Nonna

Closed. Looking like it should re-​open soon as a French Bistro

We were looking at the shops at columbus circle when we decided to go find a restaurant on the UWS. We found this nice italian restaurant and had a very nice meal. We started the meal with arancini rice balls. The homemade marinara was very good.
The main courses we had the stuffed cannolini and the eggplant parmesan with spaghetti. Both were very good, the noodles were cooked al dente. The eggplant could have been cooked a little longer, but overall, the meal was good.
The service was very good. All of the waiters /​waitresses were very friendly and attentive.
The restaurant is a perfect place for a romantic meal. The décor is very rustic, and works very well with the atmosphere.

Relaxed environment that suits the unfussy, straightforward Italian food that is worthy of its name.
The lunch deal is great value — $ 11 for a soup/​salad, entrée and dessert. The service here is a little slow, so I come here when I want to be unhurried. Rigatoni arrabiata was good. Spaghetti and meatballs is standard. The portions are pretty generous.

Decent place if you want some good old spaghetti with meatballs in a not too fancy environment. Make sure to repeat what you want a few times, or else the spaghetti might not be the whole wheat version that you requested. I like the outdoor seating option. Good enough to eat, but I don’t know if this is the best place to take a date. On one occasion I did get a stomach bug the morning after I ate here, so I wonder whether someone didn’t wash their hands there, or if it was just bad luck from my side and I picked something up somewhere else. Maybe I should not have devoured an entire oven roasted garlic here? I don’t know. Just be careful with the garlic I guess. ;)

I really enjoyed the simple, delicious food here. My chopped salad was flavorful with the perfect amount of dressing. The spaghetti was cooked perfectly al dente and the meatballs tasted homemade. My only complaint is the garlic chunks in the sauce– not a fan so I picked them out.
We were the only people in the restaurant on a Monday evening and service was attentive.

Hubby and I went on Saturday night and were seated immediately, even without reservations. The arancini (fried rice balls) with marinara were good, the fettuccine carbonara was standard and chicken risotto was surprisingly tasty.
Everything was just okay. I really wanted to Love this place bacause it seemed like a great little Italian find in my neighborhood, but it fell a bit short on my expectations.
2.5 stars

This place has s great value lunch deal ($ 11 for a soup/​salad, main course and desert) .Salmon sandwich was tasty with the generous side of f. fries, vegetable soup was standard. They offer an option of grating the cheese on top of the soup, which can be cool for those who like that. Chocolate desert was delicious as well.
Overall it could be a very pleasant experience .
What stops me for saying this place was great is that I spent 1:30 h in the this place waiting for my salmon sandwich more than 45 min, and after being an hour and a half there had to take the dessert to go (also I had to ask/​remind the waitress for my dessert because she totally forgot about it). I’m not sure what the deal was, because the rest. has only few tables of costumers, they were pretty empty.
The waitress did say that she was sorry each time when we would inquire about the food, but nevertheless, it was 12:15 when I entered the restaurant and 1:40 when I left, without being able finishing dessert, and I only came for a quick lunch. (for one person!)
I’m giving it a 3 stars mostly because my mother liked it in here and partially because it is the good value for the quality of food that I had. Also even while slow, everyone was nice and kind.
I will be back here just because they may have had a bad day only and I believe in the second chance.
But if this kind of wait happens again I doubt that I will be coming back.

After a very busy day, my husband and I wanted to have a date night that wasn’t too fancy, low key, and generally comforting. We had been walking all over Columbus Ave, and I had remembered passing Nonna while in a cab earlier in the day. So, we stopped in to take a look at the menu.
Surprise, surprise, it was like this place had ESP! First of all, they have gluten free pasta and pizza options, which are always a good sign for me, and it just looked like they keep it simple there. This is a basic, simple red-​sauce joint, and when you walk in, you can smell the yumminess of garlic and baked mozz… a good sign.
The décor here helps to give that rustic, comforting vibe. Service was great. I ordered the Spaghetti Parm (essenially, it’s Sunday Gravy that’s been baked with fresh mozzarella) and hubby got the Chicken Parm. From the first bite, both of us were really surprised at how fresh everything tasted (we were expecting lesser quality from a red-​sauce joint). The sauce was delicious and they do this cool thing where they slice the garlic paper-​thin and roast it before adding it to the sauce… So you get these nice little bursts of roasted garlicky goodness here and there. Also, the gluten-​free pasta I had was perfectly al dente (which is hard to do with GF pasta).
Lately, I find it so difficult to get decent, basic Italian food — especially gluten-​free. Nonna really impressed me. Also, you get huge portion sizes and it’s not terribly expensive. We had our entrees and a whole bottle of wine for less than $ 69. I think that just makes it all worth it. Getting moderately priced food that tastes this good is hard to come by in this city, so it’s nice to find a neighborhood place that does this. We will definitely be going back there.

One of my favorite Italian restaurants in NYC. This is a cozy restaurant with excellent prices. I have ate year so many times and the food is always consistently delicious.
My faves at Nonas
Meatballs
Caesar salad (a must have)
Parpadelle with mushrooms and truffle butter
Crazy Caprese
Osso Bucco with polenta

As I approached the corner of Columbus walking east on 85^th St. I spied a stuffed pheasant in the window. (Maybe that should’ve been the tip off.)
The service? Excellent.
The food? Average at best. (Soup and salad were just passable. A note to the chef: I like a little more beans in my Minestrone and possibly a bit of soup pasta, like Ditalini or something. Vegetables? A little firmer, please. Don’t overcook them. The soup was nice and piping hot however. At least that was nice and comforting.)
Sitting in the early winter early afternoon sun? What do you think? Well, perhaps not quite worth the price of admission, but it was very nice. (Next time a bench in the sun might be cheaper?)
(Note to woman who passed by toting her cat in a circa 1950’s cat carrier: There have been great advances in animal transport over the past fifty years. Continuing to shove your cat into that thing is tantamount to torture. If I see you again, I’m calling the NYSPCA. Consider yourself warned.)

It’s a nice restaurant deserving its 3 and a ½ rating. Food is fresh and reasonably priced. If I lived in this area, I would come quite often.
The grass-​fed steak and the brick oven chicken were delicious!

Went for brunch today with some friends. Had the ham & cheese omelet w/​a croissant. It was ok but small (smaller than the typical nyc brunch portion) I was expecting it to be a bit bigger or look fancier (i.e. have some mixed greens on the side or something), but there was none of that. The eggs were fluffy and I could taste a hint of olive oil in the omelet (I’m assuming they used that to cook the omelet) which was nice. The croissant was average.
We all had the hot chocolate… it was a little too thick for my liking (my friend compared it to brownie batter) and the chocolate was a bit too overbearing. We asked for extra whipped cream and milk which made it a LOT better.
There was a party going on inside and they’d reserved the whole place, so we sat outside, which was nice, just a bit cold).
The waiter and staff there were friendly. Service was fast.

A romantic date at an Italian restaurant in NYC? Yes, please!
Oh, I have a boyfriend, but my lifelong girlfriend and I were (finally) alone in the city that never sleeps :-) A dinner outing in the city means Italian food all the way. She knows the ins and outs of the cuisine so much that I’d dub her a native of Italy. We were recommended by our mutual girlfriend to Nonna.
Even the outdoor atmosphere was enchanting. I’ll have to admit that I judge books, movies, and even restaurants by their covers. But it’s not merely the looks, but the vibes that ignite from the looks that matter the most to me. It’s funny that I can’t figure out people as well as I can non-​people, haha.
The crowded outdoor seating area diverted us to indoor seating, but we were more than happy to oblige. We stepped foot into Nonna’s, and we instantly fell in love with the holiday lights :-) Maybe it’s the kid in each us, but the aesthetic value just soared once we started indulging in the indoor vibes. Wonderful! We’re ready to eat!
There were two options: eat in the larger dining room or the separate, quieter dining room that was only meant for two gals who desired a perfect romantic date :-) It was an interesting experience in the quieter dining room because it was like we were being warped into another dimension even though there were no sound-​proof doors and walls to physically make it seem like it was in another world.
Finally — the food! I’m simple, not complicated (as my tumblr title states), so I ordered the linguine and clams. It was a beautiful dish with flavors that kept my mouth in a perfect marriage with my fork filled with food. My girlfriend allowed me to share her crazy caprese, which was a fantastic appetizer — my entire mouth was equipped with wonderful flavors even before the main course! Amazing food all around, but no dessert? Well, we actually ate frozen yogurt before dinner so we’d already been there, done that ;-) BUT, when we come BACK, dessert and expresso will be in our sights.
Encore, Nonna, encore!

Craving a nice meal but not having the money for one, my friend and I decided to use a gift certificate I got a little while ago. There were three restaurant choices and we chose Nonna. According to the online menu and pictures, it seemed classy and the food sounded delicious.
The service is great and the servers are always on top of refilling the water, taking finished plates away, and so on. Service gets a 5 for sure.
The part that got me was that the online menu presents many more options than the actual menu. I was super excited for the fried zucchini and pork milanese, but neither were options in real life! I suppose it’s possible that the menu changes throughout the year, but if so, that should be noted somewhere.
As for the menu they did have, there wasn’t enough description to know what you were really going to get. The endive and caesar salads were good. The molten croutons — which were more like melted cheese balls — were awesome. That being said, I would rather not have had actual anchovies on the salad, so that was kind of a strange surprise. We both ordered the hangar steak, thinking we would get a piece of steak by itself, but it was cut up atop a piece of crusty bread and smothered in onions. If the in-​person menu had mentioned these details I would’ve ordered something else. TL, DR; You’ve gotta tell the people what they’re really gonna get.
The cheesecake was fine, so says my friend, and my molten chocolate cake was okay but tasted a little funny to me. Maybe I’m so used to having cheap chocolate that my palate can’t handle the good stuff? Not sure.
We were so excited for this place to be awesome, and left feeling full, but not as happy as we could’ve been. Sorry, Nonna. =\

There is absolutely nothing extravagant about this place. But there isn’t anything wrong about this place either. It’s like going to watch Fast Five. You know exactly what you’re going in for. A dumb movie that’ll entertain you enough for it to be worth the money you paid to watch it. That’s what this place is. It’s seriously the most average italian restaurant I’ve ever been to. But I don’t regret paying the money I did to eat it.
Cool patio outside to eat. Cool mix and match pasta’s with decent sauce. I mean, I don’t really know what I can say. If you’re in the mood for some pasta, and you’re on the upper west side. Go for it. But don’t expect to be blown away. Expect a taste as good as Vin Diesel’s acting.

Feeling festive after a visit to the balloon inflation in the park, we beelined toward the first restaurant we saw that was decked out in holiday twinkle lights. We ended up at Nonna, a quaint little neighborhood restaurant serving up delicious Italian food.
The atmosphere was enough to keep me coming back, but the food was delicious too. We started with the arancini (rice balls) which were warm, yummy and filling. I had the endive salad which was bitter, but in a way that set it apart from your usual salad. I ended the night with the pappardelle with mushrooms. The homemade pasta and earthy mushrooms made a mouthwatering combo that left me wanting more.
Nonna’s is a great little spot for a warm, cozy dinner, especially during the holidays!

After an arugula salad with shaved ricotta, caprese loaded with plump tomatoes and thick mozzarella and mouth-​watering balsamic vinegar, fried eggplant, and mango sorbet…
…I’m still in HEAVEN. Thinking about it makes my mouth water.
The vast majority of the time at this restaurant was spent going, «Oooooh my gawwwwwd…» between bites, and, admittedly, during a few as well.
The décor was homey yet fanciful. The waitstaff was incredible and attentive. Service was quick, given it was a Friday night. My roommate and I were in and out in a long hour. We didn’t WANT to leave, but, alas, we can only hope it’ll still be around the next time we get a craving. Fabulous, folk! Just FABulous.

If I wanted to be nice, I could just say the Olive Garden does it WAY better and leave my review at that.
But I’m not in a nice mood right now, so I’ll tell the truth: this was quite possibly the worst Italian food I’ve ever been expected to consume (and I lived in Montana for 4 years while I was in college). Everything was bad from the time I walked in to the time I did not finish my entrée and asked for the check. I *rarely* give out 1 star reviews… this should give you an idea of how bad my experience was here.
We walked in and asked for a table outside. It had been raining (I know, I know, say it isn’t so!) so the restaurant was pretty much dead. A few people were sitting outside under the awning thing and maybe one table inside. So why, might I ask, did it take our waiter over 10 minutes to acknowledge our presence? We’re already looking at a downhill start. We receive the stalest bread ever, and some water as we wait to order. I spy the wine «glass» at a table next to mine that *literally* looked like a tall shot glass, notice that a glass of wine runs an average of $ 9, and decide to stick with water.
I’ve always been told I have good instincts and intuition (makes sense why I work in the criminal justice system, right?), and about the time I spot the wine shot glass I’m thinking «ABORT MISSION! ABORT MISSION» But I was hungry. So I ordered the one thing on the planet that no Italian restaurant can screw up: spaghetti and meatballs.
…
My intuition failed me. For the second whole time in my life. Now I’ll preface the following with this: I LIKE al dente pasta. I prefer it. This spaghetti was too al dente for me. The meatballs (of which there were a whopping two of them) tasted like ground up hamburger with absolutely *no* seasoning. Honey, that is NOT an Italian meatball. And the sauce? There was more salt in it than all of the McDonald’s fries combined in the U.S. For a year.
It was just bad. I’m surprised that this place seems to get 3 stars consistently so perhaps I was here on a bad night. Whatever the case, we complained because our entrees (my girlfriend went with the same thing) were simply inedible and asked for the check. One thing I will give the waiter is that I never really saw him and the one or two times I did see him, he comp’d our check for one of the entrees. So at least it wasn’t the most expensive mistake we’ve ever made.

I first time reach Nonna last sunday to get brunch with a bunch of friends. We wanted try a place in this area, so I just read Unilocal reviews and Nonna was in my selection list, Reason we went there is because after 2 denies, they gave me table for 15 without any problem, and this was on wednesday, having our brunch next sunday at 1 pm. Though it could be impossible.
First at all, I founded most of the Nonna reviews are very true. So if you guys are reading this, check out the others also because you will perfectly figure it out the place.
Place is really cozy. Not that small but somehow you feel like that. Not crowded, which could explains the agree of the restaurant to accept my group and last minute changes I made. We get a private small room, with old italian house looks.
The service was good. Guys was taking care of us all the time.
The food is ok. What means, its actually good, but not outstanding. If you want to impress someone is not for you but if you are just having a regular meal with some friends, its perfectly fine, decen’t amount and never overpriced. We all get different dishes from the brunch menu… my friends looks to be pleasant with the food. I get scrambled eggs switching the side sausages for green salad. It was good, same as many other places that I tried considered outstanding. Have to say, one of my friends was completely delighted with the side sausages.
To resume, I think the best characteristic is that you can accomodate a large group (and obviously an small one) and get a pleasant meal.

During my short trip to NYC, I tried out four restaurants from Restau​rant​.Com — one of them being Nonna. Stepping into the restaurant, I immediately felt welcome and relaxed. The décor inside is old/​rustic. I love the lighting — several chandeliers…
The lunchtime menu consists of $ 9.95 base price for several courses — a starter (soup or salad), the entrée, and dessert. A very large selection to choose from, as far as the entrees go.
We started off with the minestrone soup, which was delicious. My companion ordered spaghetti and meatballs, which was actually quite good. The pasta was perfectly cooked. I ordered the Pork Braciole with creamy marscapone polenta. It was good, but not memorable. For dessert, there were just two choices — chocolate cake and tiramisu. The tiramisu wasn’t really so great, but I enjoyed the warm chocolate cake with ice cream.
My companion [who is a bigger guy] would probably complain about the portions, but really — they’re just right for me. You don’t feel so full that you have no room for the dessert.
Service isn’t bad, just ridiculously slow. They apologized for that, and I think it may vary from day to day. Loved the relaxing atmosphere of the place. And our waiter was very helpful with some of our questions.
I’d visit again.