Nina

Ninas is a quaint, lovely place in an unexpected area! The restaurant reminds you of something you see in NYC. The drinks are always so innovative and delicious. The service is great. The food is always wonderful. The Filet Tartufo and Risotto Tort are two of my favorite dishes. The dessert Chocolate Pot De Crème is amazing! I would recommend this place to any one who was asking for somewhere great to have dinner!

Great food in a unique setting. Has a nice menu to choose from. Don’t mind going a little farther to enjoy their food. Franz is a great host.

I have been to Nina easily over one hundred and fifty times, sometimes going once or twice a week, since their first year of operation. Having eaten at some of the best restaurants in the world (San Pellegrino Top 50 & Top 100 list), I can honestly say that this is easily the best restaurant in Middletown and the quality of the food and drink is consistently excellent. Why do I keep going back? The quality. I know that I can get an excellent meal here. For reference, I have eaten at Alinea, Per Se, Le Bernardin, Pierre Gagnaire, L’Atelier de Joel Robuchon, WD-​50, Empellon Taqueria, momfuku ssam bar, Café Boulud, Arpege, Alain Ducasse, … While it would not be fair to directly compare Nina with these Michelin-​starred restaurants that generally charge $ 300+/meal, I do feel that the consistency of the food, wines and cocktails served at Nina are excellent quality and deserving of a Zagat rating of 26. One of the problems with Unilocal reviews is that Unilocal covers every kind of restaurant from McDonalds to _​_​_​. Some Unilocal reviewers have experience eating at excellent restaurants, and others have varying degrees of experience ranging from excellent quality to simply wanting food with fat, sugar, salt, and large portions at a cheap price. Most American restaurant food is pre-​sauced, pre-​portioned, frozen food laden with preservatives and extra fat, sugar, and salt in various forms, then reheated for consumption. This is not what Nina’s cooks and chefs do & have done over the years. They make food from scratch using higher quality ingredients & skills which the vast majority of other restaurants do not have, the cocktails are innovative, and it takes time to make good food. Any restaurant can always do better, and it is easy to criticize, but the larger question is whether you are willing to pay for a quality meal and be honest in your evaluation of it. I will continue to go to Nina because of the quality there. And no, they did not pay me or «comp» me with food to write this review. I just don’t like to see hard working people putting out great food get unfairly criticized because it is just not right. Unilocal is loaded with competitors’ reviews, and the tone can be pretty nasty. The one way to tell is if it is completely one-​sided. Nina is not perfect, and only an intolerant person would expect a place to be, but it is excellent.

The place has gone downhill. Expensive poor qualify food and a bunch of kids serving you who have no idea about customer service nor do they care. Really a shame as the interior is pretty nice.

Place has gone down hill. It’s sad because it’s a great space and good historic downtown location. The service can be hit or miss with no manager seemingly present. Food is generally good, yet the dinner menu overpriced. What is outstandingly obvious is that the bar does not have the inventory back-​up to furnish many of the drink orders. In my eyes, a clear sign of financial issues or neglectful disregard.

I was anxious to try Nina’s since we moved to town. The reviews are so mixed and it was recommended to us but we only decided to try it after having pizza a couple nights before and noticing its location. Came for my birthday because the places I wanted to go were just a lot farther than I wanted to go for a Friday night after work.
It’s pretty much the only upscale option in town. Ambiance is nice but service is a forced attempt to match the setting, shaky at best. Kind of like an awkward teenager trying to figure out who they should be. It wasn’t too packed or loud which I guess was good. It’s not terrible here but it’s not as special as you might expect.
Taste was a bit lacking for me. We had the burrata & butternut squash ravioli appetizers. Burrata was better than the ravioli. Also had the strip steak special, could have been seasoned better. As it sounds, pretty typical dishes, nothing you haven’t seen before. For the price, I’d save your money and drive a little to get out of town if you’re looking for a fancier meal.

Atmosphere is lovely but waitress knew nothing about the food or wine. Could not explain any dish offered including the specials or deserts. Food was completely average. Ordered a 97 Barolo, waitress put it on the table and informed us that it was really a 2010. Sorry that’s what we have. Had to ask to have it opened and for glasses. $ 75 bottle. No decanter. Second time that we have ordered wine on the menu and they did not have the year that was offered but no price consideration. Had to ask for more water, to have table cleared. Our waitress informed us she just started. She was working at IHOP last week. Clearly no training. When asked how much the fish special was, she told us I don’t know. They don’t tell us. Seemed to be run by all kids. Not an adult in sight in charge. $ 300 plus dinner that was quite a disappointment. Embarrassed that we brought friends there to celebrate with us.

Franz,
What is your email? There is no contact option on your website and I want to speak with you concerning our experience.

So sad to write this because I want to love it. Décor is beautiful but service is awful. Went to the bar for a glass of wine, waited 10 minutes to be acknowledged, then had dirty glasses and bottles lined up next to me! The bartender did not appear to care but I know the owner and he should be very upset… third time in two months to have bad service. Anyone can have a bad night… but three. Never again.

For several years we dine monthly here with friends or a group and has been our favorite place outside NYC and worth the 40 min drive into Middletown. This Friday we stopped in at 8pm for dinner of 5. Service was extremely backed up, including 10 min for a drink and 15 for bread. The server was new but did a great job considering nothing was coming out of the kitchen. The Beef Shank standard was good, as well as 2 pasta dishes. But the Surf and Turf special had a steak that was covered in a reduction that was too salty to eat and the Sole special served over risotto was on the crunchy side of al dente. The 2 meals were comped, hope this was a one-​off, would hate to lose a good restaurant due to poor quality control. Will try again soon.

Neighborhood is dicey. Atmosphere in the restaurant is very New York cool. Kind of feels like an old speakeasy. Service was amazing. Waitress was very friendly and helpful. Food was overall, great with some minor exceptions. I ordered Clams Diablo which are $ 10.00. There were 7 small clams on the plate. They were really good, but I could buy two dozen clams for less than $ 10.00. I also ordered the Thanksgiving sandwich which was excellent. The bread is stellar.
Several people in our party ordered salads. They were universally underwhelmed. The salads had too much lettuce seemingly dumped in the middle of the plate and the other ingredients were not presented well. They also lacked any real innovation. Two people ordered the chicken/​risotto/​spinach soup. They liked it but felt it was bland and watery. So be careful what you order, but it was overall a good experience.

Very disappointing experience with the manager/​owner? I had lunch with a friend at Nina’s and we both ordered the same dish. Both of us got sick afterwards, and immediately. Let me be clear: I have eaten at Nina’s quite a few times. It’s not always bad. So I called the manager/​owner to inform him as we both thought it best to let him, the chef and the waitresses know in case they were going to serve the same dish again. The owner’s attitude is the problem. He was very defensive, protesting about the safety of their food, how food-​borne illness takes 24 hours to set in, basically suggesting by inference that we were imagining our problem!
This is not the attitude to take especially with a customer who has eaten at your restaurant many times over a 10-​year period. So I won’t go back.
Our dish had a creamy béarnaise sauce. My guess is the sauce was left unrefrigerated so it would not congeal and so they wouldn’t have to make it again and again. Anyway while I can’t be sure this was the cause, based on a conversation I had with a chef the next day, this could be a reason we both became ill. Don’t know. But the point really is this: had the owner been more polite and accepting, it is possible we might go back at some point. As I said to him on the phone, «have it your way then.» Now I’ll have it my way, and go somewhere else. Too bad.

Wrost resturant ever, not only did we
Have to send the back, the food the waitress
Was terriable when she saw my friend
Did not get her appetizer after 45im
Of waiteing you think she would have
Gone to the kitchen to check the service
Was very poor, the food un ate able
We will never go back

The most difficult review: one for your favorite restaurant. If you are looking for a ‘wow’ factor, then the conversation begins and ends with Nina. There is no restaurant that can offer experiences like it in the area. Zagat rating, and wine awards aside, it is a special place with special people. A few helpful tips: call ahead for a reservation, always. Try and snag the corner table with the brick wall and the window where the evening light shines just right. Unique tastes and memories that will last await.

For the area it is four stars.
I come here once a month or so. Dinner is always good. Look at the specials
Usually there are oysters and strip steak on the special menu.
Tonight it was raw oysters and a roast duck.
My bartender Dale was very attentive. My water glass was always full. Very sweet. 15k steps on her Fitbit (it was a point of conversation).
New addition. Fresh chips at the bar. A little salty.
It’s my go to place.
Reminds me of a above average cozy restaurant.

We loved this place! We were visiting from AZ and didn’t really know where to go and happened to Unilocal this place so we gave it a shot. AMAZAZING! Food was fabulous. Service was great. Ashley was super friendly and helpful. Very clean comfortable place to eat. definitely recommend to eat here

I’ve eaten at this place many times and the food is usually very good. a bit on the pricey side because when you compare the atmosphere with the rest of the Middletown New York area you’ll know why they price on the higher end. the service is very good and they have an excellent wine selection. however you can BYOB but you’ll pay a cork fee of $ 10. sometimes at night it can get very loud which I don’t like which is the reason I don’t go here anymore. I’m one of those people that prefers a quieter eating atmosphere. and I also can’t afford to eat here except maybe once every few years since it is rather pricey. great place to take a date.

I really wanted to love this place and had been looking forward to trying it for the first time for brunch. The mimosas were delicious with the fresh orange juice. That was the best part of the meal. It took ages for our food to be served. The dining room was less than half full, so no reason to take so long to serve French toast and omelettes.
I ordered the seafood crepes which were awful. Not much seafood and they were drowning in a tomato sauce. So disappointing! Not sure I’ll be returning.

I took my family for dinner on Jan 1^st… we loved the service. My wife ordered wild caught Salmon. which was amazing. Stake and lamb chops were OK… nothing to rave about. Pasta was just fine. Unfortunately we couldn’t order desert because they were out of it :-(… I can’t blame them for this… Jan 1^st is never the best night for dinner.
For approximately $ 50 per person, I expected a bit more.
I will give them one more chance because of the great service :-)

My boss and I went to Nina’s for dinner the evening before a morning meeting with ORMC. We picked it based on open table availability and their menu posted online.
We were not disappointed!
Awesome steak special — perfectly seared, medium rare, blue cheese sauce & jalapeños. There were a lot of jalapeños for me, but I liked to cut them into small pieces to spread throughout a few bites. The steak was served over delicious garlic smashed potatoes and had 4 asparagus spears. The asparagus could have been better (a bit overcooked & not flavorful) but we were still quite happy.
The other dish was a duck breast special — nicely seared and cooked to the perfect rare/​medium rare. Delicious raspberry-​blackberry sauce and awesome potato pancakes! The potatoes were perfectly crispy on the outside and sliced, creamy potato goodness on the inside.
Again, this was served with meh asparagus, but it was good to have a vegetable.
Bread was served warm with unsalted room-​temp butter. I hate cold butter, so I was pleased. You can always add salt if you want it.
We also had 6 raw Blue Point oysters served with fresh cocktail sauce & lemon for appetizer. Very good.
Their cocktail list looked good, but we opted for wine by the glass. My boss got a glass of Washington State Meritage, which he enjoyed. I got an Alta Vista Malbec and was very pleased.
Melissa, our waitress, was very charismatic and friendly! She let me sample 2 different wines so I could choose my preference — good business and also so very nice!