Nello's restaurant — Restaurant in St. Albert

Update - April 2024 We are long-time customers but we have been going here less and less over the past 12 months. Previously rated this a 5 but after the last 4 visits, not anymore.

Food is still okay, but not near as good as it used to be, still lots of it, but prices are up a lot. The veal used to be a favourite but it is now often tough and over cooked. The biggest issue, however, is service. We were there for 6 last night. This place is still using Skip the dishes, etc for deliveries, so guess which orders get priority in the kitchen, certainly not the inhouse diners, despite the fact the restaurant doesn’t have to pay Skip 35 percent of our bill.

It took 2.5 hours to have supper, and on top of the food delays, they had one waitress trying to deal with the whole restaurant. Service was very poor. We left a tip because I felt sorry for the waitress, but one wasn't really earned based on the lack of service.

The service the last few times has been mediocre, but this was by far the worst yet. They really need to get back in the game, and they need to shut off the delivery orders when they are busy. Have no idea how they make any money on them anyhow, with the huge fee they pay the delivery services.

Update Aug 28, 2022 Have been back a couple of times recently. Very good to see they are now back to full pretty much every evening. Reservation is definitely needed if you want seating before 8 p.m.

Had the Putenesca and Veal Scallopeny. Both were excellent, as usual. This place continues to have a wide selection of gluetin free options, including pasta. Prices are up over pre Covid, or at least seem to be. Supper for two, with appetizer and one drink each $140. Not cheap but not outrageous by St. Albert standards. Portion sizes are still very large. We both brought home about half the dish of pasta, and the quality is excellent.

Review from 2019 Good food, great service, and a nice atmosphere. The place was packed as it usually is Fridays and Sat, and the other days, reservations are still recommended. It is a small room with a lot of people so it was quite loud and overly warm. We were having so much fun we were probably part of the noise makers. It's not the perfect spot for a quiet romantic dinner for two but great for those days when a livelier atmosphere fits better.

Four of us for supper oct 2017. Calamari, a couple of salads for appys, çhicken parm, veal marsala with penne and spicy tomatoe sauce, one gnochii, and one order of gluetin free pasta. The food was very good. Pasta cooked perfectly, and the various meats were spot on. One creme brule for dessert. All the portions were very large, and most had leftovers.

Total bill for 4, $200 with no alcohol. It's not cheap but about on par for St Albert, where most restaurant prices are pretty high due to the outrageous taxes and other costs to operate there.

Service was attentive and always there when needed but never intrusive. Great job of serving while being almost invisible.

Would...

Have been meaning to visit this place for three years now and finally made it out. I must say my feelings on this place are a bit mixed though... First off the dining area is quite small so you definitely want to make a reservation - but that process is not difficult at all and we found it easy to do on the same day. Secondly, the price of all the dishes is quite high - but the food is definitely of a higher quality than other Italian chain restaurants nearby (Sorrentino's and East Side Mario's). The food here was comparable to the Sicilian Pasta Kitchen or The Tasty Tomato in Edmonton. Also with regards to the food, the portions were out of control large - which is never really a bad thing, unless you are someone that refuses to have your meal boxed up and insists on finishing it all in one sitting. If you are that type of person, then I do not recommend ordering the Carbonara because the portion that I received most definitely would have fed a family of four. And not a family of four with small children that don't eat very much, but a family of four with two teenagers that are never full. While the portions were quite impressive, there was one thing that I did not like. Being a person that very much does not like onions, I always pay special attention to the list of what is in things before I order them so as to never order anything with onions in it - or to ask for no onions. So when I order something that does not list onions on the menu and it comes with a lot of onions in it that kinda ruins my meal and makes me feel a bit cheated/tricked. Typically I would send it back, but like I said there were literally three pounds of this pasta served with this dish and I decided against it. I tried to pick out the onions, but there were so many of them that I eventually just gave up. Please if you are going to put onions in something you should list it on the menu because I know I am not the only person in the world who doesn't like onions and it is a nasty surprise. So to sum things up - while I had a bit of a sour experience with the meal that I ordered, the portions were huge and my wife absolutely loved everything she tried. She said the Tiramisu was the best that she has ever had, and believe you me, she orders tiramisu any time it is on the dessert menu - so that's saying something. Just be prepared to pay for the large portions and good quality food that you are getting because it isn't a...

Highly disappointed. Have dined here many times in the past and enjoyed (even had company staff dining/socials/party’s here). Our last two visit have been very disappointing and thought we would give it another try and again unfortunately a huge disappointment. The food quality was unacceptable, portion is large but really that doesn’t matter if it’s barely edible. It was a pile of over cooked barely warm spaghetti noodles with what looked and tasted like a jar of ‘Ragu’ sauce and the chicken barely warm, cool in the center and tough. There were a few of us dining and not one entree was notable. The service was poor, we were asked several times when barely seated - repeatedly “are you ready to order” well we were ready to order a drink and needed a few minutes to peruse the menu. Then after ordering we were not checked in on, as in.. would we like another drink or do we need anything else. Had to flag down someone to fill our empty water glasses. Ambience is not there anymore, the space seems worn and tired. We were celebrating an anniversary and birthday, not that they asked or would have cared (Is that not part of service and dining out anymore?) So due to the special occasion we did not want to draw in anymore negativity to our celebration. If we didn’t have our guests with us we would have sent our meals back payed our dues and...