Nuovo Bistro — Restaurant in Edmonton

My husband and I had the most pleasant and satisfying experience at Nuovo tonight! We were welcomed into the restaurant by a lovely gentleman named, Paul. His friendly smile and overall demeanor was so nice!

For supper we ordered the arancini, Caesar salad and added chicken, mushroom gnocchi, and tiramisu. Firstly, the arancini were delightfully crisp and golden brown. They were tasty, but I’d never turn down even more cheese inside if they added it. The creamy sauce that came with it was the perfect accompaniment, so we scraped the serving dish clean.

Next, the Caesar salad with homemade dressing and added chicken was such a wonderful surprise. You never know what you’re going to get with Caesar salad, but the first bite told me all I needed to know. The dressing had a delicious garlicky zing and nice mouth-feel, just like an authentic dressing made with anchovies would! The chicken was seasoned just right and had a great slight spice to them. Delicious! The size of this salad was also quite generous. It wasn’t just an afterthought, it was a legitimate entrée!

Following that, we enjoyed the mushroom gnocchi. The gnocchi had such an enjoyable texture: pillowy soft with a slight chew. Each gnocchi had their own imperfectly perfect shape, which was a great indication of being house made and successfully transported the luscious umami mushroom sauce. I scraped the bowl clean and licked the serving spoon!

Lastly, this meal was made even more perfect (which I didn’t think possible) by the tremendously delicious tiramisu! Paul explained that it was made with ONLY marscapone, which is such a pleasant difference from other establishments that cut the marscapone with whipped cream. Wow! What a heavenly treat!!! We savoured...

Wasted Ambiance and Disarray

Valentine's Day at Nouve Bistro was supposed to be a romantic evening with a promising five-course meal for $70 per person. Initially, the atmosphere seemed fitting for the occasion, decorated with roses and balloons. However, the experience quickly deteriorated.

The meal began well with a rich lobster biscotti starter and mixed success with the appetizers; the arancini was delightful, but the calamari was a letdown, lacking crunch and served on a bland tomato sauce. The night's frustrations peaked with a baffling hour and a half wait for salads, during which time our inquiries to staff were met with no updates. This was followed by a mix-up that saw our main courses served before the salads. The mains themselves were mediocre, and the subsequent dessert felt hastily prepared.

Despite the apologetic demeanor of the "main server," possibly the owner, who offered a 20% discount on a future visit, the gesture did little to compensate for the evening's shortcomings. The discount should have applied to our current bill, not a hypothetical next visit we had no intention of making. Moreover, the restaurant's physical coldness, due to inadequate protection from the outdoor breeze, added to our discomfort.

Nouve Bistro's service was disorganized, the food hit-or-miss, and the overall experience far from the warm, romantic Valentine's Day dinner anticipated. Given these issues, I recommend looking elsewhere for dining experiences that can truly deliver on...

We really wanted to enjoy our experience here - based off the great reviews. However, it was a miss from start to end. My partner and I were the only two people in the restaurant when we came in for dinner. We were seated right away and then no one came around for 15 mins. It was uncomfortable to the point where we had our coats on to leave and go elsewhere when the server came over with water. We decided to stay. We did not order drinks as we were content with water. We waited further for our order to be taken which we sat with the menus off to the side for quite some time. The server came by and apologized and said he had a lot of Skip orders. I stated we were excited to be there in person. He did not ask if we wanted drinks or appys. I asked if the special was Mussels and he hesitated and said yes. So we ordered the mussels and then an entree each. The food was good but the service seriously lacked. The server kept making comments about how it was the same thing we ordered last time and said welcome back to us but it was our first time there- it did feel awkward. We had to get up and go ask for more water and there was only two other tables inside for the rest of our visit. The server then apologized and stated how unreliable staff were nowadays and that the server called in sick. It felt unprofessional. In total, we spent 90 mins here and only had one appy shared and one entree each. We unfortunately won’t return as the prices were quite steep for the portion size and we...