Nicaro

Nicaro has closed. Let’s keep our fingers crossed for a good replacement restaurant.

I agree with Johnise P. –this place should be shut down! It’s been a few months since my visit here with 2 co-​workers, but the bad reviews still persist. Before the restaurant changed owners, I read the glowing reviews here on Unilocal and suggested my co-​workers and I try this place for dinner because it was in close proximity to our job. I found a
coupon which basically sealed the deal. Unfortunately, once we were ready to try it out, the owner’s had changed and the bad reviews started appearing on Unilocal.Not wanting to give up that $ 2 coupon and still curious about the food, we went here anyway. Mistake, mistake, mistake.
The menu was all over the place: Asian, Tex-​Mex, American… no «theme» or concentration. I asked our server if there were any dishes he would recommend. He said, «A lot of people order the crab cake». «A lot of people order» is a far cry from «A lot of people LIKE», so his answer sounded suspect to me. I asked, «Do YOU like the crab cake?» He proceeded to say that the menu changed daily, so he hadn’t tried anything on the current menu. Hmm…
So…myself and one co-​worker figured it was safe to order the salmon salad. My other co-​worker ordered quesadillas. The quesadillas arrived with no pico de gallo or sour cream. My co-​worker then requested both, only to find out they didn’t have any. WHAT?! The quesadillas were okay, but nothing special. The salmon was cooked just right, however the salad was DROWNING in what tasted like thousand island dressing. Ate the salmon; couldn’t stomach the «salad».
Long story short: I was embarrassed to have suggested Nicaro and pissed we spent money to eat here.

This place should be shut down! I don’t even know why it’s open… I witness for myself as people came in ordered food only to find out that everything they ordered from the menu was not in the kitchen or behind the bar… wtfreaks!!! I’m talking beer, club soda and FOOD… the majority of it was NOT available. The explanation received from management was that «the night before we had a large crowd» (LOL) what a JOKE!
Please don’t even try to state your claim to management or the owner because it’s really not their fault that they false advertised good service.

I have been here twice; the first time I went, they were pretty solid. The food was good, the soup was tasty, the prices were okay and our waitress was very friendly.
The second time was a different story. The food was not very good and the new layout of the place (it looked like an empty club/​bar with a few seats, as opposed to a restaurant that would convert to a club in the evening) was very bizarre.
The combination of flavors is occasionally interesting, but typically off. Also, they overuse the onion, in my opinion.
Avoid the bruschetta. Their salad is not that great either.

I probably would give this place four stars, except they over-​billed us at Happy Hour Friday night by about $ 8.00. It’s my fault though, for not checking the bill until I got my tipsy self home. I most likely will come back anyways just because the happy hour deals are a steal.
Happy Hour runs from 3−9pm on Tuesday through Friday.
$ 2 Domestic beers
$ 4 Imports
$ 3.75 Rail drinks
$ 5 Select wines
They also have a few $ 5 appetizers like Bourbon chicken wings which my friend said were really good. I was a good pseudo Catholic girl, and because it was Good Friday I ordered the fried fish sandwich (on the HH menu). I was expecting it to be filet-​o-​fish style, but it wasn’t. It was a huge piece of fish and delicious! It was fried simply with salt & pepper and topped with red onion pieces and tomatoes. Probably other stuff too, but my drunken haze blurred that recollection.
A little birdie (our waiter) told me after I prodded him a bit that they plan to start brunch again soon. Juliana C. mentions brunch in her review, but that was before they changed owners. Nicaro’s only recently started serving lunch and I hope brunch is on its way.
We sat outside at one of their three bistro tables Friday night and although it’s not a pretty view of Georgia Ave, the sound of the jazz band playing inside (right behind our table) was relaxing to hear.
Go for happy hour if you are in the Silver Spring Hood. I will definitely update my review for brunch when, and if it ever happens here.

New owners. No bread. Not as good. Crying.

We had heard that Nicaro went through new ownership and were still surprised how sad just about everything was. We sat at the bar hoping to get some happy hour ambiance, but seeing only 5 people in the whole place should have been our first clue.
We ordered white wine and 1 of the 5 items they had on the happy hour menu. Turns out they did not have it so we ordered soup, some catfish and a salad. The soup had the consistency of a condiment and the taste wasn’t much better. The salad was very ordinary and the fish must have been frozen, because even the 2 mayonnaise sauces it came with couldn’t mask the poor quality of the fish and other ingredients.
If it weren’t for the kind and attentive bartender, I just might have walked out cursing. It’s really a shame that this «new» place would run on the coattails of a once good restaurant in the hopes of fooling some old clientele into eating there. It was truly a sad experience and I’m embarrassed to say I ate there.
Never again.

we used to go there frequently and loved the local flavor and excellent cooking and atmosphere_​_​, but tonight found out there is a change of ownership. food is awful, service is basic, but clueless.
Menu was confusing, no wine list, waitress was nice, but over her head.
Emphasis on seafood, but i suspect most of the fish is frozen, or old…
mussels had a bad taste, pasta was a confused mishmosh.
There seems to be an emphasis on late night dancing and a club enviromment The food was really TGI Friday quality and not reflective of either southern or latin.
No Manager on site, no focus, or main them other than riding in on the OTHER Nicaro’s customers
Skip this place, its not the same as it was.

Recently enjoyed a meal at the post-​Pedro Matamoros Nicaro. What a varied (almost bizarre) menu. Roast duck listed next to a reuben sandwich! Dinner prices have come down across the board with entrees topping out at $ 24 and most sandwiches around $ 12. My friend enjoyed what is called «jambalaya.» It is quite tasty but far removed from anything approaching traditional jambalaya. I had a rockfish-​stuffed lobster. Quite good but one of the side dishes was oiled and buttered carrots and green beans. Made me think it was 1990. Please someone put a stake through the heart of this combo as a side dish. The other side was a nice rice pilaf. Service was a bit strange. Just one example, the waitress at one point asked me a question (looking straight at me) and then turned her head quickly to my friend for the answer!

I’ve been here on several occasions when they first opened up and I used to work around the corner. People were first a little skeptical of going inside because of its location (since it’s sorta surrounded by run down businesses), but in all honesty it’s worth taking a trip inside. The chef makes everything incredibly fresh there, I honestly can say that any dish you order there is worth it. The drinks are exceptional there and worth getting (if you’re into signature style martinis). I’ve taken many there that have all said the same thing, «this is amazing»…give it a try, I promise it’s worth it.

Went to celebrate me getting a job and being able to pay for this on my own. It was a little bit expensive and I wasn’t a fan of the drinks, but the quality of the food was excellent, the portions were significant, and the staff was super nice.
The salads are EPIC! I had the spinach and nearly died it was so tasty, and they have a lunch and dinner portion which was nice. The bread was excellent though the butter was frozen.
Overall it would be really nice if they had a happy hour and it’s great for groups, but not too large.

Great independent restaurant. They use local sources of food when possible. Their dishes rotate seasonally, so you can keep coming back and not get tired.
My only complaint is that the service can sometimes be a little spotty. I go about once a month and am usually served extremely professionally, with the caliber of waiter I would expect from a world-​class restaurant. However, on occasion I’ve gotten chatty or sloppy waiters, more like I would expect from a family restaurant like Denny’s. Although to Nicaro’s credit, the good waiters I have seen many times while the others I have never seen more than once.

I’ve been on a Silver Spring-​exploring kick lately, mainly fueled by some excellent times at Quarry House Tavern and Eggspectation. Libby F. recommended Jackie’s as a good brunch option, but to my disappointment they were closed — for what I’m guessing was a private event — on Saturday, around 1:30. Luckily, Georgia Avenue provides a veritable cornucopia of places to eat.
My boyfriend and I were in the mood for your standard American-​style fare (sorry, Negril), so when we spied the brunch board outside Nicaro, we strolled right in. The place was completely empty (why does this keep happening to me?), but the greeter at the door was extremely friendly, as was our server.
Right away we were presented with a warm plate of two beignets and two obviously homemade muffins, with a side of whipped butter, which we devoured. Yummmm. I put in an order for scrambled eggs with ginger, jalapeño and cilantro with home fries, and my boo picked steak with eggs benedict and home fries.
Then we waited. And waited. And waited. I can tell you that the floor tiles at Nicaro are a polished redwood, edged with bronze. I can tell you that one side of the restaurant had a metal, art deco-​like wall installation, and the other had four wood-​framed mirrors. I can tell you the light coming through the red curtains in the glass front door was the hue of a Shirley Temple. I can tell you Nicaro doesn’t really rhyme with anything unless you fudge the pronunciation, then you can go with «bolero» and «sombrero.»
Amidst my observations, boyfriend had to feed our one-​hour meter and server came by to tell me he hadn’t forgotten about us. I refrained from counting every single empty table around ours.
Finally food arrives, and I wolf mine down. I have to admit I was a little dismayed at the small portion size (one third of my plate was inhabited by a thin orange slice), and I wish I had been able to appreciate every nuance of the ginger and cilantro, because the eggs were delicious, but I was too hungry by that point. The home fries were above average, and the bite of steak I sneaked was obviously well seasoned and cooked just right. The server offered us a dessert menu which we had to decline because we had somewhere to be at 3.
Diagnosis: Definitely tasty, not sure I’m going back?

There were some mishaps but they were quickly resolved by the friendly staff and overall we had a lovely brunch experience this morning. We got there at 1057 and Sunday brunch started right at 1100. They made us wait the 3 minutes to be seated and asked if we had reservations. We didn’t, but it wasn’t an issue considering we were the first ones there and only a handful of tables were filled while we were there.
The food was really good, stylishly presented, and all the entrees were under $ 15. The meal started with muffins and beignets, which really put us all in a good mood to what was to come. My friend had the hanger steak with poached eggs and was really happy with it. I had the shrimp and grits. It was my first time having grits and I enjoyed it. It was flavorful, with fontina cheese, and topped with two poached eggs and hollaindaise sauce. It would have been perfect if there was some spiciness to it. My other friend had the salad and soup of the day (wild mushroom which was very creamy but had a kick of cayenne in it) and declared that she wished that they would cater her wedding. Despite the fact that she’s not getting married anytime soon, I think it’s a good compliment to the place.
The minuses: one refill of the coffee was really cold. Everyone sent back their cups and the staff were quick to fix it. Small peeve, but I don’t like OJ being served with ice, which they do here. The ice melts and waters down the juice. Also when the check came, the extra side of bacon and the soup were all charged an extra dollar than was printed on their menus. The waitress quickly looked into it though and the check was adjusted. But even though the experience wasn’t perfect, we had a great brunch and the service was friendly and attentive with constant refills of our water and coffee even after paying the bill.
3.75 stars? Per usual me, I’ll round up.

4.5 stars
Great, great restaurant, but man is it loud in there when it’s only ¹⁄₃ full! It is nice to be able to drive EAST to Silver Spring for some outstanding dining destinations instead of into the city or around Bethesda or Rockville. If noise bothers you, and I’m sure there are plenty of you out there, go at 5:30 when they open for dinner… much more serene than at 7:00pm when the place gets busy.

I can’t speak to the dinner or lunch, but the brunch is no big woop. Style over substance.
The «complimentary beignets» were cold and chewy. The coffee was watery, but it did have an interesting oil sheen on the surface to gaze into while I waited for the entrée.
I was pretty stoked to try the shrimp and grits. It was spackling paste with a marine bouquet, or maybe Sponge Bob barf.
Boo.

There aren’t many good brunch options in Silver Spring and we’ve exhausted Mrs. K’s Toll House as an option. We found Nicaro through Unilocal and the menu looked really fresh and innovative.
We went with a group of 6 right at the beginning of brunch service on Sunday. At first sight, the store décor is very modern and I really love it although my sister thought it looked pretentious (I still like it). We were given menus and I decided on the jumbo lump crab cake, but then 10 minutes later were told we got the wrong menus and with the new menus, no crab cakes. Sad! In addition to this mistake in service, we got our drinks and our coffees were cold (we found out we got leftovers from a long time ago, yesterday??) Also, getting more hot water for my tea was really difficult even though the restaurant was at most a third full. The servers were all really nice but made so many mistakes!
Food-​wise, other than the free delicious beignets and muffins, just awful. We ordered:
1. Challah French toast w/​Fried Banana ($ 10) — tasty but you only get one tiny piece of bread 2“X4″ (if it’s expensive meat, then okay a small piece if fine, but it’s cheap bread!!!)
2. Smoked Salmon Appetizer ($ 9) — the strips of salmon were sparse but good. Why were they so stingy on the garnishes?
3. Pastrami Hash. Poached Eggs. Hollandaise ($ 10) — We initially were given the wrong order and so my sister had to wait for her order while we all ate without her (we were hungry). There was sauerkraut in the hash which made it very very sour. She thought it was edible but I don’t like my hash sour.
4. Omelette w/​brie and wild mushrooms ($ 11) — Bland except for the chunks of brie cheese. Also the whole thing was lukewarm.
5. Seafood And Rabbit Sausage Gumbo ($ 14) — the gumbo was pretty tasty and my mom really liked her seafood, especially the shrimp. The rice that comes with her gumbo was totally undercooked though. We tried to get my mom to just have them cook it more but they had to correct so many mistakes that my mom was over it.
6. Eggs Benedict ($ 11)
The eggs tasted of vinegar which was really weird. The ham was spicy which wasn’t bad.
Pricing wise, the menu prices look reasonable, and some are, like $ 3 for tea and coffee which is okay (maybe I’m inured), but some are a rip-​off taking into consideration the portions, $ 10 for 1 small piece of french toast bread.
I want to recommend this place because it’s really new and innovative for Silver Spring (not conveyor belt chain-​like) but I really really can’t based on the service, portions, price, and taste of the food. It was just an awful experience. I hope they step it up a whole lot!

Looking for a nice place in Silver Spring to take a couple people for lunch on Sunday, I settled on brunch at Nicaro upon reading the Unilocaler reviews here. It was a very pleasant experience, and I’m glad we went. The food was good and the service was excellent and friendly. I do wish the main dining area had a little more natural light, but its cheerful coziness makes up for it.
Having said that, there were a few tiny things that didn’t quite measure up to the experiences of previous Unilocalers here:
1. We shared the calamari to start, and while the squid itself was superb, I found the batter held on to a bit more grease from the fryer than I would have liked.
2. I had the poached eggs with duck ham and root vegetable & roma bean hash (with hollandaise). One egg was poached to perfection; the other was way too runny, with some of the white still transparent. I also wasn’t sure whether there were actually any roma beans on my plate…
3. The lamb bolognaise with tagliatelle was good, but not the best version of such a dish that I’ve had. (Firefly in DC has a fantastic version of this concept.) I would prefer the lamb to be stewed tender, then shredded. The lamb in this dish was in small cubes.
4. My sis-​in-​law was delighted with her omelette with wild roasted mushrooms, asparagus and brie. But I tried it, and found the mushrooms not quite roasted enough for my taste.
5. Finally, there was a considerable lag between our appetizers and our entrees. Conversation waxed and waned a couple times. The delay was within the «permissible» range, but the restaurant just didn’t seem busy enough to warrant it.
I hope I don’t sound too negative, because I really enjoyed the experience aside from these small culinary nitpicks. We had a fantastic waiter, got a free side of bacon for no apparent reason (score!!), and extra beignets with our to-​go order. Oh, and the chocolate bread pudding was a slightly crunchy, yet moist and yummy piece of heaven.
I would go back to Nicaro in a heartbeat. Maybe for dinner this time — and that piece of apple upside-​down cake with my name all over it.

My first meal in Maryland was at Nicaro. Absolutely wonderful brunch. Excellent staff.
The Egg’s Benedict were well cooked and the hollandaise literally should have been served in a pint glass it was so good.
The décor was reserved yet modern, you could tell alot of thought went into the space as a whole.
I haven’t hit up the bar yet, perhaps a martini is in order.

Went here for lunch with a friend and was very impressed. So nice to see something different in SS that is NOT a Red Lobster, Macaroni Grill, etc.
Had the soup, a delicious asparagus purée and the Caesar salad. Wait — is that a REAL ANCHOVY in my Caesar? Oh my heavens, yes. Score 1 for Nicaro.
It’s a bit pricey, but if you’re looking for someplace klass-​ay («THEM’S CLOTH DINNER NAPKINS!») then worth checking out.