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Upstate New York Dining ?


GordonCooks

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phaelon56, did you ever make it down to No Match last fall?  She was on the local cable channel again for Black History Month she did four weeks and I was there for three of four, hehehe.

No - did not make it. But I'm now dating a food savvy woman who lives in Ithaca and that might make a good weekend destination - thanks for reminding me!

And if you pass through Ithaca be sure to check out Carriage House Cafe - a new place on Stewart Ave near Buffalo - just below the Cornell campus.

Excellent food, simple menu with fair prices (reasonable considering the quality of the ingredients) and they serve world class espresso drinks - they really are that good. There's also an on-premises bakery that bakes the best baguette I've had in years.

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Ithaca is tough most restaurants per capita anywhere in the US. I bet the Carriage House is doing well, not too hard when you're subsidized by Cornell the chef is a culinary school grad however, I thought it was mostly pizza and sandwiches though. I lived there a while, I think I still know it. I would say that chinese on State St. is cheap and good, the rooster place across the street (Chanticleer?) is the best dive bar, the Thai on state near State Diner is also good. Mahogany Grill is decent. The ethnic (jap, viet, greek) up in collegetown is hit or miss but can really hit sometimes, haven't really hit it that much however. Not sure for Korean, maybe Asia House, or the place in collegetown. I would go to Geno's for pizza anytime. Collegetown Bakery is good for sandwiches. I like the Wegman's there and Win-Li market, and Green Star of course. For fine dining check out Willows or Valentine Cafe, not sure about anywhere else. Olean is just two hours away, come on down, you can hit the Stone Cat or Dano's new one near there (Watkins) or Jerlando's Pizza as well on the way, if they're still operational.

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More on Ithaca, what's the Italian place, Pandoro or whatever, in the tangle of streets north of State and west of the hill, in Falls Creek, I hear that's nice. And you can bet you'll get some good wild mushrooms soon at Just a Taste, or see Carl, their purveyor, often at noon at L&F and he'll hook a brother up with some beauties. Ithaca is a decent place for a foodie, hope things go well with you and her, watch out for bugs though :huh::shock::smile: .

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. . . what's the Italian place, Pandoro or whatever, in the tangle of streets north of State and west of the hill, in Falls Creek, I hear that's nice.

That's Pangea. I haven't been there for a couple of years. but it was very good. It's eclectic rather than Italian: Nuevo American, Middle Eastern, Mediterranean, whatever. But it works (or at least did when I was last there).

Please tell me more about Dano's. Is it in Watkins Glen? Similar to his old Ithaca establishment? When it was operating, I thought it the best overall restaurant in the burg.

Bob Libkind aka "rlibkind"

Robert's Market Report

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. . . what's the Italian place, Pandoro or whatever, in the tangle of streets north of State and west of the hill, in Falls Creek, I hear that's nice.

That's Pangea. I haven't been there for a couple of years. but it was very good. It's eclectic rather than Italian: Nuevo American, Middle Eastern, Mediterranean, whatever. But it works (or at least did when I was last there).

Please tell me more about Dano's. Is it in Watkins Glen? Similar to his old Ithaca establishment? When it was operating, I thought it the best overall restaurant in the burg.

It opened up last year sometime, it's north of Watkins ~7mi. on whatever route, unfortunately I have yet to go, but it sounds like my kind of place. It's near the Stone Cat which I also would like to check out sometime. The closest I got to Dano was working with a dishwasher at Dano's old spot, which became the now defunct Le Duc, a French place I never heard much great about. Dano himself was working at a Cornell frat house feeding them well free range chicken as reported in the Ithaca Times a year or so ago.

And, Pangea, I guess I said Italian because of the Italian name and the pizzas they do upstairs. I have always heard good things, on my limited budget I would still try that out over most others.

And I don't really know anything except that I never heard much great or exciting about the other two expensive places in town or any of the new openings so I didn't mention them. I suppose the best meal deals in town can still be found at the Farmer's Market though.

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phaelon56, did you ever make it down to No Match last fall?  She was on the local cable channel again for Black History Month she did four weeks and I was there for three of four, hehehe.

No - did not make it. But I'm now dating a food savvy woman who lives in Ithaca and that might make a good weekend destination - thanks for reminding me!

And if you pass through Ithaca be sure to check out Carriage House Cafe - a new place on Stewart Ave near Buffalo - just below the Cornell campus.

Excellent food, simple menu with fair prices (reasonable considering the quality of the ingredients) and they serve world class espresso drinks - they really are that good. There's also an on-premises bakery that bakes the best baguette I've had in years.

i just went there a month ago visiting alma mater

dude

$8 breakfast! great food, great ingredients. horrible service tho. best bargain on the planet, imo.

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Further web research led to Dano's Heuriger which appears to be a reincarnation of a restaurant he used to run at the nearby Standing Stone vineyard and winery. It lasted for only one or two seasons circa 1999-2000 and was basically salads and cold meats (all yummy) served with the classic Viennese-style backyards white wine. No further info on the website other than it exists, or at least the website was put up in 2005.

Bob Libkind aka "rlibkind"

Robert's Market Report

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Found a current website for Dano's Heuriger on Seneca, including menu, wine list, hours, etc. Pretty much as I described above, salads, spreads, charcuterie, lots of white wine. Where the old Dano's in downtown Ithaca was a more formal (though hardly stuffy) fine-dining establishment, this outpost along the east shore of Seneca is decidedly casual, as was the former Dano's Heuriger at Standing Stone I visited about six years ago.

Bob Libkind aka "rlibkind"

Robert's Market Report

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phaelon56, did you ever make it down to No Match last fall?  She was on the local cable channel again for Black History Month she did four weeks and I was there for three of four, hehehe.

No - did not make it. But I'm now dating a food savvy woman who lives in Ithaca and that might make a good weekend destination - thanks for reminding me!

And if you pass through Ithaca be sure to check out Carriage House Cafe - a new place on Stewart Ave near Buffalo - just below the Cornell campus.

Excellent food, simple menu with fair prices (reasonable considering the quality of the ingredients) and they serve world class espresso drinks - they really are that good. There's also an on-premises bakery that bakes the best baguette I've had in years.

Carriage House is nice, but in my book, Gimme! has the best coffee in Ithaca, and a large radius around too. (Which is the roast that Carriage uses, but I'd rather get it brewed at the source.)

Edited by bigred93 (log)
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  • 4 months later...

I don't know if anyone mentioned this...but for Bar B Q, in my book, the best in Buffalo is Kentucky Gregs in Depew (near the Buffalo Airport).

I love the place...pulled pork is exquisite, the ribs excellent (a dry rub type rib, meaty and tender), baked beans are great, and man, the chicken and sausage gumbo...to die for.

Its not fancy, its not big, but man, its good.....

ETA...I like it much better than The Dinosaur......

Edited by pzjgr (log)
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  • 1 month later...

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Autumn is a great time to drop by some wineries around the Finger Lakes, and thanks to some posts here, we made a point to check out Dano's Heuriger overlooking Seneca Lake.

It's a lovely place: a modern yet earthy building with a great view out over the lake. A small garden sits at the back, just across a wall of glass from the spacious kitchen. The dining room is one large airy space on two levels, with high ceilings and spare but elegant wood tables and chairs.

Over the kitchen is posted the menu:

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Beneath that is a case with the wide array of spreads and salads on display

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It's nice to scan the board and get a look at some of the selections, but there's regular table service with menus, so one doesn't need to order at the counter.

There was a whole page of specials, but we decided to stick with some of their signature dishes. But first - a mug of Hoffer Gruner Veltliner! They were running low on the GruVee, so we just got the one mug, augmented by a glass of Gewurtztraminer from down the road at Leidenfrost.

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There were 8-10 spreads to choose from, and it was hard to narrow it down. Each is $2.50, or one can get 3 for $6.25.

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We tried the Liptauer (no it's not a cholesterol medicine, it's a cheesy spread flavored with paprika and other additions,) the Pumpkin Seed Oil, and the Gorgonzola. All were quite good, especially spread on their excellent assortment of breads.

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That's a half-basket, but we ended up needing the other half to accompany the generous scoops of cheesey spreads. The whole basket, a large portion of 4 or 5 different kinds of bread is $4.75

There are even more salads than spreads, priced the same way, so we somehow narrowed it down to three:

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A mild, but pleasant Viennese Potato; a creamy Salsify salad spiked with dill; and the winner of the bunch, a Beet salad exploding with Horseradish.

There's a selection of smoked and cured fish, but we moved on to the hearty meats, splitting a Farmer's Plate

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Up front is a braised Pork Shank, the little drumlin of to the left is a Viennese Dumpling, in back are a Smoked Pork Chop and a Knockwurst, all blanketed by sauerkraut flavored with bacon. All of the meats were tender, juicy and flavorful, the kraut a vivid acidic counterpoint. I suppose it would be possible for one hungry person to eat this, but I'm glad we split it between two of us. It was a big pile of food for $18.

Just for the sake of excess, we added on a Smoked Hungarian Sausage, which had a nice assertive flavor that added an extra note to the chorus of pork in front of us.

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They brought us some extra plates to facilitate sharing, and I love these, the one flattened edge handy on a crowded table.

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We'd had entirely too much food to even think about dessert, but the various tarts and tortes loked so good that we decided to take one for the eGullet team, and ordered a chocolatey, nutty, Kugelhopf, served with sour cherries.

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We ate at a pretty casual pace, and our server even made the point a few times that this is what a Heuriger is all about: just relaxing and having some food and wine, ordering some more when you feel like it... I think we might have been there about three hours, although we saw plenty of other people come in, order a Wiener Shnitzel or one of the specials such as Chicken Pakrikash, and be out of there pretty promptly.

Personally, I liked taking it slow, and if there had been any physical way to accomplish it, we would have started all over again with some of the spreads and salads we didn't get to... or maybe the Viennese Eggplant that looked so great in the case, or maybe some of that smoked trout...

This is actually pretty simple food, very straight-ahead and un-fussy. But there's great virtue in just doing it right, with good ingredients. We liked every thing we had, even though nothing was especially innovative, just delicious. No one thing was mind-blowing, but considering the variety, the inherent quality of the food, the beautiful view, and the pleasant feel of the place, it made for an extremely enjoyable meal. I'm eager to get back there when I'm in the area again, but I may have to wait, they reduce their hours significantly in the winter. I think they pretty much close-up, but the menu says "call for Winter Hours" so maybe they'll be open now and then. I think it would be a lovely spot for a warming meal on a snowy day.

As Bob posted above, their website is www.danosonseneca.com, the official address is 9564 Route 414, Lodi, NY, 14860. (which means - roughly half-way up Seneca Lake, on the east side.) Phone: 607-582-7555.

Edited by philadining (log)

"Philadelphia’s premier soup dumpling blogger" - Foobooz

philadining.com

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Lovely report, Jeff. Thanks. The place looks unique with its style and location. I will have to remember this if in the area.

John Sconzo, M.D. aka "docsconz"

"Remember that a very good sardine is always preferable to a not that good lobster."

- Ferran Adria on eGullet 12/16/2004.

Docsconz - Musings on Food and Life

Slow Food Saratoga Region - Co-Founder

Twitter - @docsconz

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Great report indeed. I'll put Dano's Heuriger on my list of "must visit" places for weekend roadtrips come spring.

I agree that Carriage House Cafe is a great bargain for the food quality. My service quality there has ranged from pleasant but perfunctory to very good but it does tend to be a bit slow. As for espresso and coffee quality IMHO they do as good a job as Gimme on their process control and milk texturing for espresso drinks. But they have recently moved away from using Gimme's beans and started featuring some other roaster's products including Cafe Kubal.

And there's a very good new restaurant in Ithaca - just off the Commons at 113 South Cayuga in Dano's old space. It's called Lokelani's and features a French oriented menu with Tahitian/Polynesian influences. It's my understanding that the French owners Gregory Corsyn and his wife Gina lived and worked in Tahiti for some period of time prior to moving to Ithaca.

They call the menu "Euro-Pacific" and I was delighted with my recent meal there. We both had a fish based "Moorea" soup. It is, in essence, a variation on bouillabaise and includes homemade croutons and a dollop of rouille. Very generous portion, good fish and excellent broth. I opted for breast of duck as my entree - nicely cooked to medium as requested. My date had black sesame encrusted ahi tuna and was also pleased.

The included vegetables were perfectly cooked. Best of all.... and I'm dead serious about this.... the creme brulee was spectacular! Unquestionably the best I've ever had anywhere. I absolutely love creme brulee if it's properly made and prior to dining here the only place I've eaten where it's close to being as good and also very consistent is L'Ecole in lower Manhattan (a restaurant operated by the French Culinary Institute).

Decor at Lokelani's is fairly simple and service was from a very young waiter - enthusiastic and energetic - perhaps needs a bit more seasoning to be polished but he was efficient and pleasant. I will return.

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Though I have never been to Ithaca, I have heard some good things about Lokelani as well.

John Sconzo, M.D. aka "docsconz"

"Remember that a very good sardine is always preferable to a not that good lobster."

- Ferran Adria on eGullet 12/16/2004.

Docsconz - Musings on Food and Life

Slow Food Saratoga Region - Co-Founder

Twitter - @docsconz

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We were in Ithaca too, and I wish I'd known about Lokelani! Actually it might not have made a difference, we were just really in the mood for Moosewood, largely for sentimental reasons.

There was a bit of a wait on saturday night, Moosewood remains a very popular restaurant, despite doing largely the same thing for as long as anyone can remember. The menu is not very large, but changes (a bit) daily.

Most everything comes with a salad, which is fresh and carefully-made, and, well, not all that interesting, but hey, it's a green salad!

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We noticed that they're pretty spare with their dressing, which is usually my preference, but in this case we suspected a little bit of the "it's good for you!" school of austerity. And that's probably true for much of the cooking here. That's not necessarily a bad thing, but not everybody's preference when they go out to dinner. From the size of the crowds, it's clear that plenty of Ithaca residents appreciate that approach.

But this isn't nuts and berries and twigs judgmental health food, it's certainly meant to be tasty, and we found that it indeed was.

We had a very nice bowl of pasta with eggplant, tomatoes and various other veggies

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This was really quite delicious, with not even a hint of bitterness to the eggplant. The sauce had a pleasing thick, stewy consistency and great not-too-sweet, not-too-acidic balance.

We also ordered the vegetable curry, with currants, cashews and yogurt.

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I'm not sure it needed the potatoes, which had turned an unattractive color, but it was a good curry, with a very pleasing range of tastes and textures.

This is not a complaint or insult, but if you own the Moosewood cookbook, you could probably make all of this food at home, and it would turn out the same way as it does in the restaurant. It's homey, comforting, easy, tasty food. I certainly wouldn't go way out of my way to eat there, it's not a spot for culinary thrills, they're not trying to push the edges of vegetarian cuisine, but I had a very enjoyable dinner nonetheless. I went partly for old-times' sake, but I wasn't disappointed at all. The service was excellent in that mellow Ithaca crunchy kind of way, the whole vibe of the place was nice, and the food was very well done for what it was. They have a decent wine list with several things available by the glass (we had a Gewurtz with the curry and a Cab Franc with the pasta, both of which were very nice. )

I liked it. But next time - Lokelani!

"Philadelphia’s premier soup dumpling blogger" - Foobooz

philadining.com

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I have had the same experience with the Moose as you have, minus the warm nostalgia. I'm sorry but, that place is the worst, if I want some healthy eats I would much rather go to the ABC Cafe, it's not fancy and the ambiance is lacking, but damn it's good, and just what are we talking about here?

Heurriger looks nice and comforting, I wouldn't really drive the hour and 2/3's to check it out, but certainly will make my way there when passing through.

It's also nice to hear someone is trying something unique back there in the city Phaleon.

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It's also nice to hear someone is trying something unique back there in the city

I just received an email from Gregory at Lokelani's advising that their Winter Menu begins this week. They do not appear to have a web site - I requested that he send me a jpeg of the new menu and I'll post in here.

Other Ithaca news: Mark and Courtnay Papera, formerly owners of the highly rgearded Epernay in Montclair NJ have relocated to Ithaca (I think one of them may have attended university there?). They are opening

Dijon Bistro

on or close to this November 1st. Looks very promising - a bit of an odd location on Third Street next to the DMV but parking is a cinch as it's a retail plaza with little else open there in the evening. If the food's good (which I suspect it will be) they should have no problem drawing customers.

I lived in Rutherford - not far from Montclair - from 1999 to 2003. I used to scan the eGullet NJ Forum regularly and the Epernay Discussion Thread was quite active.

I'll definitely be returning to Ithaca to try Lokelani's Winter Menu and also to check out Dijon as soon as they're open. It's nice to have new options close enough to drive to for a weekend night dinner.

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RE Dijon Bistro

Wow, they really did it! I'm definately going to go there next time I am in town, menu looks great, nice and simple Bistro fare. I am very familiar with the spot they chose it should go over very well, best of luck, that's definately getting to be the nice restaurant area which 3, now four of the best F.D. restaurants in town call home.

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Other Ithaca news:  Mark and Courtnay Papera, formerly owners of the highly rgearded Epernay in Montclair NJ have relocated to Ithaca (I think one of them may have attended university there?).  They are opening

Dijon Bistro

on or close to this November 1st.  Looks very promising - a bit of an odd location on Third Street next to the DMV but parking is a cinch as it's a retail plaza with little else open there in the evening.  If the food's good (which I suspect it will be) they should have no problem drawing customers.

That location isn't that crazy. Another pretty good restaurant (at least when I was a frequent visitor to Ithaca a few years back) is located just a couple of blocks away, Pangea. But this bistro looks great, based on the history of the chef/owner and the menu. Gotta find a reason to get back to Ithaca and taste what's been happening. (Particularly Dijon's confit duck on pumpkin risotto with fried sage - sounds like a fantastic autumn combination.)

Bob Libkind aka "rlibkind"

Robert's Market Report

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Pangea, Za Za's and Willow are all in that general end of town - are those the places you refer to?

I don't think the better dining destinations in Ithaca depend on tourists or students for the bulk of their income. When I lived there the "finer dining" scene was just coming into its own but times have changed in the past 10 to 15 years.

Parking is certainly convenient on Third Street. Also - I doubt that the arrival of Dijon will really cut into the existing revenue levels of other finer dining places in town. If only Syracuse has so many goood options.....

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Regarding Buffalo / Western NY --

IMHO, Tsunami is one of the best places in town. Unfortunately, the chef was in a motorcycle accident some time ago, and lost a leg. I have heard, however, that he is back in the kitchen.

I've also heard wonderful things about Rue Franklin -- also supposed to be one of the best places in town. I haven't visited there yet... but will, soon.

Another place that people rave about is called Maggy's (I think). It's a lunch-only place, near Downtown. My partner loves it; I had one mediocre meal there, but it was packed, our server was way in the weeds and I hope to give it another chance soon.

There's a fair amount of passable South Asian (Indian) food to be had. Tandoori's is plenty fancy, but not that much better than the place out on Sheridan Ave and Bailey or India Gate on Elmwood (They're run by the same people, I'm told). There is a little innocuous, family-run place on Delaware, I think -- the name completely eludes me right now -- which is pretty good, but sticks with North Indian / Delhi cuisine. There is nothing by means of South Indian food, which is a shame. (I should note I have lived for several years in different places in South Asia, and really miss a good dosa, which I never got the hang of making myself).

Some decent Thai around (although I'm out of my area there; I just like to eat it). Saigon Bangkok and the Saigon Cafe (on Elmwood) are both pretty decent; run by the same family. I also like Jasmine Thai out on Niagara Falls Boulevard. I had a really interesting meal at Papaya on the Chippewa strip -- but that was the week after it opened, and I haven't had a chance to visit again. I recall (it was several months ago) they had an interesting, playful, Southeast Asian menu -- and a

Lots of good NY-style Italian-American cuisine: Italian Villiage is one, Frank's Sunny Italy is another, and there was this little joint (the only word for it, and I mean that with the highest respect) that had a pasta fagole that knocked my vegetarian partner's socks off. Some friends brought us there -- I can't remember the name. The pizza, unfortunately, leaves much to be desired (not to start a flame war -- I grew up in NYC, and like my pizza thin and bendy).

La Marina (?) on Hertel is an Italian-y seafood place. I had a few good meals there, got a bad batch of bouillabaise and haven't been back since.

Fat Bob's, in Allentown, is a BBQ place has a great rep -- I haven't made it down there yet. I tried something from their stall at the Elmwood Street Festival, and will reserve my opinion until I visit. Gabriel's Gate, also in Allentown, has great burgers.

Brodo is a new funky little place next to Spot, a great independent coffee shop. Brodo has a somewhat whimsical menu, and really great soups (they offer a 'flight' of three soups, which is generally worth trying).

Allen St. Hardware, a new place started by the guy who helped to revive Chippewa St., is a decent place festooned with local art and a small, but well-done menu. I went there a few days ago (before the big storm) and had wonderful braised lamb. Small, but well-chosen wine list.

I've had a few good Euro-inspired meals at the Left Bank, off of Richmond Ave. I also enjoy telling whoever I'm eating with about the mob hit that took place right outside.

Schwabl's is about as classic Buffalo cuisine as you can get. It's worth a visit for the Beef on Weck, which is more famous locally than wings. Western-NY-meets-Central-European-cuisine. Probably a lot like many local folks' grandmas' food.

I did my PhD at Syracuse -- so was unable to visit a lot of the high-end places, and left just when Armory Square was coming around well. I had a quite memorable meal at Pasquale's once, and the Dinosaur was always fun.

Sorry for the rambling lack of organization, and the lack of specific details... I'll pay more attention to specific menu choices in the future and report back!

cass

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Regarding Buffalo / Western NY --

IMHO, Tsunami is one of the best places in town.  Unfortunately, the chef was in a motorcycle accident some time ago, and lost a leg.  I have heard, however, that he is back in the kitchen.

I've also heard wonderful things about Rue Franklin -- also supposed to be one of the best places in town.  I haven't visited there yet... but will, soon.

Another place that people rave about is called Maggy's (I think).  It's a lunch-only place, near Downtown.  My partner loves it; I had one mediocre meal there, but it was packed, our server was way in the weeds and I hope to give it another chance soon. 

There's a fair amount of passable South Asian (Indian) food to be had.  Tandoori's is plenty fancy, but not that much better than the place out on Sheridan Ave and Bailey or India Gate on Elmwood (They're run by the same people, I'm told).  There is a little innocuous, family-run place on Delaware, I think -- the name completely eludes me right now -- which is pretty good, but sticks with North Indian / Delhi cuisine.  There is nothing by means of South Indian food, which is a shame.  (I should note I have lived for several years in different places in South Asia, and really miss a good dosa, which I never got the hang of making myself).

Some decent Thai around (although I'm out of my area there; I just like to eat it).  Saigon Bangkok and the Saigon Cafe (on Elmwood) are both pretty decent; run by the same family.  I also like Jasmine Thai out on Niagara Falls Boulevard.  I had a really interesting meal at Papaya on the Chippewa strip -- but that was the week after it opened, and I haven't had a chance to visit again.  I recall (it was several months ago) they had an interesting, playful, Southeast Asian menu -- and a

Lots of good NY-style Italian-American cuisine: Italian Villiage is one, Frank's Sunny Italy is another, and there was this little joint (the only word for it, and I mean that with the highest respect) that had a pasta fagole that knocked my vegetarian partner's socks off.  Some friends brought us there -- I can't remember the name.  The pizza, unfortunately, leaves much to be desired (not to start a flame war -- I grew up in NYC, and like my pizza thin and bendy).

La Marina (?) on Hertel is an Italian-y seafood place.  I had a few good meals there, got a bad batch of bouillabaise and haven't been back since.

Fat Bob's, in Allentown, is a BBQ place has a great rep -- I haven't made it down there yet.  I tried something from their stall at the Elmwood Street Festival, and will reserve my opinion until I visit.  Gabriel's Gate, also in Allentown, has great burgers. 

Brodo is a new funky little place next to Spot, a great independent coffee shop.  Brodo has a somewhat whimsical menu, and really great soups (they offer a 'flight' of three soups, which is generally worth trying). 

Allen St. Hardware, a new place started by the guy who helped to revive Chippewa St., is a decent place festooned with local art and a small, but well-done menu.  I went there a few days ago (before the big storm) and had wonderful braised lamb.  Small, but well-chosen wine list. 

I've had a few good Euro-inspired meals at the Left Bank, off of Richmond Ave.  I also enjoy telling whoever I'm eating with about the mob hit that took place right outside.

Schwabl's is about as classic Buffalo cuisine as you can get.  It's worth a visit for the Beef on Weck, which is more famous locally than wings.  Western-NY-meets-Central-European-cuisine.  Probably a lot like many local folks' grandmas' food.

I did my PhD at Syracuse -- so was unable to visit a lot of the high-end places, and left just when Armory Square was coming around well.  I had a quite memorable meal at Pasquale's once, and the Dinosaur was always fun.

Sorry for the rambling lack of organization, and the lack of specific details... I'll pay more attention to specific menu choices in the future and report back!

cass

I'd add Hutch's to your list for upscale, "O" for asian fusion, and LaNova BBQ wings!

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I have also been to Papaya, it was interesting as I recall, but our service was so bad (at one point the guy just stopped coming over and I had to get the bartender to get us our bill and cash us out). It was too surreal, and they did apologize and knock something off our bill.

I think the Jasmine you are referring to is Jasmine 2.

Toro, Mother's are a couple other good bets, or so I've heard.

It's probably a good idea to go visit your favorite restaurant right now.

Mob hit?

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