Archie Moores Restaurant
108 1/2 Willow Street
New Haven, CT 06511
Nestled in among the row houses, Delis, and cleaners on Willow Street in New Haven is this little gem. Long a secret of the ever-present Yale crowd, and neighborhood people, this place is easy to miss, and hard to forget. This place is small and friendly, with a dining area hardly large enough for 8 or 9 tables, with the kitchen looking directly out into the dining area. The walls are covered in warm wood paneling and old turn of the century soft drink advertisements. The wait staff is friendly and knowledgeable, and you can always get a wave from the cooks, too!
Archie's wisely bases it's menu on what it does best. This place has mastered the concept of Pub food. It wisely avoided both of the recent trends of diluting it's menu with excessive variety, as well as trying to draw in the Yuppie crowd with pretentious menu items.
This place does Food! Basic and powerful, everything compliments each other, and goes down well with a pitcher of beer. Famous (and rightly so) for it's Buffalo style wings, they also serve a manly plate of Nachos Grande, huge, spicy, and loaded with meat, cheese, guacamole, and other real stick to your ribs items. Make no mistake, this is a heart attack on a plate, but damn fine eating! In addition to the Buffalo wings they also serve Teriyaki style wings that get consistent raves from my 10 year old. Add rich and meaty ribs, hearty chili, and a nice variety of large and well executed burgers, and this place makes a real satisfying event out of stopping for a bite.
Note: Archie's has recently purchased a large restaurant in Milford near the Green. This place is HUGE with outside dining in good weather. Bigger is not better. The food there is OK, but not up to the same level of quality as the little original place. Take my advice, though and try to avoid the Milford place on Friday nights, and during Happy hours, the whole huge place gets absolutely packed, and the food is not improved by quantity production.