Non-tourist Niagra Falls
 

Can anyone recomend a nice place for dinner that is non-tourist? We will be in Niagra Falls for a week, staying at a B&B. All I seem to find are the chain places (which is understandable) on the search engines.

Hi LilyLace,
We stayed at Queen's Landing on
Niagara-on-the-Lake last week.
It's about 20-30 minutes north
of Niagara Falls, but well worth the
drive. We went down to the Falls several
times... it was nice to escape to a
much quieter area after. The Falls was like a stampede of tourists most days,
(and we were there during the week.)
Most people recommended The Keg for good
food at the Falls. We ate at The Rain Forest Cafe and liked it, but it's not cheap. There are some good restaurants
in Niagara on the Lake. The drive north
along the Niagara Parkway has some
beautiful scenery as you drive toward
Niagara on the Lake. The Queen's Landing
has a good, but very expensive restaurant (The Tiara?), we ate one night at the Anchorage Inn (just behind
the hotel.)I think the name of the
restaurant was The New Italian Restaurant, or something like that.It
was a more casual restaurant, but the
food was good.
Good luck, it's a beautiful area.

Unfortunately there really aren't any "nice" non-tourist restaurants in Niagara Falls. NF is a very blue collar town and all the non-tourist places are pretty simple - good food, but not fine dining by any means.

Thank you Auty1, I think we will try one of the two you suggest at Niagra on the Lake. Maybe both!

Sockboy- have you been to any of the local places that you could suggest for a good meal? It's really the same where we are from, the best places are simple (not fancy) but unless a person knows about them they would pass based on the looks of the place.

Thanks, Lily

Well, I haven't lived in Niagara Falls in a couple of years now, but here are two that I would bet are still in opperation. Basil's is a "been there forever and never changes" kind of place. I doubt a tourist has ever entered their doors. It is close to all the tourist stuff, on Victoria a couple of blocks from Queen St. Best for breakfast and the dinner specials, basic, classic menu, but good inexpensive food. Chatters is another to look for (check the phone book), more of a modern casual restaurant than Basil's. Kid's will love going next door for ice cream after. Good for lunch or dinner.

I have realtives who live in Niagara Falls, and they apprecite good cooking. the best restaurants are the ones for tourists.

There's no other market in town, except for tourists, that provides enough business for nice surroundings, excellent ingredients, and paying good cooks.

BAK

Good point there Bak! Well taken. I did find Bassels on the net by the way and we'll give it a try.
Thanks to all who posted!

Oh its actally Bassels, not Basils eh? Funny how you can go somewhere all the time and not even be pronouncing it right!! They have a website?? They hardly have an electronic cash register!

Sorry, didn't mean to point out the spelling thing! I'm not one of those! It's not a great website but as we say here an A for effort!

LilyLace- The wine region in Niagara on the Lake offers several excellent restaurants that are well worth the 20 minute scenic drive... top rated are the French restaurant in the Prince of Wales Hotel, On The Twenty(30 minute drive), Peller Winery, Strewn Winery, Peninsula Ridge winery, VineLand Estates, Hildebrand winery. Second tier (but still highly rated) include Queens Landing, EastDell winery, "21" (located in the Niagara Falls Casino, and finally third tier include; The Buttery, Pillor and Post, Shaw Cafe, The Angel Inn(pub food) and The Oban Inn. Any of these will give you an excellent meal within a 1/2 hour drive of Niagara Falls... all of them can be individually researched or looked up on www.winesofontario.ca

Have fun and bon apetit!

You might also try Betty's -- can be busy as they do accept tour buses, but quite popular locally too. Food is equivalent to Basell's and it's also a casual family style spot. I feel the area/ambience is a little nicer. Basell's has great cabbage rolls though!!
Info and directions to Betty's on this site.
http://www.bettysrestaurant.com/

It seems a forgotten area as most of the traffic gravitates toward NOL but it's also a lovely drive along that stretch of the river from NF to Fort Erie.

There are many very nice places for dinner in nearby St-Catharines.

And "On the Twenty" is well worth the drive.

And, Niagara-on-the-Lake is chock full of fine dining.

We very much enjoyed the revolving restaurant at the Skylon Tower. Sure, it's "touristy", but the views are amazing and the food was good. There's a bargain early bird menu.

The Niagara Parks Commission (see their website) restaurants at Victoria Park, Table Rock, etc., are also all very nice, with sensational views and very good food. Most have appealing early bird menus as well.

Thanks to all! Now I am prepared for the week! We are staying at a B&B and just there to relax so dinner will be THE event of the day and as we appreciate fine dining and casual local fare for variety (don't want to dress up every evening), we should have a few to choose from now! It's good to know that Skylon has good food, I guess I assumed it was one of those over priced package tourist trap places (we'll give you a great view and charge a fortune but don't expect much in the way of the meal)!

As suggested above, it's hard to find a "non-tourist" restaurant in a town which exists only to support tourism.
What about the place with the view up in the park part way towards Niagra-on-the-Lake? We only did lunch there but it was great. Touristy, but not a tourist trap -- there's a big difference.