The menu on Il Nido’s site is not up-to-date though there are some things there that are on the printed menu. For example, two soups: the celery root and the crispelle. Had them and they are delicious. We’ve had several different pastas, but my favorite remains the Bolognese which is always on the menu. (We always split pasta orders.)
I loved the grilled duck breast but not sure if it’s still on the menu. Not listed is the 14-oz. aged veal chop accompanied by Roman Gnocci and sautéed green. Michael had it and said it was all excellent. The Roman Gnocchi are also on the sides menu. They are unusual, something not often, if ever, seen on Italian menus. Highly recommended as they are amazing!
I’ll check my Flickr albums and see about putting up some photos (or links).
The ricotta gnocchi with house made fennel sausage, broccoli rabe, Calabrian chili, currant, and pine nuts was excellent. Their salumi board is very good as well.
Since you mentioned being interested in the veal chop, here it is with sides of Roman gnocchi and sautéed greens.
And here is the Roman Gnocchi as a side dish. It is totally different than the type of gnocchi in the dish paryzer posted. As you can see, Roman gnocchi are not dumplings. They’re similar to polenta but are made with semolina flour instead of cornmeal and can be squares or round.
We’ve had the Roman Gnocchi at Il Nido. They are absolutely delicious. Since we can’t get there as often as we’d like, I found a recipe and now make them at home - are pretty easy. Mine are not as lush as Il Nido’s but they are still delightful.
In Galicia, Spain, the northwest corner north of northern Portugal, and it is the home of Pulpo A Feira …
Baby octopus served with Cachuelos (an indigenious small yellow creamy potato - originally from Perú 1520) and both are high simmered or boiled until tender, and it is served on a wooden board, sliced into rounds. The key: The baby octopus is boiled and dunked into sea water !!!
I’m sure everyone has been refreshing HO just anxiously waiting with baited breath for my commentary from our dinner last night.
As suggested, we secured a cabana and at 40 degrees. I was shocked we weren’t freezing. They have some powerful space heaters. Nicely done space and private.
The food was amazing. Slightly over salted but really delicious. I am obsessed with the polenta/gnocchi concoction. WOW. I’ve never had anything like it. Cocktails were creative and I was grateful the bartender really understood that I wanted my cocktail VERY lightly sweetened. The problem was the service. Our reservation was at 7:45 and we didn’t leave till after 10 and we didn’t even get dessert (couldn’t get a waiter to even order from). We couldn’t get a water refill. Our server was completely missing for well over an hour. It was nearly impossible to get a check. I nearly walked inside to pay. My husband saw this posted on instagram this morning so my guess is that the staff was consumed by catering to Joe Rogan? Funny enough, we were talking about Rogan over dinner and could also hear the cabana over also talking about him. We will absolutely go back but will sit inside next time. For close to $200 (post tip) we would expect to get better service.
Sorry to hear about your service dilema. If I were you, either you or your gentleman should of walked inside and spoke to the General Manager.
I do not care who is some famous ego eating at the same restaurant. I deserve and pay for good service and visits to the table to make sure that we have all we want.
NO excuses in my opinion and I would definitely write the Manager or Owner.
Sorry to hear about the lacking service. The meal looks and sounds tasty. I am impressed with how nice the table looks in an outside cabana.
Fwiw, We had a frustrating dinner experience elsewhere last month and did say something to a Mgr. only to be aggressively responded to that they were short staffed. Our waitress was working our table and the bar-leaving us in the dust during key points. They wrapped up our dessert as we had a show to run to. Dessert was wasted.
I hope if you do call the Mgr you receive a better outcome.
A little side story. We are embarking on a number of renovation projects at our house. One part is to replace the stair railing and spindles, decent side job since it is a big staircase and goes down to the basement etc. Guy comes, gives us a quote, comes back couple weeks later to measure and says he will be in touch in 2-3 days on the price for a couple of options we discussed. 2 weeks later my husband calls to ask a status and start date. The guy demands $14K (whole project is $18K) and we don’t even have a contract. My husband politely points out that we aren’t giving him any money without a contract and the guy just unloaded via text about how untrusting we are and how he isn’t here to scam anyone. Bullet dodged! This happened today so we weren’t exactly running to get into another confrontation!
Glad to finally see your post, I was one of those constantly refreshing to hear about your experience.
Happy to hear the Cabana experience was good as I am scheduled for tonight.
Pretty bummed to hear about the poor service because of some internet bloviator interfering with your night.
I’m a pretty confrontational guy so I’m certain I would have handled this differently not necessarily the right thing to do but I’m certain I would have let the mgr or GM know how I felt.
Any way glad it was a good food experience.
THIS. RIGHT. HERE.
I don’t care who else is dining at the same time; their $ and mine are the same, and I hope Il Nido recognizes and rectifies this situation in the future.
We’ve been to Il Nido a few times and, while the food is absolutely some of the best I’ve ever eaten, they do seem to have somewhat of a caste system in how they treat their customers. That’s their right but I find it annoying.
