Coming to Buffalo and need help with dining. Making choices for friends. Staying at the Hyatt. Would like help with restaurants-whole in the wall or fine dining. Steak, Italian, burgers. Thank You.

Buffalo has many great restaurants. For fine dining/steak try the Chop House on Franklin Street or Fiamma Steak on Hertel. Will you have a car? Are you planning to dine downtown only? Elmwood Ave. and Hertel Ave. are the two main city neighborhoods with shops/restaurants. For burgers try Jimmy Mac's on Elmwood. For breakfast try Ambrosia on Elmwood or the Empire Grill on Hertel. Other suggestions: Hutch's or Tempo on Delaware, and for Italian go to Hertel Ave. to Cafe GarAngelo, La Dolcevita or North End Trattoria. Enjoy your stay in Buffalo!

Bacchus (restaurant and wine bar) is very good and walking distance from the Hyatt. It is in the Chippewa entertainment district (corner of Franklin and Chippewa). Also, Fiddleheads on Allen Street in Allentown is good - kind of funky, small, good food. It is about a mile or two from the Hyatt.

There are many others - pretty hard to recommend particular ones unless you narrow your request.

We always have to go to a good steakhouse on the trips and my granddaughter is a hamburger and pizza eater. She is old enough to go into bars to eat. Our next favorite is Italian. What about E.B. Greens at our hotel?? I hear anchor bar is the place to go for wings. We take taxi's if the restaurant is too far. We are open to any suggestions and appreciate your comments. Thanks

I have always loved Rue Franklin for a lovely meal...and one stop at Anchor Bar for wings.

There are tons of good restaurants within or close to downtown. Here's a website that lists several of the downtown area restaurants:

http://www.buffaloplace.com/play/restaurants.html#

My favorite hole in the wall wing place is the Anchor Bar where chicken wings were "invented." The rest of their food leaves a lot to be desired, but the wings are great. Your granddaughter will enjoy the pix on the wall of the famous people who have eaten there:

www.buffalowings.com/

For hole in the wall Italian, I love Santasiero's. It's an old restaurant in what used to be Buffalo's original Italian neighborhood. It's the type of place you'd expect to see Tony Soprano. There's no pizza here. (They don't have a website. Just trust my judgement on this one).

For casual Italian, including great pizza, you'll never go wrong with Casa di Pizza on Elmwood Ave.:

www.buffalothrills.com/feedme/italian/ casadipizza

Hole in the wall smokehouse - Fat Bob's:

http://www.fatbobs.com/

Fine dining in a gracious old Buffalo home is Tempo. I had a great meal there:

http://tempobuffalo.com/

Good pizza right downtown - Prima Pizza:

http://www.primapizzapasta.com/

The only place I can think of for a good burger downtown is Hemingways (no website).

Someone (at your hotel perhaps) might recommend Chef's for Italian. Ugh. Just my opinion.

Hutch's is great (expensive):

http://www.hutchsrestaurant.com/

Fiddleheads, as previously mentioned, is on my list of places to try due to their great reviews.

I'm going to stop now!

P.S. All above mentioned restaurants are a very short taxi ride from your hotel. Have a great time and enjoy the game!

I have never eaten at E.B. Green's but have heard it is good, especially for steaks. I see from other threads that you travel alot to Chargers games. You must be quite the fan! I agree with Buffalo Girl on Chef's for Italian. It is extremely popular, but over rated in my opinion. If you go, the spaghetti parmasean is what they're known for.

I meant I agree with Buffalo Girl's opinion of Chef's, not that I think you should go there.

My husband and I are retired and have had season tickedt for the Chargers for almost 40 years and we have a good group of people that travel to the games with us so we have lots of fun. We also take our granddaughter with us now. It really helps to get the locals recommendations. Thanks

Hi 4Janet..
How wonderful that you and your husband are such devoted Charger fans!
What a game you went to in Denver..Let's hope we can continue the win all the way to the Super Bowl..
Best to both of you..

Janet, My husband and I have been Bills season ticket holders for 26 years. It's fun to travel to other cities for away games, but we haven't been able to do it often as we still have kids at home. Buffalo doesn't stand much of a chance this year and San Diego is a team that I'll root for in the playoffs. As I'm sure you know there are some people with San Diego with a Buffalo connection: A.J. Smith and your current coach were in Buffalo at one time, as was the late John Butler. If you need any stadium information post again. It's a fun place to tailgate.

We love A. J. and love Butler. As you know we have spent many years wanting a winner and I feel this year should be ours. As I say that every game is so stressful. We have had a great time this year. We are sitting in the enclosed boxed this year with at least 20 people. I believe it is in the end zone. You know we are used to 75 degree weather??? We are good fans and realize it is your house and are very respectful of that. How far is the stadium from the Hyatt and should we go to a special bar before the game with the Buffalo fans???

Are you sitting in a private box? I'm not all that familiar with the end zone seating, but if you give me a little more information I should know what you're talking about. I was thinking that you are brave coming to Buffalo in December when you're used to San Diego weather. I can't help you with a pre game bar. There are a few bars near the stadium, hole in the wall type places, but I have never been there as we always tailgate. If you're looking for the real Buffalo experience, then I would suggest that you tailgate at the stadium. Are you a little worried about the Colts? I'm thinking it's the Colts and the Chargers in the AFC Championship.

I forgot to answer your question about distance. I'm assuming that you won't have a car. The stadium is about 20 minutes without traffic from the Hyatt. How do you plan to get there? Is there a bus from the Hyatt? Are you getting in on Friday or Saturday? Buffalo Girl always has great suggestions on things to do in Buffalo. Click on her name for lots of info.

We got tickets in the Red Zone Box. My granddaughter gets so cold that we had to get seats indoor for her. If it was my husband and myself we would sit outside. If you remember we beat Indianapolis last year, but I'm nervous every game. Last year we lost so many games at 3 points. Rivers is the guy this year and I believe he can take us all the way. We come on a bus to the game and tailgate wherever the buses are.

It's a shame you're not playing in Buffalo tomorrow. It's supposed to be 60 degrees and partly sunny. After you return home, make sure you post again and let us know where you ate, how you liked the game, etc. Try to avoid eating stadium food, it's not very good, although the food in the boxes may be better than the general concessions.

Do you really mean Buffalo, NY?
Had three Med School classmates whose children never saw sun for three years while they were at B. Childrens for residencies.
M

Yes, the sun does shine here in Buffalo New York. While we occassionally have extreme weather, at times it can be absolutely beautiful here. Today is a perfect example. Sunny and 60 degrees. Everyone is outside in tee shirts, some with shorts.

Janet - How was your trip to Buffalo? Where did you eat? We almost pulled an upset, but your team is just too good. Good luck in the playoffs.