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Pros: big portions to share family style. Great for groups of friends. Cons: everyything we ordered was way too salty. I like salty foods, but this was so salty that we scraped the sauce off the pasta and meat.

I eat at Carmines EVERYTIME I go to New York and I love bringing friends. My favorite dish is the Marsalles but I've had other things just as good. It is loud..but that's the New York experience....fun. We usually show up without reservations but we go at off hours and have no trouble being seated. This is a New York MUST! Remember the key is for each person to order one part of the meal and share! My only complaint is I never have any thing left over for a doggie bag!! Sweet - Treats are great but HUGE. Go and Enjoy!!

Carmines has great food even when you take out. The noise is part of the atmosphere, most italian resturaunts are noisy. And who cares about the carpets and ceiling, the food is great.

I am amazed by the poor reviews I'm reading here. I've been haunting the uptown Carmine's now for the last 20+ years....and never once in the dozens of times that I have visited have I ever had a bad experience. The wait staff are among the most professional you'll find anywhere. Never are they rude, pretentious or unmindful of their diners. The bartenders are another story. But, I ain’t going for the bar service, which BTW has very well made cocktails. Go for the Martinis. For food, do not neglect the Caesar salad or large fried calamari. Hands down, the best.THE BEST Caesar salad and fried calamari anywhere! All the daily specials are just that.special. With generous portions, and the garlic laden, mouth-watering choices...it will leave you wondering how to connive your next visit. The foccaccio is also to die for. The veal is the real deal, and pasta fazzoule [spelling?] is divine.

This restaurant is purposefully designed to be as loud as possible - no carpet, no acoustic ceiling tile just lots of hard surfaces enclosing a cavernous space so that every sound is magnified and you can't shout loud enough to be heard by the person seated next to you. Definitely NOT the place for pleasant conversation over good food. The food's chief virtue is that it is cheap and plentiful. Mediocre at best, often overdone, oversalted, bland. All in all, a bit like eating a frozen Italian dinner in an insane asylum for the hard of hearing.

I took the family for the 5th time and it keeps getting better as long as you know what you are in for. Dont expect exquisite meals or fine dining and you will be pleased. Smells and tastes just like grandmas house when I was a kid, and the food is traditional homestyle. More than you can imagine and always consistently good. Cant think of a bad thing to say, except, maybe a tad too much salt....

I've been going to Carmine's for over 20 years, and the food has been consistently average. What do I like about Carmine's then? The loud atmosphere in an old-time style NYC restaurant with platters big enough to share. A table of 3-4 people need order only 2 platters of food. Some are more generous than others. My absolute favorite is the ragu a platter of meatballs, sausage, and roulade on a bed of pasta. Nicely priced and enough food for 2-3 people to eat from. The pasta is usually overcooked and the red sauce is average, but I am compelled to order this dish every time I go because the meats that it is served with are all delicious and, as I've said, plentiful. The steak is good as well as the chicken marsalla. The chicken parmigiana is average at best, but also plentiful. Don't order any of the seafood dishes to share. There is only enough for one diner here. Carmine's keeps calling me back because it is fun to eat here, not because the food is great. The wait staff is professional and attentive. In a city that boasts some of the best Italian food, there are definitely better choices than Carmine's. But, if I were a visitor to NYC, I would go here to get a "feel" for New York dining.