Blue Cave Italian — Restaurant in Buffalo

The restaurant itself was really nice, and the building it is located in is very beautiful. Aside from it's appearance and the staff, the positives unfortunately end there.

I would like to preface this review with me stating that I do NOT, under any circumstance, send food back to the kitchen. It is not who I am as a person. It's never a comfortable situation, there is not a restaurant staff on the planet that is overjoyed to have a customer complain about the food in their establishment. I am also a firm believer of if I am paying 30-50 dollars a plate, I expect them to just be good. As it would be at Prescott's Previsions in North Tonawanda, or the Chophouse in Buffalo, or Casa Antica in Lewiston.

We ordered 2 starters, and 3 entrees.

The first starter we ordered was 4 pieces of hollow fried dough with some sort of a creme sauce that was very noticably watery placed on top, and a slice of salami on each (The salami looked strikingly similar to Wegmans brand salami sticks you would purchase from the shelves near the deli). We also ordered the Arancini, which were okay. I have nothing bad to say about those.

Out of the entrees, one was okay, the Orecchiette Con Salsiccia E Funghi. It was neither good, nor bad. It was simply okay.

The 2nd entree was the short rib. It started out promising, the first one I had was great. It was tender and juicy and not dry at all. The second short rib on the plate was unfortunately not as good as the first. The only way I can describe it is it had jerky like qualities. It was very dry and not very tender. But I was hungry, therefore I ate it. Again, I will never send food back.

Now the dish I had the biggest gripe with was the RIsotto Mare E Monti. I should add that tonight crab was included in the risotto. Now when I say this was the "fishiest dish" I've ever tasted, this dish tasted how the lower river smells. It was very, very, fishy. It was so off-putting my wife and I just left it uneaten on the table after we paid our bill. Again, I don't mind taking the hit to the wallet, we already planned to go out and have a nice dinner.

Now this restaurant is relatively new, and who knows, maybe it was an off night. But in the future when my wife and our family want to go spend 150-200 dollars on a dinner, we will likely go elsewhere for...

Our waitress was really nice and she was the only thing good about this restaurant.

I’m sorry but the food was not good; I’m would even say the food was “bad”.

We started with the appetizer sampler and it was very bland. The arancini balls didn’t have any flavor and the chick pea fritters really shouldn’t be on any menu. They were greasy, flavorless, and weird.

We had high hopes for the Insalata di Fichi but were disappointed to find the almonds were stale, it was overloaded with blue cheese, and served with very little dressing.

I ordered the beef braciole becasue the waitress said the cook was “famous” for that dish. The word “famous” must be self imposed because the meat was PAINFULLY dry and it didn’t appear to have anything stuffed inside of it. I picked through it to find any sign of cheese or garlic or herbs and only found pieces of the tooth pick that I bit on. The dish was served over some severely over cooked orecchiette pasta tossed in some very bland tomato sauce. This dish was TERRIBLE. (Is it too much to ask that you learn to tie the braciole and not use toothpicks? And how about learning to make pasta to order?).

My wife ordered the Salmon in Crosta and she should’ve known better because even the description was unappetizing. When the dish came to the table, we could easily see the salmon was very over cooked, the spinach was under cooked and it was dry as a bone. It also had an VERY strong fish flavor. I’m not going to suggest the fish wasn’t fresh, but it did smell and taste very “fishy”.

My wife complained to the server and the manager came over to tell us she knows the salmon is fresh because she saw him make it “early that day”. (I’m guessing that’s why it was so fishy).

I should also mention the restaurant itself wasn’t very nice. It’s a big garage that’s been converted into a restaurant. The tables are cold and made of metal and the seats aren’t very comfortable. It has the feel of a sandwich shop and not a what you’d expect from an...

We were excited to try this restaurant as it came highly recommended by friends. Reservations were super simple to make on open table. Once we arrived we were seated immediately. Looking around the decor was nice. Simple, bright and welcoming without being over the top. We were a little disappointed with the paper napkins, it seems small however once the price gets up there a fabric napkin is usually preferred…but maybe that’s personal preference. We were given menus for food and drinks. I think one of the neat things they did with the food menu is put a little history on the back of the menu for us to read. We had one of their seasonal cocktails which was very fresh and delicious. A great way to start the dinner. Food was ok. Not anything to write home about but ok. I think the shining star was the red sauce. It was absolute perfection. If I could bottle it up and bring it home I would! So tasty!

One very disappointing aspect that really brought the entire experience down was the lack of professionalism from the wait staff. They are staged along the far wall in the dining area which is no problem, but I don’t think they considered it cared that being in such a visible area they are seen throughout the entire meal. There was a moment in which a yellow jacket (must’ve gotten in through front door) was crawling amongst my food and started to fly towards me when I tried to shoo it away. So I jumped up and swatted at it. Once I regained my seat I looked up and I see the wait staff laughing and mocking me instead of coming to see what the issue may be. I will say that our waitress was not one of them and once she came by to check on us and I informed her of the issue she got rid of the yellow jacket. However the others laughing and making jokes instead of checking the issue did not make for a good experience.

Overall I would say the price point does not reflect the quality of food or service given. It definitely has...