Carmine's — Restaurant in Chicago

Shortly after having dinner here I became violently ill and ultimately had to go to urgent care at 4am. After notifying management of my situation, I was contacted by their insurance company several days later. The end result was no action taken by myself nor the restaurant since there was no proof that their food caused my illness. However, having experienced food poisoning in the past I am very confident the pasta I ate at Carmine's is what caused my illness.

After traveling all day to visit Chicago for Easter weekend, my first stop was Carmine's for dinner. I ate a very cheesy ricotta pasta and within 3 hours began experiencing body aches, headaches, chills, fever, vomiting, and diarrhea. Long story short, after vomiting almost nonstop from 10pm to 4am (over 20 times) and having diarrhea over 10 times I finally decided to go to urgent care, as I became severely dehydrated and unable to keep any fluids down. After a 30 min wait, a nurse was able to see me, determined that I had extreme dehydration, & gave me a large bore IV and anti-nausea medication. My symptoms began to subside about an hour later and I felt relief knowing that I was rehydrated. Since there was a 5 hour wait to see a doctor, I decided to go back home to get some rest.

Since I decided not to wait the 5 hours to see a doctor, I didn't get any testing and will never know for sure if this restaurant caused my sudden and extreme illness. As I mentioned above, I had experienced food poisoning in the past & the timing and symptoms were almost identical (although this case was much more severe). Being that I was traveling all day and had only eaten some trail mix I packed from home (which I eat everyday), I am very confident that the dish I had at this restaurant is what caused my illness.

Needless to say, my Easter weekend was quickly ruined due to this situation, as it took me 2 full days to recover. I will never eat at this restaurant again and urge anyone that does to go see a doctor and get tested if they believe they got sick...

It was our girls trip and we wanted to go to a nice place for dinner, one of the nights we were there. It was a nice looking place and we ended sitting on the patio? It was covered or closed and i think they uncover it on the summer, but it was cold in there! Which was ok I guess. The rest of the place looked cramped and crowded. The greeter girl, if you want to call her that. She wasn't friendly and also in a bad mood. My sister in law asked for a table if 5 for us and she said it would be 5 minutes. My mother in law and my other two sister in laws asked us if we had asked for a table. They were making sure because they came from the restroom. I guess the girl thought they asked her and she was all moody and said it will be a few minutes while we clear off a table. She didn't have to be so rude. I wish we left at this point. Our waiter was also in a bad mood... We all split dishes except for myself because I wanted some leftovers for the next day. My mother in law and sister in law ordered wine. My sister in laws wine was Chardonnay and she said it tasted terrible! Then we order our expensive food. Two girls split the vodka sauce with chicken and two girls split spaghetti and meatballs. I also ordered that. It was a big plate, but for a simple dish to be $26 is crazy. That was the least expensive dish too. It was nothing special. My mom makes better spaghetti with jar sauce and she can't even cook well. I tasted the vodka sauce dish and it was better, but still not a $30 dish. No one got refills except my mother in law and sister in law because they had alcohol. We had to split the bill amongst us and it took a little bit because we wanted to make sure we all pitched in what we owe. After we were heading out the waiter counted the money right in front of us! How rude... Bet there are way better places than this downtown! Shoot. Downtown Dogs was friendly and...

Carnine's was great. The wife and I had just finished helping our daughter. We just finished setting up a couple of canopies for a famous rapper's daughters. So we were on a high.

We wanted to go to Gibson's, but we would have had to have sat at the bar, not interested.

We landed at Carmines. I wanted a steak.

Instead, I ordered the minestrone, which was delicious. I forced my wife to get the lobster bisque. I say I forced her because she thought it was too much food with what she ordered. She was right.

She ordered the veal chops. I ordered the pork chops. Both dishes were delicious.

The soups were superb.

We passed on dessert. We picked up tiramisu at Maggianos, an old favorite.

We will go back. You can make the soups into a meal.

Now, we were dressed casually. As I said earlier, we had just helped my daughter with a client, so we were a little eschewed with our dress.

Most of the personnel at Carmine's saw past our appearance. But there were a couple of people who responded by looking down on us. BTW, we are African American, seniors.

I work for a former protege of Muhammad Ali. He loves telling a story about The Champ. He asked the champ why he kissed every child, no matter their appearance, no matter whether they had snotty noses. Ali told him, "Never look down on somebody who looks up to you."

My wife is a special education teacher. Me, I help ex-offenders, endangered and troubled youth, and residents from low-income communities attain second chances, reducing recidivism and crime. We do alright. We make about $200,000 a year.

Never judge a book by its cover because when you assume someone's status. You poorly represent yourself and your company.

Will we return?

We're used to looking past short-cited individuals. Besides, the food...