Veal parm in Buffalo, NY: our top picks
Buffalo’s Italian-American story starts on the West Side, where the city’s Italian street festival began on Connecticut Street in 1976. As Italian families moved north in the 1970s and 1980s, the festival followed them to Hertel Avenue in North Buffalo in the late 1980s, and that stretch of bakeries, cafes and red-sauce rooms is what locals now call Little Italy. The festival spent a few summers at the Outer Harbor and in Niagara Square and has since come home. Romeo & Juliet’s, a bakery and cafe on Hertel since 1998, is the stop for cannoli on the walk back to the car.
The red-sauce institution everyone mentions is downtown, though. Chef’s has been on the corner of Seneca and Chicago streets since 1923, and the Billittier family has run it since the 1940s, now into a third generation. Its spaghetti parm, pasta baked under layers of cheese, dates to 1962, when Lou Billittier Sr. worked it out with WKBW anchor Dave Thomas, and it is still the restaurant’s top seller.
South of the city the history gets bigger, literally. Ilio DiPaolo was born in Abruzzo and wrestled professionally across Canada, the U.S. and Japan until an ankle injury ended his career in 1965, the same year he went into the restaurant business; his place on South Park Avenue in Blasdell still has his championship belts and old ring photos on the walls. Nearby in Lackawanna, chef Joe Jerge opened The Mulberry Italian Ristorante in 2005 on a quiet residential street, and its meatballs have since brought Guy Fieri to town. In a city that takes its chicken wings this seriously, a soggy cutlet does not last long.
- Ilio DiPaolo's Restaurant & Banquet Facility (Blasdell) — Parm Score 75. Veal parm comes up in 1 of the recent Google reviews we sampled, and the tone is positive. 4.7 on Google across 2,892 reviews.
- The Mulberry | Italian Ristorante (Lackawanna) — Parm Score 72. Veal parm is on the restaurant’s own menu (checked November 2026). 4.7 on Google across 2,716 reviews.
- Santasiero's Italian Restaurant (Buffalo) — Parm Score 70. Veal parm comes up in 1 of the recent Google reviews we sampled, and the tone is positive. 4.2 on Google across 1,077 reviews.
We ranked 5 restaurants within 10 miles of Buffalo, NY. 5 of them have the parm confirmed, by reviewers or on their own menu, and Parm Scores run from 69 to 75. Only places where reviews or the menu confirm the veal parm are listed. How Parm Score works.
More rankings: Chicken parm in Buffalo, NY · Eggplant parm in Buffalo, NY · New York, NY · Brooklyn, NY · Queens, NY · Bronx, NY · Staten Island, NY · Pearl River, NY · Rochester, NY · Albany, NY · Best veal parm in New York
5 restaurants ranked for Veal parm near Buffalo, NY.
- Ilio DiPaolo's Restaurant & Banquet Facility
3785 South Park Ave, Blasdell, NY 14219, USA - The Mulberry | Italian Ristorante
64 Jackson Ave, Lackawanna, NY 14218, USA - Santasiero's Italian Restaurant
1329 Niagara St, Buffalo, NY 14213, USA - Chef's Restaurant
291 Seneca St, Buffalo, NY 14204, USA - Faso's Ristorante
2126 Niagara St, Buffalo, NY 14207, USA
Rankings use Parm Score (Google rating, review volume, and parm mentions). Restaurants with the parm confirmed, by reviews or on their own menu, always rank first. Photos, ratings, and hours from Google Maps. Interactive map and filters load above. How Parm Score works.