We only had a couple of days in the Niagara Falls and Grand Island area, but I wanted to show the couple of places we managed to eat (mostly we were eating at home in the camper while trying to get the kids some extra rest!) while visiting.  Stay tuned for more Niagara Falls posts to get my tips on the best tours and attractions!

Adrian's Custard & Beef

Location: 2352 Grand Island Blvd Grand Island, NY 14072
Website: http://www.adrianscustardandbeef.com/
Quick Glimpse:  Casual walk-up serving the famous beef on weck, BBQ beef, burgers, hot dogs, veggie burgers, chicken, Italian sausage, onion rings, fries and more.  Serves Perry's custard and ice cream with dairy free and sugar free varieties available and a rotating menu of flavors.

Beef on Weck is a dish found primarily in Western New York, especially around the city of Buffalo, which is very close to Grand Island and Niagara Falls.  It is a sandwich made from tender sliced roast beef with horseradish and au jus served on a kimmelweck roll, a bun topped with kosher salt and caraway seeds.  Adrian's is known for having a great Beef on Weck, and this did not disappoint!  Look at all of that juicy roast beef!

If I see sweet potato fries on the menu I gotta try 'em, and these were delicious!  Crispy on the outside and the best part - just lightly salted, maybe a touch of cinnamon in there, without other excessive seasoning.  I prefer simple when it comes to sweet potatoes - don't you dare drown my fries in brown sugar!

And look how fun - curly fries!  The kids love any kind of "fun food" and they were pretty tasty, too.

I ordered my ol' standby, a grilled chicken sandwich.  The peppers and onions I ordered on top were amazing, but that was about it.  The chicken was overcooked and dry.  Stick with the burgers and Beef on Weck at Adrian's, though, and you won't be disappointed!

We ordered grilled cheese for the kids and I giggled a little bit at what was put in front of us.  It's literally a hamburger bun, inverted, with some plasticized American cheese slices on the inside.  The bun was barely grilled and there didn't appear to be any butter on it.  Weird?  If we had ordered this off-menu I could absolutely see them throwing this together, but this was an actual menu item!

Next we sampled a few flavors of ice cream - so many to choose from!  This is Let's Dough Buffalo, cookie dough ice cream with crushed cookie swirls and cookie dough pieces.  Delish.

Shelby requested "colorful ice cream" and wouldn't provide us with any more details, so Matt ordered using basically those exact words when he got up to the window and...

The perfect cup of colorful ice cream was delivered!  Pink and blue cotton candy ice cream with "unicorn sprinkles" on top.  Perfect!

Jasper requested the same thing he requests every single time we go out for ice cream - chocolate with rainbow sprinkles.

We jazzed it up a bit by getting Dirt Sundae - chocolate ice cream with chocolate cookie swirls and marshmallow swirls.  And the rainbow sprinkles, of course.

As a casual walk-up place, Adrian's serves up easy, fast casual fare and is the perfect spot to cruise by for an afternoon ice cream treat.

Gadawski's

Location: 1445 Falls St, Niagara Falls, NY 14303
Website: https://www.facebook.com/Gadawskis/
Quick Glimpse:  Decor is steeped in Notre Dame fandom.  Serves a primarily Polish menu of pierogies, golombki and Polish sausage.

We ordered the kids a grilled cheese (yes, again!) and fries to split.  Gadawski's does not have a kids menu and also does not provide kid-friendly cups (covered, etc).  They also don't have milk or juices.  Just a heads up if dining here with little ones!  They enjoyed their sandwich and fries and there was plenty for them to share.

All right, I'm gonna put the bad right in the middle - this is probably the worst plate of food I have ever been served at a restaurant.  The broiled fisherman's platter is supposed to be a plate of fresh shrimp, broiled haddock, and broiled scallops.  The vegetable of the day was carrots, so that's what I got.  This... was not good, my friends.  When our waitress placed this in front of me, she said the cook didn't like how much the scallops shrank when cooking, so he was making a few more for me.  That was odd to hear - shouldn't a cook know how to properly cook (and not OVERcook) scallops?  Anyway, the scallops were terrible, so overcooked they were chewy and rubbery.  I gnawed on one, spit it out, and left the rest.  Same with the coleslaw, which was runny and sad looking.  The haddock's texture made me think it had been defrosted in a microwave for too long and then over broiled, resulting in a tough, weird, rubbery texture.  The "fresh shrimp" was ONE shrimp atop a cup of cocktail sauce.  And the "vegetable of the day", the carrots, were so under cooked that they still crunched, and there was no flavoring or seasoning to be had.  I try to find the positive parts of a not-so-great restaurant meal, but this whole thing was a real stinker without one redeeming item on the plate.  Stay far away.  I literally couldn't eat any of it and waited to eat a sandwich at home, and I don't think that has ever happened to me before when dining out!

Matt fared a bit better with the Polish Platter.  The dish included a cabbage roll, polish sausage, sauerkraut, potatoes, and 2 pierogi.  Sticking with the Polish items on the menu is definitely the way to go when visiting Gadawski's, as this was a tasty meal of a variety of items.  Matt said he could have done without the potatoes, which were a little dry and under seasoned, but everything else was very pleasant.

Looking at the reviews online for Gadawski's, it's possible that we came on an off day, as the locals absolutely love this place.  So don't count it out completely when visiting the area, but just in case, don't order the seafood platter.  ?

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