Restaurant Review: Victor's Bar and Grille

   Friday was payday and I wanted Italian food.  This construction thing in our house is driving us both mad.  We just want to start cooking again!  All we are waiting on is the granite counter top to arrive, and because we are waiting on that, the contractor started working on the bathroom.  Now even our bathroom is limited.  We are going crazy.  I wanted the both of us to get out of the house and to enjoy some good food.  We decided to look north on Hertel Avenue where there is a plethora of Italian Restaurants to choose from.  We decided to go with "Victor's Bar and Grill."  Neither of us had ever been there so I figured I'd try it and write a review.

  Victor's provided an odd yet comfortable atmosphere.  It seemed to have been split down the middle with a little sports bar section on one side, and a sit-down, family dinner section on the other side.  The chairs were super comfortable.  They looked like outdated kitchen chairs from 1989 with big thick cushions.  The menu was loaded with delicious options.  We ordered two glasses of Chianti and started off with an appetizer.  We went with the Diavlo Bread, which was on the specials menu.  It was garlic bread topped with gorgonzola, mozzarella, spinach, and hot peppers served with marinara. 

There were six here, but we had eaten a few before I remembered that I was supposed to take pictures...

There is not one negative thing that I could say about this appetizer.  The instant it arrived to the table, the smells that were emitting from this dish were fantastic.  So fantastic that I forgot to take pictures at first.  Nicole and I had both agreed the there was so much flavor in this bread, that the marinara was not really needed.  This was a great start to a much needed Italian fest.  For our main entrees, Nicole ordered the "Meg's Kickin' Chicken" which was supposed to be one of their signature dishes.  It consisted of a fresh chicken breast pounded out and folded around a stuffed banana pepper served with a linguini pesto cream sauce.  I had ordered Baked Braciole.  Both meals came with a salad.  When the salads arrived they looked so sorry that we almost started to worry about our meals.  Just plain iceberg lettuce, two slices of cucumber a piece, and one chopped cherry tomato. Thankfully, when the main entrees arrived, they both looked fantastic.

Baked Braciole

Meg's Kickin Chicken

My dish was pretty good.  The steak was a little tough  but the sauce made up for it.  Its hard to find a good red sauce especially when you come from an Italian family that made great red sauce (Hint: it will never be better than my mother's).  In fact, 90% of the time we go out for Italian, I almost never order anything with red sauce because its usually terrible or too sweet.  This sauce was decent.  Nicole's dish was good also.  The chicken was really tender and perfectly cooked.  After a taste of her dish, my only complaint was that it was a little bland, but still good.  It was perfectly cooked, it just could have used a little more flavor, especially for something referred to as "kickin' chicken," but Nicole enjoyed it.  Victor's served as a good quick decision Italian Restaurant.  The service was above average and we were able to sit down immediately.  It is not a place that I would ever mention for great Italian food, but it is definitely a solid restaurant that you can rely on very a good meal.  I would go back to and try something else without a doubt.  If I had to rate it on a scale of 1-10, I would give this place a 7.5.  It's totally worth checking out if you are in the Hertel area, would like some solid Italian food, and you don't want to break the bank paying for dinner.

Victor's Bar and Grille
1503 Hertel Ave
Buffalo, NY 14216

716-931-9876