Carluccio's — Restaurant in Dartford

On Wednesday 25th August I decided to take my niece and her two young children for lunch at Carluccio’s in Bluewater as a treat.

I ordered the Cod with Semi Dried Tomato Pesto, which as stated on the menu is pan fried cod on a bed of fresh mussels, tomatoes, peas & edamame, topped with semi dried tomato and almond pesto. This arrived without tomatoes, peas or the tomato and almond pesto. I also ordered the Green Beans and Spinach topped with pine nuts - there were no pine nuts, but it came with a short black human hair.

My niece ordered the Chicken, Avocado & Pancetta, which should include chicken, pancetta and avocado with green beans, red onion, semi dried tomatoes, olives and mixed leaves. A dish was served with a little chicken, some avocado, no pancetta or olives plus a long blonde human hair. The dish was removed to be replaced by the same meal.

My niece then received what was apparently the Avocado & Barley Salad, described as pearl barley in a semi dried tomato, almond and beetroot pesto with avocado, chargrilled courgettes, rocket & baby spinach, roasted goat cheese, semi dried tomatoes, flaked almonds & toasted pumpkin seeds. As there was no chicken or pancetta, and she had expected her original order, we again called the manager who stated that the order taken was for the Avocado & Barley and brought a side plate of sliced chicken. We refused this and my niece decided to change her order to the Cod with Semi Dried Tomato Pesto. The Cod arrived with lots of tomatoes, no peas or edamame, no tomato and almond pesto. Some of the mussels were still closed and should not therefore have been served and the first one she ate was uncooked. She could not eat any more food.

We decided to give up and leave so I asked for the bill. The manager explained that she had deducted the Avocado & Barley Salad and the Cod & Mussels which had been served to my niece. There was no charge on the bill for the original Chicken, Avocado & Pancetta meal served. When I then checked the bill, I found that a “Cod Supplement” of £5 had been added. The manager then brought another bill without the supplement. I was paying by card and was unbelievably asked by the manager if I would like to add a tip. I kept my negative answer very short.

We then went elsewhere for desert and drinks.

I have written to Carluccio's and await...

WORST ITALIAN PASTA AND SERVICE IN ENGLAND

Would highly advise avoiding this restaurant! The only good thing I will say about it is the pizzas looked Really nice but it’s a shame I didn’t have one. So to start with we ordered three bottled beers and it took 15 minutes to receive them when there’s a sufficient amount of staff and it wasn’t busy.

Then ordered our food and found out 20 minutes later that our starter would not be coming out as they’ve not got it. You should know what you do and don’t have and you could have told us a lot earlier.

Then the mains come out and this part was my worst ever experience in a restaurant! The pasta came out luke warm at best. The pasta was so undercooked it was basically inedible no seasoning on the pasta there wasn’t even pepper on the table yet alone the dish. The portion size is the biggest joke to customers I’ve ever seen. Literally you could tell they’ve cooked one meal and just put half and half in each bowl.It could have been sufficient as a kids meal.

When trying to make a complaint to get another one I was questioned on whether I knew it was cooked or not due to the chef cooking both of our meals in the same pan. Well of course I was sure otherwise I wouldn’t have said it. Then 10 minutes later the same dish basically comes back and I think they just reheated it as the pasta was the same as before. Rather then say anything I was so frustrated and embarrassed by the staff member I just had to eat it in order to not cause conflict.

Then the bill. Just when you think it couldn’t get any worse it does! All I wanted to do is pay and leave. We basically had to beg one of the staff members to take our bill as they all just keep walking past saying I’m coming now. But clearly they wasn’t as we’ve seen them walk past numerous times. It was as if no one cared if we paid or not. We wasn’t rude at all we asked nicely every time. It was as if they couldn’t care less.

Very disappointing overall and will certainly never return as it was worst experience I’ve ever had at a restaurant. There’s so much potential in that place but the execution just is not there. Needs massive...

Unfortunately not a fan of this restaurant. Came in with high expectations as it’s part of BRG (which in my opinion has the best burger restaurant in Gourmet Burger Kitchen) but left ultimately with an empty stomach and a disappointed girlfriend. Sitting down took forever, with no notice taken by any of the servers- the restaurant wasn’t even busy. When we eventually sat down, we were told that we had to sit in the ‘outside’ area (which really was slap bang in the middle of the shopping centre) due to it being fully booked. The dining experience was awful, as it didn’t have a restaurant feel, more like a food court. It was not fully booked- 3 tables were full and not a soul walked in when we were eating. Eventually we ordered from a very extensive menu (which sometimes can be a bad thing, and in this case was).

Our food came- a Parma pizza and carbonara pasta. The pasta was not nice in the slightest- it was dry, with the bacon being overcooked and the pasta overcooked. We expected some sauce on top of it (which was advertised as such when we walked past a board a few minutes after leaving). The pizza was bearable at the best; dough base still seemed raw, with a weirdly thin layer of tomato sauce and lumps of cheese unevenly dumped on top.

At the end of the day I ended up asking for the pasta to be taken off the bill; something I’ve never done before, but felt that unfortunately it was applicable this time.

Ultimately it ended up being a very unpleasant dining experience. I thought that the service was very subpar, apart from our server Tina who was trying her best and was also very friendly. I was looking forward to some nice Italian food after a few hours of shopping, but it turned out to be poor Italian food- the sort your American friend claims they’re great at making because of their ‘Italian Roots’ when they actually visited the leaning tower of pisa in Las Vegas.

All together, I can say for certain that I won’t ever...