Nathaniel's Family Eatery

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  Not bad at all....
  
  After being burnt out by all the mega chain restaurants in the Nashua Area I figured I would check out this establishment.
  
  The food was surprisingly excellent! I tried the fried Shrimp plate for lunch. The shrimp was very fresh and the french fries had an excellent taste to them.
  
  I'll certainly would  check out this place again and try something else on the menu.

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  Posted on 05.21.13 J S.

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  No good. Everything in this place is old.

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  Posted on 11.20.12 Abbey S.

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  "We don't do that here." is never a sentence that a diner should never hear from their waitress.
  
  I went to Nathaniels yesterday with my parents for a late breakfast / early lunch and we all order omelets. When asked if I could substitute the whole eggs for egg whites, I was told: "We don't do that here." I don't understand why an eating establishment that also serves poached eggs (so you now they aren't pouring premixed liquid eggs) can't simply separate the egg yolk from the egg white. I don't even care if you charge me extra- you should at least try to accommodate the guest.
  
  Furthermore, I tried to order a side of strawberries and was told that these were not fresh. Instead they were the kind that come in syrup and you put over ice cream. Was would you serve these as a side on the menu? Therefore, my brunch consisted of wheat toast.
  
  This place is exactly what is wrong with America:
  1. No healthy options
  2. Unwillingness to accommodate the diner
  
  If you care at all what you put in your body, don't go to Nathaniel's.

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  Posted on 07.02.12 Emily D.

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  My wife and I regularly partake of Nathaniel's.  This place has solid, relatively inexpensive food that fills you up.  It is not a "great place," just good and reliable.  It is also usually not too crowded so you can get in and out pretty quick.
  
  My wife enjoys both their Haddock sandwich, lightly fried with a pretty good tartar sauce.  Comes out very hot and pretty fresh...just a good, solid sandwich.
  
  I enjoy their Cajun Chicken sandwich, with cole slaw and a side of mashed potatoes.  They dunk a piece of chicken in some cajun sauce after cooking it...it is quite spicy at times.  The cole slaw is cabbage and some carrots combined with a bit of mayo and some seasoning...just right to cool down the cajun spices.  Finally, the mashed potatoes are ok...nothing outstanding, but add some filling to the meal.
  
  On both sandwiches, they serve pickles...and I believe the pickles are home made.  They are more "cucumbery" than they are "pickle-y."  Thus, they are a bit of an acquired taste.
  
  The other meal that my wife and I enjoy is their salads.  They are HUGE!  Generally some greens, bell peppers, onions and a couple of pepperoncinis...with a meat of your choice.  We like the "Tips and Greens"...it has steak tips on it.  The tips are generous and usually (not always) tender.  A couple of pieces of pita and there you have it...a very nice meal.
  
  Service is always pretty good...never outstanding, never terrible.  It is service that you can count on...which is always a good thing in my book.

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  Posted on 10.05.11 Duane F.

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  Don't expect much and you'll be satisfied.

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  Posted on 07.23.11 Katkeeper S.

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  A-okay. I had an inexpensive meal here with my son and mom-inlaw. We all enjoyed our meals. The apple cobbler we had for dessert was supposed to be warm, what we got was cold apple pie filling with uncooked oats sprinkled on top. Odd. We didn't say anything since it was included in the meal price. I wouldn't suggest this place, but I wouldn't argue if someone else did. I just wouldn't get dessert.

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  Posted on 07.19.11 Shawna L.

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  I've lived in Nashua for years and never stopped her until just the other day for lunch.  Not many folks in the place.  Mostly old folks and a few business folks from nearby buildings.  The food was fine, but really nothing that seemed outstanding.  That said, the menu had lots of variety and I'll return (sooner or later) to try out other things.

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  Posted on 12.29.10 John R.

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  Lovely experience. My husband and I went for weekend breakfast. The staff were lovely and the food was a perfect diner experience. Big portions, low price, nothing fancy. I would definitely go again.

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  Posted on 10.26.10 Christiane C.

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  As I typed this review, I'm eating a Nathaniel's Grilled Chicken Salad. The salad is fresh and crisp and green, with what appears to be tasty produce.
  
  That said, my "balsamic dressing" is basically just olive oil with pizza spices throw in it. I wish I was kidding. It's the worst dressing I've ever had.
  
  Because I got my dinner takeout, it's hard to say whether the service is good, but the woman who answered the phone and who greeted me at the podium was very friendly.
  
  As for what I saw of the dining room, on a Thursday night at dinnertime, it was virtually empty, which did not look promising. The decor is wood-panel-inspired, and a little dated. Most of the clientele were on the elderly side of life, I'd say.

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  Posted on 09.23.10 Courtney C.

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  Love this place. It is a real nice, laid back family friendly restaurant. The menu is HUGE and all the prices are spot on. Portions are big, food is great, and they have friendly service. Short and sweet review, which is how it should be,

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  Posted on 05.16.10 Sean B.

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  My husband and I tried to dine here one night.  The outside seemed to indicate a family friendly atmosphere, the online menu indicated it was not a fancy/expensive eatery, so we were dressed very casually.  Apparently too casual, because they told us it would be a 20 minute wait... despite the fact that there were plenty of open tables and no one else waiting.  We took the hint and walked out... and don't have any plans to return.

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  Posted on 06.07.09 Laurie F.

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  It was early Sunday morning and I was in need of breakfast munchables.  In my weekly search for breakfasting places, I have been past this spot several times.  The lot was usually pretty full, that's frequently a good sign.  Today it has some open spots, well maybe that's because it was before 8AM on a Sunday.  Too late for a post bar hopping nosh and too early in the only sleep-in day of the week for the average breakfast goer, but I appear to be the odd one out again.
  
  I got sat quickly, in a room with no other diners.  What's that old saying, "out of sight, out of mind"?  It's still as true now as when John Heywood said it back in the 16th century.  I had more then enough time to read the whole menu, twice.  It also allowed me time to pull out my iPod and check for Wifi connections.  Nathaniel's does have one, even on a Sunday morning.  I also got a chance to look around my part of the restaurant a bit.  Seems there was a door behind my booth that leads into the lounge.  I didn't notice any smoke seeping from the bar into the restaurant, but as I said it was early on a Sunday.  Still during my stay at Nathaniel's, there were at least three people that used the lounge door and never reappeared.  (Maybe there is a secret entrance from the lounge back to the kitchen and the staff has to go thru the lounge to get to the kitchen.  Or maybe there is a hard core group of die hard drinkers that congregate in western Nashua and do there best to beat the daylights out of their livers at all hours of the day.)  The important thing is that I detected no aroma of smoke seeping from the lounge into my booth.
  
  The waitress was appalled at what she had done, but truth be told it wasn't all that long a wait.  So I order my hot tea again, and then went for my entre.  I spotted it on the special board that day.  Biscuits and gravy!  If you have read any of my reviews, you know that I can not not order biscuits and gravy if it's on the menu.  (It's like one of those primal instincts buried deep in the lizard brain part of every man's subconscious.  It's right there with the need to smile at infants no matter how un-cute they may be, and the inability to not look at a woman's breasts even if that action will earn you a swift nudge in the ribs from your wife/girl friend.)  So it was pretty obvious what I was going to order.
  
  My plate arrived and I started into the contents.  The eggs were just a bit dry, but still pretty good.  This is one of the many places that use the standard grade of "home fries" from Sysco.  It's those small 1/3" cubes of deep fried potato like items.  I guess they aren't bad; they just aren't all that good.  But the main course waited my tasting and I was not to be denied.  Biscuits were below average (but I have yet to find a good biscuit in this area, so I can't really beat on them too much for that.)  There was a good amount of sausage in the gravy and it tasted very good.  Then I was finally able to place it.  It was hot Italian sausage!  Not the standard pork breakfast sausage, but Italian.  It tasted pretty good, but there is a bit of a side effect.  It just didn't sit well with me, not nearly as well as standard breakfast sausage.  But it's biscuits and GRAVY, what about the gravy?  It suffers from the standard problem with cream gravy.  It's just no got much in the way of taste.  The consistency is good, the temperature was nice and hot, but there just wasn't much in the way of actual taste to the gravy.  Fortunately it didn't taste like raw flour as some bad gravy's do, but it still wasn't as tasty as I would have wanted it to be.
  
  After the initial blunder with getting forgotten, the service was good.  I got all the refills I needed.  The wait staff is very friendly and took the time to talk to the patrons, whether they were newbie's like me or regulars.  The price was just a bit more than most of the local breakfast places.  (I can usually get my breakfast for less than $10, but today my meal clocked in at just over $11.)  Still on the cheap end of the scale, but nudging it's way towards the upper end of cheap.  Isn't that just a bit of an oxymoron?  Right up there with Jumbo Shrimp or Compassionate Conservatives.
  
  This was a breakfast visit, so I can't really comment on the rest of the food, but the menu was extensive.  A couple of Greek inspired appetizers, soups, salads, wraps, grinders, burgers, and entrees that cover American, Italian and seafood.  The menu also contains over two dozen options for a $11.95 full course meal including drinks, soup or salad, and even a dessert.
  
  In spite of the disappointing biscuits and gravy, I liked the place well enough to come back and try it, if I can find a spot in the parking lot during the breakfast rush.

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  Posted on 03.02.08 Jeff P.

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  Edit (11/2/07). Nathaniel's is committed to the positive side of mediocrity. Not in the same way that a chain restaurant is just going to keep things bland and homogenous, but in the way that they clearly have a set way of doing things, and aren't going to go the extra mile to make things outstanding. Service still borders on benign neglect.
  
  Another annoying strategy is the willingness to nickel and dime the customers for small things. $1.95 for a Coke? Sure, but you only get one refill. Who does that? Want the Fish and Chips but decide you want rice or a baked potato instead of fries? That's a $1 upcharge on that dish only, but not on others from the same menu option. Want free WiFi? It's provided Monday through Friday.
  
  Don't get me wrong, the interior is nice, the food is decent, and unless you're coming for breakfast, you don't usually have to deal with the hassle of a huge wait, but it's frustrating how Nathaniel's just doesn't go the extra distance to make a must-visit restaurant.
  
  Nathaniel's is located on in the northwest corner of Nashua on Amherst St and is located at the former site of Charman's.
  
  It's your basic family eatery/big menu/casual kind of place. Inside, they've spruced the place up to I guess what you might call 'dressy casual'
  
  The menu is pretty extensive and covers all the basic American diner/comfort food staples, with a number of Greek additions to it.
  
  The tzatziki appetizer with grilled pita bread is fantastic (get the extra pita bread for $1.25). They also offer a huge selection of $11.99 all-inclusive meals, which include a drink, salad, entree, and dessert. I thought they would've shunken the portions to compensate for the price, but it was a ridiculous amount of food, so you won't go hungry. The salad was good, the fish and chips was pretty basic (nothing fancy in the batter or seasoning department), but hot and fresh, and the apple crisp was fairly tasty.
  
  This place does a brisk breakfast business on the weekends and does tend to get crowded then.
  
  I stopped in for a late lunch/early dinner on a Saturday afternoon. The food was great, but the service was really lacking - even there was only one waitress in the place, we were totally ignored for most of the meal, and there were at max 3-4 tables of people in the restaurant.
  
  Also, the odor of smoke from the bar/lounge permeates the place and really detracts from the experience.
  
  EDIT: stopped in on a Monday evening for dinner, was a much different experience. Service was leaps and bounds above Saturday afternoon, less smoke from the bar. More like 3.5 stars, but I'm not ready to round up just yet...

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  Posted on 03.11.07 Larry B.

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