Nina's Pizzeria & Restaurant — Restaurant in City of Norwich

We recently moved to Norwich and were recommended to try Nina’s. I have been very ill having had multiple surgeries (at an expense), and my husband and I never were able to celebrate our anniversary… So, we had an evening to ourselves and decided to try Nina’s. We perused the menu online and noticed the chicken dinners come with traditional red sauce on their pasta. Therefore, when ordering I made sure to be very specific and requested no red sauce on the pasta for the chicken Marsala for my husband and chicken francaise for myself. I requested the dinners just be made over pasta with their sauces. We both selected salads with balsamic dressing and specified NO ONIONS. My husband picked up dinner, which was just about $50 for the both of us, that was really a treat for us that we haven’t been able to do in a while. When I opened my chicken francaise there were chunky onions all over it. I called and spoke with same girl, Heather, who took our original order… I remember her specifically because we share the same first name and when I first called to order, she asked me to hold, put the phone on what sounded like the counter and hung it up about five minutes later. So, I had to call back to place the order. She was also a little rude when I jokingly said, “Oh, I think you may have hung up on me.” Anyway, I explained my issues and stated nowhere on the menu does it say there are onions in the francaise sauce and I have never in my life ate chicken francaise that had onions in it, let alone chunky onions. Heather got very flustered and handed the phone to someone else, who never identified themself, but basically told me they would not replace my meal because they put onions in their sauce. I am from northern New Jersey and frequently visited NYC often and when dining out, I tend to judge a restaurant by their chicken francaise… Again, I have never had onion in it in my life. So, I explained that I have food allergies and dietary restrictions medically. I also pointed out that I specifically asked for both salads without onions. One would think at this point Heather should have pointed out they use onions in their sauce at this point, but I guess times are tough and Heather must not have common sense. Nope, this woman got indignant and nasty. I also explained we were new to the area and this was our first time trying their restaurant. Didn’t matter. Too bad. She could’ve cared less. So, I told the woman on the phone (I’m assuming an owner or some type of management) that I would be sure to leave a negative review and we would never order from their establishment again. Thank you for ruining the first dinner I was able to order out in over 6 months after being so sick, and thank you for ruining our anniversary dinner. I think the customer service was very poor and ridiculous that I had to pay $22 plus tax to throw a meal in the garbage. This is not how to retain customers, especially those with allergies and dietary restrictions. Nina’s you should be ashamed of yourselves. I cannot in good faith recommend this restaurant to anyone due to their lack of respect and not owning a mistake by not listing onions as an ingredient in this dish on their menu, especially considering onion is not a typical ingredient in this dish and my medical issues. Btw, the chicken Marsala was subpar, in my husband’s opinion. This is the dish he tends to judge a restaurant by. Therefore, he has many chicken marsala’s to compare it to. There is only one piece of chicken with the entrées and my husband said his chicken was rubbery. Very disappointed to say the least. But, shame on us for not reading the negative reviews first and going off a word of mouth recommendation. I have since noticed Nina’s condescending replies to any criticism or negative review. Very poor business practice and looks foolish. With that, I will go out of my way to tell everyone I meet about my negative experience with...

Last night was the 4th time my wife and have eaten at Nina's and that was probably the last time we will eat there. Our first 3 times we were very, very impressed with the Saturday special, prime rib. Last night which included my son, we all ordered the prime rib with potato and corn for vegetable. Our waiter said the salads came with the meal. But anyway my son and I ordered Caesar salads and my wife a regular salad. When my son and my salads came I noticed it was the same lettuce my wife had, iceberg but with Caesar dressing. I chalked it up to the usual Italian restaurant cheap salads that come with the meal. The bread rolls were very good. Then we were brought our rib eye's. That's where the stars started to traveling down to the one star. My rib eye was cooked medium like I asked. It was warm as well as the Au jus. My potato was almost warm and the side corn was awful canned corn, I mean awful. My wife ordered medium rare and got a cold medium and her baked potato was under cooked! She sent the prime rib back and her potato and I sent my potato back as well. The potato they brought back to me was underdone. They should have just warmed up my potato I sent back. My wife's potato was not cooked again and her rib eye was again medium. My son's rib eye was supposed to be rare and I noticed when the plate was put down I did not see any blood on the plate. He did not ask for it to be taken back though. His potato was good. After out second serving we asked our waiter to speak with either the owner or manager. After at least 10 minutes they sent the head nurse when I asked for the doctor! The head waitress listened to our complaint and said she would comp 2 of our meals. When the check was presented it had the salads that we were told came with the meal and not an extra charge. So I told the head waitress that my son and I both ordered the Caesar salads and got iceberg lettuce for a Caesar and indicated that Caesar salads are with Romaine lettuce. She took the salads off then. Quite a disappointment after our previous visits. My wife said they probably sent the pizza maker to the back to cook! I guess we will have to find a different restaurant in the...

Omg.... Love this place. Great sandwich, great dishes. Service was fabulous. Will definitely be coming here whenever I am in the area again. Might decide to be in that area again just to snag a snack here. Love the bread on my sandwich, and just a fabulous place to eat.

UPDATE 8/30/24: Had to downgrade the service and atmosphere portion of the review. Today I went in and spent over 100$ on a meal for 4, and while we were still eating, a server... Not our own, came over and started counting how many take home boxes we needed. Didn't ask if we were finished (we were not, and our food had only been delivered less than 15 minutes before). Just counted boxes, confirmed it with the 13yr old child at my table and brought back the take home containers. Talk about feeling unwanted at an establishment. I tried to explain to the woman behind the counter that it was unacceptable behavior and got "Sorry that happened" as a response and she went back to her computer terminal ignoring me. I really enjoyed the food here again, as did my family, but it's hard to want to eat somewhere where you feel like you aren't wanted around. In 50 years of eating out, I have NEVER been treated like that by wait staff. So, this place may be permanently off the list for eating as...