Carmine's
Thursday morning we met up with the parents and had a quick gorge fest at Doughnut Plant (OMG Tres leche my love come to me…), hopped onto the free Delta Yankee boat up to the stadium and enjoyed a 12 inning walk off home run game. My parents happened to be staying right in Times Square so I figured it was finally time to check out an old NY classic Carmine’s.
Now I had a feeling I wasn’t going to like Carmine’s and walking inside the restaurant it reminded me off a cross between Disney World and Olive Garden. Wall to wall people were waiting and the vibe was quite noisy and raucous. We got a seat towards the back and ordered two of the family style dishes to split.
The Penne a la Vodka was really tasty. I thoroughly enjoyed the creaminess of the sauce and the nice fresh herbs and garlic throughout the dish.
The Shrimp Scampi was also quite good. There was a bit too much breadcrumb for my tastes but Mr. T loved the crispness of the dish and the lemon butter sauce beneath wasn’t too shabby either.
Overall I thought the food at Carmine’s was actually pretty good for large mass market meals. If I had a really big group to feed one day I might think about coming back. However it still reminded me a little bit too much of a chain restaurant. There were two happy birthday songs that broke out while we were there and while the food was tasty it was also very heavy on the salt and butter. My curiosity has been satisfied however and overall it was an excellent parental visit. We ended the night at Brooklyn Diner for some enormous pieces of cake and coffee. I was so full by the end I could barely make the train ride home. Time for a long night’s sleep.
Carmine's
Now I had a feeling I wasn’t going to like Carmine’s and walking inside the restaurant it reminded me off a cross between Disney World and Olive Garden. Wall to wall people were waiting and the vibe was quite noisy and raucous. We got a seat towards the back and ordered two of the family style dishes to split.
The Penne a la Vodka was really tasty. I thoroughly enjoyed the creaminess of the sauce and the nice fresh herbs and garlic throughout the dish.
The Shrimp Scampi was also quite good. There was a bit too much breadcrumb for my tastes but Mr. T loved the crispness of the dish and the lemon butter sauce beneath wasn’t too shabby either.
Overall I thought the food at Carmine’s was actually pretty good for large mass market meals. If I had a really big group to feed one day I might think about coming back. However it still reminded me a little bit too much of a chain restaurant. There were two happy birthday songs that broke out while we were there and while the food was tasty it was also very heavy on the salt and butter. My curiosity has been satisfied however and overall it was an excellent parental visit. We ended the night at Brooklyn Diner for some enormous pieces of cake and coffee. I was so full by the end I could barely make the train ride home. Time for a long night’s sleep.
Carmine's
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