Carmine’s
“Oh and try their meatballs…you're welcome.”
“Best fried calamari I've had anywhere, hands down.”
“Also highly recommend the broccoli rab and sausage pasta dish that has the perfect combination of each ingredient that will have you adding seconds to your plate.”
Carmine’s
Takes Reservations: Yes
Delivery: Yes
Take-out: Yes
Accepts Credit Cards: Yes
Good for Kids: Yes
Good for Groups: Yes
Outdoor Seating: Yes
Has TV: Yes
Waiter Service: Yes
Caters: Yes
Price range.
$$ Price range $11-30
8 reviews
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This is a place that will feed your out of town and very hungry family with Italian classics and family-style portions. I've been twice now with my family because they are huge pasta lovers so our go to options are: The calamari, lemon chicken, garlic and oil pasta, and mixed seafood pasta. All heat up very nicely the next day too because you will have leftovers for dayssssss. The lobster in the seafood is a pain to get out and your likely to get sauce all over you while you fiddle around with the small fork and lobster cracker.. but I think that's applicable to any meal where lobster in the shell is involved. #Firstworldprobs. Also, oh, I really love the foccacia bread they serve too. Make sure you sop up some sauce with that stuff.
If you're looking for really authentic Italian food that uses fresh, high quality ingredients, go somewhere in Little Italy. But if you want family style, basic Italian food that's a step above what you'd find at a chain and you don't mind a noisy environment, Carmines might fit the bill. I would only recommend coming here with a large group. If you come with just a few people, you're going to end up paying a lot of money for a huge amount of mediocre Italian food, and you'll probably have to take most of it home. We came here with 7 adults and 4 children. Between us we shared the fried calamari, shrimp marinara, chicken parmesean, cheese ravioli, pomodoro pasta, and 1 kid's meal (some grilled chicken and pasta). This was plenty of food and we even had leftovers of everything. Nothing was truly outstanding, but it was all decent. My favorite dishes were the fried calamari and the shrimp marinara. They were both cooked well. The red wine sangria I got was good and strong. Everyone seemed to be happy with their drinks. I probably wouldn't come back here unless it was someone else's idea but was happy I got to try it. I've also been to the Atlantic City location and had the same experience there.
Had dinner at Carmine's last night and absolutely loved it! If you are looking for a place to host a group dinner, look no further.
Carmine's serves family-style southern Italian food, "like grandma used to make." Even the restaurant is set up that way… my friend and I sat in one of two 2-tops. All the tables are built for groups! So are the prices – the menu has a lot of variety but is still pretty limited to the usual suspects, and each plate (well, platter) will run you about $25-$30.
There are no small portions here, so I can't recommend this place for a date night or two girlfriends catching up. We ordered spaghetti and meatballs, and the PLATTER carrying the food was the size of both of our heads combined. We ate until we were stuffed, and still took home a large serving. The meatballs melted in my mouth like buttah, and the parmesan cheese at the table definitely set off the dish even more.
For drinks, we had the strawberry lemonade, espresso martini, Italian Manhattan (VERY boozy), an old fashioned, and a glass of chianti. All as expected.
My favorite part about the night was the atmosphere. With so many groups – friends, families, birthdays, graduations, etc., there is such a full, lively, loving, and collegial air about the restaurant. Everyone there was in a great mood, and between 10 and 11pm the restaurant was constantly singing Happy Birthday. It made me feel transported away from NYC and into someone's grandma's house during a big family reunion. I was ear-to-ear smiles the whole night.
Since Carmine's isn't set up for small groups, I will need to round up a few friends to come back and visit… especially to try their famous dessert, the Titanic!
Carmine's never disappoints! Came here with the fam to celebrate my bday- party of 10. 8:00pm reservation, arrived 30 minutes early, we were seated at 8:15p.
We had drinks by the bar while we waited. They have a nice unique menu of specialty drinks, mostly $12 and up. I had a Fly Me to the Moon Margarita. It was pretty good. My sister had the Blood Orange Margarita. From the sip I took, I wished I ordered that one instead! But at $12.50, you learn to sip very slow here!
Once we were seated we were given 2 menus- one cocktail and one for food. I thought this was ridiculous, being that we were a big group, and the restaurant is noisy so you have to scream at each while discussing the menu. Everything here is family style- including appetizers. We ordered Calamari, and the waiter tried to tell us it would only be enough for 4 ppl. We didn't pay him any mind, and only ordered one order. We all had seconds! Lost a star for that nonsense!
For dinner we went with penne a la vodka, chicken parm, shrimp in garlic sauce, and spaghetti and meatballs. My only complaint is that I found some dishes to be very salty. The shrimp in garlic was delicious. I just can't pin point which dish had the salt over kill.
I had the whole bday entourage sing to me for dessert with my favorite Tiramisu cake. Again, big enough to share. Everyone had a few spoons of this amazing dessert. We even had left overs to take home of dinner AND dessert because we left so full you practically had to roll all 10 of us out of their!
Carmine's is family style dining at it's best. The dinner bill came to $280 for 10 people with tax & tip included. I think that's amazing! I love this place!
Came here during Columbia's commencement week in May. We called the afternoon of requesting a reservation and they were able to seat our party of 7 at 9:30pm. The restaurant was hoppin and packed. The food was great – large family style/size portions. I was disappointed with their vegetarian options… they had little ability to even make dishes vegetarian. The service was not the greatest – it was hard to get our waiter to come to our table and attend to us and it seemed like he was in a perpetual rush.. maybe that just comes with the territory when you go during such a busy time
Delicious and good for sharing only. Warning: your clothes will smell for days after as will
Your hair.
Oh Carmines – how I love you and hate you. I love you for your delicious Italian food. I hate you because I need to fast the entire day before coming due to guilt and then I have to fast the entire day after to physically become hungry again.
I have been to Carmines in Times Square a times and finally for my Mother's birthday, we decided to try the other location uptown. I have to admit, coming from Forest Hills, Queens, it was kind of a pain in the ass to get here. To be fair we took the train, but parking would have been atrocious and just a pain in the ass. We met our grandparents here and they were coming in from deep Brooklyn – also a pain. The food was very close in quality to its Times Square location, so i think given another shot, I would go to Times Square in a heartbeat. The Times Square location I will say is a bit more touristy and tends to be more crowded and noisier. Otherwise, same.
I am all about family style meals – and so is Carmines. I love the Italians and their huge portions – they just get me. For the amount of food they give you, the prices are really reasonable. I would recommend coming with at least a part of 4 so you can try several dishes. I went with my sister one time and I felt awkward ordering 2 dishes even though it was enough food to serve 6 people.
Anywho, our party of 6 ended up ordering calamari for an appetizer, chicken farm, pasta with clam sauce (garlic and oil) and rigatoni with sausage and broccoli. Everything was amazing as usual – my grandparents who typically only enjoy classic Cantonese cuisine enjoyed it and even took home leftovers. My super Italian friend even gave her stamp of approval.
Finally, we shared the chocolate torte as a birthday dessert. It was definitely more than enough to be shared with 6 people. If only Carmines was located in a more convenient place – it would be perfect for me to bring my boyfriend's family. Please open a location in Long Island soon!
Always a pleasure! Good food. Good drinks!