My husband and I had an incredible dining experience at Il Nido. Our server Amanda was extremely knowledgable and we loved her reccommendations. I especially loved the Mugnaia and the risotto.
There were so many unique dishes it was hard to choose. You will not be disappointed with anything you order. We can’t wait to go back!
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Beautiful pics Megan! Those are making me hungry! Lol
Welcome to hungry onion. I really need to get here soon after reading stellar reviews. I’m glad to see a new member here. I want to try some steak here.
How did you find out about the site? It is always nice to see new members contributing to our forum. Welcome aboard and I look forward to hearing about your food adventures 
There are a lot of great people here and I think you will enjoy this forum.
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Thanks! Someone mentioned the site to me after discussing how good this meal was. I love trying new restaurants and different dishes. Looking forward to reading more of what people have to say on here and contributing myself.
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For you soft shell fans, Il Nido has a post up in their IG stories saying it’s “Softy Season…”
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Dinner last night was great. 4 absolute hits - cold lobster and crab app, mugnaia (one long udon like noodle) shared as an app, veal chop on the bone, olive oil cake with olive oil gelato. One dish that wasn’t quite as enjoyed was black spaghetti with crab. Well executed, but just not to our personal liking. I can’t think of another restaurant cooking at this level anywhere in the vicinity. A very adult crowd on a Saturday night with most people quite dressy which is not seen that much these days. Table next to us had the $96 steak for two arrive overcooked. Floor manager replaced it no problem and brought out a comped dish to tide them over while a new steak was cooked. How it should be done! Hopeful that our next visit is just as good.
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We came here last night for an early dinner. Some good parts and not so good parts. I’m left conflicted about this place.
The good:
- Repeating from others but the space is well done. Nice chairs. Lovely wine glasses. Obvious attention to detail (examples: fancy olive oil on the tables and salt/pepper grinders).
- Service is attentive. Dedicated water server who looked a little nervous when we asked just to have a carafe of water stay on the table. haha
- We enjoyed 2 out of 3 things we ordered. The scallops were perfect and the pasta was delightful.
- High quality of ingredients. That is quite obvious.
The not so good:
- I have a hard time putting my finger on this one but we definitely did not feel welcome with the kid. It was one of the first time I didn’t feel like we were welcome out. It was 5 PM and the restaurant was nearly empty. They sat us in a back room with no other people than sat a couple with an infant next to us who didn’t find it amusing when I noted that we were in the kids room.
- The 2nd pic is the artichoke appetizer that we ordered. It was odd and didn’t feel like any of the components fit together. From the menu it said: Baby Artichokes, Parmesan Sformato, Spinach, Black Garlic & Chicories. We assumed this would be like a warm salad sort of a dish. But it was a cold dish with the sformoto watery at the bottom. The spinach was a puree and the artichokes were pickled. The server sort of offered to do something about it but we were starving and it was edible just not cohesive or what we imagined.
- I didn’t think the portions were substantial at all. 4 scallops for $33. We probably should have ordered another entree. We both had a snack when we got home.
Long story short. We may try it again in the fall but without the little one but I’m not in a huge hurry to return.
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Those scallops look great though! I agree 33 is getting up there for 4 scallops, but they appear quite large. I’m not sure what’s up with scallop pricing but restuarants are charging much more it seems. The other day I was at a place and they had a single scallop app for 13.95 
The scallops were delicious but yeah the prices lately on them have been crazy. $14 for a single scallop is robbery.
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Had our first dinner at Il Nido and overall we were underwhelmed, (sorry Roz). Antipasto plate was excellent, great quality and excellent assortment. The octopus could have been great but ours came out partly charred and partly non charred. The accompanying potatoes were excellent. The lamb chop app was good, just not super flavorful, plus we ordered them med rare, and they were more to the well done side. We ordered their special mugnaia, (one long strand), pasta which to us was over cooked and overly chewy. Plus the sauce was neither here nor there.
Service by David, (from Brioso) was professional.
All in all it was an ok experience, but to us not special enough to warrant a 45 minute drive
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We had a very nice meal here last night. The huge space with separate rooms was mostly full all night. The service was top notch, from all the staff.
The apps came and we enjoyed the mix of different things on the big meat and cheese board. One rarely gets things like imported hazelnuts and house made pickled vegetables on said board. The app special of skewers of lamb was decent but would have benefitted from a savory/spicy dipping sauce. The garlic bread the skewers were served on was excellent.
We shared tagliatelle and fusilli next. Both pastas were house made and rivaled the pastas we had recently at Semolina in Red Bank. The tagliatelle were served with a light and flavorful butter sauce that was plate-licking good.
Our mains were mixed. The pork chop was good enough but suffered in comparison to the awesome version we had at Semolina ( maybe the best one ever ). The steak was cooked perfectly and well seasoned but I had to balk at paying $55 for a 16 oz ribeye. The best of the mains was a fish special that was outstanding. The white flesh was surrounded by crabmeat and the combo bites were well balanced so the crab did not overpower the fish. It was served with eggplant meatballs that were surprising in both taste and texture - I want more of those or maybe I have to figure out how to make them at home.
Desserts were next and we shared three. The chocolate olive oil cake was decent. The pistachio cake was better with a hint of lemon in it to balance the sweetness. The best was the blueberry tart that took the lemon hint and ran with it. What came out was an homage to my childhood obsession with sweettarts. It was just sour enough and bursting with blueberry flavor.
All in all I would give Il Nido three out of four stars (forks?) for a wonderful night that only ended up costing $60 pp all in.
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Was the cost per person $60 inclusive of any alcohol, tax, or gratuity?
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Il Nido is byo and there was plenty of b 
It was $60 incl tax and tip.
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I’m glad you had a good time Dave. That seems like a reasonable price for a great meal.
Dare I admit I had the pleasure of dining with Mr & Mrs Seal…and I concur with @seal assessment of the night.
The lamb while good lacked any “wow” factor that a good marinade or sauce would have provided. The steak while good @ $55 it dam well better be but again it was a “steak”. The pork chop while good doesn’t hold a candle to Semolina. The other thing that I found a bit disappointing was their bread, while offering 3 options (rye / wheat / chiabatta) all had very spongy crust. They did provide butter upon request. As @seal said the garlic and toasted breads with the apps were much better than the table bread.
The pastas were the highlight of the night as one would expect at an Italian restaurant.
Service was excellent in a very comfortable well laid out space. While our room was “mostly” full all of the night (6-8:30) it was never actually full which surprised me with the buzz about this place.
Would certainly go back and would strongly recommend however with my recent love affair with Semolina and it being 20mins closer to home for me it will probably be awhile before I return.
I’ll go with 2.5 out of 4 for the overall experience, fortunately the company was a 5 out of 4 stars!
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Um…
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Huh? I’m confused!
I call that II Neato!
Sounds to me like they’re doing a special month of Spanish tapas!
ETA: CLARIFICATION via their website…
MONTHLY EPICUREAN MENU
60$ PER PERSON
Participation by the entire table is required
Featuring the cuisine of SPAIN - Madrileno
Sunday to Thursday Starting Wednesday June 5 to 27
Menu subject to change based on availability of Spanish products to us
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The menu look great, you get everything listed.
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