Nora's Restaurant & Bar

I'm torn between keeping this short because I feel like I already gave Nora's wayy too much of my time in the form of waiting on a ridiculously slow kitchen, and writing enough to give my fellow diners a true sense of what they're in for if they decide to give this place a try.

Nora's is located in a sleepy little lake community, but the place clearly hops on a Friday night.  We arrived for our 7:15 reservation and entered a packed lounge with live acoustic music and socializing patrons shouting to each other to be heard over the music.  They first walked us to a pub table in the bar about ten feet from the musicians.  I asked if we could wait for something in the dining room, and it struck me as odd that they wouldn't first ask us whether we would mind dining in the bar before attempting to seat us there?  Anyhow, they brought us to a nice table upstairs with a view of the deck diners (there is deck dining on both levels) and the lake beyond.  The ambiance was nice.  Tablecloths, candles, a sunset, and the music from downstairs still audible in the background.

Our server was pleasant and helped us with menu choices and suggestions.  We were going to go with the pierogi appetizer until she warned us off of it, explaining that they are no longer made in-house.  We settled on the eggplant "tower" and the stuffed mushrooms ($11 & $10, respectively), followed by a sirloin and a stuffed chicken breast ($28 & $26).  We were served a nice board of herbed bread with a compound butter while we waited for our appetizers.  The eggplant turned out to be our favorite bite of the night.  Breaded slices topped with roasted red peppers, spinach and goat cheese with a red pepper coulis.  Really good, but there were only three small slices and we were left wondering how this constituted a "tower."  The four stuffed mushrooms were yummy, but we felt like both appetizers may have been a tad overpriced for what they were and where we were.

After appetizers, we sat with our glasses of water and an empty table while one after another the dining room around us emptied out.  About half an hour later, our server came to apologize for the wait and said that our food would be out shortly.  We continued to wait.  For so long, that it actually started to get comical.  We were now in an empty room and starving.  Twenty MORE minutes later, she came to apologize again and explained that the steak we had ordered medium-well would take a long time to cook.  Let me just explain that I generally loathe overcooked meat but have a temporary medical condition which precludes me from eating any pink for the time being...and after weeks of fully-cooked seafood and poultry, I was craving a steak so decided to take my chances on chewiness and order it medium-well.  I actually laughed out loud at her suggestion that our meals would have been out an hour earlier had I not needed my meat cooked to medium-well!  Really?  Sorry, not buying that.  We decided we would give it an hour and 15 minutes then leave if we didn't yet have food.  It was just silly at this point.

We wound up getting our entrees about an hour later.  Perhaps a complimentary salad could have been offered in the meantime?  That is a REALLY long time to wait in a completely deserted dining room.  The food was fine...steak had great flavor despite being a bit hard to cut and very, very dry.  The chicken was tasty but the portion felt small for the price.  I think that was pretty much our sense across the board...that everything was a few dollars over-priced given the place and sizes and the fact that this was good but certainly not elevated food or fine dining.  When entrees are closer to $30 than $20, we expect more.

I doubt we'll be back.

Ambiance - 4
Service - 1
Food - 3 (high price/small portions)

We had a reservation for 7:30 on 3/22/13  It was our first time there and upon arrival we were excited by what we saw.  It seemed very energetic with a nice decor.  it also appeared to be the sort of place that people plan to go out to to have a nice time rather than a place just to grab a bite.

Some other reviews mentioned the service being slow.  they are not being clear.  the service was incredibly slow.  every phase of service was slow and poor.  

to put things in perspective my receipt from Nora's is from 9:21 pm.  We arrived at 7:30 and had 2 courses in 110 minutes.  We left drove to Latitude ordered & ate dessert and our check was stamped 10:07 pm.    

Seating & Drinks - For our waitress to come over took at least 5 minutes and it was probably closer to 10.  to say hi.   Once she gets there we immediately order 2 drinks and a bottle of wine, that took another 5+ minutes.  I used to wait tables, every restaurant has guidelines for how long you have to introduce yourself as the server and no where that I worked was it wait at least 5 minutes before going over.  Also in that time the manager was visible....setting other tables.  Disappointing because it made it seem like it was more important to set table rather than serve customers.

Salads - We each had a salad, they arrive 45 minutes after sitting down.  Glad I wasn't too hungry.  The cesear salad was standard and the harvest salad was very good.  the golden balsamic dressing is very nice and the candied walnuts are a nice addition to the salad.  However, we didn't get them until 45 minutes after being seated.  

Our waitress brings our salads and then doesn't come back until our plates are empty.  Apparently my girlfriend and I aren't the sort of people they offer fresh cracked pepper to... even though it was offered to everyone else i saw with a salad.  when the waitress finally appeared and asked how the salads were i told her that it would have been better if i had fresh cracked pepper.  Did this comment trigger a visit from the manager - no.  

Entrees - 80 minutes into our evening our entrees finally arrive (bottle of wine already gone).  An easy test to tell whether your dinners were maybe sitting in the window for an extended period is to compare the relative temperature of the plates.  I had asked for my lobster ravioli to be with a scampi or francaise (on menu) style sauce rather than a cream sauce.  Yes it is an odd request but not one that is difficult.  when our plates arrive my girlfriend's was much hotter than mine which to me implies that they made mine wrong and had to do it over while hers sat in the window.  She had gotten their shrimp & mussels dish which she enjoyed very much, i thought her shrimp & pasta was over-cooked.  My ravioli was good but I expected more than 4 pieces which were the circumference of a coffee cup for $24.  also her dish had only 4 shrimp & 5 mussels.  The portion size is a minor comment compared to the overall service.   Oh! and I almost forgot the bread...  we were given bread about 60 minutes into our dining experience.  It was about 30 minutes after the waitress first offered us bread and said she would bring some over as soon it was ready.  to run out of bread at 8pm on a friday night seems like very poor management.  The bread was very good but not worth an hour wait.  

Additional Service Comments
To add insult to injury there was another couple that came in partway through our experience and sat at the table right behind us.  It seems that if you know the staff you get a much better level & speed of service, because they were on a first name basis with our waitress and the manager.  I saw the manager visit the table behind us more in the 30-40 minutes they were there than in the 100+ minutes we were there.  Also they received salads, bread, and entrees in less time than it took for us to get our salads.  It was a little less busy but the drastic difference in wait times was disappointing and the caliber of service they received was much better than ours.  

After we finish eating my girlfriend goes to the bathroom and the waitress comes over i told her that I just want the check and that i was very disappointed with the service and the length of time that every course took.  The manager stopped by once briefly during the entrees and I was in the middle of a bite so I wasn't able to comment then.Does this get a visit from the manager - no.   Watching the manager spend  a good portion of her night setting tables, and chatting with regulars or folks she knows instead of refilling my water or checking on why we were there so long was surprising.  

Our waitress was Joelle, and I am told the manager on duty was Jenn.  The best thing i can say about the service is they brought the bottle of wine promptly.  The bottle of wine was also very good, it was a Chardonnay, Valley of the Moon

This is not a place that I see myself going back to

Super delicious, every time. Definitely pricey but that's because it's an upscale restaurant and it's in SOUTHWICK? What!? Awesome location. Sitting outside in the summer during dinner might mean you'll get some sun in your eyes. I recommend the Gorgonzola bread and DEFINITELY make reservations if you're going on a weekend night.