Nectar Restaurant and Wine Bar

The one the best meals I’ve had in the city. A little bit pricey but you get your money’s worth. Great service and drink options as well. If your looking for a nice place to eat with a great atmosphere and food check it out.

Wow! A cool funky lounge right when you walk in the restaurant with a pleasant bartender there to greet you when you enter. Did not go up stairs to the restaurant as we were only interested in their appetizers and samplers. We ordered all their appetizers on main menu and their little appy menu. Excellent service, price is impressively affordable and food was just perfect. A great hangout to meet with friends for some lala time.:-) in the heart of Downtown Dartmouth! A hidden gem eatery to those who like to get out and socialize. Plenty of Parking on the streets. We are definitely going back to try their lunch/​dinner menu.

Nectar is a really lovely place if you want to eat local, seasonal delicious food at a high-​end scale. The staff there is small but extremely knowledgeable about where the food is coming from, ingredients used and with which wine to pair it with. And just to add, they are very accommodating. If you’re from the halifax area make it a point to travel to the «darkside» to visit this place. It’s a great reason to take the ferry!
I would highly recommend the calamari, you
get to choose the spice level! (Get the most spicy it’s perfect)! I’ve ordered numerous different things from there, the seafood is always fresh, and the helpings in general are quite generous, doggy-​bag!

If you don’t know about this place, I sure didn’t, you are missing out! Beautiful atmosphere with delicuous food! Love this place! If you like jazz head down on Sunday nights from 6 – 9! Come one, come all to the perfect spot located in Dartmouth! No need to head to Halifax! Great wait staff, very friendly! New favorite spot!

I’ve been torn about writing this review but I’m just gonna bit the bullet and go ahead.
Came here on a Sunday night with Groupon in hand and was excited for some delicious eats. Heard good things about this place so the expectations were a bit high. Got in, got seated and was served water & bread promptly. First thing I noticed was the awesome décor on the inside. Modern but warm at the same time. Very cool.
Ordered, drinks, app & main. Second thing I noticed was the prices on the menu. A bit higher than my liking but I understand this is a bit fancier place. And this is where my rant comes in.
When it comes to dining, I understand the setup that’s in place at all dining places — as price goes up so does quantity up until the breaking point. As price keeps increasing past that breaking point, quantity decreases and quality increases. I get this ‘phenomenon’ and have no problem with it. My problem is when I go beyond the breaking point and I end up having a meal and I’m still not full. And that’s exactly what happened at Nectar.
Either way, the food was really good, it’s just there wasn’t very much of it. That’s a 3-​starer for me.

We went last week and it was my second time to this restaurant. service was excellent though I didn’t like seeing the waitress’s thumb in the empty bowl when it was bought over (we asked for extra bowls so we could share the soup and she was nice enough to give us the bowls but probably the bowl is quite large that she had to put her thumb in the bowl to hold it, oh well). She was very nice about everything, excellent customer service. Food was delicious, the pork tenderloin was so tender and with nice sauce on top. Presentation was number 1 too. It was quite an expensive meal, but well worth it for the food quality, presentation and also the service.

My partner and I had an excellent meal at Nectar last week.
We split the watermelon/​feta salad, which was everything it should be: a symphony of sweet, tangy, salty, crunchy bliss.
I had delectable Arctic char and polished off every scrap of the rather beautifully presented plate. Partner’s salade nicoise had gorgeous chunks of perfectly seared tuna. After a slight tussle over dessert, I gave into his dislike of bananas — no banoffee this time — and we shared the flourless chocolate cake. It was slightly on the dry side, but the whipped cream took care of that.
We went on a Tuesday, brought our own wine, had a grand discussion with our waiter about said wine — no hint of corkage grouchiness — and a lemon drop cocktail to start. I am now experimenting with lemon drops at home, trying to recreate the bliss.
Excellent service. Worth every penny. We’ll be back.

My office went here for a lunch. I’ve heard many great things about Nectar so naturally, I was pretty excited that we were going!
The décor was lovely– the inside is so classy and clean looking. We sat out on the gorgeous enclosed patio they have tucked away upstairs. It was the perfect day for it and we were all thrilled to be dining outside.
On to the menu– for the majority of us we had already decided what we were going to get so I couldn’t say much about the rest of the menu BUT, as far as what I did have:
Cucumber Watermelon Salad — this came out different than I expected. It was really a «salad» in the context we would use it but I was told this was European style, so I’ll go with that. Nonetheless– this dish was INCREDIBLE! Chunks of juicy watermelon with finely chopped cukes, radish & feta drizzled with balsamic. The common comment was that it felt like a «clean» eat. Very light and refreshing. A1 starter!
Next was main– I had the Thai Curry Penne (mild with seafood) I really really liked it. It wasn’t too spicy (one of our coworkers wanted to attempt the spicy but was intimidated when our server told them it was internationally hot and couldn’t be returned to the kitchen if they couldn’t stomach it) it was in fact a touch of sweet. Very yummy! It was a good portion size as well.
Next we embarked on dessert. After googling what Banoffee was– I decided to give it a try. Well– being a HUGE sweets lover I was surely not disappointed. It was a HUGE hunk of pie and I ate every last piece. So tasty and creamy. I would honest consider going to Nectar again just to have a plate of desert!
Drinks– I had an I Love Dartmouth and Orchid martini. Both were delicious. I don’t like the taste of alcohol and neither of these made my toes curl so that was nice.
My reason for giving 4 stars instead of 5 is that I found it took a long time for things to get underway food wise. We had 2 hours and it took more than that. We were a bit of a larger party however we had the reservation made a week or so in advance and there were maybe 4 other patrons there besides us so I feel like it could have been better planned out.
Turning a negative into a positive– the food is all worth the wait and I enjoyed the time there!
Thank you Nectar for a great experience!!:)

I wanted to try brunch at this most excellent restaurant and I was greatly rewarded.
On a Saturday morning, my girlfriend and I saddled up the Jeep and off we went to Nectar. It was a nice sunny morning, so we opted for the beautiful deck/​patio area complete with large umbrellas to avoid the sun if need be. There were two staff waiting on all patrons here (about 10 on the patio) and they were very attentive, polite, and helpful with the menu items. Grade A service during the entire meal — not too oppressive, not too absent — just right.
Now, the food. I ordered the crepes stuffed with egg, bacon, asparagus, green onion. It was served with a delicious white sauce (looked like hollandaise) and was quite filling! My girlfriend ordered the seasonal quiche, cut like a pizza slice. I had a taste and it was even better than my plate. Wow, very tasty indeed. And again, very rich and filling.
We were extremely satisfied with our entire experience here at Nectar: atmosphere, service, food. There is no doubt that we will be back.

Nectar has always been a «hidden gem» for Halifax diners tucked between Interlude and Two if By Sea on Ochterloney St in Dartmouth.
But the owners have made some inspired changes and if you haven’t been or haven’t been lately, it should be top of your list.
The new menu is impressive. We loved what Nectar was doing, but the totally revamped menu is so much more «of place», emphasis on highest quality local foods prepared from scratch. Right from first glance you can tell it is designed to reflect our maritime seafood, meats and produce much than previously and still approached with creative modern twists you’d expect from a respected high end favourite like Nectar. The new menu is just fresher, more modern and feels perfectly suited to this elegant dining room and wine bar.
Service is the other emphasis here. It’s professional and warm and decidedly not stuffy for the ambience. You can enjoy a fantastic dinner here comfortably, which is something some high end restaurants seem to miss.
I’ve hosted executive client dinners here to rave reviews, but still think Nectar may just have taken everything up that extra notch with the new menu without sacrificing their affordable menus and warm, personable service.
We tasted the new menu for the first time last night and after many great meals at Nectar, we immediately agreed the new menu surpassed every experience that preceded it.
And they added banoffee to the dessert menu. We had to try it. Simply the best. Save room.

My friend and I had had spent all morning looking for bridal gowns and I wanted to take her to a nice place for a bridal lunch. The décor is elegant, the staff was efficient and my char was perfectly cooked and flavored! I hope to go back soon!

Took us too long but we finally gave this lovely spot a try on a Friday evening.
I love the layout and design of the restaurant. A cozy bar set up downstairs, modern & nicely appointed dining room upstairs.
The menu had a good variety. Our understanding is they change the menu every 6 months. B started with the caesar salad and went with the tenderloin for his main. I started with the spinach salad and followed up with the braised short rib.
The salads were very good, lots of good, fresh flavours. The mains were good but I felt the meat portions were a little on the skimpy side for the price. Having said that, the veg sides were outstanding, no less than 8 different veg on each of our plates and cooked to perfection. B’s tenderloin came with grilled polenta as the starch and mine with a quinoa dish.
Our server explained that substitution wasn’t a problem if we’d like some other side but we stuck with the menu. I had contacted the restaurant when making our reservation asking if they could adjust the caesar dressing to allow for B’s seafood allergy and they were very accommodating.
The service was outstanding, Robin was attentive but not oppressively so. Both she and the other gal (didn’t get her name) were helpful throughout our meal.
Only 3 issues, one was the size of the meat portions already mentioned, another was that there was a salt shaker on the table and it was one of the rare occasions I found I needed to use it. And finally, the heat upstairs was oppressive, to the point my glasses were steaming up, not sure with the layout how that might be remedied.
A little torn between wanting to give this place 5 stars but I settled a four and hope I can up that on a return visit.

Disappointing — but I’ll probably give it another try at an undetermined point in the future.
It must have been an off day — my two friends who had brunch with me earlier both said as we left that they were not sure I came away with the right impression after my first visit. First, we walked in and there was a sign saying to go up the stairs and wait at the host station. We waited… and waited… we coughed and I started to walk off to find someone but my friends wanted to try to do the right thing and follow directions. After a few minutes of nothing someone came out of the kitchen and seated us. When my spinach salad arrived it was missing goat cheese. I asked the server and he said he didn’t think it came with it. I said I was pretty sure and could I please see the menu? He retrieved a menu and didn’t show it to me but said that the lunch version was served without goat cheese, but the brunch one did include the cheese, and therefore I was right; he took my plate to correct the mistake. That was a good part. Also our mimosas were good, though not very generously sized.
When the salad came back and I got to eating it I was disappointed to note that the spinach and arugula had both seen better days, and should probably have been incorporated into a cooked dish rather than served fresh. A couple of the slices of beets had brown spots where some little pest seemed to have burrowed in before they were harvested. That should be something the chef keeps an eye out for, I would think. The dressing was nice, at least. I’d give the spinach salad a «fine» sort of rating. Then we were waiting to pay. And waiting. And waiting. One friend wondered what to do and I said we should just stand up, because someone would definitely notice. No sooner had we stood up and pushed in our chairs than voila! Our server appeared and asked if we needed checks. Yes, please. At this point the credit card machine malfunctioned and wouldn’t recognize my card, though I haven’t had any problems with the card before. I ended up paying in cash because I had no alternative. My friend’s card worked fine, but I hope they’re able to clean the machine or whatever else is needed to get it back on track. Overall, a big meh.

Closed!
My bestfriend and I have been dyeing to try this place as he lives in a building very close to this nectar restaurant. We arrived around 7 and were seated upstairs. After reciving our menus, we were looking for a drink menu, after 20 minutes the lady (who never introduced her self at all) explained the specials and drinks. We ordered our appetizer (roasted pepper dip) to share and I ordered the stuffed salmon.
8 came and we finally received our drinks, already drank the water that we were served at the beginning of our meal.
8:20, aprox an hour after we ordered our appitizer came out, we dove in to it. It was very good but the bread was dry and hard.
8:40 and we were done our drinks and the plate was still sitting there empty from our app. When she did come to collect our glasses and the plate we ordered second drinks.
9:00 came and we could see our drinks sitting at the bar. Very aggravating.
9:20, 2 hr and 20 minutes and our meal just came out. It was warm and my salmon was delicious, although with that wait anything would taste good !
I have heard great reviews about this place but nothing about service so here’s a warning!

Yum Yum in the tum!
We went here for brunch, it was great.
Chairs were sooooo comfy.
coffee was very good.
service was ok. our orders were messed up, but its because she didnt write it down. We knew she was a little confused when taking our order so we figured it would happen.
I ordered the fritatta, it was good, sweet sasauge was delish!
however it wasnt REALLY a fritatta it was cooked fluffy eggs with spinach tomato and sasauge on top… that does not a fritatta make.
However it was still good. the potato wedges were delish!
My only pet peeve may be that either we maybe had a new waitress or there is a special way to order your food we may have not been aware of.
We received toast with our breakfast, but it wasnt buttered (dry)
and there was no butter brought out to us.
kinda crummy i had dry toast.
We saw the table next to us had a little dish of butter, so you either have to ask or our waitress maybe just forgot.
oh well, overall i really liked it.
i will definatly be back for a dinner service!

My fiancé and I stopped in for a couple of drinks all spontaneous-​like. We chose to remain in the downstairs area near the bar. The stools were comfy and the atmosphere nice. It felt a little bare but I didn’t mind since I feel as though it was designed that way on purpose to accommodate a busier night with a crowd interested in milling about and mingling.
The drinks were priced on the high end but delicious and worth the extra cash; I had a couple lemon drop martinis and Jack had a few mid-​level scotches.
My only complaints are:
— I find the hours unfortunate — they tend to close on early side. I can understand this as most of the late night scene happens in Halifax, but I wish they closed at 12 rather than 10 or 11 on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays.
— The happy hour is a little too early for me to take advantage of since I have to come back from Halifax.

If there’s anything that should make Halifax nervous, it’s this one block in downtown Dartmouth. Check it out: Two If By Sea for coffee and croissants, the Interlude Spa for pampering and prettying, and Nectar for fine dining and cocktails. They might not be shutting down the ferries and bridges just yet… but whew, it is heating UP in D-​town!
The décor and vibe is bang-​on — modern without being obnoxious, trendy without being desperate, and refined without being over the top or pretentious. It can’t be easy to design a restaurant that can be a cocktail haven and a brunch destination all in one. Kudos to whoever was behind that. I’ve been in for fancy dinners, casual cocktails, and early morning brunches and found the venue to be just perfect no matter the occasion.
The menu is tasteful with a healthy range of options without going overboard. The flavours are unique, the meals are satisfying but not heavy (so you can still feel rockin’ in your party dress rather than Mariah Carey circa just about any time after 1994), and there’s something for just about everyone, us vegetarians included. Brunch meals are definitely on the fancypants side of things so maybe save it for a nice occasion rather than your average dirty b-​fast.
My favourite about Nectar? It has to be the service. Maybe I’ve just been lucky but I’ve pretty much wanted to become friends with almost every server I’ve had. Luckily I have friends who are able to intervene before I start asking them out on platonic dates… but I mean, if they’re reading. Call me?

Brunch at Nectar after a short walk in the February sunshine is a great way to enjoy a Sunday in downtown Dartmouth.
I still love the upscale décor with great artwork hanging on the walls. It always feels so classy to walk up those stairs looking down on the bar.
As usual our server was top notch with an excellent balance of attention to detail and relaxed attitude. He just made us feel special!
The food was great. The real test was that one of our party ordered well done poached and I asked for very soft — and bingo — the two plates on either side of the table held exactly what was requested. This may not sound like much — but anything less would be horrible. I had the Eggs Bombay because they are not found on many brunch menus in Halifax — and I love the curry flavour.
The service was relaxed which fitted our plans. Price and portions were perfect, although we will have to go back to try the fritters when we are feeling particularly thin:-)

I love that Nectar has opened its doors in downtown Dartmouth. It has a hip, contemporary atmosphere. I really love the décor here. It pains me to only give a 3 star rating, as I’ve had some abolutely fabulous meals here, but I’ve also had some meh experiences.
I’ve had lunch, dinners and brunches here. They used to have the most amazing roasted vegetable salad with goat cheese. It was so good I’ve even dreamt about it. Seriously. But it’s no longer on the menu. I had a lobster bisque there that almost brought me to my knees. But it was the soup of the day and is not on the menu. I’ve yet to encounter it again in my subsequent visits. I’ve had the Thai Curry Penne. It was good… but not $ 25 good IMO. I’ve had some yummy desserts, and some okay desserts.
Brunch. Nectar has the best bacon in HRM, hands down. If my brunch order doesn’t come with bacon, I will ALWAYS get bacon on the side. The first few times I had brunch here, I loved it. But since then, it’s been a steady downhill trend. Coming with a group? I’d advise against it. It takes them too long to handle a large group, and the food has never been great in these circumstances.
I have never had anything but friendly and helpful service. You will feel like a regular when you come here. Very welcoming. It can be on the slow side, but I don’t expect or want to be in and out in a flash when I go to a nice upscale restaurant. I actually enjoy the experience of being there, so I can’t complain (except in the case of a large group as mentioned above).
Nectar has a lovely patio in the back, upstairs. It’s a great spot to grab brunch and a coffee solo with a book.
Lunch and dinner are both quite pricey. Brunch is more reasonable. Some of the menu items are worth the price, and some are not.
I hope I can update this review sometime soon and up the rating. Three seems too low, but I just can’t give it a four right now.

I’ve been back in Halifax for just over a year now and have discovered restaurant heaven. Despite the fact that Nectar is on the ‘other side’ (I’m a peninsula snob) I will make my way over to Ochterloney any night.
The food is beautifully presented, tastes like a luxury condo in your mouth — and frankly is quite substantial for a fine dining establishment.
The service was amazing, the ambiance was contemporary urban and gorgeous. Truly a gem. I only wish it were on the other side of the bridge :)