Nora Cafe & Bakery

I’m not sure where to begin. I went here on a groupon, so like previous person said I was immediately handed a pasta menu. I was ok with that, but other peoplel in the party was not. Hey not everyone eats pasta. I ordered the mixed grill and she ordered the chicken marsala.
ok first chicken marsala looked NOTHING like marsala. It was red? Like a tomato sauce? The marsala «taste» was non existent. She didn’t eat not one forkful, but I tasted just to see.
The mixed grill I’m not sure where to begin, it was soupy. there was two skewers one with steak that was soooo tough I couldn’t bite! Then the chicken was idk weird it was rubbery and flavorless. The best thing about the meal was the Caesar salad, we ordered two of those. We tried to salvage our impression and order desert. We ordered the carrot cake, even that was just not right. you could tell it was frozen, not fresh. I would NOT recommend Noras at all I’m sorry.

Have you ever had the perfect aunt that makes every dish come to life? Even a simple Panini Sandwich turns into a mouth watering melted delight? Well, Nora’s Café is the place for brunch, lunch and dinner if you are searching for a down to earth home cook meal that is done within minutes from the time you order. Did I mention Nora’s Café is also a bakery? You got to try their strawberry cake and Italian cookies sweet delights, you can’t just have one. Got a craving for juicy burgers, pizza, wraps or full on meat sandwiches Nora’s got them too. My favorite at Nora’s Café is their fresh pastas. I truly enjoyed their Shrimp Martini sautéed shrimp in a light garlic tomato, and Champagne wine sauce. During Monday’s get your half off any bottle of wine, another plus on Nora’s shinning start award on my book.

Great breakfast food. Unfortunately it appears the business is closed with plans to relocate. However, the new location is unknown at this time.
I hope they re-​open if only because it’s one of the best breakfast places in Ellicott City

I was taken to Nora’s by a client while visiting Ellicott City for work.
The experience was pretty counterintuitive, honestly. You order at the counter, but they don’t take your name or give you a number — you’re just supposed to take a seat and hopefully the counter staff remembers where you’re sitting now?
The burger I got was pretty good, but our orders took the better part of 20 minutes to arrive — and we were not the only table experiencing a long wait.
My client was apparently a big fan of these folks, and I saw a lot of people coming in who were apparently regulars, but I didn’t really feel a strong draw to come back.

I hate giving poor reviews but we had a bad experience tonight. My son asked to go somewhere for American fare burgers etc. When we arrived, it wasn’t crowded, but every table for four was dirty, so one had to be bussed so we could sit.
We finally decided what to order, when we were informed they were out of burgers. OK. It happens. We chose alternates, i ordered a cheesesteak sandwich only to be told they don’t have any sub rolls. Back to the menu. I specifically asked if they were out of anything else. The server said no lobster ravioli either.
Ok, i decided to get the tropical salad, which listed artichoke hearts, avocado, egg and hearts of palm. When it arrived it had neither hears of palm nor artichoke hearts. When i pointed it out, the server said they were out of them. I returned it.
Three last quibbles, my daughter’s salmon was well done after i specifically asked for medium rare. They also ran out of chips that came with my son’s sandwich. Lastly the shrimp in my wife’s pasta was overcooked.
They did take ten percent off the bill, but by then it was already too late to make up for a bad experience.

Great restaurant! Reminds me of my visits to Europe! Great food! Friendly & courteous staff! Can’t do enough to help you! Menu is diverse and delicious! Everything from a simple sandwich or bagel to full entrees! Nora’s has recently been totally remodeled and decorated. Beautiful! I have visited the restaurant literally dozens of times and the food is always well prepared and excellent quality! Considering the quality of the food which is all freshly prepared, a very good value for the money! I continue to refer Nora’s to all my friends!

HORRIBLE PLACE! The service was bad, worst I have ever seen. The waiter and the manager kept screwing up our orders. Then they didn’t bring out the birthday girls order until everyone else was done. The bathroom and kitchen smelled heavy of chlorine. So much so I gagged. The ladies room was dirty and uncleaned and without papertowel. Also, the food just sucked. It was food I could have made at home and it would have tasted better. I also couldn’t get home fast enough as the food ran through me. The entire party was complaining. The new management is completely inept and have no right even owning an establishment.

The service in this place was terrible and the food was sub par at best.
Like the other reviewer for this place, I had a groupon for two but I did not show my groupon until the end of our meal.
So to begin the review… when me and my boyfriend got there we were not greeted by anyone after waiting for several minutes at the door so we ended seating ourselves. After waiting 10 minutes at our table, a waitress finally comes over to our table. Note: she does not greet me — only my boyfriend. She hands us our menus and then leaves for another 10 minutes. When she comes back she takes our drink and dinner order. After 15 minutes we get our bread, not our drinks — just bread. After another five minutes we finally get our drinks. At this point it is clear this place is also understaffed but there are only four tables seated and the waitress has no common sense or a feeling of urgency, We wait for approximately another 20 minutes or so until we finally get our dinner. During our dinner both me and boyfriend hear another patron already complaining about the service or lack there of. Wonderful.
For the dinner I got shrimp and mussels in a creamy lemon, wine sauce. The sauce was actually okay except for the fact that it was a little to watery, especially when the menu describes the sauce as «creamy.» The shrimp was also overly cooked (a big difference to the last review, which said the shrimp was still frozen in parts). The mussels and the pasta were fine. My boyfriend got the tortellini with chicken in a light pesto sauce. His dish was actually pretty good except the pesto sauce was a brown color mixed in with specks of green. Usually pesto is all green but I could be wrong since I am Asian. Unfortunately, when my boyfriend got home after the dinner the first place he headed was the bathroom… and let’s just say it came out both ways. Usually this is an indication of food poisoning but what do I know? I am not a doctor, shocking since I am Asian. Also, my stomach was somewhat upset as well since I had a few bites from his dish.
To end the review we will absolutely not be returning back to this place. I would not recommend this place to anyone, even with a groupon. Unless you are feeling ballsy and want to risk food poisoning. I did hear their desserts were fab but we decided not to stick around for that.

We went there on a Groupon for 4. I remember when this was a Bagel Shop. The inside set up didn’t change much – very much cafeteria style ambiance. As soon as we showed them our Groupon, they gave us their dinner pasta menu. But when we were looking around at the 3 tables that were there, they were all having sandwiches… interesting…Anywhoo, we all ordered a pasta dish: shrimp with fettucini pasta, chicken marsala, chicken parmesean, and lobster ravioli. So where should we start…
1. Shrimp Fettucini with Red Sauce – shrimp had a weird texture: some parts were hard, others soft-​definite sign of being frozen. We get fresh shrimp every week – definitely know how fresh cooked shrimp looks and tastes. It was presented with a sliced and twisted lemon – really? A lemon on my red-​sauced pasta?
2. The chicken marsala was in a red sauce, as well. It did not taste anything like marsala. The chicken was thin and dry on the inside – again a definite sign of being frozen. Total disappointment in presentation, taste and texture.
3. The chicken parm was in the same state. The presentation was atrocious – a thick slice of semi-​melted, mozzarella cheese was plopped on top of the chicken – it was not pretty and was quite cumbersome to cut.
4. The lobster ravioli by itself was pretty good; tasted fresh. It was served with a light cream sauce. Unfortunately, this dish too, had the frozen, semi-​hard yet semi-​crispy, definitely previously frozen shrimp.
We were actually contemplating on getting dessert to see if the place at least could redeem itself in this category. But alas, one of the waitresses started to clean the tables and spraying a very «stenchful» cleaning spray – it just didn’t go well with the already mega-​disappointing meal. When my husband went to settle the check, the guy behind the counter asked how everything was. My husband told him about how everything tasted dry; how everything seemed frozen. The guy said nothing there was frozen. Yeah… riiiight…
So yeah,“Eek! Methinks” not sums it all up.

While the food was decent (slightly bland)…the service was so dismal that it became hilarious. First she brought our entrees out at different times, forgot our salads all together (we had to take them home in a carry out box), forgot to give us forks, was negligent in refilling out water, didn’t know which menu items they had in stock… well, I think you get the point.