Monday 25 January 2010

Nicolinos Restaurant Review

An Italian Delight....
"Eat...Get Fat!"

After stuffing ourselves silly over the festive period, the Grubgang left it until late January for our next outing! Dean chose Emsworth for our little adventure this month, leading us to Nicolinos, a lovely Italian restaurant placed in an easy to find spot on the high street. There was ample parking nearby, which was handy because it was freezing outside!!

The staff were welcoming, as Italians usually are in the Grubgang's experience! Its great to be made feel welcome (and also helps keep the score up!!). Looking through Nicolinos menu, there is plenty of choice for all range of tastes, from vegetarians, steak lovers, fish lovers and of course all the traditional pasta and pizza gourmets!! It does depend what you chose in order to get 3 courses for £20, but we found that by having garlic bread as a starter, there was plenty to satisfy the wallet and the palette!

The food served by Nicolinos was of top quality...fresh ingredients, lovely flavours and mouthwatering desserts! Of all of the Italian restaurants we have reviewed, Nicolinos is by far our clear favourite now. The staff were attentive without constantly asking if your meal was ok or hovering over you to refill your glasses, but were still on hand if we needed anything. The only slightly annoy part was that the background music was playing the Godfather theme on loop, but lucky enough we didn't notice it as much as we could have, had we not been as talkative that evening.

The Nicolinos managers were on hand throughout the evening, taking orders and telling the ladies of the group to "Eat! Get fat!"..... No problem!! (especially for pregnant Clair!!). Nicolinos is definitely one to visit...a hearty recommendation from Grubgang!

Mark: 9 out of 10 (Dean Maskell)

Nicolinos Italian Restaurant, 34 North Street, Emsworth, Hampshire, PO10 7DG
Tel: 01243 379809
(regrettably they don't have a website, which is a bit of pain in terms of seeing their menu before hand)

Second time around.............. a frosty reception? (December 1st 2010)

For Gemmas birthday choice, the gang headed back to Emsworth for another taste of Nicolinos , this time with two guest members - Jan Wickens (AKA Gemmas and Clairs Mum) and Dave Graham (Gemmas partner and close friend of the other members)
The reception was still the same, warm and friendly and game for a laugh (if you can understand the managers accent!) The menu was very varied allowing for the gang to take a fair while deciding what to eat. Again, we opted in garlic bread, olives and a bread basket for starters rather than the starter dishes on offer in order to remain on budget. The specials menu offered tempting dishes for some of the group - Clair tried the extremely tasty crab ravioli which melted in the mouth. Of course, the usual menu also offered delicious treats - Dean with the Veal, Gemma with Salmon Tagliatelle, Daves choice of the house chicken dish which he described as very garlicky but otherwise lovely. Jan was very impressed with her tagliatelle with chicken and was surprised at the portion sizes - too much to eat but you just love the taste so much you want to keep on going!

Desserts - wonderful and again filling. Dean and Mike tried the Italian version of bread and butter pudding, Jan the strawberry cheesecake (more of a mousse topping than cheesecake mixture however) And the birthday girl tried a different sorbet opting for raspberry this time.

This time, the facilities were checked out by three ladies, the most knowledgeable being Jan who gave them the big thumbs up! Believe me, this is a recommendation! The only downside to this evenings visit was that the service was a little slower than we would have preferred, which was surprising as it was a quiet (and snowy!!) Wednesday evening. A point deducted from last time because of this I'm afraid

Marks out of 10............................................................ 8

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