Nino’s Cucina Italiana provides a reliable, professional, and elegant Italian dining experience. Not to be confused with Cucina LaMantia, Nino’s focuses providing a highly consistent dining experience. This is many local’s top pick for special occasion dinners.
Oddly Not Located in Italy
Nino’s Cucina Italians is located on Red Banks Road in Greenville NC. This restaurant is the focal point of the building. It is easy to miss this location if you’re not looking for it. This is mainly because it blends into the area so nicely
Parking is not an issue here. Typically the other surrounding businesses are winding down when Nino’s Cucina Italiana traffic starts to pick up. If the lot is full, there are other adjacent parking lots with direct access to this area.
Upscale Italian Dining
Nino’s Cucina Italiana is mainly an Italian restaurant (go figure) that focuses on providing an elegant and formal appearance. Most people who come here are dressed nicely and may be celebrating a special occasion. We actually came here twice. Once for a date and once for Kaitlyn’s birthday. The servers a very polite and informative. If you do not have a reservation of some kind, expect to wait a while for on weekends to be seated. The first time we came it was an hour wait on a Thursday. The next time we were smart enough to get a reservation. One of Nino’s neighbors, Café Duo which has a similar reverence in the area does NOT take reservations.
There are no gimmicks or over the top touches at Nino’s Cucina Italiana. The experience is clean, professional and elegant. The outside seating is a great extensions of the dining and waiting area. On a slightly nicer day, we may have sat out there but decided we wanted to say inside. The main entry funnels people through a walkway that bisects the outdoor seating. This give the building a sense of importance an class that I can not quite put into words. Just inside the door is the massive Nino’s logo above the bar. You are free to mill about here while you wait for your seat.
Its All Good Here
The food is nothing but elegant. Everything was executed well and came out exactly as described. We tried the Burrata Bruschetta as an appetizer and loved it. The flavors layered nicely, it was beautiful to look at and it had substance too.
Kaitlyn tried one of their pasta dishes. It was nothing spectacular but pleasant and enjoyable. We were celebrating a birthday so I decided to splurge a little and get the lamb. I grew up having lamb with some holidays so it holds a special place in my heart. Plus it just tastes great. They prepared the lamb well and plated at a level commensurate with the restaurant. I finished the plate and was still a little hungry. The server suggested a bottle of wine that paired well with our meals.
No complaints at all but nothing stood out to us. We enjoyed our evening for sure.
Overall
Nino’s Cucina Italiana is a straight-forward, classy, Italian dining experience. Their no-gimmicks approach while still providing a local high end meal makes it a clear front runner for any special occasion. I imagine this is one of the first places to be booked up on Mother’s day/graduation weekends in Greenville. This strength also means that there was no “wow-factor” that made a big impression on us. Solid option for important occasions.
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