Author: chao li

The first Annual Buffalo Wine Festival is this Saturday. The festival will be split into two different sessions– 1pm-4pm and 6pm-9pm. There will be more than 35 regional wineries in attendance. Local restaurants and some craft businesses will also be attending. Peter Veto, one of the organizers of the Buffalo Wine Festival is looking forward to this event and what it means for our local wineries. “The Buffalo area has a lot to offer and what a perfect city to do this event. We are bringing the best New York area wineries, their wines and couple that with local Buffalo restaurants…

Read More

I always try to make a stop at Prime 490 during Local Restaurant Week. They always have such fresh meat and vegetables. Their restaurant week menu is always full of delicious choices, including an assortment of seafood, house-made pasta, red meat and chicken dishes. For the entree, I ordered the Pan Seared Salmon. I’m a late bloomer when it comes to my love for seafood. I guess I’ve never had a great salmon dish– until now. Sous Chef M. Strom promised me that the fish is fresh every day. You can really taste the difference. The salmon is served with…

Read More

Trattoria Aroma is a great supporter of our local products. My friend Amy and I stopped in at the Bryant location for dinner last night and ordered a bunch of stuff to share. We had the Local Restaurant Week 3-course special, a pizza from their wood oven and the bolognese. I also have better pictures for y’all. For our 3 course meal we chose the bruschetta, the risotto, and the pork chops. The bruschetta had a nice smokey flavor. The carbonara risotto had peas in it and it’s a great vegetarian choice. That’s one of the nice things about the special…

Read More

I always try to make a trip to Sea Bar during Local Restaurant Week. Their $20.10 special is a SeaBar Surfboard of the chef’s picks. I love this because everything they pick is so fresh and there’s a lot of food for a great price. The surfboard includes Sashimi, Nigiri Pieces, Maki Roll, Hand Roll, and Sesame Soba Noodles. I normally don’t eat sashimi anywhere else in Buffalo. Maybe it’s because last time I was there, the owner, Mike Andrzejewski, pointed at my fish and said that was alive at 3 PM today. Now that’s fresh! I also recommend the…

Read More

To kick off Local Restaurant Week, I decided to visit Lombardo’s on Hertel. The place was packed with happy guests. I was welcomed by the warm smile of Mr. Lombardo himself. He personally checked in our coats and showed us to our seats. The special this week is a 2 course meal for $20.10. I decide to add the shrimp and crab cocktail on top of it. The featured wine is the locally made Arrowhead Red. It’s a delicious mix of a couple of different reds with a perfume-like aroma. I was ecstatic because ever since Eric Genau over…

Read More

The amount of food I eat during the winter could be mistaken for pre-hibernation prep work. That’s why it was a good thing that my boyfriend and I recently found ourselves at Nektar on Elmwood Avenue. Owner Stavros Malliaris was very gracious and he came out and made some recommendations. It turned out that we were familiar with Stavros from his other establishment (next door)– Ambrosia. The decor of the restaurant is very modern with simple colors and concepts. Even though it was hard to take photos in the darker setting, the place felt very comfortable… very nice for a date.…

Read More

The ornate Calumet building at the corner of Chippewa and Franklin streets may soon have a new owner. After nearly a year since the property went on the market, and one price cut, the Calumet is reportedly under contract to a law firm that will move its offices to the building’s upper floors. Business First has the details: The law firm of Kenney Shelton Liptak Nowak LLP, in partnership with Amherst developer Angelo Natale, has put the three-story, 104-year-old building under contract. Firm founder Patrick Kenney confirmed that an offer was made to the current owners, restaurateur Mark Goldman and Buffalo attorney…

Read More

Laura Anhalt is not your typical cooking diva. Laura’s job at the Red Cross takes up 40 hours of her week. Every Friday for the past 6 years, Laura taught cooking out of her own gourmet kitchen. “My co-workers used to ask me what real Mexican food was like. So I said ‘Let me show you.'” Little would she know, these magical words launched a side career for Laura that eventually led her to her own cooking book and a line of sauces. Laura came here 9 years ago from Mexican City, Mexico. She barely has an accent other than…

Read More

Today, I’m going to share a secret dive with you that’s very close to my heart and stomach. This is a hole-in-the-wall Vietnamese place that has the best Pho in Buffalo. This place is called ’99 Fast Food Restaurant. They don’t do Sesame Chicken, or fried rice. Their menu has no pictures and their take-out menu is the same one they use in the restaurant. The food here is good, but people know to come here for the house special, the “Pho 99” menu. Pho, is a Vietnamese beef noodle soup. The word is pronounced ‘F-uh’ not ‘Foo.’ I…

Read More

After hanging out at the University Subway station for a while, I was beginning to think that no one was going to show up for the pants-free ride. As my friend and I were about to leave, we were approached by an ‘agent.’ This is what the people in the New York improvisational group, “Improv Everywhere” call themselves. “Are you guys here for the…” he paused “…pants thing?” We nodded but informed him that our pants were staying on. He wasn’t happy about our pants, but when we offered up our purses for the storage of his pants, he…

Read More