Nino's: Upper East Side Italian Gem

I recently finally checked out Nino's (1354 1st Ave), a neighborhood restaurant that always intrigued me by walking by. I could never tell what was inside this place by walking by, but always heard great things. Upon entering this restaurant I was very surprised by how pretty it was inside, and how the owner Nino introduced himself to my dining partner and I immediately as we checked in for our reservation. I felt like that fact that Nino himself, checked us into the restaurant made the dining experience much more personal and special. This place was definitely very old school italian, with the definite feeling of elegance, high class, and the fancy atmosphere. 

We of course started the evening with a bottle of wine. I like that they put the wine in a decanter instead of leaving it in the bottle. It made the visual element better, and made the wine taste better :)

 Bottle of Wine :)

With the bread bowl they served a tapenade of eggplant and chickpea, that was much like a fancier hummus. My dining partner and I polished this off within seconds, and kept getting asked if we wanted more. I refused the offer because I knew I would eat it! It was a very welcomed treat to start off the meal while waiting for our meal. 

Eggplant and Chickpea Tapenade 

The appetizer menu had so many good options on it that my dining partner and I had a lot of trouble picking one out. From our servers suggestion, and our gut feeling of what we wanted, we chose the Mozzarella Di Burratta. They offered to split this appetizer in the kitchen without us even asking, which I thought was extremely nice! It also was huge! Half of a serving, which you can see below is enough for two people to share! The mozzarella was extremely fresh and creamy and melted in my mouth. All in all, this appetizer was very refreshing because of the cold aspect of it, and combination of mouthwatering mozzarella, savory prosciutto, juicy tomatoes, oven fried peppers, and marinated broccoli rabe. I had never had broccoli rabe before and I loved it! Before biting into it, I thought it was spinach by the looks, but the taste was definitely different and loved it with the other ingredients on the plate. 

Mozzarella Di Burratta 

For our meal, we decided to split two meals so we could have the "best of both worlds" experience. We went with the Mignonette Rossini & the Pappardelle All Anatra so we could have something more savory, and something more saucy. 

The Mignonette Rossini was a filet mignon with foie gras on top served in a port wine reduction with baby spinach and fingerling potatoes. The wine reduction was extremely flavorful and made everything on the plate extremely moist and delicious. The serving of filet mignon was a generous size and was cooked to perfection. It was just as good, if not better than steak I have had at many steak places. It was also a much better value than being at a steak place, because for the same price at a steak place you wouldn't get the foie gras, port wine reduction sauce, spinach, or potatoes. Those would all be extras! My dining partner and I both agreed the steak was awesome, as well as the sauce ! :)

Mignonette Rossini

The Pappardelle All Anatra was a wide noodle pasta covered in a duck & porcini ragu with tomatoes and duck glaze. The ragu sauce was extremely meaty and did not leave craving for more meat. I feel as though at a lot of restaurants the ragu sauce is never meaty enough and you always want more. At Nino's, the ragu sauce was extremely meaty and savory, and answered my prayers for a comfort food.  It was definitely more of a traditional italian dish than the steak. We definitely had the "best of both worlds" dining experience :)  

Pappardelle All Anatra

Nino's doesn't have a written dessert menu, and only offered up a list of homemade desserts that our server verbally told us. I am one that prefers seeing an actual menu rather than being told verbally whats on the list. So picking a dessert was a little more stressful than usual. From our server's suggestion, we picked the zabaglione. Zabaglione is an italian custard that is made with milk, eggs, sugar, and alcohol of choice of the maker. Our server made the dessert right in front of us which I thought was extremely cool! It was like having a performer perform at your table. Our zabaglione had champagne in it and some other type of liquor and was served with fresh fruit. 

Zabaglione Station

Our Server Making the Zabaglione

The zabaglione was very light in taste and refreshing. Although, it was a little on the watery side. I wish that it was a little thicker in texture so it wasn't like sipping on a soup. Otherwise, the taste of it was nice. 

Our Zabaglione! 

Homemade Biscotti

We also were served homemade biscotti compliments from the kitchen. This biscotti was actually the best biscotti I have ever had. I am used to eating package biscotti, and these were very fresh and flavorful! They had a definite taste of almonds, with a finishing hint of licorice. A definite highlight!

Complimentary Humongous Platter of Fruit! 

At the very end of our meal, our server brought us a fruit platter on the house! This thing was huge! It was like a trough of fruit. I was so full at that point that my stomach could literally not fit anything else inside of it. But, it was definitely extremely thoughtful of the kitchen to serve us this. They made the platter very pretty by making the fruit appear as statues on the plate. Because of all their hard work in cutting the fruit, I didn't want it to go to waste and had it wrapped up! The kitchen was very happy to send me home with enough fruit for breakfast for a few days! 

I definitely enjoyed dining at Nino's. I would like to check it out again on a more prime night, since we went on a Monday and it was on the emptier side because our reservation was on the later side and it being located in the upper east side, people aren't out as late! I would suggest this place for a date or celebration dinner because of its fancier vibe. A definite place to check out if you live on the upper east side!