Las Puertas Buffalo — Restaurant in Buffalo

Here's the summary: decent food, terrible value for your hard-earned money - ridiculously overpriced for the tiny portions, and HORRENDOUS service.

It was my husband's bday last week so we decided to do a date night and celebrate with some friends. There were 6 of us total and I made reservations in advance. Hubby and I have been craving a good ceviche and everyone told us they had it there, so we were excited. They don't have menus online and when one of our friends inquired online, no one responded. So, we went in blind.

We asked our waitress (who was extremely cold and unfriendsly) about ceviche since it was no longer on the menu, and she said they didn't have it on the dinner menu but it is on the Chef's tasting menu ($75/person). So we asked if it was possible to order it as a dinner dish and just charge us what they were charging on the menu before they changed it - it was a cold hard NO. Her attitude was so terrible that it actually made it worse. Mind you - we were all very nice and polite. We spotted her walking over to the kitchen and talking to the girls in the kitchen who then looked over at us. They quickly looked away though as soon as they realized that we were looking right back at them. So... I can only imagine what the waitress said to them. 5 minutes later, the owner came over and took our orders, and she was a "little" friendlier. We asked her about the ceviche and she said no it's just not available at all, not even on the tasting menu. OK, well that makes sense then, although I wonder if she just said that so we would stop asking. Also, one of our friends never got her drink - they brought it over eventually but no apology whatsoever. Honestly, at this point, if we weren't with company, we would have just paid for the drinks and gone somewhere else for dinner. But, we decided to stay and give them a chance anyway.

4 of us decided to share food while the other 2 people shared their food. We ordered the "roasted camote" - basically just a fancy sweet potato for $12 - not worth it. The lechon con frijoles (pork belly) for $17, it was delicious and about the only dish that might have been worth the price. The potato with goat cheese was pretty good ($12), crab ceviche (16) which was NOT actually ceviche, as the definition for ceviche is "a South American dish of marinated raw fish or seafood". This was cooked crab and to be honest, it tasted like artificial crab, not even real crab meat. We also got the asparagus ($13), the beets ($15), the carrot with green goddess dressing ($13), and tamal ($14) - which was just a little blob of roasted pork inside a big corn bun. Think corn tortillas mashed up and formed into the shape of a bun - there was just a little too much bun and not enough meat. We ordered doubles of the pork belly and potato dishes, and also a couple of desserts. Most of everything we had was pretty tasty, but all of them were just ridiculously overpriced, especially the vegetable dishes. I have eaten at restaurants ALL OVER THE WORLD including notoriously expensive cities such as NYC, San Francisco, Napa, London, and Paris. But I have to say, Las Puertas was the most overpriced meal with the worst service we have ever had.

The entire 2.5 hours we were there - no one came to check on us. No one even looked over at our table even though they were passing by it all night long going between the kitchen and the rest of the tables, so we couldn't flag anyone down to place more orders. We had to quickly spit out our requests whenever they delivered our food or else they were GONE, and they looked annoyed and impatient the whole time.

The bill came to almost $450 for the 6 of us, and honestly, the prices don't matter to me that much as long as it's WORTH it. This entire experience - to say it was NOT WORTH IT is actually an understatement. We all left hangry, and will never be back. Maybe they had a better menu before but I will never pay $12 for a sweet potato or $13 for 3 carrot...

First, the food and plating is amazing. Chef Gonzalez effortlessly balances the complexity of flavors in each dish to please the palate. But wait, when the plate lands on your table like a beautiful mariposa, he casts a spell, a moment in time where everything stands still, the clock is broken as you look at the presentation, the art on the plate, hesitant to use your fork as a sledgehammer to particle smash the most beautiful thing you’ve seen on that day.

Everything had incredible layers of flavor and intricacies. I’ve never experienced the combination of ingredients such as the octopus al pastor. My octopus teacher indeed. The chicken roulade courtesy of the sous vide style, pillowy and structured around a bed of potatoes. Incredible. Every dish arrived on the red carpet full of sexy flavor imprinted on your senses.

My only obstacle to a perfect 5 star is the cocktail menu. Although I did the tasting menu I was not provided with drink pairings. I would say the cocktail menu lacks uniformity and congruence. I ever seen a Mexican restaurant shy away from tequila and mezcal. It’s baffling. For example, the first four or five drinks don’t mention tequila or mezcal. And finally when you get to the tequila or mezcal drinks they are the most misaligned Mexican themed cocktails I’ve never seen on a menu. You just don’t mix bourbon and mezcal it’s a terrible idea (Oaxacaan old fashioned) or the house margarita-tequilla and mezcal 😡 (which instead should be a citrus heavy Cadillac margarita), another 15 yard penalty for roughing the palate. Not great. It is unclear why the menu would be so blasé or indifferent this type of restaurant but hopefully they can improve as it was very disappointing, badly needs an overhaul.

Otherwise, one of the best meals I’ve had in a while. Don’t go for the drinks go for the art show and...

If I could give this restaurant and the Chef and his Staff 100 stars I would! The restaurant itself is beautiful. It's cozy, it's clean, the music is perfect the aesthetic is warm and inviting. The servers we had were so kind and knowledgeable, even remembered that we were travelling for our honeymoon! This was our number one spot we wanted to visit for a dining experience and they unfortunately had to close Friday when we had reservations but made it happen for us the next night. We are so happy they did. Pacing of the dishes coming out was perfect and each time the servers detailed out the fish with a clear love for their job, the food and the chef. You can tell this is a well loved profession for them. The dishes themselves were AMAZING! If we lived in the area this would be our date every time the menu changed. We would need to try everything! Everything was cooked to perfection and so beautiful. This line up of dishes was the best ABSOLUTE BEST dining experience and flavors I have had at a restaurant. The chef is so talented and clearly loves what he is doing. He brought out the main course to our table and even stopped to chat with us and share a glass of wine at the end and talk restaurant with my fiance who also works in the industry and chat about our wedding. What an amazing unforgettable experience! Thank...