Cafe Nautica — Restaurant in Niagara Falls

Monumental shift - the best attraction at Niagara falls is not the falls anymore. It's the Nautica restaurant.

Party of 3 for dinner. Owner and chef Zoran answers the phone late afternoon to book our reservation for the evening.

We arrive and Zoran welcomes us and after serving our drinks, he came and sat with us to discuss the menu and our order. My sincere suggestion to people that go here - close your eyes and allow him to order for you. We went with his recommendations of house salad, fresh bread with cream cheese and ajvar as starters. Main course was the rib eye steak, mixed platter of meats, followed by coffee (espresso and Irish coffee) and baklavas (made in-house) to end our very sumptuous dinner.

To rate each item would be a crime - you need to taste it. There's simplicity in his cooking, but the fresh ingredients, best cuts of meat and personal attention brings out massive comfort to your palate.

There's 2 things I'd like to share (no, I'm not going to rate or explain the menu).

First, it says on his menu "best steak in town"; now I've had steak from Japanese Wagyu to months dry aged steaks across Canada. Do not be fooled by the chef's background or the lack of advertising for steak in this restaurant. The cut was about 1.25" thick and prior to being grilled, I'd estimate the well marbled steak would be roughly 400-450gms. I'm not going to explain how it tasted - go check it out and"you're welcome ". I'd also add that this is also clearly by a huge margin the best bang for the buck steak I've tasted.

Second, "do more of what makes you happy". This is a saying hung above the kitchen window in the restaurant - Zoran, Manuella and team are doing this - it's evident from their smiles, their involvement in everything and the amazing food.

We left in a state similar to how Zoran welcomed us - with a "content smile".

Do visit, you're doing yourself a favour. We'll definitely be visiting them again in the near future.

хвала зоране

live band - we couldn't stay, but I think they were to start at 9pm. cash only, no credit or debit cards (but, there's an ATM on site). parking was available in front of the restaurant, free over the weekend. nice secluded patio, which we're planning to...

We ended up at Nautica by accident - we were on Queen St intending to go another place that turned out to be closed. As we were already hungry, we decided to see if Nautica was serving.

And we're so glad they were! We didn't know quite what to expect; the prices weren't that high. But the food tasted like that from one of the fanciest restaurants I've been to.

It was so amazing. We had the mixed grill: a delicious selection of pork kebabs, grilled chicken, sausages, cevapi, and pljeskavica(! beef patties with I don't know what kind of spices but the perfect ones), topped with salty-rich Balkan-style cream cheese. We had salad of ripe tomatoes, sweet peppers, cucumber, onion and feta. And we also had fresh bread, light and yeasty and just a bit crispy like it had been oiled before baking. I joked that I wanted to divorce my husband and marry the bread. It was very good bread.

And through all this, the chef served us himself, and was wonderful - and very sweet while we raved about his food. Also: southern Ontario and Toronto need more Balkan food. Especially pljeskavica and that delicious, delicious bread.

Edited to add: We also had some baklava from here the next day. It was the best baklava...

Alphabet Dinner Club continued tonight with the letter "N". We found a great little Serbian restaurant in the Queen Street District of Niagara Falls called Nautica. The owner and his staff welcomed us and sat us at a fabulous table in their outdoor courtyard. The atmosphere was so special and you felt like you were at a dinner party in a friend's home. The owner suggested that we let him prepare a meal of his choice and we were all open to the suggestion. WHAT A TREAT!

The freshly baked warm bread with cream cheese and red pepper spread along with cucumber, tomatoe and feta salad was just the start to this feast. Next came a PLATTER of the most tender meats that included chicken, pork tenderloin, schnitzel, beef patties and lamb. Dessert included home made baklava and another treat of chocolatey goodness (I dove in before getting a picture).

We finished up with a suggested Serbian frozen peach shooter.

It was such a great experience, letting the owner choose our meal. The smile on his face, knowing he had wowed us with his culinary delights just added to our experience. We will most certainly be back to...