NIDO BAR | PASTA — Restaurant in Adelaide

Yesterday night me and my girlfriend went to have a dinner for our first Valentine’s Day together. It was our first time visiting and we were having the set valentine's day menu. They put us on the first table of the inside area, close to the door which gave access to the street. We got served by a waitresses, she was really nice , the manager also gave us a greeting. They started with the entree, very yummy, then came a ragu pasta also very good. Then came our favourite dish the steak loin with butter on top, potatoes and salad, we were having a beautiful night.

Then suddenly from a good and nice restaurant become the worst and most disgusting place that we have ever been. A big and disgusting cockroach crawled onto our table more on the side of my girlfriend, she tried to throw it away out of the table, but the cockroach ended up crawling towards her, she stood up and got it off of herself, and she tried not scream to not create a scene in front of all of the other paying customers. The workers did not care for us after this happened.

So I call the waitress try to explain the situation and was trying to keep it quiet as it was embarrassing for us and even worse for the restaurant we didn’t want ruin other peoples dinner. Well the waitress just made a joke and goes "a cockroach? i'm leaving bye!" she gave a giggle and kept on going to attend other tables. I called her again to ask for another table, of course the place was packed it’s Valentine's day night. she said there were no other table available.

I got back to the table with my girlfriend, asked if she wanted to leave, or she wanted to stay. The food that we were really enjoying became so disgusting, we couldn't finish the third course. Also I thought to leave without paying but again we didn’t want to make a scene and we were expecting to get compensation somehow. So I stood up to ask the girl in the bar if we could sit in another place, she spoke with the manager, and guess what, there were 2 free seats in the bar the whole time. The lack of effort to compensate us started there!

Well we finished our menu with the dessert, which we couldn't finish, out appetites were gone. They gave us the full bill and that’s it. They simply pretended that nothing happened! Seriously? Im feeling that at Nido It’s so common cockroaches pop up on peoples table that they don’t care, it’s normal, but sorry for us it’s not!

I also understand that it’s summer and that could happen in any restaurant with outside area, but because of that you need professionals to deal with this situation! I’m disgusted!

I’m wondering where the professionalism is guys? We didn’t even get a sorry from the manager or offered something to compensate for the bad experience, or a discount in the bill. I was so shocked that I wasn’t offered anything, and I wouldn’t ask because do we really need to ask for this?? We need to ask to be treated well?? Need to ask to be treated with some hospitality?

That was by far the worst experience in my life in any restaurant!

For anyone who’s reading this and looking for a nice place and to have a good experience, Nido is NOT the place! Spend your money in any other restaurant but not here! They will treat you as their...

We decided to go to NIDO for our wedding anniversary. We had great and attentive service. Starting with the niggling things that could have been done better - at times service felt rushed - I realised that during COVID times, everybody was only given a set time for their booking. From the restaurant's point of view, it is challenging to deal with reduced number of diners and lower turnover - and being compliant with government's directives.

Laura - was courteous (and sweet to some Masterchef fans who wanted to take photos and what-have-you) - but busy, unceremoniously left the bill on our table which I suppose gave us a strong hint that our time was up -- even when I was contemplating whether I should order coffee before we left. There was no question asked - no "how was the food?". The friendly front-of-the house server then returned to our table with the EFTPOS unit - which kinda softened the blow a bit with a wee bit of chitchat.

For the dining experience at a similar $$$ level, I suppose I could've gone to a better spot where the service might've been handled better. Look, I couldn't really fault the lady who served us food, and I presume the friendly and professional Max, who also came to serve us some of the dish. The rushed pace and the almost unceremonious shoe-out at the end left quite a bemusing end to an otherwise pleasant evening.

Now - to the food. Food was good. I like how NIDO isn't afraid to venture further into spiciness and 'richness'. The items in the cena tasting menu that we had were all delicious and enjoyable.

Would we come back? Perhaps.

We had the unexpected privilege of dining at Andre's Cucina on its swan song in 2019 for our anniversary dinner (Andre Ursini was also Masterchef alumnus). We also had their tasting menu - as I thought it was good to be adventurous in what we eat for the evening. We probably spent close to 90 minutes anyway, but we weren't 'pushed out' at the end to leave...

We went to Nido for a special occasion and the restaurant ruined what was supposed to be a nice night. We called to book our table a couple of months in advance, and we informed them that we had a Goodfood giftcard and we had seen their restaurant on the website as a place where we could use the giftcard. The person taking the booking asked us to confirm what the giftcard looked like, and after we described the card they told us that this was one they accept and to bring it on the night. We also informed her that we would have two young children and an infant with us and would require space for a pram. We were told this would not be a problem and they would be able to cater for this. However, while she was very accommodating on the phone, on arrival at the restaurant we were told there was no record of any of this. And after our meal when it was time to pay, the waitress informed us that they did not accept Goodfood giftcards. Now one of two things has happened. The person taking the booking was clearly incompetent, and did not record and of the booking details when taking the booking. And she either lied to us when taking the booking telling us they accepted the giftcards just to get us in the restaurant. Or in the couple of months from the booking until we came for dinner, Nido decided they did not accept the giftcards anymore, but did not bother to inform us. The waitress may have been very apologetic on the night, and she informed us that she "spoke to the manager" and there was nothing she could do. However, we saw no sign of the manager, no concessions were made by Nido and we were required to pay our bill in full. In short, don't waste your time or money at...