Ni Fen Bistro

The food here is awesome it is premium quality service is excellent I’m from out of town and this is a great place to go

We in town on business and decided to try it here. Absolutely everything was amazing from the wine, the Brie, pot stickers, grouper, the steak just melted in my mouth! The service was great! I hope to make it back there if we come back in town but it is highly recommended!

I would like to give this place more stars but I can’t. Today was the second time I tried it. I primarily went here today to stay on target for my diet. Last week I tried the salad with the berry dressing and fried goat cheese. I left most of the goat cheese to stay within diet. The salad was tasty. It has Granny Smith sliced apples and really was very good. Today I got the blue chicken salad spinach wrap and tomato basil soup. The soup was OK but I really didn’t want pieces of chicken in my soup. I’m thinking that the soup should be vegetable. The chicken salad was OK; nothing special. The Resturant is really cute and upscale. They have white tablecloth on the tables. It’s a really neat place for a meeting. Now why three stars: I feel the service needs to improve. I was checked on one time. I sat for around 20 minutes waiting on my check. It’s a small place. I asked a waiter if he could tell my waitress that I was ready. He said he would. If he did; I was ignored a great deal longer. Very frustrating I finally got the manager, I think. I was offered a tea to go but I was very frustrated and just wanted to get out. I will try another cute resturant when I come back into town. The menu is pretty limited here but is a nice lunch place if you have time.

I travel and have dinner in some top rated restaurants. None compare to the fine dinning you will get from Ni Fen. The best dinner and service that can be found in North Carolina.

My mother and I ate Mother’s Day brunch at Ni Fen today. I had the chicken and mushroom crepes with pesto cream sauce and my mother had the waffles. The food was wonderful the atmosphere is lovely and the service was great even on such a busy day. This place never disappoints whether it’s for a special occasion or lunch with a friend.

I wish we had a place like this in Indianapolis. The food was fresh, high quality, and carefully prepared. Everything tasted amazing! The sommelier was quite helpful in helping us choose a wine we would enjoy (and the wine selection was excellent). The ambience was perfect… The service was professional.
I would come here every week, if I lived here!

I have been meaning to write a review for a while now. Let me say that when Ni Fen was on Warren Street years ago, it was much better. I am however happy that Shelby has a fairly upscale place you can go without having to go to Charlotte or Asheville.
My first experience there (about 1.5 years ago) was definitely 2 stars. Our waitress was young (too young to drink — she said «I don’t drink wine») and had no recommendations on what wine to order. It was awkward. She also began to have an attitude when we didn’t want to order meals but wanted to taste wines and order several appetizers. The portions on what we got were laughably small for the price. The prosciutto crudo on one platter was shiny and didn’t look appealing. Anyway, we ended up going across the street to Pleasant City, as we were starved.
My second experience was slightly better. We went on Valentine’s this year. They had a decent prix fixe menu. The tables were really crammed in together. We came early. We didn’t like where we were being seated (keep in mind it’s 5:15 PM and the restaurant is virtually empty) so we asked the hostess (very young AA female) to please seat us somewhere else. She said and I quote that «if she asked, he would say no» and pointed to a very young Cauc male at the seating podium. I almost got up and left but my wife said to forget about it. Others proceeded to come in for seating and asked for different seats and they were accommodated with different seats. That only irked me more. At least we had a nice/​decent waitress with some experience. The baked brie in filo with honey and almonds was great. The shrimp cocktail was just okay and only had 3 insulting shrimp as a portion. The chicken pasta dish was solid. The first plate of prime rib they sent was well done. The second plate which had the medium rare (almost an inch thick) slice I had ordered was very good and made up for the first one. The flourless chocolate cake was the best part. Very nicely done with great texture. The crème brûlée was good but I think a blueberry accidentally fell on top of it. Just kidding — again the portion issue, put three on so it seems intentional. Coffee was good and waitress again kept us happy. They also get points for OMB on tap. The live music was also a nice touch.
I think this place has the potential to be an awesome place. The food selections/​menu items seem solid and vary nicely. Pump up the portions of certain items a bit and improve some of the presentations. The staff is where the primary shortfall lies; if you hire young people/​high schoolers, train them properly to respectfully interact with patrons. Don’t make your diner feel snubbed or disrespected or they may not come back…
I have eaten at places ranging from Windows on the World to Le Cirque to the Shelby Café. One thing for sure if that even average food can taste so much better when the service is excellent.
Try Ni Fen at least once for yourself and form your own opinion.

I consider this the nicest restaurant in Shelby. Delicious food and nice ambiance.
Wonderful to have a big city hip restaurant in «small town» Shelby.

Nice space with attentive service. We tried the black bean cakes and potstickers for appetizers. My husband enjoyed his oyster salad and I liked the asparagus salad (I put the dressing on the side) The asparagus was perfectly cooked so it was still slightly firm. I’ve had too many overcooked veggies at restaurant nearby so that was refreshing.
We saw several entrees being served that looked good… think it was a sea bass special.
We’ll definitely stop by again in the future. We also appreciated the talented guitarist playing Saturday night. Definitely added to the ambiance of the place.

Came here with Mom for a Christmas Eve brunch, and they were serving the Sunday brunch menu. This place is wonderful — the food of the highest quality, plentiful, and service very nice. Varied menu. And a beautiful space in the middle of downtown Shelby.
Downtown Shelby is getting a nice selection of innovative restaurants downtown, but Ni Fen definitely stands out. Beautiful bar space as well, with a terrific (though a bit pricey, especially for Shelby) wine list. Very glad to have this great restaurant in my hometown when I come to visit.

My wife, daughter, and I ate here on Wednesday night (6÷19÷13) and it was AWESOME. My wife had a business meeting in the area and we were driving through at the end of the day. We wanted to find a nice place to eat so we did a Unilocal search, which showed Ni Fen as a 5 star restaurant with 6 reviews. The atmosphere is great, as we love old refurbished buildings. The service was outstanding, and the food was perfect. We have never been to Shelby before and this made for a great stop. We would definitely eat her again.