Nino's Ristorante - Hamilton

What a great place! Love the menu, food and service. Convenient if you go to the Aquarius Theatre right next door.

We dined at Nino's before attending the theatre. Everything was excellent! The steak was perfectly cooked (rare) and a seafood trio was also perfectly done in a delicious sauce. Vegetables were nicely sautéed and the garlic potatoes were wonderful. We also had tasty onion soup. They have a good selection of wines and great service from friendly waiter and waitress.

This restaurant is right beside Theatre Aquarius. My theatre ladies and I have walked past many times on our way to a performance. So when I was attending the Christmas performance with my daughter and sister-in-law, we decided we should give this restaurant a try. And you get 10% off your order when you show your theatre ticket. The interior isn't fancy, but it's pleasant. Staff is friendly and attentive. Food is typical Italian fare with some other North American dishes as well. Reasonably priced. My only disappointment was I chose the special of the day. I assumed the special would have included a salad, or dessert, etc. This did not, and actually cost more then what both my daughter and sister-in-law ordered. Lesson learned, never assume, double check what's included, or ask your waiter. I'll be a little more careful next time. But my meal was very good, as was the others. Would definitely go back again.

We decided to visit before a theatre performance (next door to Theatre Aquarius). The restaurant is small and was full with theatregoers for dinner. It's a tight space. It was decorated on a budget but it's quaint. They give a discount with theatre tickets on their nightly specials menu. This is 3 courses for just under $30. We opted for the regular menu.It's not a large menu but the first thing that struck me was there was no pasta. It's classified as Italian and yet pasta only comes as a side, spaghetti or penne. If you want to add chicken or shrimp to a salad it's $12 and $16 extra, bit much I think.I tried the hot shrimp appetizer. It came out hot with a nice piece of garlic bread. It was in a butter/cheese/spinach sauce. Very tasty....but they left the tails on. The shrimp were too hot to handle and it's very awkward to remove the tails with a fork and knife. I had to order an order of garlic bread to make use of the sauce. Hubby had the chicken parmesan with penne. The chicken was done perfectly. The penne was al dente but it seemed to be topped with bruschetta topping. Too sweet and threw our tastebuds. I had the minestrone soup and it was great.There is a decent selection of wines at reasonable prices. We asked about the pasta dishes listed on the online menu. Those are supposedly the listings from the previous owners. Huh? How do you not have a website in this day and age?!?I visited the ladies room and it was a bit tired, the toilet paper holder was taped to the wall. It could have used a good cleaning. Note that they accept cash or debit only, no credit cards. There were a lot of regulars (theatregoers) there and were all greeted with we will see you next month. Unless they do a great lunch crowd it's a bit of an awkward location.

Nino's is a small restaurant with little ambience but it serves excellent home-made Italian dishes which you can modify to suit your tastes. Strangely they do not take credit cards but do accept debit. Plenty of parking meters nearby an its very convenient to Theater Aquarius next door.