Where to eat / Restaurant reviews in brief
Following are some restaurants visited by News restaurant reviewers. New restaurant reviews generally appear the first Sunday of every month in Niagara Weekend. (Updated: 09/06/09 7:15 AM )
Juniper: In heart of Elmwood Village, an imaginative menu
It took a while to get here but Juniper finally opened last month in the very center of the Elmwood Village. In fact, the restaurant is so determined to become a neighborhood hangout that it actually offers a 20 percent discount on Tuesdays to diners who live in the 14222 ZIP code. It’s called the “2-2-2 deal.” (Updated: 09/04/09 9:03 AM )
Where to eat / Restaurant reviews in brief
Yai-Yia’s Diner ★★★½ 6124 Buffalo Ave., Niagara Falls. Offers “The best breakfast value in the city,” according to our Niagara restaurant reviewer. It’s also open for lunch Sunday to Tuesday, and for lunch and dinner the rest of the week. Think comfort food that tastes good, at a reasonable price. (Updated: 08/16/09 6:36 AM )
The Food Network's top Guy comes to WNY
He's burning up the Food Network with his over-the-top style. Now Guy Fieri, the network's new marquee chef, is in town for a cooking demonstration and a few days of shooting for his "Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives" show. He's only 41 and his cooking-as-rock'n'-roll is paying off. (Updated: 08/16/09 8:01 AM )
SHORT ORDERS
Juniper opens (Updated: 08/14/09 6:09 AM )
Riverbend Inn & Vineyard: Good honest food with country charm
NIAGARA-ON-THE-LAKE, Ont. — From the outside, it looks like everyone’s country inn dream. Riverbend has all the proper attributes, at least: It’s white, it’s pillared, the gardens are breathtaking and the vineyard site seems to stretch on forever. The only word to describe it is “gorgeous.” (Updated: 08/14/09 8:54 AM )
Club Watch: Catch a summer sunset at Dug's Dive
A sunset stop at this lake-side restaurant and bar makes a summer evening feel well spent. Old rock sounds of the Doors and Beatles drift from the bar at Dug’s Dive. Cheery waitresses keep beer and gin and tonics coming while sailboats in the distance slide along the horizon. (Updated: 08/07/09 9:52 AM )
SHORT ORDERS
Architecture and wine (Updated: 08/07/09 6:16 AM )
Fiddle Heads: Allentown mainstay full of delectable surprises
Fiddle Heads, right smack on the corner of Allen and Franklin streets, has been serving innovative contemporary cuisine for many years and keeps on a-rolling. Sleek in decor with large storefront windows, it offers a prime seat for watching the to-ing and fro-ing on a street where something always seems be going on. (Updated: 08/07/09 8:41 AM )
Nina's Custard: Mama's salad and more
All I could think about as I walked into Nina’s Custard was Hot Dog Heaven. Faithful Cheap Eats readers will recall that I thought that Heaven served, well, hot dogs, like Just Pizza serves just pizza, or, for that matter, Sheridan Surgical is on Sheridan Drive. (Updated: 08/07/09 8:42 AM )
Where to eat / Restaurant reviews in brief
Following are some restaurants visited by News restaurant reviewers. New restaurant reviews generally appear the first Sunday of every month in Niagara Weekend. (Updated: 08/02/09 6:03 AM )
A place to eat well and still maintain a budget
NIAGARA FALLS — I’m old enough to remember — which also means I’m old enough to forget again five minutes from now — a little shack at Buffalo Avenue and roughly 77th Street that served primarily sandwiches out back and ice cream through the front windows. (Updated: 08/02/09 6:03 AM )
SHORT ORDERS
Eating alert (Updated: 07/31/09 6:50 AM )
Ming Teh: Take friends and share a dish
FORT ERIE, Ont. — Ming Teh may rest on Canadian soil, but it’s a Western New York institution nonetheless. This smallish Chinese restaurant on the banks of the rapid Niagara offers a wide selection of dishes from many regions of China. The place is decorated with handsome art work created by the former owner, a good friend. (Ming Teh changed hands a few years ago but has remained in the family.) (Updated: 07/31/09 8:49 AM )
Sawyer Creek Hotel: Great food and atmosphere
Stepping into the Sawyer Creek Hotel is like stepping back in time to the Western frontier, if they ate club sandwiches and fish fries on the frontier 100 years ago. (Updated: 08/06/09 4:26 PM )
The Basket Factory: An old-fashioned country eatery
MIDDLEPORT — It looks like every-one’s idea of the perfect country dining destination. The Basket Factory is, after all: (1) located in an historic building, (2) decorated quaintly with old-time tables and chairs, lace curtains and a plethora of pretty baskets hanging from ceiling beams. And, to add even more country cred (3, 4, 5), the place is situated right on the Erie Canal, has its own marina (which was the old log pond; the water there could use a little attention) and a gorgeous patio, too. (Updated: 07/24/09 9:35 AM )
Johnny Vee's: Menu, soundtrack evoke musical memories
Johnny Vee’s, the new occupant of the corner spot in the strip mall that also houses Say Cheesecake, has a menu that evokes musical memories, from the Louis Prima panini (prosciutto, tomato, fresh mozzarella for $7.95) to the Anka specialty sandwich (salami, marinated eggplant, hot cherry peppers, mozzarella on French bread for $6.95). The soundtrack is eclectic, and the two young guys behind the counter looked like members of the Goo Goo Dolls. (Updated: 08/04/09 1:12 PM )
SHORT ORDERS
Down on the farm (Updated: 07/24/09 6:51 AM )
Second Helpings
San Marco ★★★★ (July 17) 2082 Kensington Ave., Snyder (839-5876; www.sanmarcobuffalo.com). Long noted as one of the best upscale Italian restaurants in the area. Fine food; a dignified setting; remarkable wine list and a warm welcome. (Updated: 07/24/09 6:51 AM )
Elements / One ingredient, one dish
The portobello mushroom is simply a common cremini mushroom that has been left to grow into adulthood. (Updated: 07/19/09 9:56 AM )
SHORT ORDERS
Young ’Uns (Updated: 07/10/09 12:24 PM )
Buffalo Tap Room: Living large, in space, menu and portions
It may well be one of the largest restaurants in this area. The Buffalo Tap Room & Grill divides its vast dining room into smaller sections to add a quasi-intimacy and cut down on noise, but it’s still plenty big. And the dining area is attached to a separate tap room that is not exactly what anyone might call dainty. Even though the Tap Room offers more than 20 beers, including microbrews concocted especially for the place, the restaurant has a family feel. (Updated: 07/10/09 7:32 AM )
Town & Country Family Restaurant: Lodge look with a good cook
From its log-cabin construction to the large stone hearth inside the dining room, the Town & Country restaurant feels a bit like a hunting lodge—one with a really good cook. (Updated: 07/10/09 8:50 AM )
SHORT ORDERS
Roadhouse update (Updated: 07/03/09 6:56 AM )
'Food, Inc.': Facts aren’t sugarcoated in documentary
There comes a point early on in “Food, Inc.” where you have to decide if you want to know. (Updated: 07/03/09 8:46 AM )
Curt's Stop In: Classic grill selections done well
It took us a few minutes to find Curt’s, tucked away at the corner of Hawley Road right near where the construction work begins on Route 5. But when we pulled into the parking lot, we found that the building is decorated with large drawings of Curt’s food—a package of curly fries with big eyes and a smile, a dancing burger, a happy hot dog, a frosty mug of soda. (Updated: 07/03/09 8:50 AM )
Sitting at the bar when dining out
Stephanie Argentine has her hands full at work as the senior human resources director for an international inspection company. At home, her hands runneth over, as she ministers to the needs of her four children, ages 11, 10, 6 and 5. (Updated: 06/24/09 9:32 AM )
SHORT ORDERS
Cake creations (Updated: 06/19/09 6:50 AM )
Ristorante Lombardo: Prix fixe menu hits the spot
The restaurants that will succeed in these perilous times are the ones that attempt to accommodate our dank economy. Restaurateurs are all too aware that dining out heads many “Dispensable Luxury Lists.” That’s the reason for all the coupons, bar menus and two-for-one offers you’re seeing now. Let’s face it: This is a buyer’s market. (Updated: 06/19/09 7:16 AM )
At the Hatch, great view and an element of excitement
There’s an element of danger to eating at the Hatch. Signs everywhere warn that the seagulls that swoop and scream around the outdoor dining area are “extremely aggressive this season,” and “will help themselves to your food.” Tragically, “it is not our policy to replace food stolen by the birds.” “Watch the sky!” the signs suggest. (Updated: 06/19/09 12:24 PM )