Nino's Italian

Nino’s Italian

7512 Bluebonnet Blvd.
Baton Rouge, LA
225.757.9300

www.ninos-italian.com

I often visit other blogs and read online reviews of area restaurants to get an idea of new places to check out.  A reviewer of Nino’s on Urbanspoon.com did a great job of describing Nino’s, so I had to quote him.  Eric says, “If you love Olive Garden, you will probably hate Nino’s”.

Hate is seldom used within the context of a compliment, but here it clearly is.  Chef Elton Hyndman uses fresh ingredients, and makes everything from scratch.  From the hot, fresh sourdough bread you receive at the beginning of your meal to the fresh pasta and sauces, everything is house made, and you can taste the difference.  And it’s something he is proud of, as well he should be.  A visit to the restaurant’s website doesn’t just give you a scanned copy of the restaurant menu.  Each item on the menu is photographed and described in detail, down to the steps taken in preparation.

The restaurant is small, and serves as a good setting for an intimate romantic night out without the kids.  That’s exactly what my wife and I did to celebrate her birthday.  We made a reservation (which is a good idea given its limited seating capacity), and were seated promptly when we arrived.

We first sampled the gnocchi appetizer.  Fresh potato pasta dumplings topped with a basil cream sauce.  When prepared properly, these are extremely light and delicate and just melt in your mouth.  Nino’s nailed it, as these were easily the best I’ve ever eaten.

Gnocchi

Caesar salads followed, and were fresh and tasty as well.  An excellent example of the care Chef Elton puts into his food is shown in the crouton for the salad.  A thin slice of homemade sourdough bread is topped with pepper, olive oil, and parmesan and toasted in the oven.  This type of attention to detail is what separates good restaurants from great restaurants.

For entrees, we had the lasagna and gorgonzola pasta.  The lasagna is filled with marinated and grilled zucchini and summer squash, along with seasoned ground beef.  The beef is browned and seasoned using a spinach-basil-lemon juice puree that really helps to alleviate some of the heaviness often associated with lasagna.  The pasta and marinara are of course house made and as fresh as you can find anywhere.

Lasagna

The gorgonzola pasta was very delicious, consisting of sautéed mushrooms and peppers swimming in a brandy-gorgonzola cream sauce atop fresh fettuccine.  Eating fresh pasta is kinda like seeing HD television for the first time.  Once you have experienced it, what you knew before vastly pales in comparison.

Gorgonzola pasta

Of course we had to try dessert, and typically we would have opted for a traditional Italian favorite, especially given the fact that I had been told the tiramisu was outrageously good.  However, I am fanatic about chocolate chip cookies.  They are one of the greatest things ever produced by man.  When I saw them on the menu and read the description, I was sold.  These are oatmeal chocolate chip cookies, baked to order, and served with fresh cream and cold milk.  It would be an insult to even try to put into words how good these cookies are.  You just have to check them out yourself.

Cookies

Nino’s is not to be missed.  It is among the best restaurants our city has to offer.  Period.

Portico

11777 Coursey Blvd. (near Sherwood Forest)

Baton Rouge, LA 70816

225.778.7746

http://www.porticoetc.com

Portico is one of BR’s newest eateries, housed in the former Calendar’s restaurant near the very busy intersection of Coursey Blvd and Sherwood Forest.  While the look and feel of the restaurant as well as their website is nicely polished and quite appealing, the service and food are sorely lacking.

The layout is very open with an outdoor patio area complete with misters adjacent to the bar.  The décor is modern and very appealing.  I visited on a Saturday evening and my party was seated promptly.  Our waiter seemed a bit stressed but got drinks going pretty quickly while we looked over the menu.

The menu is fairly straightforward, consisting of mostly bar type food.  Nothing really stood out as unique or special.  They offer a variety of common appetizers such as spinach and artichoke dip, chips and queso, cheese fries and wings.  Pizza is on the menu as well, a variety of sandwiches and burgers, steaks, salads, very common items you would expect to find at an average eatery.  We opted to skip the appetizers and just order our entrees.

I ordered the flatboy, a meaty, pressed sandwich that sounded right up my alley, complete with a variety of meats that included pork, ham, turkey and roast beef, covered in Swiss cheese and served with barbeque sauce and gravy on the side.  I ordered the twice baked potatoes as a side item.  The sandwich was good, but the potatoes were cold and had little flavor.  Overall all of our food was cold, which implies that it sat too long waiting to be served to us.

Other food sampled by members of my party included the turkey & avocado club, spaghetti & meatballs, and grilled chicken sandwich.  The sandwiches and spaghetti were reported as good, but the fries were cold and soggy, and the presentation very sloppy.

Turkey & Avocado Club with Grits

  

Spaghetti & Meatballs

Flatboy sandwich with Twice-Baked Potatoes

Brownie (with whipped cream in place of melted ice cream)

The service was very lacking as well, as I asked for a beer prior to receiving my entrée and did not see it until I was nearly done eating.  Halfway during the meal, the table behind us was bussed and cleaned in a procedure that sounded like a bull passing through a china cabinet.

Service continued to go downhill when we were done and it came time for the check.  My wife asked the waiter if they do anything for birthdays, since it was mine, and he replied that he did not know but would check with management.  He then mentioned something about dessert, not specifically indicating that it was complimentary, but nevertheless, I decided to try the brownie with ice cream. 

He returned a short time later to inform me that all of the ice cream had melted, but if I still wanted the dessert he would get it.  So, he proceeded to bring it to me, sans ice cream.  It was decent, but nothing special. 

When the bill came, we were somewhat surprised to see a charge for the dessert, first given the fact that most restaurants will comp that for a birthday, and second because one key component of it was missing.  I was not in a mood to argue, but my wife did speak with the manager who informed her that the freezer was low on Freon and the ice cream had melted.  He did offer his apologies and said to ask for him on a return visit to “make it up to us”.  Later when giving this more thought (and ironically watching an episode of Restaurant Impossible) it occurred to me that if the refrigeration was not working properly then perhaps food safety was jeopardized. 

All in all, issues like this invariably point to bad management.  A responsible, competent manager is accountable for all staff, and communicates basic information to them to enable them to do their jobs properly.  Additionally, the manager should visit all tables to follow up and ensure that the customer is happy.  In this modern day of social media it is too risky to chance upsetting a customer and have that bad experience spread virally across the internet for thousands to see.

It’s a real shame that Portico doesn’t match its sleek, modern look with excellent service and an innovative menu.  Perhaps a few more negative experiences will kick start a much needed change.