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What a pleasant surprise for a tourist....excellent experience in NYC and the new restaurant in DC

Came with high recommendation. We were prepared to wait 1.5 hours for our table but not 55 minutes fir our food. The waiter failed to mange our expectations and when the Manager appeared he also failed to deal with our concerns merely saying the food was on it's way! When it finally came I have to say we were underwelmed.it was meant to be the house speciality for Sunday. It was bland and cold. Then the waiter was obviously instructed to placate us by offering a free dessert which he said his manager had instructed him to pay for! This was the last thing we wanted. Not the experience we had hoped for to end our holiday in New York

Went after hearing all the hype...the pasta was undercooked, garlic bread burned, and the entrees were just average. the one redeeming quality was the 'titanic' dessert. it was very good. service was poor though, and we were all underwhelmed by the whole experience.

Just after the Vesuvius exhibit down the street , what better place to cary on the "Italy" theme but at Carmines - Lavaed it , er, i mean loved it ! If what you are looking for is jovial, lively atmosphere, standard "trying to be Nonna in the kitchen" fare and ppppplenty and I mean pppplenty to eat - then this is for you. The hot antipasto & caesar salad would of sufficed for our party of 3 - but nooooooo, hunger and aroma led us to the pasta sampler & shrimp parmigiana as our "main" . Needless to say it was bags galore going home and nicely packaged I might add. For mid-town theatre district dining you've found your spaghetti and then some spot - you want Rome by the trevi fountain- book an Alitalia flight , You want good and bountiful platters of "italian" food - head to Carmines ...Those old family photos on the wall will come to life with an almost audible "Mangia, Mangia " !!

I love Carmines and return every trip to NYC. I don't recommend the Pomadora -- it's chunky and resembles uncooked whole plum tomatoes. Everything else is always good -- great salads and fantastic pasta. If they have a daily special -- get it. It's always been fantastic.

We wanted to visit the famous Carmines in NYC and glad we did. We could not get dinner reservations, so we had lunch. With only 3, the portions were too much, but we wanted the full experience. We were seated in a lousy part of the restaurant, but it was busy and we did not want to wait longer. Our experience at the bar was not very pleasant. I ordered a house chianti and he tried to up sell me to another that was x2 the cost. The cost of a soda at the bar was 4 dollars and I was not given a bill. They charged me again during dinner for a soda refill. I had 8 bucks in soda. We chose spedini for the appetizer, which we did not like. The cheese was partially melted and the bread was not soft. We ordered a salad and it was gigantic. I would have thought the waiter would have offered a 1/2 order or some lunch portion. The spagetti was good, although my family thought there was too much garlic. We were way too full for dessert. They did a good job packing up the leftovers which we enjoyed later. Bottom Line: Its worth the experience / bring a larger crowd to share / make an entire event about it. This is not a family restaurant - its a large restaurant machine so don't expect anything else.

The food was not worth the wait; pasta was not cooked, food was cold. The bread was disappointing! We would not go back again.