“elegant & fashionable”
P(rosciuttocuter)&M: La Bufala is sleek & stylish, elegant & fashionable. The cloakroom attendant (wearing a custom-tailored purple t-shirt) takes your coat at the door and graciously spirits away your overshoes in a pristine, freshly-pressed white kitchen waste bag. The Bufala chef, meanwhile, is calmly putting the final touches on bountiful plates of shrimp, salmon and too many other delicacies to mention.
Contrast her serene, spiritual temperament to the excitable and rather quarrelsome antics of the bouffe! chef up the street and it’s easy to imagine La Bufala thriving while Vive la bouffe!’s fortunes (continue to) decline. Especially if bouffe! keeps getting clobbered on review sites like this.
[editor's note: This review was first published on p. 47 of Boiling Over (Westboro's "very own All-Season Michelin guide", in the words of one well-known food writer). It is reprinted here with the kind permission of Vive la bouffe! Publishing Ventures, LLP.
“disorderly customer”
Sweaterpants: Gracious little trattoria on a lovely tree-lined street, but attracts some rather ‘ungracious’ customers. Night I was there a gentleman (I use the word loosely) at another table completely lost his cool when someone mentioned the name of a radio host who the rest of us adore. Bufala hostess settled him down but meanwhile he’d spilled his wine and made a fool of himself.
“unruly all right, but don’t blame the clientele”
MelonBaller: Ungracious customer? Try ill-mannered chef. What Sweaterpants doesn’t realize is that when chefs close down their kitchens at night they often go out to ‘unwind’ at competing places that stay open later. And being trouble-makers by nature, these cooks can’t help 'stirring' things up. I was at Bufala one night a while back and watched in horror as chef from bouffe!—in the middle of what had been, until then, a polite conversation with fellow chefs from Bufala, Zennnnnn and Eden Street Café—suddenly narrowed his eyes and asked who was uncouth enough to bring a meat paté to a vegetarian restaurant (Zennnnnn chef admitted it was her). He then asked who brought the thing that looked like a dried-up mango pit (also her). When Zennnnnn chef weakly suggested that it wasn’t a mango pit, it was sheep cheese, bouffe! chef asked why she would bring “cheap” cheese to a restaurant like Bufala, a place (much like Eden Street and The Frosty Mug , he said in a voice husky with false compassion) that’s trying so very hard to improve its dubious reputation. Ouch!!!
Calendar note: on November 8, 2016, La Bufala hosted a Hillary Clinton Election-Night Victory Party. Read reviewer comments below:
“8:05pm—live updates from La Bufala...What a great idea for a party!”
#nomoreglassceiling: So exciting. Big group of us in Bufala’s upstairs lounge. Waitress has brought drinks and appetizers, tv coverage getting underway, everyone ready to P-A-R-T-A-Y!!! (stay tuned for more live updates)...
“8:45, still time for Dade County latinos to turn it around”
#nomoreglassceiling: Florida a more stagnant swamp than I thought it was... but quite a few votes in Dade County still to come in. NOTE TO party guests who are starting to worry and whine and wander downstairs in search of more alcohol (the Bufala waitress retreated to the kitchen twenty minutes ago and hasn’t reappeared with any more drinks or apps)—don’t be so fickle! Lots of votes still to count!
"9:15—meanwhile here in the bar downstairs”
fiftyfiftyfella: Am down here in the Bufala bar with a few other guests who would rather drink than watch the Dems’ electoral hopes crash and burn in America’s ‘Rust Belt’. It’s peaceful here—all the excited chatter coming out of the lounge upstairs has finally subsided. Now all we hear is the odd groan and an occasional sob.
“9:45, what’s going on!???!”
#nomoreglassceiling: Election disappointing, but then so is the service here at Bufala! Had to come down to the bar myself to get another glass of wine. Might have just stayed downstairs but the conversation some of the guests in the bar were having—’What’s higher on the scale of depravity, molesting a child or shooting a giraffe?’—was even more disturbing than what we’re hearing on CNN upstairs!
"10:10, not sure what’s going on"
fiftyfiftyfella: Bufala waitress, in what is either an extreme state of shock or an obscure Buddhist ritual, has eaten three entire bags of potato chips and just opened a fourth*. Guests, meanwhile, have been left to fend for themselves and some of them have already started to leave (have heard the door slam a few times already).
"for those in need of an explanation..."
guru_oncall911: *A careful reading of ancient Sanskrit texts reveals how a truly devout Upāsikā (follower of Buddha) could indeed—by ingesting enough potato chips—end her earthly suffering and then be reborn into her next life... as a potato. She could in this way 'go underground' (something many Americans and Canadians have been contemplating since the election). Then in 2020, as soon as Donald Trump has been voted out of office, the waiter in the purple t-shirt can dig her up and she can be reborn once again... as a restaurant owner!
On the evening of Monday, November 13, 2017, La Bufala's two owners, who have been holidaying for the last four weeks in Australia, were Welcomed Home with a large and boisterous party thrown in their honour, at their restaurant, by restaurant colleagues. Unfortunately, Bufala's owners must have missed one of their flights and didn't get back to Ottawa until the day after the party. Reviews have been positive nevertheless—
"buffalo tough"
Elduro: Even though the meat was softened for hours in an InstantPot® before being made into patties, the buffalo burgers were tough tough tough! Party was fun don't get me wrong just the buffalo wasn't properly tenderized. Maybe the reason this place usually cooks vegetarian is that they don't know how to cook meat?
"police raid not necessary"
cocodivine88: Apps (Lamb Shish Kebabs) were just being served when there were flashing lights and sirens outside and a loud knock on the door. Police raid! (customers thrilled because this kind of thing never happens at the other Westboro restaurants). Officers told waiter to turn down the music and demanded to speak with the restaurant's owners and waiter said they should be there any minute. After about two minutes policeman said party was clearly unauthorized and started handcuffing customers which caused another burst of excitement but then waiter from Zennnnn pulled out his smartphone and showed officer an email he got from Bufala owner which said, (quote): "Have a great party at our house on the 13th! Please try not to drink all the wine so we have some when we return". Police removed cuffs and left after saying to keep the music down but waiter turned it up as soon as the door closed behind them LOL!
"fun time"
diLLpickle: Last time I was here was almost exactly a year ago—a special American Election Night Party, November 8, 2016. Anyone else remember?
On Sunday, December 31, 2017, a New Year's Eve gala was held at Westboro's La Bufala to bid a final adieu to 2017. Despite temperatures in the minus-thirties that no doubt kept other, more timid Westboro residents wrapped up in blankets at home, the gathering at Bufala was a large, lively, and boisterous one. Read customer comments below—
"Hey Google!"
Cap'n: The Modern Kitchen wouldn't be complete, I guess, without the latest technology. Last year it was the Spiralizer, last month the Instant Pot, and this week... 'Google Assistant'. Bufala's Kitchen Manager hardly bothered to greet us when we arrived, so enamoured was she of her tiny, perfect helper. "Hey Google, play the Beatles!", "Hey Google, how do I make an appetizer?", "Hey Google, why does it have to be minus-fucking-36-fucking-degrees on a night when we've got more bookings than we've had in years!".
"Water, water, everywhere—"
JustSayin': —and everyone drinking it. Yes the Bufala sommelier was pouring plenty of beer, red and white wine (and, when midnight arrived, bubbly) but at one point in the evening, after listening to a particularly tedious customer drone on and on about a smartphone app that reminds him to drink 8 glasses of water a day, there was a stampede to the kitchen tap. Ten minutes later, not surprisingly, there was a long line-up to use the washroom, and much grumbling about Bufala's washroom being "too far from the dining room". One customer pointed out that Vive la bouffe!'s washroom, which has long been derided for being too close to the dining room, is, in fact, "perfectly situated".
"15 cups of water a day FFS??!"
coco_nut_2018: Just checked on the internet and the illustrious Mayo Clinic recommends almost twice what the Daily Water app suggests—15.5 cups of water a day for men and 11.5 for women! Which makes me question their judgement—especially when the same clinic recommends a measly 2 drinks of alcohol a day for men (and only 1 for women wtf?!), not to mention just 3 cups of mayonnaise a day for men (2.5 cups for women, surprise surprise). Which brings me to my second point—I find it very sexist and chauvinistic that they allow men more... of EVERYTHING. Equality Now!
"customer shaming"
TheGentlemanDiner: Watched dubiously as a customer who everyone seemed to think was an actual restaurant 'reviewer' (Don't ask. No one knows how this local tire-fire got started... or how to put it out) was reluctantly led out of the kitchen by Bufala's hostess to 'witness' a dinner patron in the next room who was sitting dejectedly over a large stain on the carpet below him. "There", she said theatrically, "There's tomorrow's review! 'Customer spills glass of red wine. Ruins priceless Tibetan carpet!'"*. Since when did customer shaming become a blood sport in Westboro's trendiest restaurants!??!
(*p.s. a little later that night I overheard the Bufala waitress admit she was all set to call her lawyer to sue the customer for spilling the wine... until she remembered that her lawyer is the customer who spilled the wine).
"and this was BEFORE the corn vodka LOL"
EterOuter: Q: How do you know when customers have had too much to drink? A: When you see four of them in a chaotic scramble in the middle of the Bufala kitchen, all vainly struggling to fit a cutting board into a plastic bag ("Try it this way!" "No, it's too wide that way!" "Well then try it the other way!" "That doesn't work either". "It's too slippery!"). And that was even before the bottle of corn vodka was pulled off the back shelf.
"How do you know pt. 2"
SlowTrot'78: A: When you see fifteen customers crowding around the kitchen counter shouting instructions at the poor Google Assistant. "Hey Google, play another song!", "No, not THAT song!!", "Google, how do you get a red wine stain out?", "He's still thirsty, Google—can we give him some corn vodka or will it stain the carpet too?".
On Sunday, July 1, 2018, in the midst of the worst heat wave that Westboro has experienced in years, twenty five party-goers gathered at La Bufala to celebrate Canada Day. Reviews (below) are already pouring in.
"very impressed with this place"
Just Sayin': A big group of us ate at Bufala last night and had a great time. The maître d', resplendent in his classic purple t-shirt, the hostess equally notable in a black linen gown. So many customers (eat your heart out Zennnnn and Vive la bouffe!) that seating was a bit of a challenge—maître d' was constantly carrying chairs from one space to another to accommodate everyone—but it all worked out. Meanwhile, the Bufala chef single-handedly poached two immense salmon and made a delicious potato salad, also single-handedly.
AND THIS v v v
squarepants—the Right to Serve Yourself (Article 4.a) and the Right to Second Helpings (Article 4.b, Declaration of W.A.R.) are not just recognized at this place, they're de rigeur! I was afraid that, as a P.E.A.S. establishment, only the waiter here got to eat as many nuts as he wanted. But I saw lots of people here tonight filling there plates multiple times with salmon, focaccia and a nice beet salad.
"get over it"
The Gentleman Diner: Note to BurgerGuy—you've been saying the same thing for almost two years now. Get it through your thick head that the owners of this place are Buddhist vegetarians who will NEVER put >!%#!!! burgers on their menu. Next time just go to The Clocktower if you want it a burger! It's just a couple blocks away FFS.
"did chef leave oven on???!!!"
coco_nut: Agree with all the positive reviews but isn't anyone else suspicious that at least some of the heat that we all blamed on the Great Westboro Heat Wave of 2018 was actually emanating from Bufala's own kitchen? Some friends and I were at the bar where we had a fairly good view of the kitchen and it looked to us like the chef forgot to turn the oven off after the salmon came out. The kitchen staff was pretty busy cleaning up after a couple of customers who spilled there wine in the next room so maybe everyone was distracted. Anyway, the high temperatures drove many of the guests outside onto the lovely back patio, but then the humidity drove them back inside, until they were driven outside again (which is why the poor maître d' was moving chairs around all evening lol). We all suffered a bit but the party was so much fun no one even cared (and besides, the sommelier made sure the wine and beer stayed nicely chilled!).
"Suffering is our fate and we just need to accept it"
BrokenHope: Maybe the above isn't a good slogan for advertising your restaurant. But any customers who are thinking about complaining to the Bufala management about the heat and humidity last night should know The First Noble Truth adhered to by the owners of this place: All Life is Suffering, Pain and Misery. And since human nature is imperfect and attachment to material things like an air conditioner can only cause pain because inevitably it will break down... you might as well just ignore the heat, along with all your other worldly troubles and worries, and enjoy good food and lively company while you can, wherever you can find them!