Hydraulic Hearth

Food Average, Atmosphere plenty of fun. 3 stars for serving just average tasting pizza… Margherita Pizza had sauce/​cheese missing from a section of the pizza and the Sausage Pizza was bland with very limp crust. A few tweaks with some flavor/​seasoning + a minute longer in the oven and it would be a big improvement. Will definitely try again.

Food is good. Pizzas are the thing to get.
Beer selection is decent. Their mixed drinks are worth trying.
Just wish the bartenders had a bit more personality.
AND, they really need to open up for lunch!!!

Great craft drinks and community beer works brew here. Pizza is thin and excellent. Try them for brunch on Saturdays. Delicious!!!

I so wish would have taken pictures of my beautiful salad wrapped in cuke.
We shared homemade mozzarella sticks huge could barely finish and split Swedish meatballs. Everyone else at table enjoyed stone oven pizzas. The beer selection is wonderful. I got a nice pilsner and fiancé got the whale. a brown ale would Def recommend this place if coming in to visit buffalo

I’m from NYC and naturally I consider myself a PHD in Pizza Science (that’s a thing, okay?) I consider the pizza toppings to be excellent and high quality here, they were really tasty but the pizza was about as floppy as your prom date after one too many Zimas in the back of your dodge spirit. I did the math, great toppings and terrible crust = no redemption. The pizza isn’t even cooked in a real pizza oven, its sent through on some sort of wire net which can’t possibly accomplish the crust texture necessary for a good pizza.

Definitely one of my favorite spots in the city. In addition to an extensive beer list and inventive cocktails, their menu of artisan pizzas, appetizers, and other tasty goodies is consistently interesting and delicious. During the summer, their patio feels like a European courtyard – but with shuffleboard and other lawn games. In winter months, check out their Geeks Who Drink trivia nights (every Tuesday) and their Saturday «Bagels and Brooze Brunch Bash» with live music, fancy Bloody Mary’s, and delicious bagel concoctions from local favorites Bread Hive Bakery. A great casual/​industrial vibe, good service, and always a new seasonal cocktail or dish to try – gotta love it!

I had brunch here yesterday morning and the atmosphere was awesome! The band that was playing fit perfectly.
I had an everything bagel with cream cheese, raspberry spread, red onions, spinach, and prosciutto. The food was incredible, and my three guests who had drinks were impressed.
The only reason that they lose a star is because there is a very confusing and unusual method for paying for your meal. We sat at the bar, ordered drinks from the bartender, he gave us a menu, and then we took our order to the counter at the back of the restaurant. When we submitted the order, we paid for the food on an iPad that requested a tip. There was also a tip jar «for the cooks.» Then, after eating and having the bartender clean up our plates, we had to pay for the drinks with the bartender. This confusion led us to be unsure who to tip, and who to pay.
One suggestion may be to have a little more explanation or transparency for the guests about the payment process.
Either way, the total experience was not effected by the payment process, and I will absolutely try to get back to this place again soon!

While I do enjoy Hydraulic, it’s out of the way, overpriced and overrated. The limited menu and cocktail lists are far too expensive for my taste, and the location has never been «right there» for any after work event or evening out. The food and drinks are decent, but there are much better (and more affordable) options almost anywhere else in the downtown area.
There is limited bar space and even more limited seating for those looking to relax after work. There is a small seating area with a couch but I’ve never had the chance to enjoy it — always occupied. There seems to be a ton of outdoor space, I’ll have to come back and try when the weather is nicer. As far as a happy hour spot, there are much better alternatives.

I am giving this place 2 stars because of the HORRIBLE service I received. From beginning to end. I was there over 2 hours. As the place thinned out the service just got worse and worse. My salad was good. My friends ordered the cheese fondue. It was ok. But scattered around it were scraps of cauliflower, burned bread, and a few apple slices. It just looked like total crap. Over an hour later our pizzas somehow were not even fired yet. I am confident our waitress was playing a little game with us to see how much money we could add to the bill drinking while she chatted it up with other tables and even partook in doing shots which me and my friends witnessed. She came over pretending like nothing was wrong asking us if we wanted the pizza to be fired. Are you kidding me!!! After an hour and 45 minutes of waiting on a work night?! I am the wrong person to play that game with. Very unhappy and will NEVER go back.

Great place for a salad and brick oven pizza with delicious fresh ingredients. Beer brewed on site and guest taps along with a full bar makes a great place to hang out with friends. Play corn hole or shuffle board if you’re into that. Live music frequently in the beer garden. Cool vibe with families, seniors, and in between on a sunny Saturday evening.

Kitchen closed at 3:30 on a Saturday. How in the world? It’s really strange to think that Flying Bison is a better food option on a Saturday afternoon than here.

I have been to Hydraulic twice, once for brunch and once just for drinks. The bloodys were amazing, i tried the bloody Wilber and it was well worth it! they have a good beer selection, they staff is very helpful as well.
I have yet to eat dinner here but i hear its not overwhelmingly good. when i was there just for drinks we had an okay time, certainly not the best. I have only gone during the cold/​winter months and it seems that people like to enjoy this place more in the spring/​summer.
I might try and go back once more and try dinner before it starts getting cold again and give it another shot. The outdoor space from what i have heard and seen in photos is apparently very nice!

Went on a Saturday night around 6pm with a group of 5 and no reservation. There was an hour wait to sit inside, but they offer self-​seating outside in their spacious beer garden. The outside bar offers beeeer and wine with liquor only available at the bar inside. So two of us ordered food, two got the cocktails, and one held the table. By the time the delicious craft cocktails ($ 10) were ready and we all sat down the pizzas arrived in very little time.
We ordered three pizzas: pepperoni, cheeseburger, and margherita. All were hot, crispy and delicious. However, everyone agreed the the cheeseburger stole the show. Highly recommended. I would caution that these pizzas are very light and not very filling. Three pizzas for 5 smaller individuals was enough, but some of us could have eaten more.
The beer garden was very cool. They offer shuffleboard, corn hole (bag toss) and some other games I think. We didn’t play, but it’s a nice option.
Beer selection was good with many locally produced options. The cocktails were well done, and they currently offer three homemade shandy beers (lemon, lime, and grapefruit). Again, all were delicious.
This is a great addition to an ever –growing and improving section of the city.

Hydraulic Hearth is truly a destination. It’s not really conveniently located for us and yet we will happily go out of our way to enjoy a meal here. During our first visit, we shared two pizzas and a round of cocktails. The first pizza was a special BBQ shrimp and the second was the carbonara. Both were delicious, although the BBQ shrimp was a tad undercooked in the center, making it especially sloppy to eat. Even still, we gladly polished both pies off. The pizza was also made even better by the delicious cocktails– we especially loved the Summer Sagebrush cocktail, which almost tasted like a margarita.
Throughout our meal, the service was friendly (although a little slow). We also enjoyed the atmosphere and had fun watching all the happy hour folks slam back drinks at the bar. The only criticism of Hydraulic Hearth’s environment would be that it is quite loud inside. I imagine that it might be difficult to hear everyone at a larger table during peak times here.
We finished our meal with a free round of Public coffees– a very nice touch.
Everything about our first visit here was so enjoyable that we decided to come back that weekend for their Bagels and Booze event. We had out of town guests staying with us and we thought it would be the perfect place to take them to see all the new, cool stuff happening in Buffalo… and we were right! We were all blown away when we walked in and saw the awesome folk band playing and the Breadhive girls slinging bagels. It was a great concept and really made for a fun morning with friends. The breakfast drinks were all fantastic too. I hope HH decides to host more Bagels and Booze events in the future.
We recently had dinner here again and enjoyed more cocktails (Bahn Mai Thai and Southwen Sweetie– YUM) and pizza. We also decided to try the bourbon wings, which were very tasty… we were just left wanting more. If memory serves me correctly, we were served only 7 wings. I guess we’re spoiled here in Buffalo and expect at least 10 unless stated otherwise on the menu. Regardless, we had a great date here and will likely return soon. We are also looking forward to spending time in their recently completed outdoor space.
I don’t know what it is, but something about Hydraulic Hearth always leaves me with a smile!

Two stars seems like such a poor poor rating but my experience certainly wasn’t A-​OK so I feel obliged to be straight up about what went wrong here. Called around 4 in the afternoon to make a reservation for two people at 7:30. The hostess told me they didn’t have anything available but that they kept a section reserved for walk-​ins so there was a chance we would be able to be seated. We came by around 7:45 and noticed there were plenty of available seats at the bar and headed there. We asked about eating outside and were told that we had to place our order at the bar and then we could eat outside, there was no waiter service out there which I was really surprised about. The seats at the bar were pretty uncomfortable, however I loved the look of the bar and restaurant as a whole. Very rustic and the wood work was gorgeous. It was neat being able to watch the cooks make the pizzas and if you wanted to, there were seats right in front of the wood burning oven so you could snag a front row seat. It took a little bit of time for a bartender to ask what we wanted to drink after delivering us menus, they seemed busy but had about four people back there. The beer selection was decent, I got a flight and the holder the beers came in was cool. They had Community Beer Works, Allagash, Ballast Point, Lagunitas, pretty much the same breweries you find at any restaurant in Buffalo with craft beer.
They had a few appetizer options and then all pizzas. I didn’t realize they didn’t have a lot of menu items besides the pizza. They had a board with two special pizzas as well, but we discovered this, nobody presented the specials to us. We were torn between the cheese and charcuterie plate and the bourbon wings. We asked the bartender what was on the cheese and charcuterie plate and her response was, «Cheese, meat, bread, honey and some almonds.» We were inquiring about what the cheeses and meats were specifically so we had to ask our question again in a different way. Oy. She was unsure about the specifics because they change regularly. Being two individuals who work in the restaurant industry we could relate to the daily change of meats and cheeses but thought it was an important thing to know being that their menu was so small. We went with the cheese and meat board and goodness I so wish we didn’t. I absolutely hated the board. The cheeses were gruyère (the only cheese I enjoyed and ate) ricotta salata which was a little firmer than regular ricotta cheese and an extremely overpowering salty sweet nutty cheese that was so horrible that neither of us could bare to take another bite. It was covered in nuts and tasted like a christmas cookie that someone accidentally dumped copious amounts of salt and sugar into. The meats were just alright, prosciutto a chorizo and another I cannot recall. The honey didn’t make sense, we didn’t know what to do with it. We ended up putting it on our bread because there was nothing else to do with it.
We didn’t know which pizza to order but we were optimistic because many sounded delicious. We chose the arugula pesto pizza which had brussels sprouts, pistachios and mozzarella cheese. We also added ricotta cheese and pancetta to give it a little something extra. The pizza in my opinion, was inedible. It was cut in strips which was a little bit awkward and didn’t make sense considering the pizza is a circle shape. I had two bites and couldn’t take a third. Luckily, my boyfriend who eats everything and anything (except that nutty cheese) thought it was good and ate the entire pie. Here’s what was wrong. First, the crust was awful. It was far too thin, texture was flimsy and nothing a solid pizza crust should be. The bottom of the pizza tasted like a chemical burnt flavor, it wasn’t good. The pizza was a salt factory. I downed two pints of water immediately after taking two bites. All I could taste was salt so I decided to take off the pancetta and give it another try, still no good. The combination of pesto, brussels sprouts and pistachio nuts was not working for me at all. I was really disappointed… and really hungry.
The place has been open since November, so it’s not like they are working out the kinks with their pizzas or anything. I just think if you’re going to be a place that sells predominately pizzas, they have got to be darn good and I wouldn’t come back here for the food again. We didn’t make it out to their beer garden, because we left to get myself some dinner, ha, but the beer selections as I mentioned earlier were good, so I could see myself coming back to enjoy a nice day outside.

From the furniture, to the locally sourced ingredients, to the free coffee after a meal, it’s the little things that matter when a restaurant is trying to make a name for itself in a crowded market. And Buffalo has a saturated pizza market. Hydraulic Hearth immediately stood out from the crowd by offering Neapolitan pie. This is not a frat house pizza delivery place with half price Tuesday Specials. It’s an elegant eatery, with a full bar, that serves authentic thin crust pizza. Prices and portions are reflective of the product. So, if you’re looking for cheap and filling, Elmwood or Hertel is probably a better destination.
The average pizza is $ 15. It will make one hungry person happy, and will be a nice split for two people who have salads and maybe an app. The wings — though not traditional spicy Buffalo style — are very good: rich, dark bourbon sauce. My favorite pizza is the sausage pomodoro and I’m also fond of the herb and cheese pizza when we use it for an appetizer for a larger party. There are always ⁹⁄₁₀ to choose from, so meat eaters and vegetarians should be equally happy.
The only pizza that doesn’t measure up (on the menu Sept 2015) is the roasted chicken with (stewed?) tomatoes, cilantro cream sauce and shredded lettuce. Despite a near perfect crust, it was just weird. The combo did not work for me.
The beer list is terrific– Bells Oberon on tap is great in the warmer months. And the specialty cocktail list is definitely worth exploring. Generally, I’m a martini drinker, but I’m slowly working my way down the cocktail list and I have not been disappointed.
I’ve been going to HH about once a month since it opened last year and, as expected, the owners are adjusting the details to provide a consistently delicious experience. With the exception of our first visit, the service has always been very good — in fact, the last time we went, our server, Justina, really impressed us with her knowledge and patience. She wasn’t just going through the motions.
Hydraulic Hearth should remain an anchor in Larkin Square.

Atmosphere — Pretty cool… very urban and rustic
Noise level — Atrocious. It’s pretty much on par (if not worse) than the noise level in Cantina Loco. And if you have been to Cantina, you know that you can’t have a normal conversation in there
Location — Right across from Larkin. I am sure this place will be a hit on Food Truck Tuesday nights
Food — Completely uninspired, and just down right bland. I can get a wegman’s premade pizza that tastes better, or make one myself at home that’s 10x better
Cocktails — Here is where this place excels! The cocktail menu is very inspired. Every one I tried was better than the last. Then, I asked the bartender to make me a jalapeño margarita (not on menu) and it was probably one of the best ones I’ve ever had
Come here for a drink at the bar, but don’t come here for a sit down dinner with friends or family that you actually expect to be able to hear from across the table!

Atmosphere — 4.5 Stars
Service — 5 Stars
Food (I only had the flat bread pizza) 3 Stars
I found this place after eating my fill during Food Truck Tuesday. The hostess was super welcoming, the server was excellent, the drinks were VERY nice, but the food was just okay.
I WILL return simply due to the service alone. There are too many bars in the area who do NOT know how to treat their customers and I very much enjoyed stumbling upon one where I felt like ‘Norm’ from Cheers upon entry.

My first time at Hydraulic Hearth was for the «Bagels and Brooze» about a month or so ago. BreadHive comes into Hydraulic Hearth on Saturday mornings and makes bagels in the wood burning stove while Hydraulic Hearth offers the booze. What more do you need for a perfect brunch?
I started off with the Bellini, a drink I don’t have very often but wish I did. I feel like most brunch spots offer Bloody Mary’s and mimosas so I had to capitalize on the opportunity to order such a delicious Bellini. Other offerings include the Beermosa, sounds interesting to say the least!
I ordered the Old Man Brooklyn which came with cream cheese, lox, capers, tomato, red onion, cucumber, and dill on one of the freshest, tastiest, bagels I’ve ever had. Substantial amount of lox and the perfect ratio of everything else. I also split the yogurt parfait dish and remembered how much I love the combination of first light yogurt and BreadHive granola. Another perfect combination.
I hope to venture back to «Bagels and Brooze» in the near future. The atmosphere is pretty cool, tables fill up FAST. I think it starts at 11am, I got there promptly at 11 and tables were full by say 11:30/11:45. I am withholding the fifth star until I try Hydraulic Hearth’s brick oven pizzas and what appears to be a developing beer garden. In the meantime, I am a huge fan of the Saturday morning brunch they have going on.

If you forgot to wear a flannel shirt just inform the host and he’ll give you one from the «loaner closet.» Nothing against flannel (I love mine) but once it becomes the mandatory uniform for your waiting staff, you may have a hipster problem. But it’s all good!
We were seated right on que with our reservation and checked on regularly.
I’d really like to give this place a ⁴⁄₅ for their beer selection (lots of community beer works on tap) and a 3 for their food (limited menu). So I went with 4 stars.
Meeting up for drinks? Great choice! Big bar & awesome drink selection.
Going out to eat? Selections won’t be vast. Meal will be good, but not very filling.
Want to bring your little Unilocaling dog (no pun intended) in a purse during dinner? Sure! Why not! Oh, cause it’s a terrible idea. That’s why not.