Nosh — Restaurant in City of Rochester

summary: Very poor for vegetarians and pescetarians, and the descriptions do not match what you get.

I wanted to like Nosh, as I've passed it many times and liked the big-city atmosphere they are aiming for and the seemingly more adventurous culinary direction. But my experience there was sub-par.

DON'T GO UNLESS YOU WANT TO EAT MEAT AND LIKE SWEET ENTREES. I am a vegetarian who sometimes eats fish. We went Jan 2024 and there was 1 vegetarian, 1 fish entree and nothing else except pizza on the menu I could order. The other 7 entrees were all meat. I ordered the vegetarian ravioli and it was nothing as described. Oceans of heavy, dense, cloying and SWEET nut and cream sauce, no diversity of flavors or textures and not like the description. Like a quart of heavy cream, butter, nuts and sugar with blobs of ravioli. Great if you are 300 Lbs and have no teeth.... Big portion but if you don't like something and it's just a blob of heavyness that is not a positive. It's clear the chef is not very interested in veggie food and that this dish is just an obligatory add to the menu for people like me. Don't order.

My friend got the Pollo (Chicken) and it was totally different. Beautifully and creatively served, thoughtful, had black bean puree, lots of veggies. If they could just do a veggie or fish variation of that, it would be a great addition and I would have been very, very happy. Also, huge portion.

We also had the salmon appetizer which was overpriced for the size and swimming in a sweet chili sauce, and the milk & honey salad which was fresh and tasty but also on the sweet side. Sweet, sweet, sweet.

This is the kind of place where there is no salt or pepper on the table to adjust your food. I asked for hot sauce for my ravioli and the one they brought didn't work with the meal.

Speed and service were mediocre at best. We arrived early for a 7:15 reservation. It took at least 20, if not 30 minutes to get our first drinks, which we ordered within a few minutes of sitting down. At some point, the waiter apologized, saying he forgot to put it in. However, the second drink I ordered was no better. I had to order with another person because our waiter didn't check in, and still it took a very long time. Our entrees took an absolute eternity to arrive. No one checked in on our meal after it arrived until we were well into it. I had to ask twice for hot sauce and it was 10 minutes until it arrived.

My favorite part of the meal was my second drink. I had the Peariwinkle one first, which was complex and interesting, but (despite the name) had no flavor of pear at all, and small pour. Then I had Oaxacan Man, which I enjoyed a lot. My friend had Nuts & Berries, which he liked.

For a $150 meal for 2 in Rochester I expected more.

Summary: NYC style urban vibe, and great for meat eaters who like sweet-tinged entrees and bland food. Poor for vegetarians. And, they need to work on aligning their drink and menu descriptions with what is actually served so people can choose...

Experience: We had a reservation for 5:45pm for 2 ppl. I called to see if we could move it since we were running late. The answer was no then a 15 minute holding period.

We got there and I did not want to bring up the reservation since it was already 6pm and past the 15 minute mark. We were told there were no tables available and we’d have to wait for the bar or a high top. The host didn’t even give an estimated wait time until I asked and said we’d have to wait until after 8pm, which was 2 hours away unless we had a reservation. I brought up the reservation and suddenly the mood changed and we were seated right away.

We sat down and there were so many 2, 4 tops available without reservation setups. From the moment we walked in, the hosts were not friendly and felt extremely unwelcoming.

Service: We saw our server probably 4-5 times. To order, a quick check in, and then for the bill. No water refills and no soft drink refills. Watched them hustle to other tables, walked by us many times, and really negligent service. It seemed like we were rushed out, to be honest. The bus staff tried to clear our plates while my friend was still eating. We tried to ask them if we could order dessert and then the bill, each time they said they’d get our server and then server would only come to us that way. Eventually they put our leftovers in containers, but didn’t give us bags like all the other guests, which is disappointing as we had 4 containers.

Server ended up printing us the wrong bill and had to wait an additional 10 minutes for them to come back to give us the correct one. Additional wait time to pay.

Food: We got the Korean sit down, shrimp banh mi balls, creme brulee, and fried dough.

The Korean sit down had good seasoned meat options. I liked the kalbi the best. The chicken had a good kick. The pork belly was not impressive. It was overcooked, dry, and the fat ratio was overpowering. The rice was too gummy.

The shrimp banh mi balls were enjoyable. The heavy sesame coating really takes away from the banh mi essence, but still a good dish.

The fried dough was very crispy and light. The jam was a little too sweet in my opinion, but overall good...

We had a pretty good night at Nosh and will be going back, perhaps when the venue has had some more time to mature. We understand that they are just getting their footing in a new place with a new menu, and things take time to work out. Please keep that in mind while reading my review and during your visit.

Food & Drink - the food was fantastic and easily the highlight of the visit. I had the lasagna and it was perfect - the portion was very large and that is honestly my only complaint. My wife had the prawns, and the server kindly warned her that the prawns would still have their heads (which did not deter her, but was nice to have the warning).

Service - we had a minor issue with service initially. We had a 7:00 reservation and arrived promptly with our whole party. There was a 10-15m delay seating us due to an apparent communication problem. Someone tried to seat us at a table, but that table and a group of others were reserved for some other event, but not properly marked (?). It was very unclear what was going on, but we had to wait what seemed like a long time for our table. If a drink had been offered while we were waiting, that would have earned all five stars. Table service during the meal was fantastic - no issues at all.

Atmosphere - my wife and I had a really hard time hearing our guests and each other - despite being at the same table. The music was fairly loud, and it seemed like everyone around us had to compensate by shouting at each other, which just made everything worse.

Value for money - prices were high, but fair, and routine for the class of restaurant. Given the food was very good, it seemed OK. This is a 'nice occasion' restaurant. I am also intrigued by the $90 steak they have on the menu. It'd be great for the restaurant to do a 2-minute YouTube video on what they steak is, how it's served, why it's worth $90, and why I would want...