Chef's Restaurant — Restaurant in Buffalo

It’s a darned good thing that Chef’s is a 2 hour drive away, or I’d be here every week and my hips would need their own zip code! Having seen this featured on YouTube’s America’s Best Restaurants, had to check it out. Wow! If you like hearty Italian food, this is the place to go! We went for their lunch special (Tuesday-Friday). Let’s start with the bread. Normally I avoid the basket of carbs but when I learned their bread was house made, had to try it. It was like butter. Soft, melt in your mouth, delicious white bread that tasted amazing whether dipped in their oil mixture or buttered. I could have eaten the entire basket. The house salad was great- plenty of dressing, fresh lettuce, a couple of veggies tossed in. Yum. And then the star attraction- their famous Spaghetti Parm that mixes spaghetti and butter, covered in what looks like 6 pounds of cheese, baked to perfection and served with a side of their delectable tomato sauce made from their 100 year old recipe. It included a meatball on top. The spaghetti parm was ridiculously good. SO good! I am salivating thinking about it. Their lunch special includes coffee, which was excellent, and Sanderson’s sherbet. The perfect ending to a perfect meal as the delicious sherbet, which tasted like an orange Creamsicle, was just enough to wrap up a magnificent dining experience. We did sneak a peek at the dessert tray - everything looked tempting. We ordered a cannoli to take home on the recommendation of our server, Liz, who was wonderful- friendly and attentive. The cannoli was one of the better ones I’ve had! Chef’s famed tomato sauce (some call it gravy) is available in jars on the way out - we stocked up until we can return. Btw, the restaurant walls are lined with hundreds of photos of celebrities who have enjoyed Chef’s- very interesting! Free parking available in the lot across the street. Reservations recommended for both lunch and dinner. For anyone in the Buffalo Niagara area, who loves delicious, unpretentious, comforting, Italian food, I highly recommend Chef’s!

Update: Thanks Alexander for being such a charming, attentive server! Dinner was outstanding and the peanut butter pie was SCRUMPTIOUS!

Update: Enjoyed the BEST birthday dinner experience! Server Phyllis was incredible, as was the food! The restaurant plays Happy Birthday over the sound system when they bring out your cake (preordered, delicious ice cream cake!) Nice touch!

HIGHLY RECOMMEND...

My family and I had high hopes for Chef’s Restaurant given the Food Network hype, as well as all the celebrity visits over the years. Our verdict? It’s okay.

We got a mixed appetizer platter to start, which consisted of onion rings, garlic toast, calamari, mozzarella sticks and fried ravioli. The platter was a decent start, with 4 of the 5 items being pretty good. The onion rings were just your run of the mill frozen onion rings, but given it’s an Italian restaurant, we didn’t expect them to be made in house, so we could look past that.

The mains were a bit of a mixed affair. My family ordered the Linguini with Clam Sauce and I’ve Special with meatballs and I got the Veal Parm with Spaghetti Parm. The Linguini, while generous in portion of both pasta and clams, was nothing exciting. It was literally the pasta with clams and the clam juice, and didn’t really have much else going on in terms of flavours. Adding maybe a drizzle of olive oil, some garlic and a splash of white wine to the clam sauce would have elevated it, and was thus otherwise a bit bland.

The Irv Special had a bit more going on with the sauce, as the mushrooms, pepperoncini, onions and cacciatora sauce gave it a bit more flavour, but again, nothing to get excited about. The side meatballs were a letdown, as they were completely devoid of any seasoning and flavour, tasting like just plain meat.

The Veal Parm, however, was quite good. It was tender, flavourful, well seasoned and, while a bit on the pricey side at almost $33 USD, was at least a very generous portion, so I didn’t mind the cost for that reason. The Spaghetti Parm was also decent. They didn’t skimp on the amount of cheese that topped the pasta with, and I’d argue this is probably the only way to eat the spaghetti side the Veal comes with, as on its own with just the sauce, it’s kinda plain.

Service at the restaurant was a little slow at times. It was busy, but some things like waiting for service for additional drinks took a bit long, and getting our bill at the end took north of 20 minutes. Overall, an decent experience, but a bit disappointing given the hype and history of the place. I don’t think we’ll be returning...

I was on a road trip to the Niagara falls. A few miles north of Buffalo New York. My friend and I were looking for somewhere to eat in New York before we crossed the Canadian border. First thought was since we are in New York we have to try the pizza. So we found the best reviewed Italian place on the web. First thing that came up was Chefs. So we called to make reservations. Was put on a good hold. But the voice recordings on the hold were entertaining nontheless. Made reservations, got to chefs. When you first walk into Chefs there is a wall full of celebrities form Jerry Springer to Bill & Hillary Clinton. People from all walks of life have sat down and ate at Chefs. Get to our table. Read the menu and to my disappointment NO Pizza. Asked the waiter what's up with that. Bada Bing Bada Boom how about you try the chicken parmesian. So at that point I'm game made my order. 15 mins later a huge plate of pasta, chicken drenched in their signature homemade sauce made it to my table. I couldn't wait to dig in. Though the presentation is nice I was expecting it to be like every other chicken parmesian I've ever tasted. Just the same old bland breaded chicken that soaked up too much of the tomato sauce. But after first bite it was not so. Chicken was crispy and covered in cheesy goodness. I don't know how the chef made that miracle happen but as a result my taste buds were rejoicing. The bread alone they give as appetizer is 5 stars. Highly recommended. (Start Serving Pizza and I'll...