x-no-archive=yes This evening we tried out Buffalo's Cafe on the south end of the McKnight Road business district, in the new plaza just north of Pep Boys and south of North Hills Village Mall, next to Kinko's and Einstein Bagels. Decor's nice, still clean because its just opened within the past month or two, but there was a thick dark hair under the plastic window on my menu (must have been a bad omen). Menu was fairly limited, only a few selections under each category (salads, sandwiches, entres), and of course, wings. Their other specialty besides wings looks to be rotisserie chicken, by the 1/2, 1/4, or on a sandwich. It was about 10 minutes after we were seated before our waitress found us (with no apologies for our wait and place was only about 25% occupied), and only after we grabbed another waitress to get some service. I can see how its easy to not know who's there, the booth dividers are very high and unless you're standing in front of the booth, you don't know if anyone is in it, but that's no excuse. By the way, the booths are hard wood, not too comfortable for a very long sit-down (yea, so what if I got a tender rear, me bum's had enuf sittin' all day long). My lady ordered the 1/2 rotisserie chicken (I think they said it was smoked too), came with rice (pilaf?) and choice of side, she ordered potato salad. Rice was only warm, salty, mushy, in general it sucked. Potato salad came in one of those small plastic cups with about 5 pieces of potato, also sucked. After picking at the outside of the chicken and attacking the inside, she found that it was not cooked all the way through. Waitress took it and dissappeared, and before my lady said that she had lost her appetite, they brought out another about 5 min later. She (and I) picked at that one for a bit, it was cooked adequately, nothing wrong with it, but it just didn't taste that great. I tried the all-you-can-eat chicken wing special, because at 8.95 it was only a few dollars more than the smallest order of wings on the menu at 4.95 for 10 pieces (50 cents apiece, unbelievable). I am really sick of risking my tastebuds and stomach trying out wings at all these places that claim to have the best wings and the most original recipe. They claim to have the original Anchor Bar recipe from Buffalo, but this is promarily a southern chain, and Pittsburgh looked to be the only city listed on the menu above the Mason-Dixon line. Next time I do stop at the Anchor Bar, I'll make sure to let them know this place is doing a disservice to their name. Well from that lead-in, I guess you can gather that these were some of the worst wings I have ever had. They were the smallest wings I have ever had, and they were overdone so that only the largest pieces of meat on the wings were edible, if any could be found. While overdone, they were not crisp - grease must not have been hot enough or else they had sat for a while? The blue cheese dressing tasted like the cheap store-bought stuff, salty and flavorless. On the way out, several of the help were gathered around the host's podium in the lobby, not so much as a "good night" or "thank you for coming". If this is indicative of their service and food in general, they probably won't last long. Based on this dining experience, I won't be dining there again.
Pittsburgh, PA