Buffalo has a lot of restaurants, about 18 per 10,000 residents. National Geographic magazine recently named Buffalo the third-best food city in the world, citing, of all things, the Anchor Bar’s invention of the Buffalo chicken wing.

In addition to wings, Buffalo has many cuisines, including those from its diverse immigrant and refugee populations – with many African American, Bangladeshi, Bhutanese, Burmese, Chinese, German, Indian, Iraqi, Irish, Italian, Polish, Puerto-Rican, Somali, and Slavic restaurants.

Chicken Wings

In Buffalo, they are called “chicken wings” and not “Buffalo wings.” Besides loving the Buffalo Bills, the second-most popular Buffalo past-time is arguing about which restaurant serves the best chicken wings. Traditionally, Buffalo wings are served hot, medium, or mild in levels of spiciness. The primary difference between those sauces is the amount of butter added to cut the heat of the (most frequently) Frank’s hot sauce. There are, of course, many other options for sauces and rubs for chicken wings.

You will find as many opinions as there are options, but based on surveys over the past decade, here are some of the choices that repeatedly come up near the top:

Anchor Bar – Buffalonians either love this place or love to hate it. Claiming to be the first, some claim it is the best while others hate the waiting time for a table, the flavor, the size of the wing, and the crispiness. If you’ve never been, it’s worth a visit.

Duff’s, Gabriel’s Gate, Nine-Eleven Tavern, Elmos, Bar Bill, Kelly’s Corner, Mammosers, Wing Nutz, Lenox Grill, and La Nova round out the list of the most-commonly recommended spots. 

If you’re really into chicken wings, you can try the Buffalo Wing Trail or visit during the Buffalo Wing Festival

Beef On Weck

Another Buffalo staple is the Beef on Weck sandwich – a roast beef sandwich served on a kummelweck roll with ample horseradish spread on the top, and the top part of the roll dipped in au jus. Kummelweck is a white bread roll topped with caraway seeds and kosher salt. Optionally, many restaurants serve Beef on Weck with a side of au jus for dipping. 

Similar to the chicken wing, there are as many opinions as options on where to get the best beef on weck. Here’s another list of some of the top choices: Schwabl’s, Bar-Bill Tavern, Anderson’s, and Charlie the Butcher.

Pizza

It is up for debate whether pizza is 2nd or 3rd to the chicken wing as Buffalo’s most-discussed/debated food. Buffalo-style pizza is a unique category of its own, as unique as the NY and Chicago-style pizza that it borrows elements from. With over 600 pizzerias, Buffalonians are bound to have strong opinions on their pizza. Buffalo-style pizza is characterized by a light, fluffy, almost focaccia-like crust, a semisweet sauce, copious amounts of mozzarella cheese, and exclusive use of cup-and-char pepperoni. It’s a style that Buffalo residents swear by. 

As for what’s the best? There are too many opinions to endorse just one, but one brave soul has undertaken the task of documenting and rating over 150 Buffalo pizza locations to date. SexySlices on twitter/instagram.

Fine Dining, Cultural Cuisines, and Buffalo Staples

There are too many dining options to do them justice in this one article. We recommend checking out:

• Step Out Buffalo
• Buffalo Rising
• Visit Buffalo Niagara
• Google Maps
• Reddit
• Yelp

Delivery

Take-out and delivery are popular in Buffalo. Most take-out restaurants will offer their own delivery service (particularly pizza places), and apps like GrubHub and DoorDash are also popular. Buffalo also has a locally-owned delivery app service called appetit which helps keep delivery fees affordable and keeps the money you spend on the service within our local community.

Author’s Favorites

David’s Favorites:

• Tappo (338 Ellicott St, Buffalo, NY 14203)
  • Every dish on the menu is consistently delicious. If you enjoy wine, there are some great deals available here every week.
• Roost (1502 Niagara St, Buffalo, NY 14213)
  • My favorite restaurant in Buffalo. The menu rotates cuisines monthly and every dish is amazing.
• Mother’s (33 Virginia Pl, Buffalo, NY 14202)
  • Restaurant and bar with a casual, social atmosphere. A favorite for the late-night crowd.
• Billy Club (228 Allen St, Buffalo, NY 14201)
  • Scratch-made, ingredient-focused dishes in the heart of Allentown.
• The Left Bank (511 Rhode Island St, Buffalo, NY 14213)
  • Fine dining in the Rhode Island neighborhood.

Kamal’s Favorites:

• Extra Extra Pizza (549 W Utica St, Buffalo, NY 14213)
  • Some amazing pizza from a Co-Op style pizza shop! Their pizzas are so good!
• La Divina Tacos (2896 Delaware Ave, Buffalo, NY 14217)
  • The best tacos in Buffalo! Seriously, I always look forward to them and am excited to go there.
• Amy’s Place (3234 Main St, Buffalo, NY 14214
  • An all vegetarian & vegan restaurant with options ranging from American burgers to Mediterranean falafels. Great prices here too!
• Taj Grill (2290 Delaware Ave, Buffalo, NY 14216)
  • The best Indian food in Buffalo! They also have an amazing lunch buffet that is fairly priced.
• Downtown Bazaar (617 Main Street, Buffalo, NY 14203)
  • This is an amazing place with food from around the world. There are multiple different restaurants in the building serving food in a shared space. You can always learn about a new culture here.

Links

• https://cse.buffalo.edu/restaurant.guide/ – Run by UB professor Bill Rapaport from 1985 – 2015, this alphabetical restaurant guide includes reviews and information on long-running restaurants within the region. Note: it was last updated in 2015, so it may include some spots that no longer exist.