Carmine's (Times Square)

Location: 200 W. 44th St, New York, NY 10036
Cuisine: Italian
Hours: SUN (11am-11pm); MON (11:30am-11pm); TUE, THU, FRI (11:30am-12am); WED, SAT (11am-12am)
Phone: (212) 221-3800
Website: www.carminesnyc.com
Prices: about $25/person
Credit Cards: All major

Food: 9
Service: 9
Value: 8
Environment: 8

Frequency: Unique

Auntie Janice treated a bunch of us to lunch @ Carmine's today. So that makes it 3 times this year for my parents eating in Manhattan (the others being Michael Jordan's & Safran)... must be a record! We went to the 44th St. restaurant (the original is on Broadway & 90th), so parking was difficult, but the restaurant crowd level was comfortable. It was probably not as packed as other Times Square restaurants because Carmine's is family style, while Times Square is more for tourists and couples.


They started by giving us a fresh-baked bread basket, which was handy to keep around for the whole meal and was perfect for dipping into the entrees' sauces. We had fried calamari for the appetizer, which was a good amount for all 7 of us. Calamari is always a good, safe dish. It's hard to do wrong and everyone likes it. Out entree choices were mixed seafood linguine, chicken scallopine W/ lemon & butter and eggplant parmigiana. All of it was great. My initial thought of eating Italian was that it will be safe and at least good, but Carmine's truly stands out as one of the best I've had. All of the ingredients of each dish went well together. My unlikely favorite was the eggplant. It's a dish I usually don't get, not because it's bad, but because I usually prefer chicken or veal parm. I think I'll go for the eggplant more often now! The portions for all dishes were huge. This restaurant just wouldn't work for a 2-person meal. We were a party of 7 and only ordered 4 dishes, 2 of which were classified as appetizers!

The atmosphere was just as a family restaurant should be... spacious with great acoustics. We could hear each other talk just fine. There was no loud music in the background. They did a good job laying out the tables. The only negative was the less than clean restrooms. They just didn't match the presentation of the rest of the place.