Nizza La Bella

I just can’t with this place anymore. 2 stars is being generous because my wife wasn’t as dissatisfied as I was, and I’m a bit nostalgic for this place, but after years of frequenting this restaurant I won’t be going back.
Tonight I called in an order for pickup in 30 minutes. In 31 minutes I show up, and the foods not ready. Not «I’m sorry your food’s not ready yet» but «we don’t take orders in advance» and «I can cancel the order of you want.» How about cancel coming back here ever again? Nothing like spending an extra 10 minutes wondering what the bartender is going to do when he goes back to get your food.
On top of that, the soup to go literally melted the lid off. If you’re going to serve soup to go, I don’t want to find out the hard way that the translucent bit in my soup is plastic and not onion. And the prices went up a lot recently from an affordable steak frites at $ 15.50, not a prime cut by any means, to $ 24. I’ll go get a better steak for that, thanks. They messed up our previous meal here, too, and I’m done giving 2^nd chances.

Lovely ambiance and service. Our waitress was really friendly and helpful. Nice to see so many customers. But we found it a bit overpriced. The mussel spaghetti were pre cooked, under seasoned, and very few mussels in it. The reine la belle pizza good but a too expensive for a pretty plain pizza. The moules de bois were ¹⁄₃ empty (and not found loose in sauce), and were not served with toasted bread. Desserts were good. When compared the the Bistro on Shattuck, this restaurant fells a little short.

Semi-​French, semi-​Italian, semi-​Californian? Good enough, but a bit slow, so allow extra time if it’s a before-​movie dinner.

Came here on a Monday night because we were around town and didn’t know where to eat. The service was good here, I have no complaints about that.
The menu however is a little small but the place itself is also small too so maybe they don’t have much storage space to have a big menu. But there really wasn’t much on the menu that I wanted so I just had spaghetti and the BF ordered pizza. The spaghetti was normal nothing phenomenal and the pizza was okay too nothing great.
I probably wouldn’t come back again cuz they didn’t really have much on the menu I would want to eat and the dishes we did order just weren’t memorable. But service was good though!

Salmon with beurre blanc was super and we highly recommend it. Farfala sans souci was average. I make a better one at home. Crème Brule was caramelized to perfection.
We had issues with a falling drunk patron and an extremely slow responding staff. Police and firemen were sent to deal with the patron. Just a bit all too much.
I will still give this cute little local place a second chance but it was one heck of a strange meal.

Great inconspicuous french-​style restaurant. If you like Cesar salad try their salade anchoiade. If you like pizza try their La Provencale. We keep going back to this charming, quiet place

I think this is the best replica of a little French bistro in the east bay.
The menu is small and authentic, the service is uneven and the food is exactly how you would expect to find it in a small café in Lyons.
I especially recommend brunch (try the salad lyonnaise), although I believe that the bouillabaisse deserves it’s own separate 5-​star review; it is perfectly balanced.
The wine list is somewhat limited but they make up for it with an amusing list of house cocktails.

Came here for quick dessert and espresso… 20 min later and still no dessert. The end.

Dinner was delicious, and the staff is very nice.

First thing first, a little geography lesson for those who are befuddled by the fact that Nizza has Italian influences. The City of Nice, France is less than an hour drive from the Italian border. This should clear up any confusion. Food is a cultural thing and when two cultures are this close cross-​polination is inevitable. On to the review.
Nizza has some of the most delectable pizzas around. The combination of ingredients, along with their freshness, the quality of the crust and the hellish wood-​fired oven make these pizzas truly irresistible. I recently had the bouillabaisse pizza and can not say enough good things about it. I have also had their pasta with meatballs and nicoise salad both which I highly recommend. The soccer (a chick pea flatbread) is to die for as well.
Drinks are extremely good. The bartenders know their craft and will leave you wanting more. No «mixologist» concocted drink which will set you back $ 17 for foam. These are great traditional drinks made with quality spirits. Their beer and wine selections are quite good and carefully selected.
Finally, the waitstaff and bar tenders are top notch. They will treat you like family and make you feel welcome. All in all, a gem of a place!

Came here on a recommendation. Heard that they have great drinks. I wasn’t too impressed, the food was basically screaming me «Take me or leave me, I don’t care!» We ate half of our plate and didn’t bother to take anything home.
Service was friendly, pricing wasn’t too bad. Will we return? Maybe or maybe not, perhaps if we’re in the area just the bar and some appetizers.

After knowing about this place, I finally go here for dinner. I ordered the salad lyonnaise and they steak and frites (though I subbed it with veggies).
The salad is really a heavy salad with the bacon. It came with a lot of bacon with the poached egg. This would be a good hang over meal.
The steak was cooked perfectly medium rare. The blood juiced out of the steak, as I like it. I used my bread to soak up the remaining juices on my place.
A great neighborhood gem in Albany that I will come back to visit.

My wonderful folks treated my husband and I for a lovely dinner here this past Saturday night. Toni and I arrived ahead of the guys and had a nice time perusing the menu and by the time the boys arrived, we were antsy to get some food in our belly’s.
This is one of the places my folks go to on a somewhat regular basis but it was our first time. I kept debating on what to order and though what I did have was delicious, I found myself having a bit of pizza envy with the tables to both my left and right.
Our waitress was very nice but there were a couple of kinks as the small space was very busy. Examples were it took a long time to get our check and my husband’s order of mussels for his main course arrived about 8 minutes or so after we were all served our warm meals.
Highlights were the mushroom starter and my burger which was delicious. I will definitely come back for a pizza and mushrooms in the future and of course always relish the time I get to have with my folks.

Came here for dinner and had the French onion soup and the BOUILLABAISSE NIZZA LA BELLA. Both were quite good. I would come back

The food here is tasty, especially their pizzas. Some of the entrées are a bit pricey for the portion given. It’s a bit inconsistent as far as how they price here. Also, the drinks are pricey indeed. Drinks like ice tea is $ 4.25 which is rather high, in my opinion. That’s across the board for drinks.

wait, what!!! have been coming here for YEARS for drinks & nibbles, but never a review???
LOVE their awesome (& strong) cocktails. YUM on the socca & pomme frites. if you are a vegan, a full meal woudl be hard, but for apps it’s perfecto.
the bartenders are always friendly & attentive.
This is not going to be your last stop/​night cap– beware, they close early

Came here with my aunt on a Thursday night and was pleasantly surprised. Our server was also the bartender and he was nice, helping my aunt pick out a drink she would like, and letting me taste the wines they had by the glass. The atmosphere is super cozy and I could definitely see myself here on a rainy night.
I had the salmon special with buerre blanc and vegetables and it was delicious. My aunt had the steak frites and was satisfied as well. We both had enough leftover for lunch the next day. The pizzas looked good and so did the mac n’ cheese. All in all pretty charming, and we’ll be back.

Not a bad place, but not spectacular either. We all shared a variety of plates including:
Steak-​Frites: beef was a bit bland
Moules Feu De Bois a La Provencale: the best thing I ate that night. The wine sauce is good.
Salmon dish
Salade Anchoiade: Pass on this dish
Food is so-​so and a little too pricey for the quality.

This was the site for our March brunch and I was very pleased that we did. Ignore the fact that our brunch date fell on St. Patrick’s Day and we didn’t spend it at a pub or Irish-​like establishment rather it was spent in a cute French bistro on Albany’s main drag (San Pablo Ave).
Upon arrival we were greeted and seated by the lone waitress running the entire dining room, given menus and shortly thereafter some water. Having perused the menu prior to coming, my diet brain said one dish while my tummy had other ideas. I gave in and decided today was going to be a cheat day so I ordered Macaroni Gratin (Madame Chouky’s Macaroni Baked with Gruyère, Parmesan, Cream & Rustic Bread Crumb Crust) & Steak Frites (Grilled Small Steak with Herb Butter & Frites). The macaroni gratin was amazing and full of cheesy flavor without going too over the top. I was impressed highly with the steak frites as well, it was so flavorful and tender I didn’t want this gastronomical journey to end. To wash all that beautiful food down, I opted for a build-​your-​own lemonade which had a fancy French name I am not recalling at the moment but very refreshing nonetheless.
I wanted to point out how sweet and graceful our waitress was under the pressure she was enduring and she is one of many reasons why I’ll be back!

Albany has become an unexpected after-​hours destination for me. Uncrowded dives like Club Mallard, Hotsy Totsy and Ivy Room make it easy to curate a fun night of cocktail crawling, sans hipster overload. And Albany Bowl is always a refreshing diversion.
Eating in Albany is another story. The options aren’t as obvious, and Solano Ave seems to get most of the love come meal time. Before a show at the Albany Twin, we decided to explore nearby Nizza la Bella. After peeking at the menu online, it appeared to be mostly Mediterranean-​French style cuisine, which I’m particularly partial to. They even have that traditional Nicoise snack, Socca, crispy woodfired chickpea dough. The gruyère-​topped French onion soup also seemed promising.
I immediately liked the cozy bistro atmosphere, with nowhere to hide except a few tall wooden booths towards the back, which we happily opted for. Our party of four was warmly greeted and devotedly attended to all night, so no complaints with service at all.
After ordering some French wine from the chalkboard list on the wall (swoon), we ordered up a mélange of pizzas and salads to share:
CHEVRE ROTI EN SALADE CHAMPETRE/​8.00
Baked Herbed Chevre on Bruschette with Olives & Field Greens Salad
SALADE LYONNAISE/​9.50
Warm Frisee Salad with Bacon, Poached Egg, Croutons & Wine Vinaigrette
LA BIANCA CON FORMAGGIO I FUNGHI/​17.50
Roasted Mushrooms, Ricotta, Mozzarella, Gruyère, Parmesan, Roasted Garlic & Fines Herbs
LA LOMBARDI/​17.50
House-​Made Fennel Sausage, Mozzarella, Tomato, Garlic, Parmesan, Romano & Oregano
The salads were a generous size and the pizza was definitely my style. We’ve got a lot of pizza snobs in the East Bay, and the consensus is simply this: you’ll never please everyone. I personally love the thin-​but-​not-​flimsy style crust, and Nizza la Bella offered the perfect amount of structure without being overly carby. Obviously, the gourmet toppings didn’t hurt either.
Split 4 ways, our bill was definitely reasonable. All in all, I’d be happy to come back, ideally for a pre– or post-​show snack.