TradeWinds Italian Restaurant — Restaurant in Niceville

The wife brought me here on Feb 23 for a delayed Valentine's dinner. She had previously dined here and wanted me to experience the food.

Food was fantastic. A full loaf of warm, fresh bread served at the table with herb oil for dipping. Crispy crust, soft, supple inside and flavorful, the bread could be a meal in itself. Herbs and spices in the dipping oil were flavorful, though the red pepper flakes were spicier than I care for. However, the pepper never neared the level of heat where flavor is lost.

Salads came with our dinners, served with a house vinaiggrette. Salad was fresh, but nothing notable. Dressing was on the salad when served, and overwhelmed the salad. Too much can be a bad thing...

My wife ordered the Carbonera (and of course I sampled it at the table and ate the leftovers) which was flavorful and light, with crispy bacon (provided nice textural contrast from the pasta) and well-cooked pasta (al dente, and maybe a touch to the rarer side).

I ordered the Lasagna (a meat lasagna) which came in what seemed like a bucket of marinara sauce. Fortunately the sauce was well-balanced and full of fresh basil and tomato flavor, and looked nice, though that amount was a bit excessive (not taking points off for it). Fork tender and full of flavor (particular the meat layers), the lasagna itself was among the best I've had. My preference however, is for a lasagna that generally holds its form, standing tall and proud in a sea of sauce. Bordering on a "deconstructed" lasagna, this particular lasagna spread out and generally lost its form and was hard to truly locate in all the sauce. (Again, this is a preference of mine, and I wouldn't take points off for the particular form.)

Service was phenomenal, being greeted at the door at our reservation time, and quickly seated. Our waiter was attentive and helpful, never let our drinks get below half full, answered questions, politely laughed at my corny jokes and was respectful and polite. His attention never wandered to the realm of "annoying present" where you feel compelled to offer them a seat at the table since they are constantly there chatting. Food was served in an appropriate time -- not so quickly that you doubt the quality and have little time to enjoy the experience, but not so slowly that the loaf of bread has to be replaced long before the food arrives. Timing was perfect for the level of dining.

As far as the atmosphere, this is the category Tradewinds loses points. Take-out orders have customers walking right past your table to the pickup counter -- a bit frustrating for an establishment that serves higher quality food. Additionally, the interior of the restaurant is dated at the least, looking like it has not undergone any revisions since 1989, having the dark wood and decor that is not very impressive. Keeping the lighting low might set mood and build atmosphere in nice restaurants, but they begin with quality dining room furniture and decor. Low light and dark stained wood provides a feeling of being in a bowling alley that allows smoking indoors, has a payphone on the wall, vending machines offering Pepsi Clear and a Mrs Pac Man arcade game.

I'm not much for dressing up, but I suffer mentally being in a restaurant that has high standards for food, but customer's clothes range from hoodies + gym shorts to sport coat and jeans. Updating the interior of the restaurant would help guide the clothing customers wear, improving the entire atmosphere if this is truly meant to be "finer" (but not quite fine) dining. Of course, this IS Niceville, so this is still near the top in terms of quality.

Note: For those that have visited the restaurant, it is obvious how to get to it. For new customers, it is very confusing and a challenge. The easiest access is from Hill Rd, and park at the back side of the building, and walk around to the front of the...

Greedy, rude and unprofessional management!! They have no communication between each other. They are running the place like they don’t know what they are doing. Things you order don’t come or comes very late. Hair in the salad, dry pizza and tasteless pasta. Due to lack of restaurant options in the area they are trying to take advantage and try to take everyone in. If you can’t serve people on time and up to standards food , then you don’t accept people in. You can’t make people sit and give the food in 45 min and tell people to leave before they even start eating. Just greedy!! And very very rude!! Telling people Pack your food and leave.. Never seen such a thing. Watch your video footage well!! We arrived to your restaurant 5:30 and my family waited in the car to make it sure it was ok for us to come in. I came inside and asked one off your waitress if it was ok to dine in still but obviously that we cant leave in half an hour. She said it was Ok. Thats why i brought my family from the car and sat down. You took our food order in 10 min and delivered the food late. Average food prep time is15-20 min. Accepting us when you have a reserved table was greedy act!. Customer who booked that table waited at the door. That was completely your fault! We live in Niceville-Dana pointe and genuine customer (not google review target) . I wrote this because it was my mum’s birthday and thank you for messing it up! By the way the couple next to us who had anniversary was not happy about their food at all. Watch your video footage again and again!! And I clearly see that in every negative review you get you write something which makes u come clear like olive oil in water. You could just say simply sorry for what happened in your response! If this was just an google review attack believe me my husband and my mum would write too. Because they are very...

We attempted to walk-in yesterday and a dark haired lady in her 50’s approached us and said, “Do you have a reservation??” When we said “no” she condescended to us and explained rudely, “We have tables…. But they’re only for people that have reservations!” We tried to see if it may be possible to sit down as there were clearly open tables that could support a table for three. She wouldn’t budge and continued to talk to us like we were toddlers as she explained that only people with reservations will be seated. Their website says “reservations recommended,” not “mandatory,” which, is how it seems that they like to operate. You had to be there to witness the dialogue - I’m not sure if she’s the owner or what, but I was blown away by her poor customer service. It honestly wasn’t that busy, it was 6:04 PM, but she made us feel like we were completely wasting her time. It’s not like she’s working at Alimentari e Veneria in NYC… cool it lady - you’re working at Tradewinds on the edge of ValP and Niceville.

I will say - their Italian fare is generally really good. We mainly order from them because of the quality and how close to home they are, so takeout is typically our go to. I don’t plan on going there again. FYI, Basil and Baxter’s a block away, so we flexed to that restaurant, and they seated us right away - another “reservations recommended” type business. Bonus! They actually serve cocktails (Tradewinds is Beer / Wine only) - which we gladly consumed as we laughed about our baffling experience with the rudest hostess of Tradewinds...