Oh man, where do I begin with how bad this place was? Well, I'll start at the beginning. My family and I were seated, and it took like 10 minutes for sometime to take our drink orders and bring them, even though there were 4 waiters that I counted and only three tables of customers (including us). At this point we should have gotten up and left; I don't know why I didn't follow my instincts.
My brother's tea was undrinkable. It was like they put pepper in it. We all agreed it was about the worst tea we had ever tasted. A couple of minutes later the people at the table next to us had to send their food back because it was cold upon arrival. The people at the table on the other side of us looked like they had each taken about two bites of their dinners before asking for take-home containers that were surely destined for the dumpster on their way to the parking lot. My brother also caught one of the waitresses digging up her nose and pulling out a booger. You just can't make this stuff up. LOL
I ordered cioppino, which is usually an incredible seafood soup, even though it was something like $23 (I have never paid that much for cioppino; usually it's around $15-$18 at places where it's outstanding). There was some soup that was part of the appetizer for it, and when it came out it was an extremely stingy portion size and tasted like imitation Campbell's with a couple of veggies thrown in.
The cioppino was pretty awful. Two of the mussels that came in it had their shells still closed, which means they were dead when the soup was made. I have NEVER seen that when getting mussels. I can understand that some of them may die when being stored, but the chef not removing the inedible ones before sending the dish out is an obvious sign of complete laziness. Whoever is the chef at Nero's, you stink and your restaurant is a fraud charging the prices it does.
My brother's lasagna was pretty bad. He was struggling to get through it before he finally gave up. A frozen Stouffer's tray of lasagna was much better than what he was served there.
My parents ordered spaghetti and eggplant, which they said was ok. The other two aforementioned plates were unforgivable though. I wish I didn't have to give this place the 1 star citysearch requires me to put.
As an aside, I was told by the bartender at the bar-b-q place across the street that Nero's was sold about a year ago and was really good under the previous owners.
Pros: It's in the stunning town of Cortez, CO
Cons: The food, the drinks, the service, the price
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