Laughlin's

This week is local restaurant week. Over a hundred local restaurants are participating in having an exclusive menu for a special price which is represented by the year. It's been going on for a few years now. Some of us at work decided to go out for lunch for it. After looking over the list online to find downtown ones with a lunch menu, we narrowed it to several options. We came to a consensus and ended up with Laughlin's.

This is an untraditional lunch review because we didn't walk there or get it for delivery. We drove there and dined in. We called to make reservations ahead of time and to ask about the parking. A weakness of downtown dining is the parking. Most places downtown don't have parking lots and if they do, there is a charge. Well, this place doesn't have a lot and the surrounding ones are restricted so all that was available was street parking.

For local restaurant week, they offered lunch for 2 between Monday and Friday for an appetizer and two sandwiches. They also have a Grandma's Stuffed Hot Pepper on their regular menu, which was intriguing to order. A lot of places offered drinks and desserts on theirs, but those were not included with this place.

When we arrived, we were welcomed by a friendly staff and an upscale dining area. We walked upstairs to be seated. Our table overlooked the bar below which was a unique view. Not only was the interior nice, but our seating was as well. The chairs for our table were comfortable with cushions on the seat and back. The crowd today comprised of mostly business professionals in suits. We even saw Buffalo's own mayor here too. We strongly suggest making reservations here as they were worth it since the dining space isn’t too large.

We ordered two of the lunch specials and split them. We started with the hot banana peppers and they gave us three of them with fresh homemade bread. This appetizer was extra and it was better than most places that offer hot stuffed banana peppers. We also had a shrimp cocktail and crab cakes to share as part of the local restaurant deal. This food was an excellent beginning to an amazing meal. There were two crab cakes and everyone said nothing but high remarks toward them. The sauces for the crab cakes and shrimp were great. The seasoning on the shrimp blended in well.

Let me tell you something, this food was outstanding... every little piece of it from the salt to the side sauces. We were to the point of almost being overwhelmed. Waiting about 15 minutes before any food came out, the food was worth the time and the money we paid for it. For local restaurant week, they gave us monstrous portions and the sandwiches were huge. For sides, we had an option of picking either fries or a salad for our side. We were very happy that our sandwiches included such sides as they weren't on the local restaurant week menu. The salad had a ton of lettuce in it and these were some of the best fries we ever had a restaurant like this.

This is a place not only we would go back here for lunch, but also for dinner. This was certainly an overall outstanding meal at every aspect of dining.

Final Rating: 4.5 out of 5

Laughlin's Hearty Bistro
www.laughlinsrestaurant.com
333 Franklin Street
Buffalo, NY 14202
716-842-6700