Comfort Food Utopia = Buffalo's Bar & Grill

Comfort Food Utopia = Buffalo's Bar & Grill

by Liv | Published on June 23rd, 2010, 12:56 pm | Food

My children are under a misconception I believe: that when a normal family goes out to eat they visit a local pub adorned with wide-screen televisions, world cup soccer and some drunk guy on his lunch break downing a few beers while flirting with the waitress. You may be a assuming I'm latching on to some sort of American reincarnation of the English pub to balance my sanity with my known affliction of Eurofatuation, (not to be confused with Euroflatulence) but you'd be wrong. (Well sort of, they do give AA Dining miles.)

Buffalo's Bar & Grill was founded by Linda Faia in December 1990. Known for its selection of Buffalo wings, including Thai Peanut, Garlic, Hot Cuban, Extra Hot, Ranch, Lemon Pepper, and more.

I mean how could the American's bastardization of the British pub ever compare? Sure there's food, alcohol, and sports- but the place is empty with its waitress who appears to have graduated from working at Emerald Point to waitressing. She flirts with a customer in the corner as our food sits on the shelf with the cook yelling from behind a wall with a window. Above our heads is a dirty dusty A/C ventilation and thousands of wires. There's no culture here, no socialization, no nothing. It's like the waiting room at your neighborhood back alley abortionist- painfully miserable. The seats are electrical taped and stick to your legs and the tables lack foot rests. I suppose I could go on, but I don't want to give you the wrong impression... I liked the place.

What? You're asking! Well the first 15 minutes there I had already written the review of this place in my head. It wasn't going to be good. I mean the waitress was super nice. We were a bit concerned for our waitress who was almost artificially brown from a tanning bed- (that much deep frying in the sun can't be good) and despite the fact we ordered chips and got fries, or that the kids didn't get their brownie and I'm not even sure if Ren got her meal for free... in the end.... I've got to recommend this place. Why? No one on the face of the earth tried harder but still got it wrong than this woman. You can take the girl out of country, but you can't take the country out of this waitress. All you could do is say "bless her heart", reflecting back to her the southern tone she spoke in. But that's not enough. She went out of her way to make suggestions of the food, get us drinks-to-go, and made the children feel special. She may not be the best waitress in the world, but she has southern hospitality down to an art.

Now for the real reason you do want to go: The food. It's like a comfort food utopia in there. I mean, if you're craving cheesy, salty, beefy, buffaloee, chickeny fatty goodness... and a lot of it- this is your place. I had their Buffalo Chicken sandwich and loved it, but even better was Shannon's bacon and bleu cheese burger which had a waterfall of sauce and crispy bacon. We ordered some of their wings, which they sell in 20 different flavors and which absolutely lived up to their claim that they have the best wings in Greensboro. They were crispy, deep-fried, and lovely. Adequate wet nappies were provided and we left knowing that this is one craveable place. Almost everything on the menu is junk food. Cordon bleus, chili burgers, chips, fries, you name it. If it can be deep-fried they've got it.... and it's good. Seriously good. For whatever this place lacks in comfort, it makes up for in great tasting comfort food.

Unfortunately there are still two caveats. One: this breaks all diet rules. You absolutely cannot imagine (or shouldn't at least) how much fat and calories you are consuming or your head will pop. Two: It's not cheap. We spent $50 for the four of us on a casual lunch. (Though they do have specials like Monday mania which includes burgers for 1/2 off.)

Bottom line. If you're pregnant, stoned, or have an intense desire for a large assortment of comfort food and don't care about what it costs then this is hands down a great place to go. In fact by the end up it I had convinced myself, this is one of my new favorite places. Why? Because good food trumps everything. Good comfort food without the endless lines of sheeps and zombies and their table pagers waiting to eat at Chili's and Olive Garden = Utopia.

I like Buffalo's. I think I prefer their Greensboro location over the Burlington one. I'm also glad they moved down the street from their old location, which was a bit cramped. But they definitely have a lot to choose from beyond a pretty extensive menu of sauce flavors for their chicken wings.

The best Buffalos is certainly the one on Battleground ave, not the HP Road location. Good service, great for sports and gathering with friends. The one in Burlington is awful. Terrible service, grungy, and it turns into a hip hop meat market after sundown on the weekends. In short, I disagree with you on this one Liv. If you want great wings, head to the one on Battleground. If you want disentery and then a chance to get shot and mugged, go to either Burlington or High Point Rd.

I didn't even pay attention to the address Liv listed. I only knew of the Battleground location. It's pretty dern unlikely I'll check out High Point Rd for comparison. I'm happy going to Battleground.

And one more thing.. the Buffalo's on Battleground is the only one with nice big flat panel HD plasmas. The one in Burlington has a nasty old rear projection TV and old freakin tube sets!! Seriously!! Looks like the one on High Point Rd is the same. Geeze, wake up and realize what decade you're in already!

Sanjuro wrote:The best Buffalos is certainly the one on Battleground ave. Good service, great for sports and gathering with friends.

Never been to that one. Timing has been my enemy... every time I drive by there, it's closed.

The one in Burlington is awful. Terrible service, grungy, and it turns into a hip hop meat market after sundown on the weekends.

"Awful" is far too weak a word for Burlington's location. It's a freaking catastrophe.

If you want disentery and then a chance to get shot and mugged, go to either Burlington or High Point Rd.

Yeah, the High Point Rd. location has occasionally been good, but the service over the past few times I've gone there -- over a period of the past couple of years -- has been slow and shoddy.

SouthernFriedInfidel wrote:Never been to that one. Timing has been my enemy... every time I drive by there, it's closed.
.

Well, before they built the new location they were almost as bad as Burlington and High Point Rd.

Sanjuro wrote:
SouthernFriedInfidel wrote:Never been to that one. Timing has been my enemy... every time I drive by there, it's closed.
.

Well, before they built the new location they were almost as bad as Burlington and High Point Rd.

They have a new one? Didn't know that. I'll try and get out there this weekend.

Cheers! :dance:

SouthernFriedInfidel wrote:
Sanjuro wrote:
SouthernFriedInfidel wrote:Never been to that one. Timing has been my enemy... every time I drive by there, it's closed.
.

Well, before they built the new location they were almost as bad as Burlington and High Point Rd.

They have a new one? Didn't know that. I'll try and get out there this weekend.

Cheers!

Ha ha ha ha.. there was probably a good reason the one you went to was always closed.

Sanjuro wrote:Ha ha ha ha.. there was probably a good reason the one you went to was always closed.

Indeed. One would think that they might have thought it a good idea if they were moving to a new place, they'd do a few things to re-direct people... like removing their signage on the old building, or putting up posters telling people where they've moved to.

You can't miss the new location. It's very shiny.

Serendipitous wrote:You can't miss the new location. It's very shiny.

Well, you CAN miss it if you, like me, turn back for home when you see the place closed and see no indication that it has moved instead of being simply abandoned. I've googled the addresses for the place. Even Google shows both buildings on its search results.

Sanjuro wrote:The best Buffalos is certainly the one on Battleground ave. Good service, great for sports and gathering with friends. The one in Burlington is awful. Terrible service, grungy, and it turns into a hip hop meat market after sundown on the weekends. In short, I disagree with you on this one Liv. If you want great wings, head to the one on Battleground. If you want disentery and then a chance to get shot and mugged, go to either Burlington or High Point Rd.

Well one would assume that the level of service and food quality would be the same at this locally owned chained... I do imagine from reading many of the Google reviews however, we will shortly be visited by the owners here on Greensboring..... I'd love to hear them address your concerns.

That said, we chose High Point Road because we were heading down to the Polish Deli at the Adam's Farm Shopping Center, and it was on the way.

I bet we hear from them. Hope the truth doesn't hurt them too much.

If that review is to believed, I was a bit taken back by how the owner threatened him for posting his thoughts on Google..... I mean the customer did seem like a douche.... complaining about peppers on a sandwich.... what a 4 year old... but still...

...Okay... now I've scared them off.

heh.. sometimes I forget people other than our regulars read this blog.

I think the criticisms levied here are fair and accurate.

Good things : Battleground location. Great wings (love their Jamaican Jerk Sauce!!), great place to watch a game, decent service, very friendly mgmt and bartenders.

Bad: High Point Road and Burlington: They're the complete opposite of everything mentioned above. HP Rd should be relocated, and Burlington location gutted and remodeled with new staff that rejects the "club" atmosphere it turns into at night.

The Battleground location could use a bit of sprucing up on the inside.. It's a bit sparse looking and reminds me a bit of a school cafeteria, but once its packed you hardly notice.

Now, I will say they have some stiff competition with Wings and Rings down the road. If Wings and Rings had a larger bar area for sports, etc I would have probably frequented there more.. THAT said, even then I would still head to Buffalos for their Jamaican Jerk wings.

Liv wrote:Well one would assume that the level of service and food quality would be the same at this locally owned chained... I do imagine from reading many of the Google reviews however, we will shortly be visited by the owners here on Greensboring..... I'd love to hear them address your concerns.

GoogleReview wrote:Our boneless wings arrived in a reasonable time but were disappointing in that the breading was very hard and probably over-fried. The meat was nothing special and my hunch is that they were just frozen Cisco product.

I'm gonna guess he meant Costco, not Cisco... but I'm now sitting here imagining a basket of buffalo VoIP phones!

Liv wrote:If that review is to believed, I was a bit taken back by how the owner threatened him for posting his thoughts on Google..... I mean the customer did seem like a douche.... complaining about peppers on a sandwich.... what a 4 year old... but still...

...Okay... now I've scared them off.

Um -- the owner threatened the reviewer? I read the link you provided. I didn't see any "threat" by the owner. What led yo to use that word in this story? Just curious.

SouthernFriedInfidel wrote:
Liv wrote:If that review is to believed, I was a bit taken back by how the owner threatened him for posting his thoughts on Google..... I mean the customer did seem like a douche.... complaining about peppers on a sandwich.... what a 4 year old... but still...

...Okay... now I've scared them off.

Um -- the owner threatened the reviewer? I read the link you provided. I didn't see any "threat" by the owner. What led yo to use that word in this story? Just curious.

Agreed, there was no threat there. He simply said he thought that the reviewer should have come to the mgmt or owners first before posting a review so (I assume) they would have had the opportunity to correct.

I would disagree with him on this though because one should always be open to criticism-no matter how misplaced it might be-if working in the public service industries and strive to correct or "make it right".

This review looks to have been edited after the original post, but I could be wrong. The owner should never have called out the reviewer for being "biased" (even if it was true) rather should have stuck to the points on quality, apologized, and shipped the douche some free meal vouchers or something.

One should never give the appearance of levying judgement on a customer. All that does is make the situation worse.

Serendipitous wrote:
I'm gonna guess he meant Costco, not Cisco... but I'm now sitting here imagining a basket of buffalo VoIP phones!

I thought the same thing... When did Cisco get into food?

OR June 24th, 2010, 12:55 pm Reply with quote

OR

I keep thinking of those Cisco commercials on tv.... where the chick gets a ticket on her car.... just trying to imagine one with buffalo wings...

Liv wrote:
Serendipitous wrote:
I'm gonna guess he meant Costco, not Cisco... but I'm now sitting here imagining a basket of buffalo VoIP phones!

I thought the same thing... When did Cisco get into food?

I bet he meant " Sysco" but he just didn't know how to spell it correctly.
* " The largest North America marketer and distributor of foodservice products."

Went out to see this place yesterday with my wife. As Sanjuro says, the building is far superior to either the High Point Rd. or Burlington locations. The food is pretty much the same. And while the service was a lot friendlier than any visit I've had to Buffalo's in a LONG time... it sure was slow. Which I could not understand, since there was only one other table occupied when we were there.

I also thought it was a bit odd that when we ordered onion rings for an appetizer, it didn't come with ranch dressing for dipping. They charged us $.45 for a separate cup of that. Is this normal? I ask because I've only had onion rings at a few other places (and they all give you dipping stuff of one sort or other), and don't really know if those places are unusual...

I think it's the new norm. They charged my at Wendy's about 6 months ago, and Domino's is charging for condiments.