Thursday, March 5, 2009

My Alternative Take on Nino's Cozinha

Many raving reviews have been written online about the delicious and authentic food at Nino's Cozinha, a family-style Macanese / Portuguese restaurant in Wanchai. I have been a regular since they opened, and got to know the owners quite well. So I suppose my compulsion to take a different view and rant about Nino's here is justified.

Rant #1: What is wrong with the manageress at Nino's Cozinha and why is she still here? She lacks basic courtesy but is ignorant of it, has no phone etiquette, carries a rude disposition, and wants to charge me HK$700 (!) per head for Portugese food by emphasizing the need for me to cover for revenue loss by booking out the whole place. Yes I know that, but this is such a crass
way to talk to a large customer.

Good food coupled with a customer-unfriendly manageress (especially one who doesn't know it!) is not a recipe for long-term success.

Rant #2: food quality at Nino's might have gone south somewhat. I treated my best friend to a belated birthday dinner. While I could not remember all the items we ordered as the dinner was some time ago, one impression that lasted was how salty everything was, including my favourite beef short ribs and fried egg. What happened? I could tell the quality of the ingredients were the same, and I have always embraced the occasional shoddy and slow service as part of the deal with a small, inexperienced family restaurant; but such consistent over-seasoning was unexpectedly unpleasant.

Final gasp: adding more salt to injury, my tennis elbow arm was left hanging in the air for more than 5 seconds with my "credit card + bill sandwich"; the manageress decided to zone out after handing me the damage. Hello? It was a busy night at the restaurant and it was "ka-ching" time! What would I have done if Dear Joe of Nino's hadn't rescued her from the trance? That was the tipping point for me, too flabbergasted to feel anything more about this woman.

I wish Nino's well as it ponders expansion, but for now I think I have to give it a rest.

Nino's Cozinha
Ship Street, Wanchai
T: 2866 1868 (Book well in advance for dinner, and I hope you don't get to talk to the manageress)