Nino's Restaurant — Restaurant in New York

My husband and I took a trip to NYC two weeks ago. Before we left we kept an eye on any groupon deals that may be going on while we were there. I love Italian food so my husband found a deal for Nino's and another Italian spot. When we first arrived we were treated very well, smiles and kindness. The waitress asked if we wanted anything to drink, so my husband told her we had the groupon and that it came with a bottle of wine; she smiled and said she would be back with our wine. Once she filled our glasses it went downhill from there. We had more than one waiter and of the 3 or 4 we had, 1 treated us with the respect any customer should receive. We knew that we had a specific menu because of the groupon, which was no problem, but the choices were extremely limited. I love Italian food, but I'm also a little picky. This menu had no pasta dish on it. Not a single one. It had calamari, steak, etc. but not even a go to pasta dish? I had to settle for a steak with vegatables and mashed potatoes. (Very "home on country" dinner) I ordered a medium rare and easily got medium, if not more done. The meatballs we had as an appetizer were phenominal, the only reason Nino's got a "good" rating for food from us. To sum it up, the whole demeanor of every waiter, even the manager, we had drastically changed when they found out we had a groupon; besides the one. (Also, we went on a Sunday night, so they were not busy in the slightest.) The entree selection was less than mediocre and the service was worse. On the way out I personally tracked down the one waiter who did his job properly and tipped him. I hope it all stayed with him. If you're going to treat people differently for planning accordingly for a week long stay, why offer a groupon deal? The other restaurant we went to, with a groupon. was incredbile and I will be sure to write a review...

Came here for Restaurant week lunch time and overall went ok. Initially the server did not give us the Restaurant week menu that they had online so we were just going to order from their regular menu and then a few minutes he comes back and says "my boss is feeling generous today so here's the Restaurant week menu". However he gave us the dinner menu which was $45 per person as opposed to $30 per person for lunch. It was essentially the same exact menu. I didn't mind the higher price but would just be nice to stick to what they advertise online. It's misleading for the customers.

The place was nice, quiet, good music. It was a Thursday lunch time so not a lot of people were there. It was a hot sunny day in NYC and they had the AC off when we came in. Another group of people came in and they turned the AC on for 10mins and then turned it back off. I get that there weren't a lot of people in the restaurant at that time but it was extremely suffocating in there and our party of 3 were all sweating.

The food was great! Our party ordered appetizers, entree and dessert. For appetizer we got imported buffalo mozzarella and tuna tartare which were both really fresh and yummy. We also got the marinated seafood salad which we thought was a little bland in flavor. For entree our favorite was the braised lamb shank-- the service was big and the meat itself was so tender, it fell right off the bone. Our other entrees were parmasan crusted chicken and grilled salmon which were both pretty tasty but nothing special. For dessert we got tiramisu, cheesecake and chocolate mousse. The food was definitely satisfactory but not something I would go back for. I didn't think anything was...

First, the place is nice inside and the food is good.  However, we booked an event there and had an extremely stressful experience.

We arranged a Saturday lunch for 20-25 people for a memorial dinner.  I was told everything was in place, and have all the e-mail correspondence.  We had just lost my 87-year-old dad.

Some of my family left the service early and walked over to Nino's and were told that we had no reservations and the place was closed for another 2 hours!   I had to leave the memorial guests abruptly to deal with this, as I was really confused and flustered. Once there, a staff called the owner (Nino), who arrived with his crew about 30 minutes later. But nothing was set up yet and my immediate family was confused and upset.  Worse, I was being blamed for it all.  Very upsetting on a day like that.

After much chaos and a delay, the lunch proceeded and everything was eventually good for our guests.  Nino and his staff did salvage the event. However Nino left without saying anything to us, and we were handed the bill, with a mandatory 20% gratuity.  We should have at least had some apology and been offered some concession for the considerable trouble that was caused.  Follow-up responses to the staff member who booked us have gone nowhere and it appears they are not taking this seriously at all.  Very disappointing, and poor customer care.

As much as we liked the actual restaurant, my family and I will not go back, we are not masochists.

Rating based on: 3.5 stars for food and space 4 stars for the manager / maitre d' and staff, who were great Negative stars for...