critics revel in splashing red ink all over the fur coats of sub-standard restaurants, but we hesitate to recall sad dining experiences, doing so only out of...

Posted on December 10, 2008

Seattle Chow, Part 4: Ethiopian, Yogurt + Izakaya Days

For foodies, there is perhaps no greater sin than to waste meals in a different city eating the same things found conveniently at home. Thus, rather than focusing on the superb crab and steak meal our family enjoyed at Chandler's...

Posted on December 7, 2008

From Asia's Menus, Papaya Crafts Good, Expensive Meals

As we've noted in a prior review, Asian Fusion restaurants - and occasionally their counterparts, Pan-Asian restaurants - confront diners with an initial hurdle. Unless you read a trustworthy review or hear details from friends, it's generally impossible to know...

Posted on September 26, 2008

Kyoto, by Way of China: Another Sushi and Hibachi Shop

Halfway through our meal at Amherst's Kyoto Japanese Restaurant, we realized that we'd been listening to Kenny G's renditions of White Christmas and Silent Night on the speakers all evening; this was odd, as it was August. And the saxophone...

Posted on August 26, 2008

Mochi Ice Cream, or, Why Japan's Strange Foods Hook You

Ah, mochi. You are such an odd little dessert, challenging people outside of Japan to understand how the tastes of sweetened green tea, red beans, or mango could perfectly end a meal. But now, as you tempt us with more...

Posted on August 9, 2008

At Arirang, Quality Korean Comes at a Steep Price

Too many months had passed, we realized several days ago, since we had ended our routine of doing a weekend dim sum brunch at some local Chinese restaurant. The reason was obvious - we had moved from a city where...

Posted on July 19, 2008

Named "Number One," Ichiban Exceeds Expectations [Updated]

Opened in the same month as Clarence's Samurai, Amherst's Ichiban Steak and Seafood Restaurant took a substantially different - and ultimately winning - approach. We had low expectations for this teppanyaki house, which devotes half of its space to the...

Posted on July 9, 2008

Southeast Asia, Boxed, in Amherst: Ni Hoowa Supermarket

Once the site of a seriously authentic Chinese restaurant - quite possibly the only one in Amherst to offer "frog's legs with foo chow sauce," "assorted sausage bladder skin," "sweet and sour boneless duck hand," and similarly exotic items -...

Posted on July 5, 2008

In East Amherst, a Samurai Stumbles Onto His Sword: Updated

Transit Road in Clarence and East Amherst has had a pretty disappointing track record of offering authentic Japanese cuisine. Sure, you can turn off of Transit onto Klein and find Wasabi, take Maple down to Fuji Grill, or ride Sheridan...

Posted on June 25, 2008

Sushi & Japanese Fare, Sometimes Thrilling: Fuji Grill

Western New York isn't known for the quality of its sushi or Japanese food - a sad state of affairs that began with the closure of the area's most authentic Japanese restaurants and their replacement by wannabes - but there...

Posted on May 11, 2008

Mister Donut? That's Donut-San, To You: Donuts By Way of Osaka

Imagine what would happen if McDonald's acquired Burger King, switched over most of the locations' names and menus, but left a few stragglers - say, all of the separately owned franchise stores in Japan - unchanged. And then, over the...

Posted on May 8, 2008

Wasabi: Pretentious Sushi, Presented Properly

If maintaining the appearance of a perpetual line was enough to transform a good restaurant into a great one, Wasabi might have a shot at local immortality. Arrive without a reservation - or even with one - and you can...

Posted on May 6, 2008

O Restaurant and Lounge: Sushi and Fusion Food, as Dating Fare

It takes moxy to name any restaurant - particularly a predominantly Japanese one - simply "O," but that's the identity of this somewhat pretentious Amherst-based sushi, Asian fusion, and drinking establishment. With a massive bar and a part-lounge, part-restaurant interior...

Posted on May 1, 2008

Sakura: Cheektowaga's Cherry Blossom, Delicately Flowering

After spending years as an offshoot of Niagara Falls Boulevard's original Thai restaurant Jasmine, and then as a Asian fusion restaurant with heavy Thai influences, a Cheektowaga venue across from the Walden Galleria Mall has transformed into a Japanese sushi...

Posted on April 2, 2008

Sake Cafe, or, We Can't Wait For This Place to Close

We will admit to having two biases: we expect our food to be delicious, and we prefer it to be authentic - thus, we would have as much of a problem with a fake American restaurant in Tokyo as with...

Posted on February 19, 2008

Sushi Alongside Italian: Partial Meals at SeaBar

With a tiny menu and an equally small but clean and modern interior, SeaBar in Williamsville is an interesting local sushi restaurant that in our view has benefitted more from novelty than value for the dollar. Where else, some might...

Posted on January 28, 2008

Sushi Dai: Quite Possibly Tokyo's Best Sushi Restaurant

Five in the evening is the magic number for those who love to drink. For sushi fans in the fishy heart of Tokyo, Japan, the magic starts at five in the morning - two hours after the first chefs have...

Posted on January 2, 2008

Daiwa Sushi: At 5AM, There's No Fresher Fish in Tokyo

Five in the evening is the magic number for those who love to drink. For sushi fans in the fishy heart of Tokyo, Japan, the magic starts at five in the morning - two hours after the first chefs have...

Posted on January 2, 2008