nunzio — Restaurant in Collingswood

We frequently had dinner at Nunzio's before the change of ownership. I'm on record then of saying "If you don't think Nunzio's is one of the two best restaurants in Collingswood then you're on crack". It was one of the best places in the area to go out for a great dinner and one of our favs.

However, the change of ownership and the post-COVID era have not been kind. We've been there (three times I think) since then. The first within a month after the change in ownership I think. We weren't happy and gave it a bit of time. We tried them again but were no happier and the disappointing "new" Nunzio's was off our list for a couple of years.

We started talking about trying them again just in time for my mother's birthday. She also was a Nunzio's fan pre-change of ownership. So we figured a good amount of time has passed, maybe they've gotten it together and figured it out.

This may come off fragmented as I'm going to skip over a lot of the chaos of a family dinner and focus on the things that I found most impactful as it relates to having dinner at Nunzio's.

Here we go.

They had the regular menu, a Sunday Tasting Menu which included choices for app, entrée, and dessert, and a Wild Game Menu that was fixed 5 courses. Three went for the Sunday tasting. My mother and I went for the wild game.

Here we will focus on the wild game selections as it's what I had and hence what I can provide the most insight on.

First course was good with a balance of sweet salty and umami. It made me hopeful and perhaps a bit optimistic for the rest of the meal.

Second course, or was it third (they flip flopped the pasta course to keep it in sync with the rest of the table which was cool, but the order, rather than building the palate, becomes irrelevant) was put in front of me and the first thing I noticed was that the sauce was broken and oily. You can easily see this in the pics.

Boar ragu cavatelli is easily remembered because it tasted like beef, and the cavatelli had a weird overly firm consistency, almost as if it were not cooked but even firm for that still. If I blind tasted it I would have said it was some sort of beef.

Main course Venison stew: the venison was dry and chalky. I guess venison is just too lean for the long cooking time of a stew. I don't know what I can say here except to ask: "Does the restaurant not sample this stuff before they put it on the menu, or do they actually think it's appropriate for a nice restaurant to serve this mediocrity?"

About here for the main course came the wife's chicken Milanese. I don't know what she got, it wasn't bad, but It wasn't the Milanese we expected. That may be due to what is normally seen as Milanese, or it may be liberties as "Milanese" is rather broadly defined.

The game menu stuck me as someone who tries to get away with putting small portions into a decent plating, try to be a bit fancy and hoping for the "check this out it must be good". Well, it was mediocre at best.

Service was really good and deserves commendation for dealing with my family.

We've been there three times since new ownership. It's not...

Had reservations at 5pm on a Saturday night and was seated immediately. Staff was very friendly and welcoming. Food came out at a good pace, and our waiter was attentive. The restaurant was clean and had a cozy vibe.

The bread that come out to the table is awesome. Bread was soft and fluffy. The pesto/tomato oil tasted great.

For apps we ordered the Octopus. The the app was seasoned perfectly and the octopus was so tender! Loved the garlic aioli and fried basil. The only thing was wish it came with more octopus and less potato. The potato seemed a bit out of place. Too tangy and flavor didn't blend well with the octopus itself. Think it would pair better with some greens.

For one the Spaghetti Al Frutti Di Mare had a brilliant sauce that coated the homemade spaghetti so well. I really enjoyed the tomato and fennel broth. Scallop lovers will appreciate this dish as there was plenty of it. I would have wanted a bit more sword fish than scallops. Only got 2 small chunks of sword fish. Some bites were a tad gritty, perhaps from the mussels. However the overall dish was delicious and pasta cooked perfectly. I feel this dish could have added a little more noodle. If I compared the portion size to the other pasta dish we ordered, it was smaller.

Another entree was the Squid Ink Malfaldine which was part of their specials for the day. Anyone with a heart condition maybe should avoid it since I found it to be quite salty. Other than the salt level, the dish has some amazing flavors. Plenty of crab scattered about. The shrimp was superb and the pasta was cooked very well.

For dessert we got the vanilla gelato. It was creamy and delicious. Tastes like french vanilla with vanilla...

Recently went into nunzios to try the game week dinner that my wife and I saw on their Instagram, and all I can say is wow! We've been in a few times over the last 2 years or so, and have always enjoyed it, but we thought it would be fun to try something different and new.

1st course was chicken liver served with a duck meat fritter. What a way to start the meal! The fritter was fried perfect and delicious, and while my wife and I aren't normally fans of liver mousse or pates, we couldn't stop eating it!

Next was the wild boar with cavatelli. I love wild boar and this was spot on what I wanted out of a wild boar dish. The pumpkin cavatelli was cooked exactly how it should be, and worked well with the delicious pork flavor of the boar.

Quail was the next course, something you don't normally find in collingswood, and it was a Homerun. I especially loved the sauce , it coated the quail and had such a glossy look to it, delicious!

The main course was a hearty stewed venison with veggies. As someone who often prepares venison I've hunted myself in stews, I was especially excited to see how their venison would compare. I was not disappointed, they hit the mark on this on, makes me inspired to try my venison stew differently this season!

The espresso crème Brûlée to finish off the meal was something special, and complimented the entire meal.

While I'll obviously be back to have the regular menu, I'm going to keep an eye out on social media for these special menus going forward. we don't want to miss...