Went to Nettie’s last night for my wife’s birthday, so I can give an up to date review of the restaurant.
Our reservations were for 8:30pm, we walked in and we’re immediately seated. The place was pretty packed, and noise levels were moderately high (not a criticism, I actually enjoy a degree of noise). Decor is cute, somewhat rustic, our table had a bench seat which I like (I’m not a spring chicken anymore and I need a little extra padding or my back is killing me).
They have a big staff, and they weren’t standing around at all. Service is what I’d call “relaxed” - they aren’t up in your face every 10 seconds, which I prefer.
Point to note - everything is a la carte, which can be a blessing or a curse, depending on if you are frugal (like me). Our server noted this to us, and that presented us with some nice ordering dilemmas (a lot to choose from that we wanted but we are trying to keep it reasonable).
Our server was great (I think her name was Ang). She was sincere and gave us time to look through the menu. My wife ordered a White Negroni for a drink and I ordered a glass of Chianti. Nice that they have a liquor license but alcohol ordering always gets me in trouble, because it really adds to the tab. 4 drinks for us was $60, more than I like to spend but given the occasion, we said “you only live once”.
We were asked to order everything (starters and entrees) at the same time, normally something I don’t like to do because some places will bring out your entree too quickly. No issue with that here, seemed more just logistics management which is fine by me.
We ordered fresh mozzarella and Golfetta salumi for apps. The server brought us bread, which was warm and really nice. The fresh mozzarella was very good and I’m a huge parmagiano reggiano fan, there were nice chunks on the salumi.
Main course I had the hot vinegar chicken. My wife had the fresh spinach fettuccine. My oldest daughter had the cavatini and zucchini, and my youngest had the flat iron piccata.
My youngest is a picky eater, she cleaned her plate. Portion wasn’t huge but just right for her. Steak was cooked medium rare, not over cooked. This is how we eat it, so she was happy with how it came out.
My other daughter loved her dish. My wife thought it was the best of the four. She finished hers as well.
My chicken was very juicy and moist, the jus was tasty and had a little heat. I read somewhere on this thread that it’s a take on Chicken Savoy, which I’ve never had. I thought the dish was well cooked and well prepared, thumbs up from me.
I had a side of the chopped broccoli rabe, which is definitely a different way to prepare it. I loved it, it was seasoned well and tasted great. For me, being able to just spoon it on to my plate with no mess and not having to cut it was well received. I also like bucking tradition a little, so it was a thumbs up.
I should also point out that my palette leans towards salty food. What I think is seasoned properly might not be everyone’s taste, but my wife is much less into salty food, she loved the broccoli rabe.
Her spinach fettuccine was very good. The place has low lighting, and my eyesight isn’t the best, it looked like a big plate of spinach, which wasn’t spinach at all - it was the actual pasta. It looked kind of cool, the pasta was prepared with roasted garlic, olive oil, and cheese. Pasta was cooked just slightly past “al dente”, but not over cooked.
We also had a side of fried mushrooms - I’m not a big fan of mushrooms but they were nicely prepared and crunchy which I liked.
Desert was orange cake for my wife and cherry ice for my kids. They finished all of it. I’m not into sweets but the cherry ice was good, as was the cream with it.
We probably went a little overboard ordering all sorts of things, and in the end that added up. Entrees are reasonably priced (I’d say on average around $30), but adding 2 apps, 2 side orders, 2 desserts, and 4 drinks pushed the bill up quite a bit. It would be unfair to say that it’s a little pricey, but as I said earlier, it’s a la carte so you have to keep that in mind when ordering.
I would definitely go back here. It’s worth paying a visit. Food was very good, and our experience was pleasant. I was happy to see that business was strong, looks like they have good word of mouth and likely repeat clientele.
I screwed up taking pictures, I was only able to find that I had one of the broccoli rabe and one of the salumi with parmagiano reggiano. I think there’s a picture on the thread of the chicken, looked the same as what I had.