Nicola’s

Service was excellent. Food is advertised as Northern Italian, but it was a miss for us. We had two appetizers and shared an entrée after going to the Angelika.
App1: crab cakes. Lovely presentation, excellent tomato and greens with a great sauce. Crab cakes were not very crabby and appeared to be either from frozen or food service. If they are not, they need to get a better recipe.
App2: Bruscetta. Toast was not toasted enough, so it got very soggy. Too bad, as the topping was very good.
Entrée: spinach ravioli. Good filling, good sauce. The pasta was way too thick, so it was very gummy. Handmade ravioli should have thin pasta…
Bread (focaccia) was cold and greasy. Not good.
Outstanding service at the bar by Addison, however the Chef needs to step it up in the kitchen.

The food was great. We had appetizers, salads, entrée desert, wine, desert wine, and scotch. The waitress was very patient and pleasant.
Drinks were great but did not make the night. The food quality was very good and and the ambience was exceptional.

Full disclosure my daughter worked here as a server for about 8 months. There are many things they do very well — all of the food is freshly made — there is no freezer on site. There is extensive training for the servers on the food, wine and cocktail options. Servers are taught to graciously accommodate all guest requests. It’s beautifully decorated in a prime location. Sounds great right? It could be and it should be! Unfortunately the «new» chef they hired in 2015 is not that good and the front of house management is horrible — with the exception of Nick who’s a gem. We ate here before, during, and after her employment and continue to go back hoping the food improves and that management begins placing a higher value on staff morale.

I have been here couple of time and I do not recommond this place
food is not that great
service is good

One of the worst italian restaurants I’ve ever been to. My company tried lunch specials and regular lunch menus. Bread was cold with no taste. Appetizer fried calamary, I could count only around 10 small pieces of it though the price was high. Lunch special soup was lukewarm, taste like too much water mixed in it. Pasta had no taste and not boiled well. We expected much more higher quality food considering the price range of the food in this restaurant. You can find better quality food with half price in other places. Really disappointed!

First off I am rating this restaurant a one not because of a bad experience, but because it just does not compare to other Italian restaurants. Let’s talk good first
Location is great, furniture and décor great, staff is pretty good as well.
Bread was very cold… normally I am used to it being warm so maybe it’s just what they do.
Pasta dishes were tasteless to me.
Lemon chicken was not that good
Rosemary chicken was tasty, but still not any better than a 3 out of 5
Soup was luke warm and had no salt. Tasted by three people and for $ 7 dollars it’s a complete joke.
This was a party of 5 and we all agreed that we didn’t think it was worth the price. The total bill was $ 125 with four entrees and soup.
There are many restaurants for half the price that are much better.

We are visiting from out of town and came here with our family to try this restaurant out. The service was excellent and our waiter was very friendly and courteous. I asked him what Scottish salmon was, and he went out and figured it out for us. Very well done. We thought the food was pretty good, but not fantastic.
Prices are on the high side, and the drink prices are terrible.
The lemon salmon dish seem to not really have much lemon sauce at all. It really is a nice piece of salmon with just a thin slice of lemon on top. So okay, but not fantastic.
The pumpkin ravioli was very good, but really not quite enough for a full meal by itself.
Atmosphere was attractive and comfortable, my daughter says.
Our server did a really good job. His name was Reed I believe.

We dined there last night and I had the Chicken Parmesan and my wife had the Spinach Ravioli. The service was great, and she liked her Ravioli. The Chicken Parmesan looked good when it arrived, but I was very disappointed in its flavor — actually I have had better TV dinners that this Parmesan Chicken and I am not even exaggerating. The meals do not come with salads, or any bread and are definitely overpriced. The atmosphere is appealing, and is at the happening part of Plano. However if you want great tasting dinner, I would not recommend this restaurant.

I wanted to like this place. I worked as a chef at a very similar style restaurant with almost the same name. Nicolis in CA. It was a date night away from the kids and much needed. It was very mediocre. The service was very very bad. I ordered the carpaccio and it was flavorless and seeping water. It’s often sliced while frozen but this was bad. Everything I had was so underwhelming to the point of bad. I wouldn’t go back.

Let’s talk about the rudest waiter ever we got to experience at Nicola’s last night. A party of 11 women and this guy was the rudest waiter. I couldn’t tell you his name because as soon as we sat down he immediately started with drinks. no welcome, no our specials are, no what is my name… nothing. Actually the first thing HE wanted to know was who’s paying and how is the bills going to be split. Then rushing us to place our food order. He comes back 5 minutes and says the kitchen is closing soon so if you are going to eat then place your orders. its 8:55pm when he asked this btw.
The food was good but the soup was on the colder side than warm but do we dare ask the nice waiter to fix it. no thank you just send it back and move on.
Anyways here comes the bill. first of all we were even asked do we want dessert, coffee NOTHING. the bills were just handed like we were in ihop and not a nice Italian restaurant.
I have been to this place numerous times but the way this guy was the group of 11 girls not one person could say this guy gave WOW service. I’m sure he didn’t care because tip was already included. Nicola’s lets focus on getting some training for the rude waiters… this may hurt your business.

Had a team lunch at this restaurant. Our server Madison was very knowledgeable and attentive.
I expected more food for the $ 13.95 daily lunch special. More Caesar salad or soup would have made it more understanding of the pricing.
The restaurant is very nice. I especially enjoyed the artistic atmosphere.

For a fine Italian dining experience in the Shops at Legacy, this is your place. Featuring complimentary valet, luxurious atmosphere, table side ice buckets for white wine, and very personalized service one doesn’t have much to worry about. The menu might appear a little sparse, but the food is wonderfully prepared and well presented. The lunch options and portions are filling as well as fitting. I would love to come back and check out the dinner and dessert options.

PERFECT FOR A BUSINESS LUNCH
Located at the Shops at Legacy and offering valet parking, Nicola’s has luxurious private booths and interesting décor. The pasta is always perfect, and every time I have followed the recommendations of the wait staff or the chef’s special, I have not been disappointed. Most of the time I dine here, it’s for a business lunch, and it tends to run a few hours into the «dead time» for restaurants, and the staff is attentive but not intrusive, and the booths are private and comfortable. Just remember to be friendly and offer to close out your check for in case your server’s shift is over so they can go home or off to school!

Dined on New Years Eve 2015. There was a special New Years menu or you could order off the regular menu which was what we chose to do.
Some items are a bit hit and miss. The focaccia bread that is served with a dipping oil is delicious, but should be heated. But the star of this restaurant is the bolognese pasta! First all pasta is made in house and all served al dente the way it SHOULD be not over cooked mush. So for those previous comments about the pasta being undercooked… really? It’s suppose to be chewy… to the tooth as they say in Italy. Now on to the bolognese sauce it self.
I’m Italian and I cook Italian myself. This sauce is amazing! So many depths of flavor! I have been searching for an Italian restaurant that had a good pasta dish and this is it! Also, this chef is vey flexible. I wanted linguine and clams which were not on the menu, but should be… and on a night that the place was packed had no problem making this for me. The calamari was served with a marina sauce and and other which tasted more like mayo? Please increase the size of the marina and leave the mayo based sauce off. Oh! And the fire cherry peppers that accompany the calamari are so good! That should be a appetizer on its own, yummy. Bottom line is can’t wait to go back experience happy hour and order that fabulous bolognese pasta!

Wow!
The fiancé and I had 5:15 reservations for Nicolas and although we showed up 25 minutes early, they were so accommodating and took us to our table with no questions asked. Our server, Geoffrey, was amazing! He stepped in and started describing menu items without being pushy on anything, suggested wines based on their dishes, and picked a great red for my fiancé to drink.
Geoffrey was prompt, informative, friendly and very professional. By the way, he has the best voice ever! Seriously, request him and ask you to read off the menu!
Thank you for making New Year’s Eve great!

The good. The service. The food is good though i prefer the traditional old school calamari. They have a good happy hour food and drink menu. The atmosphere is great. Very nice inside and nice outdoor patio. There is valet parking.
The not so good. It is a little pricey and for some dishes and the cocktails are just ok nothing too special.
Overall, i dont come here often. I think its a little on the pricey side. When i do its for lunch or happy hour. Then i recommend it.

We were craving Italian food. It was a Saturday night and we made reservations for 7, by the looks of things we didn’t need them though. Service– excellent. Food-​ok. The crab appetizer was good, but not awesome. A little fishy, canned? The seafood pasta had one shrimp and bits of fish mixed in. One shrimp. The pasta, meaning the noodles themselves, were great and you could tell were homemade. For the price I am a solidly maybe but only to try the apparently fabulous off menu fettuccine Alfredo I talked myself out of.

My wife and I stopped in before a game for a quick bite at the attractive bar and were not disappointed. Sharp service… excellent Italian salad split, as well as excellent veal marsala.
Fine wine list and a very pretty atmosphere.

3.5 stars is a perfect rating for this place. You want to love it… But it just falls short.
Fantastic service, cute décor, beautiful food presentation… The food is just kinda bland. Our group had the sea bass, scallops, halibut special and lamb chops. We salt and peppered everything to death. All of the food was luke warm at best.
For $ 100+ per couple you just really want to be WOW’d by your food. When we left, everyone said «yeah… It was good…».
I wouldn’t be upset if I was with a group and they chose to go there– but I certainly wouldn’t seek it out on my own.

I came in with a few coworkers for dinner. We started with the antipasto plate consisting of: salami, prosciutto, mortadella, olives, artichoke and mixed green salad in the middle. For dinner, I had half order of the wild mushroom ravioli over mushrooms and Parmesan. It was a generous helping so I was able to share with 2 of my coworkers.
For the second course, I ordered the pork bucco. It fell of the bone, big portion and it was very tender. My other coworkers ordered the airline chicken (Paillard di Pollo) and the other ordered Cioppino (fish stew with shrimp and other seafood).
Finally for dessert, we shared the cream puffs filled vanilla gelato (Profiteroles ala Vaniglia). Overall we were happy with the food.