Nicola's — Restaurant in Cincinnati

I really wanted to be able to leave a good review, and was very excited to try Nicola’s again, but our experience was very disappointing this time. This was not my first time dining at Nicola’s. Dinner the previous time I visited was great, this time, not so much.

We went there on a Monday to celebrate a big life event. We were a bit surprised when we were seated, as our table was literally under the staircase, next to the bathroom door, and near the kitchen door. We did not expect a nice and expensive restaurant to even have this type of seats. Needless to say, it is constant chaos, patrons passing by all the time to use the bathroom, servers in and out of the kitchen, people up and down the stairs. Not a very calm environment for such an upscale restaurant. If our seats were the only issue, we’d be happy.

Our server came to our table, did not introduce herself, and just asked what type of water we wanted. We wanted still and sparkling, but we were a bit surprised to see her bring two 1 liter bottles on the table for just two people. Tap water would have been fine for one of us, but she did not ask, and we did not want to send the water back and give her extra work. In hindsight, we should have, since they charged us $18 just for the two bottles of water and we felt like we were scammed by that. The server asked our order for drinks and told me they were out of the wine I wanted. No big deal, but she did not offer any alternatives or suggestions, and did not give me time to take a look at the menu again, so I had to rush to find something else as she was standing there waiting for me to decide. The wine we got and the aperol spritz were thankfully both really good.

She later came to take our meal order. We got the bread basket, the grilled octopus and the hamachi crudo for appetizers, and the tagliatelle alla bolognese and the malfatti for main dishes. The server did not help us with the menu, did not give any suggestions, and did not offer to help when we ordered. I would not normally expect help with the menu (although it is still offered in most places), but I’d expect some help at a nicer restaurant like Nicola’s. I did not want to test her knowledge about the menu, but it would have been nice if she explained the malfatti pasta, since neither the pasta nor the sauce were traditionally made but there was no indication of that on the menu (e.g. the cacio e Pepe sauce had cream).

We got the appetizers, and they were all great. The fish was really fresh and delightful and the octopus perfectly cooked. When our main dishes came, we got really disappointed. I’m from Southern Europe, so bolognese is more of an everyday dish and not something you’d get in a fancy restaurant, but we still wanted to try it. The pasta was so overcooked that looked like a ball of dough, all stuck together like the pot was never stirred. The malfatti was not what we expected at all. The pasta tasted like weird dumplings. It would have been nice if the server explained more about this dish when we ordered. For dessert, we got the triple chocolate hazelnut. It was decent, but just that. I also realized that our plate was missing some of the chocolate decoration, as other servers were passing by with the same dessert for other tables. We paid over $200 with tip for 2 people, and we did not finish our main dishes because they just didn’t taste good. The malfatti dish also had a different price on the menu versus our receipt, but we did not wanted to cause any issues to the server.

We really wanted to like Nicola’s. Italian is my favorite cuisine and there are only a handful of good Italian restaurants in Cincinnati. Between the server who made us feel unwelcome (and I never complain about servers or to servers; their job is incredibly difficult, I’ve done it), the main dishes that were very overpriced for pasta (you can get fresh pasta dishes for half the price in other restaurants within five minutes from Nicola’s) but did not meet expectations at all, and the weird sitting arrangements, I don’t think we will be...

EDIT: We have dined at Nicola's twice. The first time our party did not have a great experience and the service was not good. Our second experience was much better. The food was delicious and our food came out at a timely pace and the wait staff was professional. When dining at a restaurant like this, I love for the server to go over popular dishes and walk us through the menu and our server that when we asked him to. I suppose some people don’t like that. Our table was also visited by a sommelier which was nice touch. We can’t wait to try Via Vite and Forno next

We were a party of 4 who had never been to Nicola’s and upon our arrival, someone offered to take our coats before taking us to our table. The ambiance was lovely. Great start. We were taken out of the beautiful dining area through a back hallway by the bathrooms into another seating area that was much less attractive. Our reservation was at 7:45 and there were a few other tables occupied in the area. Our server dropped off menus and we quickly asked for bread because of reviews I had read about the bread basket. The bread was brought to our table and we still hadn’t had an opportunity to order drinks. She came back after 15 minutes and asked if we were ready to order. She didn’t go over the menu or let us know what they are known for. My selections were based off google reviews and the Chowdown Cincinnati Facebook page. About an hour into our meal the rest of the area had cleared and only our table was occupied. The other servers started noisily cleaning and getting tables ready for the next day. We could hear them chatting loudly. The food was good but it’s not enough just to have good food at a restaurant of this caliber. Our server was nice but it’s not enough to just be nice. When the bill for a table of 4 is over $500 I have an expectation that the meal will be an experience and this was very lacking. Everything was drawn out and not in a good way. I enjoy a nice slow meal with good service. This wasn’t like that. We asked for our bill before the dessert even came out and it still didn’t come for over 20 minutes. Maybe they were short staffed, but our server earned over $100 tip for doing no more than a server at any run of the mill restaurant. She didn’t explain anything about the menu. She didn’t offer any recommendations on food or drinks. She only explained the 5 course meal when asked. She wasn’t personable. We are parents who had the rare adult night out to leave suburbia and dine downtown at a nice restaurant and the whole experience was...

Update: We spoke with Nicola’s and they welcomed us back to try out the restaurant again and give them a second chance. The meal was outstanding, and the server was very nice with a lot of recommendations on food as well as things to do after we left in the area. We are unbelievably happy with the attention to customer service that this team focused on to ensure that we were happy and recurring customers. We would gladly recommend Nicola’a to any friends of ours, and expect that they would receive service similar to what we experienced the second time around.

Thanks Nicola’s!

My wife and I had our sixth anniversary here last night, and unfortunately had an extremely poor experience. We ordered four dishes and had problems with the burrata, scallops, risotto. This was very unexpected considering how highly rated this place was on articles we read.

The burrata did not come with any type of complimenting bread or something to eat it with. Unless you consider a long slice of cucumber as a compliment. We order burrata all the time and have never been served it without bread. Or literally anything else. The scallops were $30 and we each received one scallop with an apparently very expensive one dollop of foam. Then the risotto came, again one of usual favorites at restaurants… and it was served with an over cooked 2-3 small pieces of lobster on it. My wife didn’t even realize it was lobster it was over cooked so badly.

The restaurant told us that they would take off the $9 bread charge and give us complimentary dessert. Which was generous, but at that point we were just wanting to leave so we asked if there were any other options. This led to the server coming out, the manager coming out, the server coming out, and then the manager coming out over a span of 30-45 minutes before they finally took off the scallops…. But then added the $9 bread back onto the bill. We were just eager to leave at this point so we paid for the bread, however I’m pretty surprised today to see that the usual $9 bread wasn’t at all what we got. We only received a few focaccia strips compared to the rolls that I’m seeing in pictures which makes way more sense for $9.

Overall, we clearly had a terrible time and I would not recommend Nicola’s to anyone. For a meal that I expected to be at or over $200 this was not the level of experience I...