Nicola's — Restaurant in New York

If you are not a regular, don't bother to come here, or more specifically, don't bother to sit at the bar and expect the bartender to serve you with courtesy or decent hospitality. My friend and I are both long-time residents of the UES and have been to this restaurant a couple of times in the past. But we are clearly not good enough patrons for this bartender who's working last Thursday. The restaurant was busy when we walked in so we decided to have dinner and drink at the bar.... The bar was fairly empty except for an occasional person sitting down before going to table, or someone picking up to-go food. The bartender spoke to everyone else with a sense of familiarity, but chose to ignore me and my dinner companion completely. I had to wave him over continuously throughout our dinner to get us more water, more wine, to enquire where the food was after a long wait and "can you please clear away my plate?"... I even jokingly asked him if we were being ignored for any unknown reason but he just continued to act as if we didn't exist. When I got his attention again to clear away the plates and pack up my uneaten spaghetti, he did it begrudgingly and still not a word of friendliness. Afterwards, more waving from us to get the bill and then I asked for my doggie bag. He was so obnoxious that he immediately blamed the kitchen for being slow to pack my food. The bus staff responded to him that it was handed to him 10 min prior and he gave it away to a friend of his waiting for something else at the bar! They apparently know each other well and the bartender called this person on his phone to ask him to bring my food back. The final act of rudeness came when he tried to force this "returned" bag of spaghetti onto me and refused to offer at least to take this part of my meal off my bill. How can I feel comfortable take home a bag of food that's been with a stranger for 20 minutes?? Who knows where??? The bartender didn't even apologize until I asked for the manager. For those who like to sit at the bar to eat dinner, we all do it for the common understanding that we'd be well taken care of by the bartender due to the intimacy of the bar setting - we expect to receive a quick service, and to have our wine glasses filled even without asking. This bar must be losing money for the restaurant if this bartender continues to act this way! He gave very generous pours to his buddies, not so to non-friends, and then failed to sell more wine to us when we were sitting with empty glasses. He refused to take off the price of a half-order spaghetti from our bill when he screwed up, and expects us to tip him based on the total price of a ticket. Such rude and scheming bartenders really shouldn't be hanging...

Wonderful Old School Italian-American fine dining, white tablecloth, professional wait staff restaurant serving the food that made Italian cuisine so popular in the US.

My youngest moved in next door and we have wanted to try Nicolas. Glad we did, we'll be back.

The food is excellent. Don't eat all the delicious breads, wait for the scarpetto.

We ordered an amazing Burrata appetizer special (think very creamy fresh mozzarella) with micro greens and marinated tomatoes. Wait for the table oil. Pasta course was a hearty rigatoni special with veal meatballs. Finally the prime, a detectable lemony chicken Martino (off the menu, recommended by regulars, ASK.) I've never had such delicate chicken scallops...

If you act like a regular they will treat you like a regular.

Three of us split the appetizer, pasta course and prime. Always clean plates for each course. It was a perfect meal and only $40 per person with tax & tip. No alcohol. NYC has the best drinking water of any major city, period.

This place is a lot bigger than you see from the street. Great bar, actual Maitre De (not just a young beautiful hostess), classy dining room with the wood paneling, white tables, white shirts & ties (maybe all older males but diverse within that group which indicates they were looking at diversity over 20...

Highly disappointed in this restaurant. Save your money (its way over priced) and spend it somewhere more welcoming and flavorful. We planned on having dinner across the street but it was closed for a private event, this restaurant looked like a promising staple in the neighborhood. We were a party of 8. From the moment we walked in, nothing but glaring looks and one waiter asking why so many people. After being sat and waiting a few minutes for the waiter, we asked him from menus and he rudely said we'd get menus after we order drinks. It seemed out of sorts but we were going w the flow as visitors. After getting drinks and menus we asked to.place an order for appetizers, nope...we couldn't order those until we were ready to order all our dinner entrees. The food was bland, warm - not hot, freshly made, and we didn't get any drink refills. The atmosphere was dark and moody for great conversation but the food and service was awful. This was our lowest restaurant experience in NYC. I'm so glad we didnt let this hinder our visit as we had a much better experience with warm hospitality and authentic food in Little Italy and...