When I first moved here from North Carolina, the lasagna was better than the one I had today. Maybe a new chef,overall I had a great time ?
Atmosphere: 4
Food: 4
Service: 4
Recommended dishes: Tiramisu
wai shun vincent cheung
Authentic Italian food! Over 30 years of business and taste very good!
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Anna H
To those with allergies: We had a very inappropriate and strange experience at this restaurant. It was our first time coming into the restaurant to eat. We had ordered some of their food to-go during the pandemic and we were excited to be back. My friend has life-threatening allergies to eggs and nuts so eating out can be challenging for her. They had previously stated that she was able to eat some of their food so we came into the restaurant thinking it would not be a problem. She handed the staff her allergy card and a man came back to our table to talk to us. I was unsure of what exactly his position at the restaurant was but he had come to ask us how deadly my friend’s allergies were. He stated he needed to ask for liability purposes and proceeded to tell us a bizarre and disturbing story about someone who had died from eating food that contained an allergen and said that my friend’s allergy card was a “legally binding document” and if something were to happen the restaurant would be completely “liable in a court of law”. Both of those claims are false – my friend’s allergy card is not a legally binding document. It is simply a card that has her allergies in writing for accessibility purposes and does not have any legal implications. He urged us to think carefully about our decision to eat there, stressing that he “does not like losing customers” but wanted us to be sure about our decision. The person who was waiting our table was kind and tried to reassure us that my friend could eat many food items on the menu, but the damage had already been done. I am unsure of what his intent was, but this interaction made my friend very uneasy which led us to leave the restaurant.Neither me nor my friend has ever had an experience like this when we have eaten out. I was very disappointed with the level of unprofessionalism my friend’s allergies were handled with. It was hurtful to see this man treat my friend’s allergies as a “liability” and act as though accommodating her would be a considerable risk. Unfortunately, eating out for people with allergies often comes with various levels of inherent risk, but there are so many precautions restaurants could be taking to mitigate this and create a safe environment for all of their customers. It seems as though many establishments feel it is too much work to go the extra mile and that it does not pass the cost-benefit analysis.Although our past experiences with this restaurant had shown us that this restaurant was a safe place for people with allergies to eat, the way we were treated last night made us question this. In the future, I would urge you to please train your staff on how to interact with people with allergies and do your research on which documents are considered “legally binding”. By doing this, you will help avoid making an already stressful situation for the customer much worse. Giving you two stars because the wine was good.Thank you for your time.
Service: 2
Derek Berger
Nicolinos prepared a wonderful takeout meal for a group of 12 we were hosting. Service and food was excellent! I'm sure everyone attending will be visiting Nicolinos soon.
Food: 5
Service: 5
Tawny Paperd
Delicious food and incredible team. We have enjoyed dining here for nearly two decades.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Joseph Michniak
Took the family here. The food was good with great service.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 4
Service: 5
Nic E
The food here is awful. We got chicken parmesan and lasagne (which the server said has the same meat sauce as the pappardelle bolognese, in case anyone's wondering whether other menu items are better) and both my partner and I found it hard to eat our entrees. It tasted like the sauces came out of a can (in the Chef Boyardee way, not in the crushed canned tomatoes as a base to produce a homemade sauce way) and like the chicken base for the parmesan came from a frozen packet. The meat in the lasagne also tasted like something from a Chef Boyardee ravioli. I took home half of it and I honestly don't know if I can bring myself to eat it. It was a $29 meal.Bread service is a surprising, nice touch these days, but the bread here is clearly mass-produced store-bought white baguettes, which takes away from the appeal.The parmesan they brought out was crumbled (think Kraft shaker bottles) parmesan in an open bowl. I am not a big fan of the open bowl from a sanitary perspective, but more importantly, I expect that kind of cheese at a cheap pizza place, not at a dedicated Italian restaurant with $25+ entrees. Even Cheesecake Factory, a chain restaurant not specializing in Italian food, will come over and grate real parmesan over your pasta dish. Cheesecake Factory also manages to have better, fresher bread. I am saying this as someone who hasn't been to The Cheesecake Factory in years, because why go to a chain when there are so many great, independent, specialized restaurants around? I guess this is why. Not all independent restaurants are good.I could see into the kitchen from my seat and it looked like there might have only been a single cook back there, on a busy Saturday night, at peak dinner hours. Maybe if this place relies on frozen/canned everything, they feel 1 chef is enough, but it's clearly not.For this awful food, we waited a little over 45 mins from the time of ordering. We arrived hungry, so you'd think 45 mins of waiting would have made ANY food taste good, but no. You may be thinking 45 mins is an exaggeration, but no, we actually timed it, because we made note of the time after the server took 15 mins to take our food order after we sat down. It turns out that on a busy Saturday night, this place only seems to have scheduled a single server for the whole restaurant. The hostess (or idk maybe that was the manager or owner) was doing multiple roles, helping to run food and check on people, and the busser was also fulfilling a few roles, but come on. I've worked in food service, if you can't support the number of patrons in a place with the level of staff you have, you don't just keep seating more and more people - you leave some sections closed, so you can give th people already seated a good experience. How this place had a completely full restaurant with 1 server, 1 host, 1 busser, and 1 chef blows my mind.Nobody checked in on us or said anything to assure us during the 45 mins we waited for our food, btw. My partner and I were in between wondering whether they forgot our order and joking about walking out.Never again.
Atmosphere: 2
Food: 1
Service: 1
Sergey Popov
Food was between ok and good - pasta was quite good, but cioppino was very thin/watery.Service, however, left much to be desired.
Atmosphere: 4
Food: 4
Service: 3
Sean Miller
Beautiful atmosphere and great service. The food is quite good as well :)
The food just wasn't good at all. When I order Pollo Parmigan....chicken parm....I really expect there to be at least some breading in it. And the pasta....capallini was not good. My sisters dish the lobster and prawn ravioli was less then impressive as well. Aside from a really nice server and good ambiance it was just disappointing to have not good entrees. The bread was good. I traveled from eastern WA and paid a lot for disappointing food. Sorry for the review but just being honest.
Atmosphere: 4
Food: 1
Service: 4
Robert Duckworth
Great place authentic food since it was founded. Nicolino's is truly an Issaquah treasure. The tiramisu is unbelievable. I know the recipes are true because I was a sous chef there under Dennis Long in the mid-90s. The only true Chef I ever trained underKid-friendliness: Great place for families they have an awesome patio we use to grow fresh herbs out there.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Recommended dishes: Tiramisu
Yvonne Plata
First food is always wonderful. Unfortunately the place can get very loud. That is why my husband doesn't care to go but he always loves the food. So I order take out. When we have sat in the restaurant never any problem with the order. The last 2 take outs, the order had been messed up. The first time, they forgot his soup. We live 15 miles away so going back was not an option. So I just called to let them know. They were very sorry and offered to send check to reimburse me. Said they didn't have to do that, so they gave me a credit for later use. About a month later we ordered take out again. I ordered my usual, Fettuccine Della Casa. Hubby ordered Chicken with Cherries (don't know real name). Used my credit. Got home and they messed up order again. He got Chicken Parmesan. He isn't a fan. Again I called, had to leave message and explained what happened. They never returned my call. We will order again but definitely will have to check oder before I leave. It isn't a cheap dinner so would like to get what we ordered. They write the name of the item on the container so easy enough to check. I didn't think I would have needed to do that the second time. Great food though.Wheelchair accessibility: 2 wheelchair parking stalls right in front of door
Atmosphere: 4
Food: 5
Service: 4
Recommended dishes: Tiramisu
Yatri Arvindh
I thought this place was nice. The overall vibe was casual and fun and the staff were very accommodating and friendly to our party of 14. The food wasn’t bad but it was very standard and honestly I was expecting a little more in flavor (quantity is really good, enough to feed two people with one dish!). The italian sodas were nice. I would recommend because the staff were super patient with our indecisive, talkative members.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 3
Service: 5
Nir Arad
I found the menu a little limited. As someone who doesn't like bacon or seafood I usually have more selection in an Italian restaurant. The dishes we did get were very good, and the service was great.
Tuscan bread - 1/10 - soft, doughy, overly herbal.Lemon chicken pasta - 1/10 - dry, rubbery, flavorless.Atmosphere - 3/10 - Extremely darkService - 5/10 . Nothing to remark.Sorry, but try something else.
Atmosphere: 1
Food: 1
Service: 3
When I first moved here from North Carolina, the lasagna was better than the one I had today. Maybe a new chef,overall I had a great time ?
Atmosphere: 4
Food: 4
Service: 4
Recommended dishes: Tiramisu
Authentic Italian food! Over 30 years of business and taste very good!
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
To those with allergies: We had a very inappropriate and strange experience at this restaurant. It was our first time coming into the restaurant to eat. We had ordered some of their food to-go during the pandemic and we were excited to be back. My friend has life-threatening allergies to eggs and nuts so eating out can be challenging for her. They had previously stated that she was able to eat some of their food so we came into the restaurant thinking it would not be a problem. She handed the staff her allergy card and a man came back to our table to talk to us. I was unsure of what exactly his position at the restaurant was but he had come to ask us how deadly my friend’s allergies were. He stated he needed to ask for liability purposes and proceeded to tell us a bizarre and disturbing story about someone who had died from eating food that contained an allergen and said that my friend’s allergy card was a “legally binding document” and if something were to happen the restaurant would be completely “liable in a court of law”. Both of those claims are false – my friend’s allergy card is not a legally binding document. It is simply a card that has her allergies in writing for accessibility purposes and does not have any legal implications. He urged us to think carefully about our decision to eat there, stressing that he “does not like losing customers” but wanted us to be sure about our decision. The person who was waiting our table was kind and tried to reassure us that my friend could eat many food items on the menu, but the damage had already been done. I am unsure of what his intent was, but this interaction made my friend very uneasy which led us to leave the restaurant.Neither me nor my friend has ever had an experience like this when we have eaten out. I was very disappointed with the level of unprofessionalism my friend’s allergies were handled with. It was hurtful to see this man treat my friend’s allergies as a “liability” and act as though accommodating her would be a considerable risk. Unfortunately, eating out for people with allergies often comes with various levels of inherent risk, but there are so many precautions restaurants could be taking to mitigate this and create a safe environment for all of their customers. It seems as though many establishments feel it is too much work to go the extra mile and that it does not pass the cost-benefit analysis.Although our past experiences with this restaurant had shown us that this restaurant was a safe place for people with allergies to eat, the way we were treated last night made us question this. In the future, I would urge you to please train your staff on how to interact with people with allergies and do your research on which documents are considered “legally binding”. By doing this, you will help avoid making an already stressful situation for the customer much worse. Giving you two stars because the wine was good.Thank you for your time.
Service: 2
Nicolinos prepared a wonderful takeout meal for a group of 12 we were hosting. Service and food was excellent! I'm sure everyone attending will be visiting Nicolinos soon.
Food: 5
Service: 5
Delicious food and incredible team. We have enjoyed dining here for nearly two decades.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Took the family here. The food was good with great service.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 4
Service: 5
The food here is awful. We got chicken parmesan and lasagne (which the server said has the same meat sauce as the pappardelle bolognese, in case anyone's wondering whether other menu items are better) and both my partner and I found it hard to eat our entrees. It tasted like the sauces came out of a can (in the Chef Boyardee way, not in the crushed canned tomatoes as a base to produce a homemade sauce way) and like the chicken base for the parmesan came from a frozen packet. The meat in the lasagne also tasted like something from a Chef Boyardee ravioli. I took home half of it and I honestly don't know if I can bring myself to eat it. It was a $29 meal.Bread service is a surprising, nice touch these days, but the bread here is clearly mass-produced store-bought white baguettes, which takes away from the appeal.The parmesan they brought out was crumbled (think Kraft shaker bottles) parmesan in an open bowl. I am not a big fan of the open bowl from a sanitary perspective, but more importantly, I expect that kind of cheese at a cheap pizza place, not at a dedicated Italian restaurant with $25+ entrees. Even Cheesecake Factory, a chain restaurant not specializing in Italian food, will come over and grate real parmesan over your pasta dish. Cheesecake Factory also manages to have better, fresher bread. I am saying this as someone who hasn't been to The Cheesecake Factory in years, because why go to a chain when there are so many great, independent, specialized restaurants around? I guess this is why. Not all independent restaurants are good.I could see into the kitchen from my seat and it looked like there might have only been a single cook back there, on a busy Saturday night, at peak dinner hours. Maybe if this place relies on frozen/canned everything, they feel 1 chef is enough, but it's clearly not.For this awful food, we waited a little over 45 mins from the time of ordering. We arrived hungry, so you'd think 45 mins of waiting would have made ANY food taste good, but no. You may be thinking 45 mins is an exaggeration, but no, we actually timed it, because we made note of the time after the server took 15 mins to take our food order after we sat down. It turns out that on a busy Saturday night, this place only seems to have scheduled a single server for the whole restaurant. The hostess (or idk maybe that was the manager or owner) was doing multiple roles, helping to run food and check on people, and the busser was also fulfilling a few roles, but come on. I've worked in food service, if you can't support the number of patrons in a place with the level of staff you have, you don't just keep seating more and more people - you leave some sections closed, so you can give th people already seated a good experience. How this place had a completely full restaurant with 1 server, 1 host, 1 busser, and 1 chef blows my mind.Nobody checked in on us or said anything to assure us during the 45 mins we waited for our food, btw. My partner and I were in between wondering whether they forgot our order and joking about walking out.Never again.
Atmosphere: 2
Food: 1
Service: 1
Food was between ok and good - pasta was quite good, but cioppino was very thin/watery.Service, however, left much to be desired.
Atmosphere: 4
Food: 4
Service: 3
Beautiful atmosphere and great service. The food is quite good as well :)
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Restaurantji Recommends
The food just wasn't good at all. When I order Pollo Parmigan....chicken parm....I really expect there to be at least some breading in it. And the pasta....capallini was not good. My sisters dish the lobster and prawn ravioli was less then impressive as well. Aside from a really nice server and good ambiance it was just disappointing to have not good entrees. The bread was good. I traveled from eastern WA and paid a lot for disappointing food. Sorry for the review but just being honest.
Atmosphere: 4
Food: 1
Service: 4
Great place authentic food since it was founded. Nicolino's is truly an Issaquah treasure. The tiramisu is unbelievable. I know the recipes are true because I was a sous chef there under Dennis Long in the mid-90s. The only true Chef I ever trained underKid-friendliness: Great place for families they have an awesome patio we use to grow fresh herbs out there.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Recommended dishes: Tiramisu
First food is always wonderful. Unfortunately the place can get very loud. That is why my husband doesn't care to go but he always loves the food. So I order take out. When we have sat in the restaurant never any problem with the order. The last 2 take outs, the order had been messed up. The first time, they forgot his soup. We live 15 miles away so going back was not an option. So I just called to let them know. They were very sorry and offered to send check to reimburse me. Said they didn't have to do that, so they gave me a credit for later use. About a month later we ordered take out again. I ordered my usual, Fettuccine Della Casa. Hubby ordered Chicken with Cherries (don't know real name). Used my credit. Got home and they messed up order again. He got Chicken Parmesan. He isn't a fan. Again I called, had to leave message and explained what happened. They never returned my call. We will order again but definitely will have to check oder before I leave. It isn't a cheap dinner so would like to get what we ordered. They write the name of the item on the container so easy enough to check. I didn't think I would have needed to do that the second time. Great food though.Wheelchair accessibility: 2 wheelchair parking stalls right in front of door
Atmosphere: 4
Food: 5
Service: 4
Recommended dishes: Tiramisu
I thought this place was nice. The overall vibe was casual and fun and the staff were very accommodating and friendly to our party of 14. The food wasn’t bad but it was very standard and honestly I was expecting a little more in flavor (quantity is really good, enough to feed two people with one dish!). The italian sodas were nice. I would recommend because the staff were super patient with our indecisive, talkative members.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 3
Service: 5
I found the menu a little limited. As someone who doesn't like bacon or seafood I usually have more selection in an Italian restaurant. The dishes we did get were very good, and the service was great.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Recommended dishes: Mozzarella Caprese