Darian Bryan’s Reserve Steakhouse is a big-night splurge in Larkinville. Here’s what the record shows

By Staff Reporter

BUFFALO — The most Buffalo thing on the menu at Reserve Steakhouse costs $65. It is a 14-ounce Angus Prime New York strip served “on weck,” with yeasted butter, horseradish foam and a kimmelweck au jus. It is a tavern sandwich rebuilt as a big-night steak, and it says a lot about what Darian Bryan is trying to do on Seneca Street.

Bryan, the Jamaican-born chef behind Bratts Hill and the Jerk Hut, won Season 5 of Fox’s “Next Level Chef” earlier this year. In June he opened Reserve in the former Eckl’s space at 703 Seneca St. in Larkinville. Four months in, it has become one of the city’s most publicized new restaurants.

A note on how this review was reported: The Buffalo Chronicle did not dine at Reserve. This column is built from the restaurant’s published menu and prices, its website, the chef’s on-the-record interviews, Erie County Department of Health inspection records, professional coverage in Buffalo Rising, Step Out Buffalo and The Adventurist, and a read of public diner reviews on Tripadvisor.

The chef and the room

Bryan has said plainly that Reserve is meant to stretch his reputation beyond Jamaican food. “I just want to show people that I’m not just a Jamaican chef. I can cook any cuisine and make it great,” he said in a July interview with Step Out Buffalo.

The setting is meant to match. Step Out Buffalo described snakeskin-patterned wallpaper and gold accents, and the restaurant’s own website promises chandeliers, rich woodwork, a bar and a lounge. “I want people to walk in this place and be like, ‘Wow, this is Buffalo? This is really happening here in Buffalo?’ I’m going all out with this one,” Bryan said.

He also picked the block on purpose. “Larkin is home. It’s central—it connects the Northtowns and Southtowns—and it allows us to build something bigger than just one restaurant,” Bryan told Buffalo Rising in April.

His wife and business partner, Jessica Darian, runs operations across the couple’s restaurants, and Jordan Schmidt is general manager, Buffalo Rising reported. The printed menu lists Gregory Kapsiak as executive chef and Keyin Fulford as pastry chef. Buffalo Rising also reported that the beef is sourced in partnership with Sloan Market.

What the menu says

Reserve’s published menu is a classic steakhouse card with a few clear personal touches. Starters run from $10 for Parker House rolls with honey butter to $30 for grilled octopus. There is bone marrow with bourbon beef jam ($28), steak tartare with black garlic and cured egg yolk ($23), and tuna tartare with Peruvian golden chili sauce ($25). Amur Kaluga caviar is $115.

The steaks are where the money goes. A 40-ounce bone-in Tomahawk is $155, a 45-day dry-aged 24-ounce bone-in ribeye is $130 and an 18-ounce ribeye is $80. “Chef Darian’s Steak Au Poivre,” an 8-ounce tenderloin with what the menu calls “Next Level Brandy Cream Sauce,” is $70.

There are gentler ways in. Steak frites with a 12-ounce teres major is $38, a pork rib chop is $32, rigatoni alla vodka is $30 and the wagyu burger is $28. Sides run $12 to $25, the top being lobster mac and cheese. A lobster tail add-on is $45. Parties of five or more get a 20% gratuity added.

By the menu’s own numbers, two people sharing the bone marrow, an $80 ribeye, the $38 salmon and two $12 sides would spend $170 before drinks, tax and tip.

The strip “on weck” is the dish the coverage keeps returning to. Writing in The Adventurist, Maria Rodriguez called its horseradish foam and kimmelweck au jus “about as local as a steakhouse reference can get.”

What the health record shows

Erie County’s online inspection database lists one inspection for Reserve, a routine visit on July 16. It found no critical violations and three non-critical ones.

The inspector noted debris on an exhaust fan cover in the basement walk-in beer cooler, which staff cleaned on the spot. Thermometers were missing from a walk-in cooler and a six-drawer cooler, and new ones were put in during the visit. The restaurant’s permit had been issued but was not posted. For a kitchen in its first month, that is a largely clean record.

What diners are saying

Public reviews are still few, so read them as early signals. On Tripadvisor, Reserve has four reviews and a 4.5 rating.

The steadiest theme is service. A reviewer posting as Valerie S., who celebrated a birthday there in August, wrote, “The service was at a level far above any other restaurant in the area.”

The split comes on value. A September reviewer posting as anne g wrote, “Food is pricey and really just average. Service was excellent.” That tension is worth watching at prices like these.

Buffalo Rising’s opening-week visit called the restaurant “sophisticated, luxurious, and very happening,” and noted backlit menus in the dim dining room. That was a first look at the bar, not a full critic’s review. As of this writing, we found no full review from The Buffalo News or Buffalo Spree.

The verdict

Reserve is built for occasions: birthdays, anniversaries, client dinners, and anyone who watched Bryan win on national television and wants to see what he does with a steakhouse. Complimentary valet, a private dining room and the pockets of privacy for VIP guests that Bryan has described all point the same way.

It is not a casual weeknight stop, and it is closed Tuesdays and Wednesdays. If you want to try it without the Tomahawk bill, the menu points to the $38 steak frites, the $28 burger or a seat at the bar.

What stands out is the strip on weck, a genuinely local idea at a high-end price, and a service reputation that even the less impressed reviewer grants. The open question is whether the food holds up to the bill night after night. A promised casual sister concept, Back of House Burger, was slated for this fall in the same building; we could not find an announced opening date.

Bryan has framed all of it as a bet on his city. “It means so much for me to represent Buffalo on the national stage, because these are the people who have believed and trusted in me for years,” he told 7 News WKBW after his win. Reserve is where Buffalo gets to decide whether the steak lives up to the stardust.

Featured photo: Seneca Street at Larkin Square in Larkinville, looking west, in November 2019. Photo by Andre Carrotflower via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.