The Nova Wine Bar

Wow. And not in a great way…
Went to The Nova on a recent Friday evening, prime time, and there were empty seats– we should have taken this as a sign…
Friendly wait staff, good craft beer list (although, how do you run out of a listed local beer when you own the attached liquor store?), interesting menu… husband chose the Mahi ‘special’ for $ 24. What he received, though, was in no way special–
A plate containing a thin, unseasoned, pre frozen, over cooked fish filet resembling those you get in a 5lb bag from Costco… sitting next to a grayish cabbage slaw side and garlic blue cheese (with fish? Really?) mashed potatoes. The whole plate was a zombie-​flesh palette of yuck. The waitress, to her credit, recognized the look of disgust on his face, asked his thoughts, and returned the fish to the cook with our comments. 15 minutes later (too long for a re-​order, people) a second filet was brought to us, cooked slightly better, but again it was insufficiently seasoned and covered in a ‘salsa’ which more closely resembled a syrup. Have I mentioned yuck?
All this for $ 24. This filet deserved nothing more than a bun, tartar sauce, and an iceberg lettuce leaf — NOT the feature status and price The Nova choose to give it.
I’ll be hard pressed to return anytime soon.

I still like the idea of this place and the atmosphere. The wine is good too. I am very disappointed in the food as of late. Stopped in had a wonderful glass of wine and decided to get a few items off the menu that sounds better than they were. Gyros — -these tasted extremely processed. Like frozen Gyro meat with some type of fake grill/​smoke flavor added. Just not good. The fig with cheese wrapped in prosciutto. I typically would love this but these were not what I was expecting. They were cold and never cooked. The fig was small and not in great shape and just a little dollop of the cheese was on the plate. We ordered some garlic bleu cheese mashed potatoes also, these tasted processed, watery, and no cheese or garlic flavor was found. Not going to eat here from now on-​but will enjoy the bar!

It pains me but I have to deduct a star based on service and price. While our waitress was very nice, it was very slooooow. Our food was overpriced as well.
This is our 4^th time at the Nova. The food is always fantastic and fantastically overpriced for the portions.
For an appetizer, we ordered bruschetta which was delicious!
My wife got her usual, fig salad and I ordered the special, lamb chops. The salad was great according to her and my chops were dynamite! But small as hell! At $ 29, you’d expect more than two tiny chops, some beets and wild rice.
For dessert we ordered lava cake and a double chocolate cake. Both were outa site.
We had to wait quite a bit for… everything and everything is too much money. Our bill came to $ 109 for two people + tip. For the service and portions, that bill should have been cut considerably.

Great little place adjacent to Historic Casanova Liquors. I was in town for work and living in Chicago is not close enough to Iowa to find anything from Toppling Goliath Brewery anywhere.
Here they often have PseudoSue on draft and when I arrived not only did they but they also had 2 other beers from TGB. Their pints are cheap ($ ⁵⁄₆) and you can also order 4oz samplers of anything on draft for a proportionate cost.
Check Casanova’s Facebook page for daily draft lists of what they have for growler fills; most of these beers will be what is on draft at Nova.

After searching the whole of ME, MA, and NJ last month, it turns out the atmosphere I’ve been craving was right here back home. Warm, rusic, and intimate, with a lovely gas fireplace and comfy seats, Nova is a gem in Hudson, WI.
My fig salad was delicious, and the rest of my group was pretty hapoy, too.
Portions are appropriate, which I appreciate. Nova is the place to go for quality, not quantity.
Leave the kids at home and enjoy a romantic dinner here.