San Carlo - Manchester Airport T2 — Restaurant in Manchester

I was really taken aback that people were queuing to get into the three or four “diners” at MAN T2 today, and really disappointed at the choice on offer; but, theres a sign on the door of San Carlo that says something like “youll wait no longer than nine minutes to receive your food from the point of placing your order. ” so we thought it looked like the best shot.

It was 3PM on a Sunday in a relatively quiet airport and what myself and my companion had not considered was that we had to wait about fifteen minutes to get a seat, then a further ten or so before anyone took our order.

We ordered and sure as eggs is eggs our order came in less than ten minutes. My companion had ordered Spinach Ravioli with a salad, and I a Salmon Salad, both were good enough but neither were as described. The Ravioli was very dry and the Salmon Salad had some bizarre chilli dressing on it which didn’t really go with the delicate flavour of Rosemary Roast Potatoes that I was expecting.

The staff were nice enough, though rushed off of their feet; god knows how they cope when the airports busy.

There was no atmosphere to speak of, and it all felt a bit like a motorway service station, which to be fair is kind of what it is.

Would I go back? Given the other options at T2, its probably the healthy choice, but Id be much more exacting about my order being as described rather than accepting what turned up.

Would I recommend San Carlo? Its OK, about as good as a Tesco pre-pack meal, but three times the price.

So a mediocre meal with a bottle of water came in at around £45.00. for two people, which...

Word of advice, form your own opinion. We would normally book to go in the exec lounge but it was fully booked. I had read reviews on San Carlos in terminal 2 and was seriously put off at first. However we decided to join the queue9 and give it a go. Yes we had to queue up, probably about 5 tables of people in front of us, but the que moved quickly. We was greeted by a lovely male member of staff who showed us to our table, and then soon greeted by our waiter, who was equally as lovely and pleasant. We ordered coffee, beer and a prosecco, and then ordered 1 eggs benadict and 1 scrambled egg on toast with a side of sausages. The food was served within about 10 minutes, it was well presented and hot. Absolutely nothing springs to mind that I could say was a let down. Yes it was busy, but its a popular restaurant, which looks appealing to sit, eat and drink in while waiting for your flight, so you've got to expect it to be busy. I'd be more worried about eating at San Carlos if it was empty! Thankfully I choose to ignore the negative comments and give it ago. Our bill came to £55 for the food as noted above, 1 coffee, 2 glasses of prosecco and 2...

Extremely disappointing experience.

Service: Service was slow and forgetful. Our drinks sat on the bar for ages, wrong food was brought to the table. Our server looked like he wanted nothing to do with his job, as if we were a burden for dining. Good timing was also off. Got our appetizers 40 minutes in, before our drinks came. Then entrees over an hour in. Passed on dessert because we didn’t want to be there all night.

Food: apps were very good and fresh (pictured below). The entrees were very disappointing. I got the signature lobster pasta, and while the lobster was cooked perfectly, the pasta was cooked too much resulting in a mushy consistency, the sauce had zero flavour, was basically just a smooth coating on the pasta and the peas were mushy. For how expensive it was it was extremely disappointing. The table beside us also returned two dishes so we weren’t the only ones having this experience it’s seems

Atmosphere: the space is lovely. No complaints. The dark wood and marble with white table clothes is elegant...