Carlo's Restaurant — Restaurant in Borough of Pendle

Updated review.

What a difference 3 months make (see below previous review).

Unfortunately my recent visit to Carlos ended with me in tears. The main server (one of the managers) greated me with digust, wouldn't make eye contact and made me feel extremely unwelcome. I should've left upon arrival as I've never received such shocking customer service.

We were celebrating and ordered champagne and were told they only had one bottle on site and it was not suitable for consumption (corked). We then decided to have a gin and tonic and thought they'd bring over the menu so we could decide what we wanted. They then dumped 2 bog standard gin and tonics on our table without us even ordering them.

Everything seemed disorganised and when I realised the manager who'd looked at me in disgust had to take our order I noticed him running round trying to do anything but take our order. He eventually came over as one of the waitresses prompted him to come. He didn't show any customer service skills as his eyes were lowered, no smile, no eye contact, no expression. I have no idea why he hated me so much but he did and at this point I decided I didn't want to be in this restaurant anymore, paid for our gin and tonic and left.

As soon as I said I wanted to leave he finally looked me in the eyes proclaiming 'I did nothing wrong ' but he knew exactly what he did and he should not be working in a customer service based role with such a poor attitude.

Our night was ruined and we ended up in the local wetherspoons as most other places had stopped serving by this time. Very disappointed, will definitely not be dining here again.

Old review:

I came to the restaurant with trepidation due to the recent poor reviews. However, this is one of the best Italian restaurants I have visited for sometime. The chef cooked my steak perfectly, the pasta dish was delicious and the customer service was amazing especially the young girl lois. I loved the atmosphere and quirkiness of the restaurant and can't...

Had an awful experience tonight, booking was for 8.30pm and weren’t seated until 9pm which can be understandable but surely a reservation should be ready for a given time. During waiting for a table 2 staff members had a confrontation in front of me which seemed very unprofessional. Food order was taken before we had even been seated too. After being seated starters didn’t arrive until around 9.50pm. Following that mains weren’t at table until 10pm. During which no staff apologised or bothered to even come near the table. We were also told that the gluten free pasta was penne multiple times so were confused when it was spagetti that was brought and my girlfriend had a reaction for 2 days after which were hives. Ordered 2 Coca Cola pints whilst waiting for food and had to get up and go to the bar to remind them that we had ordered them. The atmosphere wasn’t the best as a couple behind us clearly had to much to drink and were being loud and also rude when a member of staff brought food shouting to them whilst they were serving us. Some members of waiting staff seemed like they didn’t want to be there and just seemed pointless even them being there. Can’t fault the kitchen too much as the food wasn’t that bad. But the overall service was off putting and just felt like they didn’t care. When presented with the issues, the staff member got frustrated and gave a 50% discount which doesn’t really do justice on the fact they are losing money for something so easily avoided. Won’t be going again and wouldn’t recommend going at all but definitely on a weekend when is it busy as some of the staff clearly can’t perform under that type of environment...

Overall, a great but disappointing experience.

Starting with the pros; The customer service was excellent. I had heard great things about this and they lived up to expectations.

The atmosphere was pleasant and very welcoming.

The drink range was great and reasonably priced.

MOST of the food was excellent quality, however, this leads to my one major con.

The steak I ordered. I opted for the 19oz T-Bone as it was the days special at just under £30. All the accompaniments were great, onion rings were crisp as were the fries, the gorgonzola sauce was delicious but the steak. I asked for Medium Rare as is my preference, and it was medium rare but it was not well cooked. The meat was still quite chewy, definitely not tender and generally underwhelming.

I'll rule it as probably a bad steak or bad timing, and even with that disappointment, I will return there in the future as everything else...