NYC Italian Restaurant Review: Carmine's (Theater District)

In a spontaneous moment, my family and I decided to quickly dash fifty feet, from Bowlmor Lanes to Carmine's (in the Theater District of New York City), through a sudden NYC summertime shower, for an early dinner because Bowlmor wasn't open for another hour. Since it was 3:30pm, there wasn't a wait--like there almost always is--and this despite a seating capacity that's easily over five hundred, upstairs and downstairs. Now inside, and in front of three hosts at the host desk, would our goodly expectations of legendary Carmine's, Southern Italian family style dining, be met?

Hosted at Carmine's

If a host receives guests to the restaurant, tells them their will be a short wait, and then directs them to the bar for a possible drink while waiting, then it's incumbent on the host to pay attention to his guests to see if indeed they ordered drinks at the bar--especially if the restaurant isn't busy.

Within a minute of entering Carmine's and receiving a fair greeting, we sat down at the bar and ordered drinks, after agreeing with the hosts to sit at the bar. One of the bartenders, on this uncommonly long bar, thankfully came right over to our end of the near deserted bar and took our order for drinks.

Seconds after ordering our drinks, we turned to see the end approach to us by one of the three hosts. She then stood motionless, non-verbal and smiling, with menus in her hand, showing us she was ready to take us to our table--and that's where the slight rub with Carmine's started.

The hostess was likely oblivious to our having just ordered drinks, since she didn't acknowledge we had just done so nor offered to make sure the drinks were delivered to our table. Neither does Carmine's seem like the kind of place where the service is such that you can seamlessly move from bar to table before paying for drinks. If it is, the hostess surely didn't recommend such an accommodation.

After informing her we had just ordered drinks, receiving our drinks, and then walking back to the host stand to let them know we were now ready to be seated (since the hostess had left us), we were seated at one of the worst tables in the restaurant--near the kitchen door and busy walk area for all manner of purpose, including going to the restrooms, the bar, and the upstairs dining area.

Now, I really don't mind at all sitting at the worst table in a restaurant that seats over 500 people...when the restaurant is full. However, when the restaurant is half empty...

One final note about Carmine's hosts: I'm still scratching my head as to why multiple hosts weren't able to immediately accommodate us in a restaurant that was half empty. If the idea was indeed to get us to purchase some drinks (which we were going to do anyway), how poorly they handled the follow-through.

Bar Drinks at Carmine's

When you belly up to a bar with a small toddler and ask for a Shirley Temple for her, you don't expect to receive one in a tall, large round glass-with or without a straw. No matter how many cherries you put in the drink to dress it up, you simply don't serve drinks in glasses that are much, MUCH too large for toddlers.

The orange juice used in my vodka screwdriver was cheap, poor-tasting concentrate. Carmine's isn't unlike many NYC restaurants that also handle their guests poorly, by charging them eight dollars for a basic vodka drink, and then uses cheap, poor-tasting orange juice concentrate.

My wife likes Italian Pinot Grigio in the summertime. Did Carmine's have one on its menu? It would be a real shame if an Italian restaurant didn't have one, eh! They did, and it was cold and quite good, if I must say so myself.

Fed Family Style at Carmine's

Having heard long before dining at Carmine's the portions of food served are very large, the near 27 dollar platter hardly made a sound on the table when placed in front of us. I was expecting at least a small thud. OK so, if I were to half the platter, the amount of food served to us would pass as a couple of 13 dollar dinners; but nothing more, nothing extraordinary, as far as portion size. Carmine's isn't serving extra large portions. What they're serving is food on extra large platters. That's all.

However, the flavor of the Farfalle with Chicken dish was pretty good, especially the several pieces of breaded artichoke heart that was included in the dish. It takes some forethought in the kitchen to make sure a breaded item in a dish with sauce doesn't get soggy. Carmine's did fine on that part of the dish.

The light brownish-white sauce was perfectly plentiful, but much too thin. Bow-tie pasta, or farfalle, and in this case, medium-large (plain) farfalle rigate, is much better tasting with a thicker sauce.

My wife was quite content with the thinness of the sauce, because she personally prefers thinner sauces, as well as owing to the fact farfalle works with both thinner and thicker sauces. Again though, a thicker sauce goes better with medium-large, ridged farfalle. Additionally, my wife thought the sauce was a tad too greasy.

Neither was there much chicken in the dish, perhaps a single breast of chicken. Though it was nicely cut into large bite-size pieces. Sliced Crimini mushrooms (at least that's what they looked and tasted like), and generous pieces of sun-dried tomatoes added more texture and taste to this Carmine's special off-the-menu dish.

The Tartufo was nothing about which to write home to mother. We opted for the cheapest dessert on Carmine's menu, not wanting to spend 20 dollars for what we really wanted: a piece of Tiramasu. The ice-cream of the Tartufo simply wasn't much, nor was it very tasty. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't good either.

Service at Carmine's

Water servers and bus persons figured into the service at Carmine's, all of whom were prompt in their duties. The waiter congenially and dutifully tried to explain what the specials were for the day, but before he could get past the first one, we delightfully chose the Farfalle with Chicken.

When at all possible, it's prudent for a server, or waitron, to move around the table to open areas to avoid reaching across the table and over restaurant guests. Our waiter got lazy for a minute and consequentially made one of the worst mistakes you can make as a server. Other than the large bottle of water spilled all over the cloth table at the end of our meal by the waiter, and that he was missing for an extended period of time, when we were ready to see the dessert menu, the service was good to fair.

It may or may not be Carmine's policy for management to visit tables; if it isn't, it should, and if it is, we had only seen them standing and observing the operation.

Conclusion to our Dining Experience at Carmine's

Carmine's prides itself on providing value-priced extra large portions of home style Italian food. Be careful not to get fooled, though. While the food we had was tasty and the price was right, we didn't get anything extra, as far as portion size.

The bill came to $75 dollars for two, including the only thing we purchased for our toddler, a four of five dollar Shirley Temple.

Carmine's private label Pinot Grigio from Italy is certainly recommended.

Carmine's popular bottled water is recommended, even though it's $7.50, because, well, it's good bottled water and not tap water.

The front of Carmine's house needs some work, while the back of the house seems OK.

Skip the Tartufo at this NYC Italian restaurant, if you're looking for a dessert to WOW you.