Carmela — Restaurant in Nice

(Don’t bother with this restaurant. Instead go next door to Mamma Mia where the food was delicious and the service was amazing)

Very disappointed in this restaurant. For my Mum’s birthday she was very excited to book a good quality restaurant in Nice and found Carmela. With the reviews being relatively positive she booked this restaurant 2 months in advance. Our booking was at 7pm. On the day of the booking we tried calling the restaurant 6 times to ask if the booking could be made any later however they did not pick up the phone once.

Upon arrival at 7pm I went up to the waiter and said that we had a booking at 7. The waiter was rude and said no we aren’t taking anyone go away and come back later. My mum even showed him her reservation online which proved it was at 7pm but he refused and turned us away saying they had a wedding during the day and weren’t accepting anyone until 8pm. No apologies were made, no efforts to help the situation, just turned us away rudely.

So after rushing to get to the restaurant by 7pm and then having to waste an hour for our table to be ready we went back at 8pm to find the restaurant full and people were finishing their meals.

The lady at the front was helpful and found us a table once we explained the situation, but the man who turned us away did not apologise and avoided us the whole night. Very rude.

The food was also very disappointing. The Seafood Risotto had very little seafood, it tasted smoked and was not tasty. The pappardelle veal ragu was also very underwhelming as it was plain pasta with butter and oil and some meat on the side.

Overall very underwhelmed with this restaurant and disappointed as my mother was so excited to come here for a beautiful...

The hype is not worth it. Please don't go here.

Two weeks ago, I made a reservation for this restaurant so we could have a nice table at this restaurant. Today when we arrived we had to queue for 20 minutes to wait for our table to be ready, while people without reservations all were getting a table before us. It made me wonder what is the point of making a reservation. To make matters worse, we got the worst table of the restaurant. It's understandable if no tables are free, but it rubbed me slightly wrong when waiting in a queue for 20 minutes with a reservation.

What do I mean by the worst table? Well, it was a table in front of the queue of people lining up to the restaurant. The smoke of the cigarettes of the people in the queue with less than 1 meter distance in my face made the visit very unpleasant. Furthermore, eating pasta with an audience of hungry people so close in front of my face was not my favorite experience either. Talking about the pasta, it was extremely mediocre. It felt like they just cooked the pasta, baked some meat and threw it on top of it.

Next is the service. It felt like it was good service at first, where my wine glass was filled extremely quick from the wine bottle once it got slightly empty. But later on I realised it was just a way to empty the bottle as quickly as possible so we could leave the table quickly for the next people waiting in the queue in front of me. When we did not finish the wine quickly enough, the bill and the payment machine was thrown in my face without any questions so we could leave as quickly as possible.

All in all, it was a terrible experience, so I would recommend anyone who considers to go here to not go. It's...

Just WOW!!! We were a group of five arriving in Nice without any restaurant plans. On our first day, my partner and his friend stumbled across Carmela at the end of the flower market area—they thought it looked so inviting we booked lunch right away. The food & service were just outstanding from start- finish, and we ended up coming back twice more for dinner, including for our final evening in Nice. Every visit was a delight from start-finish. The atmosphere has the perfect balance of elegance yet welcoming, with beautifully set tables that feel so special but also relaxed. The front-of-house team & management were just exceptional—a special HUGE thank you to Nicola (Niki), who went above & beyond to make our experience unforgettable on each visit. He also knows his wines very well & he'd recommended exactly the wines we were going to choose (their red Hermitage is outstanding!!) I also had the chance to thank the chefs in the open kitchen—an impressively modest team producing extraordinary dishes. They clearly un a tight ship, with fantastic management & communications between the chefs & staff! Additionally, we had one of our group in a wheelchair & they were so accommodating & gave us the large wooden tables. It was all so well orchestrated, which just made it so relaxing for us all. The food was just exceptional: fresh, flavoursome, and so beautifully presented. As big foodies/ decent wine drinkers, Carmela truly elevated our holiday and gave us memories we’ll cherish. A real gem in Nice—we can’t wait to return next year! Thank you to all the staff at Carmela...