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    The Nest

    4.3 (33 reviews)
    ModerateCanadian (New)

    The Nest Photos

    THE NEST ATMOSPHERE

    What's the vibe?
    Romantic
    Loud
    Outdoor seating
    Good for groups

    Recommended Reviews - The Nest

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    the hunter chicken very nice dish with seared gnocchi and vegetables.
    Harold S.

    They have a lovely intimate patio to enjoy on a warm summers night. We thoroughly enjoyed our meals. Quiet intimate and romantic

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    3 years ago

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    3 years ago

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    2 years ago

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    1 year ago

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    5 years ago

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    5 years ago

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    Photo of Harold S.
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    6 years ago

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    3 years ago

    Food was fantastic! Recommend the Calamari apps! Quiet and off the beaten path! Great service! Megan was wonderful!

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    4 years ago

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    4 years ago

    Cool location overlooking downtown Nanaimo. The food is good and well priced. Great spot to go for a dinner date.

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    4 years ago

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    5 years ago

    Amazing little find. They often have a feature tart with mushrooms and brie with greens that is the stuff dreams are made of.

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    8 years ago

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    8 years ago

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    7 years ago

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    10 years ago

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    9 years ago

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    7 years ago

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    4 years ago

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    9 years ago

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    7 years ago

    First time visitor. We reallly enjoyed our lunch experience. Great food. Great ambiance.

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    8 years ago

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    4 years ago

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    10 years ago

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    8 years ago

    Solid bistro and the lamb is amazing. We also had garlic clams with frites that were fantastic

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    8 years ago

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    9 years ago

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    7 years ago

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    6 years ago

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    9 years ago

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    7 years ago

    The service was amazing. The herbed chicken was out of this world! Very cozy place. Can't wait to check out the patio next time!

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    10 years ago

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    9 years ago

    Good service and food was tasty. Staff friendly and knowledgeable. Great view of Mount Benson.

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    Horang - Flaming So Galbi

    Horang

    4.5(25 reviews)
    10.5 km

    I tried this restaurant a year later and am happy to report it was just as good! I look forward to…read morecoming back again.

    Visiting for a Monday lunch at around 1PM, we had no idea Horang would be that popular. At the…read moretime, the place was completely full and we were advised there would be a 30 minute wait for bar seating. We wandered over to the attached Horang Market, a little grocery store filled with Korean goods, to browse while waiting. In our case, we were lucky to be at the tail end of the lunch rush. It actually took only 15 minutes and we managed to get a table! Korean Fried Chicken, Yangyum Glaze, Half ($21) - A half order of the fried chicken consists of eight pieces. I thought going into the restaurant it would be only four pieces and was planning to order another dish as well, but thankfully I asked the waitress and she explained everything. As a surprise, we actually got nine pieces of chicken since two pieces had stuck together! The pieces are all boneless thighs, with the dark meat allowing the meat to remain juicy through the frying process. It's kept skin on, and the skin is rendered out excellently. They simply salt and pepper the skin, then dip into the batter. The fried coating is applied evenly, resulting in a consistent bite that remains somewhat crisp even through being dipped in the yangnyeom glaze. I'd say the crispness isn't as robust as other KFCs I've eaten, but it's still pleasing nonetheless. The sauce is of course the draw. It's extremely viscous, basically to the consistency of caramel due to the amount of sugar added. It's slightly funky with a faint heat that's barely felt in the mouth. The dish comes with one dipping sauce that isn't required at all given how flavorful the chicken is. We got the garlic aioli anyways, which is surprisingly strong in garlic flavor with the mayo completely eliminating the garlic pungency. It's actually much stronger than a toum that we had from a Middle-Eastern place the day before. (5/5) Charred Daeji Galbi Soban ($23) - This order comes with a variety of different banchan: Mandu - Two pieces. I'm not sure if these are made in house, but I'm leaning towards these being commercial. They have very uniformly thin wrappers housing a mix of savory and very salty ground pork, mushrooms, and vermicelli noodles. The wrappers are dried out and kind of leathery in chew. They are served in a sauce that I think is a combination of vinegar, soy sauce, and sugar, making it sweet, tangy, savory, and salty. I think they precook these and let them sit in an open warmer, which explains why they are so dry. Japchae - The japchae is very salty like too much soy sauce was added, yet also feels very dry and missing the fragrant and oily sesame sheen. The noodles feel undercooked in some portions, being very firm, different from the bouncy texture I normally associate with sweet potato noodles. This isn't a very good japchae. Napa Denjang Soup - Includes napa and tofu. Pretty standard miso taste, not particularly strong or funky. Prawn Twigim - Two pieces. Tender, sweet shrimp, covered with tempura batter and fried. This gives a light crisp coating. They add the same soy/vinegar dipping sauce on the bottom of the serving container, soggifying the ends of the tempura a bit. Kimbap - Two pieces. They are filled with plenty of chopped carrot, a piece of pickled daikon, some avocado and tofu skin in rice and seaweed. Simple, but fresh and tasty. Salad - Greens in a very sweet and citrusy dressing. Lightly dressed, no dressing pools on the bottom. The main dish includes perfectly cooked medium grain rice with great texture and mouthfeel. On top, they have a couple pieces of charred galbi with a thick sweet sauce glazed on top. The taste of the char actually penetrates into the rice, creating a flavorful bite. The galbi is fatty, tender, not too chewy and generally tastes quite nice especially due to the glaze. (3/5) I really enjoyed the Korean fried chicken served at Horang. For the Charred Daeji Galbi Soban, while the main dish was good, I found the banchan to only be subpar to average. Then again, I wasn't expecting to find good Korean food in Nanaimo in the first place, so it was still a pleasant surprise. Washrooms - Three rooms, one for men, one for women, last one accessible.

    Photos
    Horang - Japchae Noodle

    Japchae Noodle

    Horang - BBQ eel bibimbap

    BBQ eel bibimbap

    Horang - BBQ eel bibimbap

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    BBQ eel bibimbap

    Nori Japanese Restaurant - Relegation Roll

    Nori Japanese Restaurant

    4.3(175 reviews)
    11.1 km
    $$

    We were vacationing on Vancouver Island and came here for dinner when in Nanaimo. We had made…read morereservations a few weeks prior to our trip and I would highly recommend making a reservation if you plan on coming here. The restaurant was packed and the kitchen was hustling. There were so many beautiful and creative dishes passing by our table all night long; if I lived here, this would definitely become one of my regular places to go. The service was quick and friendly. The food was incredible; really fresh and presented beautifully. We had met up with a neighbour who had moved to the area and we ended up staying until the place closed. It was just a lovely evening overall. I would definitely recommend Nori for delicious Japanese cuisine but be sure to make a reservation!

    === 1. VERDICT/VALUE If you've a hankering for Asian…read morecuisine in Nanaimo and there's only one place you could go to, Nori should be one of your top picks! Good food, good service, and in a place with good vibes. === 2. FOOD When dining at lunch, the lunch specials offer incredible value; each option includes 4-piece California roll, small green salad, 2-piece gyoza, 2-piece prawn tempura, a miso soup, and a side dish ("okazu") of the day. Some thoughts: - The portions are decent even if you're hungry! - The prawn tempura (at least today) feel more batter than prawn. - The okazu (at least today) was fried - a fancy spring roll - which is interesting as side dishes in Japan in this context are often fish-based?). - Overall, the food quality is good. Buta Shoga Lunch Special ($22) Shoyu, ginger-marinated pork on rice - a good heart-warming combo as any! Sashimi & Sushi Lunch Special ($23) 6 pieces of sashimi (salmon and tuna) and three pieces of sushi (also salmon and tuna) make this lunch special one of the healthier options on the menu. Chashu Miso Ramen ($18) My little guy loves noodles, even if it comes in piping-hot pork bone broth. Depending on your little one, kids 6 and under in age may need a grown-up to help finish this dish! === 3. SERVICE The place is POPULAR and so be prepared to wait. One the most recent visit during lunch, we were lucky to slide in fairly quickly and the servers were fairly prompt and professional. === 4. ENVIRONMENT It's basic, yet has a modern open-view environment with a view of the bar/kitchen from across the restaurant. It's similar in vibe to its sister restaurant nearby (Horang) but the service is better and diners with small children will find more appealing seating options here. Wheelchairs and baby strollers would fit just fine and your chance at finding a place to park in the shopping complex lot outside is pretty decent!

    Photos
    Nori Japanese Restaurant - Inside

    Inside

    Nori Japanese Restaurant - Miso Soup

    Miso Soup

    Nori Japanese Restaurant - Wasabi Caesar & Saki

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    Wasabi Caesar & Saki

    The Nest - newcanadian - Updated May 2026

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