The Nicolett — Restaurant in Lubbock

This was our first time here. We were really excited to try fine dining in Lubbock. I made a reservation for 2. The day of, I got a call asking if this was for any special occasion or if anyone in the party had any allergies. This was nice, because I do have a dairy allergy. Not like I toot when I have milk, but like dairy could cause anaphylactic shock.

We got there and were seated. Ordered drinks, which were excellent. Our server did confirm that they were notified of the dairy allergy. Cool!

Unfortunately it was pure confusion after that point. The server really did not know what had dairy and what did not. She would have to go check with the kitchen. Then she would go through each item and tell us for instance, that a dish just had a butter brushed on after finishing but that could easily be omitted. I would order that. She would come back and inform me that, oops, dairy was actually a core ingredient of the dish and I would need to order something else. I only had a few options in each course, which I am used to. For instance I was told the caviar churro was dairy free if the creme fraiche was on the side, so I ordered that. When it came out, it was caviar on a Yucca fry. "Oh the churro actually has dairy so we swapped it" but I was never asked about it. For fine dining that seemed very "Who effing cares just put something on a plate for that table"

The server also seemed hung up on if the dish had eggs and we had to correct her a few times that eggs are safe for me. I'm allergic to cow's milk. Eggs come from chickens. Different animals.

The food was mostly incredible. Foie Gras was incredible. Pozole was the winner of the night. The lamb brisket gave me goosebumps. Serving sizes were bigger than expected. They had to sub out the side of mash on a dish because of the dairy, that's fine. But they were literally just cooked oily potatoes with not a speck of seasoning. Not a single piece of salt. It really felt like I was inconveniencing the kitchen and they were rolling their eyes at me. Not a cool feeling. And eating the incredible, mouth watering lamb, and then a bland potato was jarring.

I have never had so many issues ordering from a menu before. And it really did not make me feel confident that I wasn't going to accidentally be served dairy.

It seemed like no one knew what had dairy and what didn't and there was a total communication breakdown between the kitchen and the server. I don't blame her. You called me to ask about my allergies, which no one has done before. And then did absolutely nothing with that information and left it to the server to try and figure it out on the fly. And she clearly had to go ask about dishes multiple times. At no point did someone take the initiative to help her out, or hell, maybe come to the table and just make a suggestion for each course.

I know my dairy allergy isn't anyone else's problem or responsibility. I get that fine dining is more about the chef's vision or whatever. But fast food joints and mom and pop dives do a better job accommodating it. And if you aren't going to be able to accommodate for it, your staff has no clue how to handle it, and you are going to have an "ugh dairy allergy" attitude about it, why in god's name did you call me to ask about it beforehand? For show?

This is not a rare allergy. Having a plan in place ahead of time and training your staff better might be a good idea.

There's a saying I like. "Look up for the cause and down for the effect." Our dinner was frankly a dropped ball and it smells like a leadership issue.

I had lunch with my friends at Vizo's the same day I went to the Nicolett. I told my server there I have a dairy allergy. The chef came out of the back, during lunch service, and calmly and politely went over the ENTIRE menu with me and made recommendations. THAT is 5 star service. And I didn't even give them hours of advanced notice about my allergy!

Guess which place I will be...

I don't really understand the hype. The short of it is that I spent $60 on a 3-hour long dining experience and left still hungry. Waitstaff interactions were... odd.

The long of it is that we came here entertaining a business visitor (7 people total; $550 bill). I explained to the waitstaff early that we could not buy alcohol on a company card, but they kept pushing cocktails, and the first person to order a drink essentially had to keep "guessing" what was non-alcoholoic: can I get a lemonade? Can I get a juice? This happened three times before they finally said "okay, what do you have?" and a waiter broke down non-alcoholic options for us. It was just a strange exchange.

They were also out of half their entrees, and given their short menu, that didn't exactly leave a lot of options. We were told initially that they were out of the beef cheek. We placed our order after about half an hour, but the waiter came back to tell us that they didn't have enough trout for each person that had ordered trout, so someone would have to chage their order. This struck me as odd because it's not like the place was slammed, and we got there at 5:30. How were they out of anything by 6PM? They open at 5; there were three other tables sat by that time; we had reservations days in advance, so it's not like our larger party was a surprise.

I suppose the idea is that this was an "experience" rather than a meal, but the way the courses worked was never really explained to us (we were able to infer after the fact), and each of the three courses took 45-60 minutes. Given that no course contained more than about 4 oz of food, that's a lot of wait time in between. I feel especially duped that 2-3 oz of cod ended up costing $40 (no joke, it was about the size of a large sashimi). Yes, it was well prepared, but there was nothing about the preparation that justifies that price point. It's fortunate that this was a business dinner, and I didn't pay out of pocket for it!

I also recognize that I shouldn't conflate quality with quantity. In a town like Lubbock, it's nice to have that reminder: a good dinner experience does not necessarily mean mass quantities. At the same time, I should not spend three hours at a restaurant, drop 60 bucks, and drive home thinking "I'm looking forward to heating up my leftover Indian food from yesterday!" I appreciate the fact that they use mostly local ingredients, and what they do they do well, but I would never recommend anyone go there for the...

2nd Edit: 12/2022 We are sad to say we won't be returning. Nearly everything we ate had dropped in quality. Our pastas were served too cold, the meat had no flavor, the fry bread was more greasy than usual and the creme fresh served with our desert was curdled and sour. This place tries really hard, but they honestly can't compete with Rave On. It's just not worth it. The things they used to do well (bread, vegetables and desert) are now mediocre or inedible and the meat is just as bad as ever. The only thing they have going for them now is ambiance, and that just isn't worth the price and the terrible eating experience. I think the price and presentation force people to assume they are getting something sofisticated. They don't want to admit they just spent $250 on poor quality food. Mashed potatoes should not be gluey. Gluey bland potatoes is not fine dining. This place is for people who want to appear sofisticated, not for people who actually want well seasoned and enjoyable food.

Edit: 02/2021 We went for Valentines day. They improved the meat quite a lot! The scallops were not fishy, and balanced the dish they were in very nicely. The ash rubbed filet (which we had last time and was tough, and compleatly covered in black truffles and caked in ash that over powered it) was much improved. The flavors were well balanced and the meat was so tender! The only thing we weren't a fan of was the sourdough lasagna but that may come down to a personal preference thing. We will definitely continue to come back. Their menu is very adventurous but it's an experience you won't forget!

Original post: 3 stars We have been here a few times and I have mixed feelings about it. The ambience is fantastic, the waitstaff is attentive and wonderful. The bread, vegetables, and deserts are AMAZING! .... but every meat dish is underwhelming at best and inedible at worst. The seafood dishes are especially disgusting. They need a good meat guy. You can't cook meat that terrible in a place like Lubbock. We know good meat, and this is...