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Disclaimer: This is a breakfast & lunch review only. I haven't experienced dinner enough there to review.
Towne is one of many Greek diner-type restaurants in Buffalo. I live in walking distance, so it is not uncommon for me go there to grab a cup of coffee and toast while reading the paper. They have a good butter ratio on their toast, and are always on top of refilling the coffee.
For lunch, their Avgolemono soup (lemon, rice) is the best of all the Buffalo Greek restaurants (in my experienced opinion), and they make a mean grilled cheese. Sometimes I dream about their coconut cream pie.
Towne is a drunken standard in Buffalo. I rolled on in around 3:30 AM for takeout. The service was slow, but the souvlaki was delicious.
If they were not open late I might have to give them 3 stars, but their all-hours service makes up for it.
I love Buffalo. Especially from May-October. Buffalo has everything I need in a small city. My needs are as follows:
A Breakfast Place that serves breakfast all day, plus if it's Greek-owned.
A Coffee Shop- strong, local grounds, or Starbucks, too.
A Book Store- Please see my review of Rust Belt.
A Bar that serves cold beer and hot, spicy chicken wings.
A Grocery Store/Deli- see review of Holly Farms.
That is all it takes to make this Road Warrior a happy traveler! The Towne Restaurant was great for a late breakfast, and the service was okay, but the coffee was stellar.
If you are looking for some great Greek food then this is the place. Servers are really nice. It is not expensive at all.
I was visiting from Chicago, and thought it would be safe to order a gyros from a Greek restaurant but apparently a gyros at Towne isn't what a gyros is anywhere else in the world. I received what appeared to be a seasoned hamburger patty cut into small pieces.
So if you go into this place do yourself a favor and just order some french toast, because your gyros won't look like this: http://en.wikipedia.or...
The only thing keeping this place afloat is the location. Food sucks. Service sucks. Clientèle is dirty. So many other diner options--and don't tell me you went there because it was late at night and no other place was open. Jim's Steakout is right across the street.
Ideally, this would be a 2.5 star-rating. I don't know, maybe I'm being too harsh...
Towne is one of the several Greek diners I visited during my time in Buffalo. It seems nearly every neighborhood in this town has a flagship establishment serving variations on Mediterranean-themed dishes. And they're always busy.
But from what I've seen (which I admit is relatively thin), I have to say, there are far superior options around the city. I've only ever had breakfast and lunch at Towne, and while the food is just fine and the restaurant is kept relatively clean, both the "Greek" and "diner" elements are done better at other spots. Now of course, if you're in the area, in a desperate hurry, and seeking a meal on the fly, then by all means, go here. They will give you what you want. But if you have some time and patience, I'd recommend spending your change elsewhere.
There are big irritations at Towne -- like pushy, chaotic service (they understaff, so it's kind of service-by-committee) and smaller irritations -- like no fresh-squeezed orange juice. You don't really get as much food for your dollar as at other diners, either. The restaurant is kept clean, but then again, there's not a lot of light in the main dining area, so maybe it can't be seen. Sort of drab.
The service really is the crux of the problem, though. Choppy. One person doing drinks, another person clearing, another person fetching condiments, another person taking orders. I hate pissing away money (or having a friend piss away money) to servers who do nothing, don't make you feel particularly welcome, say "we don't have chocolate chips" for pancakes (yeah right), drop off the check, and probably don't even share a substantive portion of their gratuity with their support staff who's doing ALL the work. Don't pawn off a guest's request to another server right in front of them. It's rude. Also, the restaurant is loud enough without your shouting from across the room... Cool it.
The whole place is just mediocre. And I loathe mediocrity. But they ARE open 24 hours, so I'm conflicted.
You decide.
The best souvlaki in the downtown area. The chicken and lamb are my favorite. The atmosphere is unique, definitely an Allentown feel. Much better food than that new monstrosity of a building Pano's.
The food may not be very authentic, but the owners certainly are. Very enjoyable to have a conversation with. I don't at all agree with Renee's racist comments. There are always all different types of people in Towne. It is in Allentown, where all types live, young professionals, students, musicians, artists, homeless, etc. I have never seen the staff be rude to anyone.
It loses one star for the uninspiring menu. It's just good diner food. I wish there were more authentic greek dishes.
Pretend I gave Towne 3.5 stars. Pretty good food for a greek dinerish restaurant. The chicken souvlaki is better than at Panos because of the more yummy seasonings that they use on the chicken. Kind of an unimaginative menu but can;t complain about the food.
I got very sick the two times I went here. Bad service, dirty restaurant, and the cops always double park right out front and make it even harder to drive down Allen.
Skip it and go to Mythos or Ambrosia for breakfast or Tom's in Amherst for after 4am eats.
Towne rocks. It's open 24 hours, they have fantastic breakfast, and their Greek food is delicious. Sometimes it's unpredictable (dry Souvlaki or Gyro, perhaps) but on the whole this is an amazing place to eat. You should try the Towne Combination Platter which will feed 2, and includes Dolma, Moussaka, Pastichio, Souvlaki, Gyro, Rice, Salad and Pita for under $15.
a few words can describe this place:
RACIST: HATE non-White PPL...
My friends and I came to eat here cuz we were craving greek food and were on allen street...we were a group of 6 all minorties...they would not seat us right away and when we did get seated the waitress asked if we had enough money to pay for the meal before we even picked up our menus!!! when I asked her why she would ask me that question, she said, oh cuz you know you colored folk and asian people nver have any money!!!
I was soooo pisssed i got up and went stright to the manager, who tem proceeeded to gtell me that if we are not satisfied with her service we can leave!
NEVER EVER EVER go here!!!!!!
We were visiting Niagara Falls and the surrounding areas, so we looked on Yelp for a nice restaurant in the Buffalo area. Towne Restaurant was highly rated, and rightly so. For noon on Sunday, the place was packed and we had to wait a good fifteen minutes. It was quite worth it, and a great value. The menu was decently sized, and the service was very nice. It truly felt like a greek restaurant and the food was delicious. It was a lucky find, and it seems that it's very popular amongst locals.
Random little gem of a Greek place in Buffalo. The inside looks like a tired diner from the 70's with dark wood paneling and vinyl seats and plastic tables...but the food was basic and good.
Tried the 50/50 beef chicken souvlaki. The salad was fresh and crisp, the pita was ...well pita. I'm not a pita fan so can't be much help there. Chicken was fab, beef was pretty darn good. My husband had the fish fry which apparently is one of their famous dishes. He loved it...it's battered then fried but it's crispy and bready so it almost tastes baked. It was pretty darn tasty, surprisingly enough.
Overall, loved the whole locals eat here Greek vibe and it hit the spot after many many hours of flying and noshing on plane snacks. They had a big glass swiveling tray of desserts but we passed it up... opting instead for visiting Sweet Tooth right across the street for some after-lunch dessert tasties.
This is the place to go for Greek cusine in Buffalo. Good food, including, if you prefer, lamb entrees.
Today we went in for lunch and just had to try Flaming Cheese which consisted of Kasri cheese very lightly broiled then surrounded by tomotoes with a shot of Mataxa which was ignited at the table. A plate of warm pita with peppers and greek olives for dipping.
My friend had a deluxe cheeseburger and I chose a pita packed with chicken souvlaki and a side of greek potatoes.
The coffee was just perfect and the food so plentiful I took enough home for two more lunches.
We were so stuffed after the cheese and some of our lunch that we had to refuse dessert but the cheese cake looked like something I will be back for soon.
In this busy section of town it is a plus they have a private parking lot.
This is a soo chef establishment.
The pita bread is hard and over toasted. Pita bread in my opinion should be served warmed and not like a piece of hard toast. Other Greek restaurants take more pride in the quality of the pita.
Updated 8/26/2009
I'm going to preface my review by saying that I used to live in Astoria, NY-probably the biggest hub for authentic greek food on the entire east coast. And growing up our family had greek friends who would always give gifts of food, so I was probably spoiled by some of the best Baklava out there.
Anyways, Towne isn't really the most authentic Greek food out there-a lot of the dishes have been made more generically American. So why am I still giving it 5 stars? Well, because it's still a great place to eat! I love the hot pita bread they serve with meals, and most of the food there comes in very generous portions but is still priced pretty reasonably.
Having eaten at the other Greek places in town (including one which my Greek friend considered fairly authentic) I've decided that while Towne might not be super-authentic it's not much different than all the other Greek places in town and the portions/pricing/hours more than make up for it in my book. A more authentic experience *can* be had (ordering the right combination of appetizer platters at ambrosia can yield some pretty authentic Greek meals), but if you think of Towne as "Greek inspired" you should be satisfied.
Now, I have to say that I was pretty surprised when I logged in today and saw Towne's rating so low since it used to be one of the better reviewed places in Buffalo. I did have varying levels of service the times I've been there but the problems have mostly just been with speed and not so much with outright rudeness.
I want to say that I didn't personally experience/witness any racism while I was there. But at the same time I'm not comfortable (or naive) enough to assume that just because I didn't see it that it didn't happen. Because when I've experienced racism is almost always completely unexpected and in the most "unlikely" of places-especially since I'm not likely to head where I'd expect to be discriminated against.
It's unfortunate, but knowing quite a few waiter/waitress friends I know there's stereotypes about certain minorities with regards to tipping. And if a server really thinks it's unlikely that they're going to get much of a tip (sometimes with the excuse that the patron doesn't have enough money) they're going to be pretty loathe to seat a large group since it's a lot of work for very little money. I've also seen and heard servers at *other* Buffalo area restaurants complain about this exact kind of thing (not to the people they were complaining about of course but oddly while chatting to my table or within earshot) makes it seem fairly believable.
Either way I really hope Towne says something one way or another regarding this incident, because it's one of my favorite restaurants around and frankly now I'm not going to be comfortable going there since I'd feel probably overly paranoid. Maybe the waitress was tired and just had a large group of people stiff her on a tip or something, who knows. But if the response to complaining about this was anything short of a sincere apology then that's just not cool, and not acceptable. I can only hope that this was all a big misunderstanding or something!
I've been going here for all of my life. My earliest memory here was about age 3. I'm currently a few months away from bieng 21, so for roughly the last 17 years of my life, I think the most that has changed in this resturaunt is the graffiti in the bathroom. Standard good breakfast. If you're eating lunch or dinner make sure to get a milkshake. If not a milkshake, loganberry. Just classic Greek-American food for a reasonable price. A buffalo institution for sure, simply because everyone had been there at least once in thier life.
It really is the best chicken-lemon-rice soup ever. The entire place is quick and low cost too. The only reasons I'm not giving it the full 5 stars is that parking can be a bitch, and rice pudding isn't the best that you can get around here.
classic greek diner. always see someone you know. miss it.
Ok seriously. This place has the VERY BEST greek salad! It's just so good. I don't go there too often, but when I do, it's.... It's like Christmas!
i'm old school when it comes to my buffalo greek food...my dad used to go here when there were 4 stools in front of the grill, now it is a sprawling greek empire, and for good reason. late night soulvaki, the BEST lemon chicken rice soup EVER, and gravy and fries...i want to hop the next jetblue flight to the buff right now just thinking about it.
this probably is one of the best greek restaurants in buffalo. it is very classy, but not too pricy.
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