Nicolino Ristorante Italiano — Restaurant in Issaquah

The food here is awful. We got chicken parmesan and lasagne (which the server said has the same meat sauce as the pappardelle bolognese, in case anyone's wondering whether other menu items are better) and both my partner and I found it hard to eat our entrees. It tasted like the sauces came out of a can (in the Chef Boyardee way, not in the crushed canned tomatoes as a base to produce a homemade sauce way) and like the chicken base for the parmesan came from a frozen packet. The meat in the lasagne also tasted like something from a Chef Boyardee ravioli. I took home half of it and I honestly don't know if I can bring myself to eat it. It was a $29 meal.

Bread service is a surprising, nice touch these days, but the bread here is clearly mass-produced store-bought white baguettes, which takes away from the appeal.

The parmesan they brought out was crumbled (think Kraft shaker bottles) parmesan in an open bowl. I am not a big fan of the open bowl from a sanitary perspective, but more importantly, I expect that kind of cheese at a cheap pizza place, not at a dedicated Italian restaurant with $25+ entrees. Even Cheesecake Factory, a chain restaurant not specializing in Italian food, will come over and grate real parmesan over your pasta dish. Cheesecake Factory also manages to have better, fresher bread. I am saying this as someone who hasn't been to The Cheesecake Factory in years, because why go to a chain when there are so many great, independent, specialized restaurants around? I guess this is why. Not all independent restaurants are good.

I could see into the kitchen from my seat and it looked like there might have only been a single cook back there, on a busy Saturday night, at peak dinner hours. Maybe if this place relies on frozen/canned everything, they feel 1 chef is enough, but it's clearly not.

For this awful food, we waited a little over 45 mins from the time of ordering. We arrived hungry, so you'd think 45 mins of waiting would have made ANY food taste good, but no. You may be thinking 45 mins is an exaggeration, but no, we actually timed it, because we made note of the time after the server took 15 mins to take our food order after we sat down. It turns out that on a busy Saturday night, this place only seems to have scheduled a single server for the whole restaurant. The hostess (or idk maybe that was the manager or owner) was doing multiple roles, helping to run food and check on people, and the busser was also fulfilling a few roles, but come on. I've worked in food service, if you can't support the number of patrons in a place with the level of staff you have, you don't just keep seating more and more people - you leave some sections closed, so you can give th people already seated a good experience. How this place had a completely full restaurant with 1 server, 1 host, 1 busser, and 1 chef blows my mind.

Nobody checked in on us or said anything to assure us during the 45 mins we waited for our food, btw. My partner and I were in between wondering whether they forgot our order and joking about walking...

To those with allergies: We had a very inappropriate and strange experience at this restaurant. It was our first time coming into the restaurant to eat. We had ordered some of their food to-go during the pandemic and we were excited to be back. My friend has life-threatening allergies to eggs and nuts so eating out can be challenging for her. They had previously stated that she was able to eat some of their food so we came into the restaurant thinking it would not be a problem. She handed the staff her allergy card and a man came back to our table to talk to us. I was unsure of what exactly his position at the restaurant was but he had come to ask us how deadly my friend’s allergies were. He stated he needed to ask for liability purposes and proceeded to tell us a bizarre and disturbing story about someone who had died from eating food that contained an allergen and said that my friend’s allergy card was a “legally binding document” and if something were to happen the restaurant would be completely “liable in a court of law”. Both of those claims are false – my friend’s allergy card is not a legally binding document. It is simply a card that has her allergies in writing for accessibility purposes and does not have any legal implications. He urged us to think carefully about our decision to eat there, stressing that he “does not like losing customers” but wanted us to be sure about our decision. The person who was waiting our table was kind and tried to reassure us that my friend could eat many food items on the menu, but the damage had already been done. I am unsure of what his intent was, but this interaction made my friend very uneasy which led us to leave the restaurant.

Neither me nor my friend has ever had an experience like this when we have eaten out. I was very disappointed with the level of unprofessionalism my friend’s allergies were handled with. It was hurtful to see this man treat my friend’s allergies as a “liability” and act as though accommodating her would be a considerable risk. Unfortunately, eating out for people with allergies often comes with various levels of inherent risk, but there are so many precautions restaurants could be taking to mitigate this and create a safe environment for all of their customers. It seems as though many establishments feel it is too much work to go the extra mile and that it does not pass the cost-benefit analysis.

Although our past experiences with this restaurant had shown us that this restaurant was a safe place for people with allergies to eat, the way we were treated last night made us question this. In the future, I would urge you to please train your staff on how to interact with people with allergies and do your research on which documents are considered “legally binding”. By doing this, you will help avoid making an already stressful situation for the customer much worse. Giving you two stars because the wine was good.

Thank you...

1/5 - Do not come if you’re expecting the old nicolino. You will be disappointed.

The complimentary bread was extremely chewy and crust was like trying to bite through rubber.

The bruschetta was not what I expected at all. The bread was burned and the bruschetta itself was like refrigerated ragu. I instead expected fresh diced tomatoes with oil and herbs; that was not the case.

I ordered the lobster ravioli after our waitress mentioned it was one of the specials for the night. When I got the ravioli I was disappointed in the serving size and taste. There was no fresh lobster to be seen, more so of a weird paste. The sauce itself was bland and too sweet. Then when I got the bill and saw it was $39 for the ravioli I was very upset. This is almost twice as much as other dishes on the menu. The dish was nowhere near worth $39. The specials should be listed somewhere with the prices shown, but that was not to be found anywhere and it was an unpleasant shock when receiving the bill especially after the poor dish.

The wait time was very long. Although the food did always come out fresh and warm, it took 30-45 min each time to receive the complimentary bread, bruschetta, and main dish.

The atmosphere inside the restaurant was hectic and disorganized. It was hard to have a conversation at my table with the owner yelling while talking with the guests and having overall very obnoxious behavior.

I’m not one to normally leave reviews, however given Nicolino has been one of my favorite restaurants over the past several years, I felt it was important to try visiting with the new management. I’m very sad to say that I will not be returning and miss the...