TAKE ONE In the Mode By Jessica Keltz; photos by kc kratt Panko-crusted goat cheese salad with strawberries, spinach, red onions, and balsamic dressing. Steak frites. Tunatini. A stylish spot on the corner of Utica and Elmwood took the place of Le Metro’s Buffalo location last year. (Le Metro maintains a restaurant on Main Street in Williamsville.) Casual observers could be forgiven for not noticing—if you walk or drive down Elmwood, you see what appears to be pretty much the same place, with a different sign. The menu, though, boasts a few more changes, most in favor of higher-end dishes. Pho—a Vietnamese noodle soup—still appears, for $15 and up, as do brick oven pizzas, which start at $12. Other choices tend more toward preparations using goat cheese, strip steak, seared duck breast, and bistro frites, with entrees costing around $20–25. As before, the restaurant features a good-sized bar area with a few tables, a larger, more formal dining room to the right, and seasonal patio space on the Elmwood/Utica sidewalks. On an initial visit to Mode, I enjoyed an after-work dinner of appetizers at the bar. The caprese salad, a seasonal special, was served with a very sweet balsamic reduction, a handful of mesclun greens, slivers of basil, and a bit of pesto. An appetizer from the menu featured panko and herb-crusted goat cheese with grilled eggplant, roasted tomatoes, and balsamic glaze. The bartender also served me a slice of Le Metro’s famed bread with a dish of herbed olive oil alongside, and a glass of white wine. Before ordering, I noticed that the by-the-glass wine list features quite a few selections common to downtown bars, like Relax Riesling and Red Bicyclette. Most are European; a few California Chardonnays are offered as well. Five beers were on tap, including the rarely-seen-in-Buffalo Hoegaarden. At any rate, the salads hit the spot. The grilled eggplant was a touch on the bitter side, but everything else boasted a nice balance of flavors. I especially appreciated the roasted tomatoes, which went much better with warm cheese and warm eggplant than raw ones would have. I returned to Mode for a more traditional sit-down dinner a couple of weeks later, and a friend and I started with a salad of strawberries, spinach, red onions, goat cheese, and balsamic dressing. She also ordered a raspberry gimlet, which was pleasantly light and not at all icky-sticky-sweet like so many fruit-flavored cocktails. We loved the salad; everything was fresh, especially the ripe seasonal berries. For the main course, we sampled the seared scallops with corn polenta and the steak frites, both of which were served with the vegetable of the day, a mix of finely sliced summer squashes. The polenta was the highlight of the meal. On the salty side (in a good way), with a wonderful mix of textures—whole kernels of corn were found throughout. The scallops were served on top of it, and the oil they were cooked in made the mixture that much better. The steak arrived piled high with pleasantly crisp shoestring potatoes, which numbered way more than necessary. We enjoyed both the steak itself and the scallops, finding them to be well cooked and flavored. Hearty eaters will be pleased to learn that my plate contained five or six large scallops; those with smaller appetites may wonder if a half portion is available. My friend made a positive note of the grill marks on her steak, which she said was done closer to medium-well than the medium she had ordered, but no worse for the wear. The vegetables, meanwhile, added nothing and seemed to have been barely seasoned at all. For dessert, we split a selection that layered raspberry and white chocolate mousse in a chocolate crust. As with the fries, there was way more dessert than we needed, even though we were sharing. But we couldn’t argue with the quality. If you’re a food lover who has resisted the dark chocolate trend, you’ll want to save room for this one. On the whole, Mode adds to the nice mix of restaurants in this section of the Elmwood Village: Greek diners, Chinese takeout, and hot dogs share a few blocks with the likes of the Wine Thief, Tabree, and Nektar. The mix is part of what so many love about bustling urban spaces, and for that reason, Mode’s name is apt indeed. Mode Urban Bistro 520 Elmwood Ave. 885-1500, www.modeurbanbistro.com Jessica Keltz is an attorney and freelance writer. She lives, works, plays, and eats in the city of Buffalo. SUBSCRIBE NOW Back to the Table of Contents Back to Top