Nolita House

Still waiting for the food, But: the hostess said it would have been a 20 – 30 min wait and after 5 min we are searing at our wobbling table… Continue… Food is good. Took a little while though. Bluegrass band is great, but the noise level is almost too much. You must know your date (wife works perfectly) very well, no whispering secrets.

I had the shrimp taco (very tasty) and I must say the portion is meant for 3 year olds! I had to eat 2 orders of tater tots to keep my sanity throughout the night.
A good place to be if you have a large group, because the staff was very accommodating for our 11 people with no reservation on a Friday afternoon.

Brunch review:
My cousin was preparing for her wedding, we had all been exhausted from our long morning and wanted to celebrate her finding «the dress». It was a Tuesday afternoon and the place was quiet which was exactly what we needed! I had the french toast and it was so delicious. It took me a while to decide on whether I wanted to try any of their egg dishes. I had a Bloody Mary to drink and I was surprised that it was tasty, I’m not big on mixed drinks.
I would love to try one of their omelets the next time I come here.

Having dined here for brunch and dinner, I feel the best time to come to the Nolita House is on a weeknight. The happy hour specials are good, and though the bar is crowded, you probably won’t have trouble getting a table. I tried the macaroni and cheese balls and thought they were pretty dang good. I also recommend the gorgonzola pear pizza. The food appeared very quickly, which is a plus if you want a quick bite and a beer.
I loved the bluegrass band at brunch, but sadly the 45 minute wait and the so-​so food didn’t quite justify it. It’s a very small place– too small to be a brunch hot spot. Watch out, veg and kosher fans of cheese grits! It’s not listed on the menu, but they have bacon in them. I would pass on brunch next time– but I’ll definitely be back for happy hour.

Holy Bloody Mary, Batman! Eureka — I have found my favorite Bloody Mary in Manhattan. It is hard to find a place that doesn’t saturate their Bloody’s with spoon fulls of horseradish (gag) making it taste like cocktail sauce. And being from Texas, I like them spicy. They make, in my opinion, the best Bloody Mary I have found in the city.
On to atmosphere. Saturday and Sunday brunch are the only times I have been here, and I am a little biased to say this is the best time to go. With their blue grass band and New Orleans style décor, it really is a great place to bring out of town guests or just a brunch with your in-​town friends. Just note that it does get crowded, so if you don’t make a reservation, I suggest allowing some time to wait for a table.
I have had their french toast, which isn’t so much like normal French Toast, but more like French Toast Cake (very good, but not traditional French Toast you get in most other places) and their brunch plate, which was good. Their mac-​n-​cheese is definitely worth getting!

Small, regular type of bar with pretty decent beer menu. Nothing at all special. Bar came along with a rude, grumpy bartender. Dude, if you’re in that profession you have to at least try to act as more of a people person.
Is it the brunch what so many people go here for? Due to rudeness at the bar, I wouldn’t return to find out. Have a feeling I’m not missing much.

I wanted to like Nolita House. I really did. Two stars because it’s the «Meh. I’ve experienced better» rating. Meh is exactly the sentiment I am looking for.
Came here for Saturday brunch, Groupon in hand, all excited because of the great reviews on Unilocal.I don’t know if it was just an off day, but Nolita House did not deliver.
Don’t get me wrong, the place was cute, and the bluegrass music was an interesting touch. But the food left more to be desired. I ordered the biscuits and sausage gravy with an egg, and everything was salty. Super, super salty. The egg was the saltiest! I expected the gravy to be salty because, well, it’s gravy, and it had sausage in it too. But not that salty.
I was with someone who loves Nolita House, and even he said his food was salty. He ordered the biscuits and gravy too. I’d like to give Nolita House the benefit of the doubt, but I don’t know if I’m crazy about giving them a second chance. Salty is salty. I had a taste of the mac and cheese, and it was good, but not life-​altering or anything. Not sure if it’s enough to get me to go back.
And the Groupon didn’t apply to the complimentary brunch beverage. Not a big deal at all, but really? Should have specified that on the Groupon.
Maybe I’ll update my review one day. Maybe.

I came here on a Saturday morning shortly after they opened. We were seated right away and they had a lovely bluegrass band playing. I love bluegrass so I thought it was a very good start to the meal. Inside, Nolita house is like a dive bar. There’s nothing fancy in décor but it is certainly homey, like 1890’s on the prairie homey. They also had family pictures lined around the restaurant and a big chalk board with all their weekly specials.
The menu for brunch was fairly eclectic, from your standard eggs benedict to some mexican dishes like a breakfast burrito. I had the chorizo and eggs which was served with texas toast and home fries. The brunch specials were also served with a complimentary sangria/​mimosa/​juice. The sangria I had was great and my eggs were almost perfect. I say almost because although it was seasoned very well with salt, I did have one bite that was way over salted. I like the jalapeño that added a nice kick to the dish but the chorizo that they picked was definitely not the best I’ve had. The dish also fell flat on their home fries which stood in stark contrast to the eggs. The home fries were way too large, not crispy like I would want, and was not seasoned properly.
Had this restaurant executed their eggs more consistently, seasoned the home fries and cut them a bit smaller, I would have given them another star. Service was good and ambiance was great. Prices were fair and the portions were of a decent size.

A year and a half later, I came back with friends and actually caught the live blue grass music while brunching away. Again, I ordered the Norweigian benedict and it failed to disappoint me. The egg was poached well and top it with slices of salmon with hollandaise sauce made it a perfect brunch meal. The English muffin was warm and crispy. The meal also came with a small pot of fresh fruits and complimentary drink order of mimosa, sangria, juice or soda.
The place is small yet it feels pretty cozy. It almost reminds me of going to a small town pub. The live music was also really pleasant… wasn’t too loud that would force me to scream my lungs out. I would say this may one of my few go-​to places for Sunday brunches.

My bf and I came here for a Sunday brunch date after I bought a $ 15 for $ 30 worth of food Groupon. They serve complimentary mimosas and sangrias, but unfortunately you couldn’t get it if you were using a Groupon (oh, come on).
The atmosphere was nice, except I wont lie, I felt a little out of place. The place is tiny, squished, and the wait is around an hour. They had live bluegrass music that was nice, except the people came around basically forcing me to give a tip (did not like that). After being seated an hour later, it took at least 20 – 30 minutes to get our food.
— Tiger IPA
— Nolita Burger (nothing special, a slab of meat and lettuce/​tomato/​onion between two buns). The fries were different than any we’d had… they were wrinkly and looked baked (but probably not). They were meh.
— New Orleans Style Shrimp and Grits (w/​Asparagus and sunny side up eggs) — the shrimp was really good, spicy and well seasoned. The asparagus had no taste. The cheese grits were pretty damn good but a bit too stiff. Now the eggs… eggs are always good, but they put so much damn salt on top of it that I thought I was gonna shrivel from the inside.
The food was okay, but nothing too crazy good. Probably not worth the 1.5 hours of waiting and I don’t know if I would pay full price for it (pretty pricey brunch…)

Ok. I’ve been sitting here for the past 12 hours pondering if the 2,000 calorie meal I had last night here was worth it… and I’m going to think it’s a 3 star. Meh. Good but meh. I’ll explain.
It all started with a groupon deal $ 15 for 30 bucks. But, I never buy groupons for places I didn’t already want to try. I’d made a reservation for 9:15 that got pushed back to 10 on a Thurs night. needless to say, the place was empty on the restaurant side (upstairs). There was a ton happening downstairs on the bar/​DJ side (and upstairs at the bar watching the Pats vs. some NY team I presume from the shouting side). The lateness hour definitely explained how it was mad loud in there. nothing you could do. It was also really cold but they gave me my requested hot water with lemon, so I was good.
The reason why we came so late was because I was helping my bf move on the UES that shit takes forever. They were cool with pushing back the rez; and we clearly saw that it wouldn’t be a problem if we didn’t HAVE a rez. I suspect this place is busy for groups/​brunch, so when in doubt, make a rez. There is one table in the back that has a big table for groups. Bathrooms are clean and bit retro.
And this place probably IS very good for brunch/​groups. I don’t discount it for my next group event because it’s got all the right elements; lively atmosphere, cute waiters/​bartenders (I think it was noted here by someone else) and they’re nice too, good comfort food and very reasonable prices. Like $ 18 tops for a gourmet meal. Actual apps and sides for under $ 10– whoopee!
But the food itself… Well. There is a limited menu. About 5 entrees– you got your classics; burgers, mac and cheese (OMG my fav– lobster and plain here), fried chicken, salmon, some pizza… I got the «southern fried chicken» which is shown as oven baked. Believe me, it ain’t baked.
The dish sounds good on paper– 3 pieces of deep fried chicken, a biscuit and mac and cheese. A side of honey for the chicken. But the dish wasn’t FLAVORFUL. The chicken had barely any seasoning; it was just straight up fried– a little too fried. The meat was also not as juicy/​tender as it could have been. even the dark piece. And the honey was just pure honey. nothing to do. The biscuit; a bit dry and not melt in your mouth buttery; the mac and cheese (which came in a really, really cute mini skillet!) was not cheesy or heavy at ALL– not like those describe it here. Maybe it would have been different if I’d gotten the full entrée but trust, you are talking to a lactard here– the pasta was dry, with breadcrumbs, and hardly any cheese. Overall, the dish lacked SALT.
My bf was much happier with his dish. Maybe it’s because he came in with the expectation of something way worse then we got (the fact that it’s right next to Milano’s.aka the worst crap dive bar in Nolita,…the place where he claims to have gotten plenty a’ shitfaced during his college internship days didn’t put Nolita House in a high light). He got the Thurs night special which was rack of lamb with mashed potatoes and grilled veggies. The mashed p’s was awesome– prob the best thing I ate; really flavorful and potato-​ey. The grilled veggies were great too. I don’t eat lamb, so I didn’t try it but my bf said it was totally un-​gamey, and had a great sauce.
My bf also gave a big thumbs up to the beer selection here.
Backtrack– we did start off with a side as an app– the herbed flatbread. It was pretty much just cut up pizza dough. I was expecting a bit more «herb”-ness to it; it was again a bit dry. But pretty good otherwise– I mean, who can complain about hot bread? The olive oil it came with was really good too– with chunks of garlic in it I think.
The service was really good– they brought us a bottle of water to fill ourselves but the waiter was really polite and prompt. If I go back, it’ll be for brunch with a group of friends and party in the hood.
If you check in on iphone you unlock a 5% off, I should have saved it for later, knowing we prob. couldn’t use it with the groupon but oh well. See? Those who read the entire review gets the fruit.
I’m going to run 3 miles now…

I walk by this restaurant everyday but was unsure of what to expect since the restaurant/​bar is located upstairs.
Mystery unlocked! Nolita House is a bustling little place off Houston that has great specials written in chalk across the wall (i.e. half off bottles). The menu is somewhat limited, but they have an assortment of salads, pizzas and their infamous lobster mac n’ cheese.
My friend and I shared a Nolita house salad without meat (overpriced, but really fresh and light) and the lobster mac n’ cheese. Since I recently had some amazing lobster mac n’ cheese at Paprika, I was skeptical if anything could top that, but Nolita’s takes the cake! They did not skimp on the amount of lobster and the dish was super filling. I may have died and went to Lobster Heaven. But seriously, so good, be sure to order this if you go!
It is very noisy and I’d like to have more to choose from, but I’ll definitely be taking advantage of their specials. Oh, and if you check into Unilocal you get 5% off your order.

Super fun place for a weekend brunch, although I would say that the overall atmosphere (not necessarily the food) is the draw here. Very homey and down-​to-​earth vibe.
We came here at 11am on a Sunday (we had a rez but I don’t think they take reservations for groups under 5 people). It was empty at 11, but around 11:30 it started filling up so I’d say as long as you get here before 11:30 you should be good! They are strict about the no drinking before noon rule though so you’ll just have to wait until 12 if you want an alcoholic drink (included w/​your entrée!).
My group ordered a bunch of things: french toast, mediterranean baked eggs, chorizo w/​eggs, breakfast burrito, and mac n cheese and everything was tasty and what you’d expect. Mac n cheese is definitely yummy but may be a little rich if you try to eat the entire thing yourself. French toast is also very dense and more the texture of bread pudding, so might be better to share than to try to finish on your own. Oooh and definitely start with the sticky buns, they’re delicious!
You won’t be able to have a serious convo here since you’ll be shouting over the music so be forewarned, but still a great place for a casual brunch w/​friends =)

First time here was for a casual Sunday brunch with some girlfriends, and that was a decently good time, but not because of the food. We all got different dishes, there were hits (green eggs and ham, pizza…) and some misses (baked skilled eggs were too greasy, egg and biscuit with gravy was actually pretty gross). Live music was a nice touch but place was very loud.
Came back here a second time with a friend and got the Mediterranean baked eggs, which I enjoyed a little more than the first dish I got. But you can’t really screw up a ratatouille based dish. My friend got the eggs with chorizo and thought it was just okay.
There are much better brunch places out there that I don’t see myself making it a point to come back here. Food isn’t that good and actually rather pricey considering drinks aren’t included. Maybe if I were in the neighborhood and needed a brunch spot in a jiffy, but otherwise there are too many places to try out to come back to mediocre ones.

While good for dinner, Nolita is best suited for brunch. Choose from the quality egg dishes and benedicts or shrimp and grits, and you can’t go wrong. Most other items on the menu look great on paper, like the house burger or the «famous» mac & cheese, but nothing else truly resonates in terms of taste or texture. If comfort food is what you crave, a small diversion eastbound to brunch at Poco would be a memorable experience.
What truly brings one back for repeat visits is the intimate and cozy atmosphere. With live bluegrass jazz playing in the background, you can usually bank on a comfortable yet festive meal. Dinner time can be a bit stressful with the raucous after-​work crowds, and the food selection simply isn’t as exciting. Although, the spinach and artichoke dip is a must try.
I would rarely say that I am fond of a place with mediocre food, but Nolita is that one exception. Moreover, you are likely to find a good dinner-​for-​two deal on a deal-​of-​the-​day website. A good discount can go a long way in making a restaurant more appealing.

Horrible, just horrible. Frat party central. After last month’s visit, I am 100% certain I will never be returning. Everyone who comes here «knows» the bartender, therefore everyone wants free drinks. Which means that the wait for a drink is crazy long, even if you’re connected. But then again, everyone’s connected.
There are serious crowd control issues here. I’m pretty sure the maximum capacity of this place is maybe 80. The bouncer thinks it’s 200. I spent two hours bracing myself against the wall as hordes of people streamed in and out. I got stepped on, pushed, shoved, molested (no joke, guys will take any chance they can to feel up a girl), and drenched. Bring me back to the college days of Sigma Pi parties. At least I had room to breathe back then!

One of the things I LOVE so about NYC is that you always find little hidden treasures and this is definitely one of it.
Their lobster mac and cheese is ABSOLUTELY to die for. This is something that must be ordered (TRUST ME). With a little hint of truffle oil, this dish is is yummy, gooey and honestly downright sinful! Plus, the best part is, if you go during Monday football night, their wings are only 10 cents!
I mean seriously, how awesome is that!!! :))))

I am always looking for a bar near the Landmark Sunshine movie theater… and usually I end up on 1^st Ave. in a dive, but last night my friend and I decided to walk back west on Houston and we came across this charming upstairs bar/​restaurant, Nolita House.
The place was all decorated for the holidays and had a warm feeling to it even though it is quite small. And as soon as we walked in, we felt comfortable. Though it is a restaurant with table service and a menu (to which I cannot speak) l, my friend and I chose to sit at the bar for some $ 9 glasses of wine and conversation. The bartender was pretty cute, and very helpful with suggestions for our order.
I really liked the atmosphere and would absolutely go back to Nolita House with a friend or a date for a drink/​meal after a movie.

*This review is 3.5 stars*
I came here twice for brunch on the weekends because of Groupon. Gotta love those sweet deals! If you’re not an early bird there will be a wait to get seated, which is why I love brunch. I’ll never wake up early enough for breakfast, so it’s okay to wait a little until lunch rolls around. During brunch hours there’s a Blue Grass band that plays up front by the bar area. This place is kind of small, so when this is a full house the place does get quite noisy. The servers here are also quite friendly too. And one of the male servers were pretty cute hehe.
The first time I came here with Hungry Boy. For the side we’ve shared a mac and cheese, which was really cheesy and pretty good I must say, even though I am not a fan of mac and cheese. He gotten the New Orleans Style Shrimp and Grits — two sunny side eggs over blackened shrimps, grilled asparagus over cheese grits. His dish looked pretty fancy and the shrimp was pretty good. I’m not really a fan of grits, but it was pretty good too. His brunch came with a complimentary mimosa… and mimosas are always so good!
As for me I’ve gotten the Norwegian Benedict — two poached eggs, sauteed salmon and hollandaise on English muffin, and served with hand-​cut fries. My brunch came with a complimentary sangria. There’s a thing about poached eggs that I love, maybe it’s the runniness of the yolk that flows down onto my plate. The sangria was pretty good I must say.
The second time I came here with my sister and she’s gotten the Breakfast Burrito — scrambled eggs, bacon, potatoes, serranos, onions, tomatoes, cilantro and queso fresco, wrapped in a flour tortilla and garnished with refried beans, chips and salsa picante. Her brunch was simple, yet interesting and it was pretty good. I had the Nolita House Angus Burger, which was pretty okay for a burger, but honestly I’ve had better burger elsewhere.
Overall, this is a nice place to go for brunch without having to wait too long to get a table on the weekend.

Minus one star for close quarters, but plus one star for banjo in the band, another star for the cute waiter (although he is a close talker), another one for good food at a and decent price (Vanilla Brandy Baked French Toast and delicious rosemary french fries).
Wish the orange juice was fresh squeezed though.