This was another of my usual go to places before leaving Calgary a several years ago. Since returning to Calgary I've noticed this trend across many formerly fantastic places where people are willing to pay significantly more, for significantly smaller portions, terrible quality and questionable service.
The wife and I ate here on a Saturday night around 6:30pm. When I pulled up the parking lot was empty. The place looked closed. I figured there was no way a restaurant like Nick's would be closed at that time and day. Sure enough, not closed.
We were stood at the front desk trying to flag someone down for a little over 5 minutes, before some encouraging signs of life emerged and seated us. Service was extremely slow and unpleasant, but we endured and ordered our food. I ordered a steak, and the wife a chicken parmigiana.
What was served was disappointing. The portion sizes were pathetic. My steak was done in 4 bites. The wife's dish was even smaller of a portion, and her steamed veggies were 100% raw. For $23 and $32 plates this was laughable. Although they tasted fine, aside from being served raw veggies.
At this point we noticed our waiter's friends had come in and they were sitting at another table with him joining their party. We didn't see him again. Finally we just went to the front counter to pay for our meal and left.
Nick's is a pizza house, I may give the pizza another go before I decide not to go back but I won't be returning for anything other than pizza.