The University at Buffalo's South Campus sits at the top of Main Street in University Heights, and we sit on Main Street in University Heights, so a large share of the people at our counter on any given morning are students, faculty, nurses coming off a shift, and parents who have just discovered that their kid's dorm does not have a kitchen. This is the guide we would hand all of them.
The three kinds of student breakfast
1. Before class, in a hurry
Sit at the counter, not a booth. Counter service is faster because the cook can see you. Order the All American (two eggs, home fries, toast) or a fried egg sandwich on a toasted roll, and a coffee. You will be out in twenty minutes, fed properly, for the price of a campus latte and a muffin.
2. After a late night, not in a hurry
Take a booth. Order the Blizzard Breakfast: three eggs, bacon, sausage, home fries, a pancake, and toast. Drink water. Then drink coffee. Nobody at this diner has ever judged a person for ordering the Blizzard at 11am on a Sunday, and nobody is going to start with you.
3. Parents in town
You do not need a reservation. Just arrive a little before the rush, which on weekends means before ten. Put your parents in a booth by the window, order the Eggs Benedict for your mother and the Strip Steak & Eggs for your father, and let the building do the rest. It is a real 1952 dining car, it has been on television twice, and parents love that.
What to order if it's your first time
- Blueberry pancakes. Scratch-made, and the dish that got us on Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives. Start here if you are undecided.
- Souvlaki Breakfast. Chicken or beef souvlaki, two eggs, feta, home fries, toast. The Greek diner classic and the thing regulars order.
- Veggs Benedict. Our vegan benedict with tofu scramble and house-made seitan bacon. Also on Triple-D. Also very good if you eat eggs.
- A milkshake with breakfast. Twenty-one flavors, hand-dipped, and on Wednesdays they are two for one. A chocolate malt at 9am is a legitimate life choice.
Vegan and vegetarian, without the sad salad
A meaningful share of the students who come in eat plant-based, and we built the menu with that in mind rather than bolting a veggie burger on at the end. Vegan French toast, a VLT with seitan bacon, a white bean burger, tofu scramble, cashew hollandaise. The full vegan lineup has its own page, and a post that carries it through dinner.
Sit at the counter if you're in a hurry. The cook can see you.
The neighborhood, briefly
University Heights is the stretch of Main Street between South Campus and Bailey Avenue, and it has the bones of a real neighborhood: bars, a couple of coffee shops, the campus itself, and a diner. Our sister restaurant across the parking lot wrote a proper guide to University Heights, and they know the after-dark half of it better than we do. That is The New Steer: steaks, wings, a full bar, and the place your parents will want to take you to dinner after they have had breakfast here.
Study-friendly, within reason
Laptop in a booth on a Wednesday afternoon, refilling your coffee: fine, encouraged. Laptop in a booth during the Saturday rush while a family of five waits for a table: please read the room. We will bring you a shake to go.
And if your family is coming in May for commencement, read this one next. That weekend needs a plan. Everything else, just come to the diner when you are hungry.