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| - We were big fans of Nora's at the old location. It was local, warm and friendly, and really felt like a family owned business. While service was a bit hit-or-miss at times, the quality of the food more than made up for it, and when the staff made mistakes, management was always quick to offer compensation. We always felt we were going to a friend's house for lunch or dinner. And there was a definite Vegas "vibe" to the place; one could imagine the old-time mobsters having a meeting at the back table.
Alas, the new restaurant looks and feels like a chain restaurant. The decor and atmosphere are similar to any Macaroni Grill. With the exception of the music (jazz standards, very nice), the restaurant could be picked up and directly transported to any large city in North America. The mobsters, I'm sure, have found another Vegas haunt. The romance is gone.
The food remains pretty much the same, if you're lucky enough to have it delivered before it gets cold! The service is dreadful. My first experience was take-out. The pizza was brought out first, and the hostess informed me that she was waiting on the chicken. After about five minutes, I asked if the pizza shouldn't be held someplace to keep it warm while waiting for the chicken - "oh, we have no place to do that." REALLY? The pizza was cold before I got back to the car! And although apologies were offered by the front staff, but no mention of any compensation.
We went for lunch, and experienced more bad service: We had to hail a waiter to get water and drinks after 15 minutes of not being acknowledged. We ordered pizza and chicken again, and a regular house salad. The pizza was lukewarm. I guess the same thing happened that occurred with our take-out order. The server never even apologized for his lack of attention (nor did anyone else). And the bill came to eighty bucks for pizza, chicken piccata, salad and two glasses of wine ((which we had to order by intuition; a wine menu was never proffered).
It's a damned shame to see a cozy, friendly familiar place turn into a cookie cutter chain restaurant. I'm afraid we'll be looking for a new Italian "joint."
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