Nino’s Restaurant on the Upper East Side provides Italian dining with warm attentive service and romantic live piano music. Namesake Nino Selimaj may even welcome you, as he did us.

Although the specials sounded fabulous, I was their guest and decided to find out which menu dishes I shouldn’t miss. Nino suggested the tableside prep of both the Caesar salad and the spicy lobster fra diablo served with linguine ($50, for two). If you’re not squeamish, you can even pick a lobster from the tank.

I pondered those options as I nibbled on their housemade tapanade made from finely mashed white beans, eggplant, red peppers, basil and a little bit of EVOO. It needed seasoning.

We began with the grilled portobello topped with roasted peppers, zucchini and melted fontina ($14). A nice light start while sipping the full-bodied Cakebread Sauvignon Blanc ($75).

We then watched the preparation of their Caesar salad for two ($22), with the dressing made using a fresh egg yolk, capers, garlic, Dijon mustard, anchovies, Worcestershire sauce, EVOO, some freshly ground black pepper and a couple croutons as binding. After tossing the lettuce with the dressing and additional croutons, the server topped it with fresh grated Parmigiano-Reggiano. The flair of the preparation was enjoyable, not so much the salad, as neither the romaine nor the plates were chilled something easily rectified, and the croutons were less than fresh.

The tender and light homemade potato gnocchi in tomato sauce topped with fresh mozzarella ($17) made up for that. Don’t miss it.

Our server Anastacia showed me the live crustacean before walking it to the kitchen to be cooked before the second tableside prep. The mildly spicy tomato sauce comes with a hearty a portion of linguine. I’d recommend this for those with robust appetites.

The herb-mustard glazed salmon was perfectly cooked “black and blue,” almost sushi-style, and served with both a diced cucumber and veggies salad in a caper vinaigrette and a crispy green onion round reminiscent of a crabless crab cake. Oddly, the menu-stated King crab was missing from the plate. Also missing where the asparagus and broccoli we had ordered. According to our server, although not listed on the menu Ninos offers most veggies either sauteed, steamed or grilled.

When describing the desserts, Anastacia’s face lit up so much as she described the tiramisu ($9) lightly spiked with rum that we had to sample it. It didn’t disappoint. Their tartufo ($9) is made at sister restaurant Positano. It’s  a cherry covered on all sides with vanilla, chocolate and strawberry ice cream topped with hardened dark chocolate, which came sliced making it easier to enjoy. And that evening’s freshly prepared the pistachio gelato ($9) was not to be missed.

Finally, we sipped limonciello ($9), a perfect ending to an Italian meals. We drank that while thoroughly enjoying the atmosphere with old-time music from the live piano music.  And we nibbled our complementary fruit plate, a thank you platter Ninos gives to their regulars.

– bonnie

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Nino’s Restaurant
Upper East Side
1354 First Avenue (at 72nd Street)
(212) 988-0002

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