<p>Would love to hear from those in the area as to some good restaurants for that last dinner together.</p>
<p>(So many chain restaurants up there, but we are looking for something nicer. Italian would b great for my son.) Been to Carmines. Something a bit more upscale would be nice.</p>
<p>Sorry, Crazed…I still haven’t found a good restaurant that isn’t a chain. We’ve tried most of the chains near the campus (Applebees, Red Robin, Red Lobster, Olive Garden, Lonestar, etc.) when searching for someplace to eat. At this point we usually end up at Unos, due to its convenient location. </p>
<p>I hope someone can give both of us a good suggestion for something a little more special. We’re probably going to spend Thanksgiving in Buffalo this year, so I also need a special-occasion restaurant that will be open for the holiday.</p>
<p>Romeo and Juliet’s is one of my favorite restaurants in Buffalo. It’s an authentic Italian place. There are two locations – one on Sheridan 5-10 minutes from UB. Note, however, they aren’t open on sunday or mondays.</p>
<p>If you go downtown there are a bunch of good restaurants. Me and my friends occasionally go to Pano’s on Elmwood, which we all like. If you want to stay around Maple and don’t want a chain there is a good Chinese/Vietnamese place next to the Denny’s called Red Pepper. Maple is mainly chains but if you go down Niagara Falls Boulevard or nearby streets you will have better luck.</p>
<p>PM’d P3T to come on here with info for us!!! Sadly, given the amount of students. this site is underused!</p>
<p>Carmines had really good pizza. Actually the pizza in Buffalo looked really good everywhere- more like the thin crust Bertuccis style, but good never the less. The slad was good there too. Anchor Bar for the original “hot wings” but we don’t eat them. Husband loves the authentic “Beef on Wick” and we just watched a show on the food Channel that gave the history, etc. Anchor bar itself had poor service all around. Forgot some of our order, got my order wrong (ate it anyway) and at every table we watched, including ours, they serve one person than 10 minutes later came out with food for the second person at the table. Packed though. The wings looked great if you like them and again the pizza looked incredible. </p>
<p>Thanks Neon, going to google Romeo and Juliet now!</p>
<p>Now for nicer restaurants…</p>
<p>Of the chains, we’ve enjoyed Carrabas (can’t remember the name of the shopping center off Niagara Falls Blvd, has a Target, Barnes and Noble, Pet Smart.) The Bonefish Grill in the Boulevard Mall is nice also.</p>
<p>Romeo and Juliet is fine and we go there, but you might prefer the experience for Italian food at Libros on Campbell for Italian food. Libros is very, very good family Italian food, prepared with care but not maddeningly expensive. </p>
<p>For the very best ambience, if you want to depart from Italian food, my very favorite for taking guests is Byblos, also on Campbell (half block from Libros). Byblos is a Middle Eastern/Lebanese restaurant with beautiful wood, window views, nice ambience, extremely nice owner. To make it memorable, tell the owner to pick your food, “a lot of this and that” and he won’t let you down. Tell him it’s a special meal, etc. He’s very warm. Don’t forget the baklavah at the end. We often get many appetizers to share, followed by dinner entrees. Of course, this is when we’re business-entertaining so we do save this for a special meal. Still, it’s not out-of-the-park expensive (no $50 individual entrees, more like $18-25 for each dinner). It’s memorable, delicious, attractive. First you have to like Middle Eastern food, but if you do, their lamb, eggplant and other specialities rock. I love their hummus, baba ganouj appetizers, and I know good from bad on those. For main courses, we just share our plates around the table, and it’s always good. We trust the owner’s recommendations but H always says to “include lamb” within the mix he sends to our table.</p>
<p>Another pretty good one, and near the university: Fuji Grille, for Japanese-style entrees and sushi. It’s a bit crowded in terms of table proximity, but not bad for the money. Cedrtainly it’s a step up from all the take-out East Asian food in our comunity. UB students themselves go thtere together if they want a “special” meal.</p>
<p>Indian restaurant: my son’s fave is Tandoori on Transit Rd. near Sheridan. There are others along Sheridan not quite as excellent as Tandoori. Our community’s large medical/professional population from India (many UB graduates thesmelves) means you can count on the food in most every Indian restaurant in the Amherst area. Tandoori happens to be my S’s favorite because I think it was the first time he ever got a “special” meal from us, and is just a bit finer (waitservice, elegant food) than the Sheridan Road choices which are dependable but not as great as Tandoori fare. </p>
<p>Happy eating in Buffalo! All these recs come from the suburb of Amherst. Certainly there’s much more in the City of Buffalo, but these are my local suggestions.</p>
<p>Libros and Byblos are hard to locate, so Google or maybe you have a GPS…</p>
<p>P.S. all the above are sit-down, waiter-service restaurants. I call them all slightly upscale and special. OK, maybe “upscale” is too much praise for Fuji grille and the unnamed Indian restaurants along; Sheridan, but I’d call Tandoori upscale in terms of wait-service and food quality. </p>
<p>You will hopefully have a memorable, well-cooked and served dinner, without losing your wallet to anyplace mentioned in my post. People from large metropolitan areas generally say about Buffalo-area restaurants that the food is great; the prices are less than they’re used to. Waitservice is probably our weakest link, because a lot of the waiters themselves are UB students so the training doesn’t carry over year-by-year. You might find the wiatstaffs a bit less sophisticated but gosh they are cute. </p>
<p>For those reading who might want a special “farewell moment” but not an entire meal: For a sit-down gourmet dessert cafe with coffee (each dessert costs $5-l0 apiece), open til 9 pm. weeknights, and near the UB campus, I like “Dessert Deli” at Maple and Forest, same minimall as the Fuji Grille. Dessert Deli also does wedding-cakes so it’s fun to look at them. They have cakes, cheesecakes, and beautiful pies. Ask them to heat your pie order, tho, because they are served quite cold from the counter (no waiters here, just the proverbial “tip jar.”). You can eat inside or on the sidewalk there; it’s a small space but push tables together. Dessert Deli is right next door to my gym. Always a dilemma 
The fact that I can tell you I prefer their pies to their cakes indicates I need to hit the gym more often.</p>
<p>At the above restaurants, it’s a good idea to make a reservation on weekend nights. Eating out is huge recreation here, especially Fri and Sat nights. Sunday hours end a bit earlier here than on Sat -restaurants perhaps an hour earlier; strip-mall shopping (not restaurants in the malls) ends around 5 p.m. - so check hours carefully today (Sunday) wherever you are headed.</p>
<p>One of my favorite places right near campus to go for a more special dinner is Kyoto. They have a sushi bar, sit down, and hibachi. Another place we have tried to go (it’s downtown) is Sea Bar City. They also serve sushi, but seem to be a little more upscale than Kyoto.</p>
<p>Which UB are you at? The Elmwood Village is a great place to eat. They have Cecelia’s, which is a great Italian reasturant. On Hertel, there is this great Italian reasutant called Lombardo’s. If you go into the Chippewa area, there is Caboret, which is right across the street from Sheas, as well as other reasturants. There is the Left Bank, which is on Rhode Island street, on the west side, and they offer many different things. If you are looking for suburban areas, I know there are a lot of reasturants on Sheredon Drive and on McKinley. But, I hope I helped. All the reasturants I mentioned are really great places to eat innercity.</p>
<p>Thanks Harvard-</p>
<p>Italian is perfect for my son, the picky eater. I don’t want to give him a burger for his last meal with us. We’ll have a car and time on our hands (and it’s nice to ride around and see Buffalo) so your suggestions are great. </p>
<p>Thanks.</p>
<p>We ate at:</p>
<p>Lombardo’s for the goodbye dinner. (We really said our goodbyes on Fri afternoon, but had to have a good meal on Thursday night.) Excellent. Moderately expensive. Price fix offered. Menu on line. Highly recommended for a special meal. Not fra form South campus.</p>
<p>I know this is too late for you for the last meal but maybe when you go again (parents weekend). My son and I just ate a place called Chefs. It is italian. Not fancy but they have really good sauce. We both enjoyed it. I believe it is actually in Buffalo. I have eaten at Libros and liked Chefs better.</p>