Carmine's Italian Restaurant — Restaurant in Cottonwood Heights

I found this restaurant on Groupon so my husband and I decided to give it a try. We are both creatures of habit. Not by choice, simply because too often we try a new place it turns out to be bad. After reading a couple reviews we decided to give it a go.

Upon entering the restaurant, I should've known we had made a mistake. It was prime date night dinner time and there one 10(ish) person party and 1, maybe 2 couples.

They brought us water and they were full of floaties. Large white-ish floaties. My husband asked the waitress if these were lemon waters or something and she said no. Thankfully, she brought us new waters with no floaties. Strike 1.

I ordered the salmon which was tasty but, I only received 3 pieces of asparagus which was surprising.

My husband ordered the filet mignon and lobster. When they brought out the food, he had half a lobster tail. It wasn't even a big one. It was about the size of the $8-9 ones from Smith's or smaller (I'm not exaggerating) and remember, it was half of that!! He ate it in 2 bites. Um, the menu said lobster tail, not half a lobster tail. Strike 2

He then moved onto the filet mignon. He took 1 bite, grunted, and spit it out. It was ROTTEN. I smelled it and it was foul. He actually almost vomitted all over the table. A waiter was walking by since our waitress was no where in sight (even though there was only 1 other couple in the restaurant by then) and explained the situation. The waiter didn't know what to do. After fumbling over words (without apologizing) he said he'd be right back and took it to the kitchen. Our waitress came back after 5 minutes or so and asked if he'd like to order something else. He didn't want the chicken after the filet fiasco. He ordered the Salmon since we figured (prayed really) that it was ok. Strike 3.

We practically spent the whole meal talking about how we hoped he (we) didn't get food poisoning.

When the bill arrived we saw that they were charging us for the filet mignon and lobster which was $45 and not the salmon meal they let him replace it with which was $28. Mind you, the ONLY thing he ate off that plate was the 2 bites of lobster. The waitress took the bill to the manager, owner?? She came back and explained that the bill was correct. We were being charged for a meal he didn't eat because he had eaten the lobster. My husband informed them that we were not paying for that meal. We will happily pay for what he ate but to charge us $45 for salmon and 4 asparagus (yep, he got 4) was not right. He even said we'd pay for the lobster as well. They finally changed the bill to the salmon meal. Strike 4 for thinking that was ok.

We will NEVER go back to this restaurant and will talk anyone out of it that brings...

My wife had heard good things about this local restaurant so we decided to make a reservation for date night. We arrived ten minutes early and were promptly seated. And then we waited...and waited...and waited. A waiter attended to the couple next to us, virtually fawning all over them for five minutes before vanishing to the back without even glancing at us. Twenty minutes after being seated, a busboy finally appeared with bread and water. We asked for our waiter (as we had a later engagement and couldn't hang out ALL night) and the busboy promised to send him our way. Five minutes later our waiter FINALLY appears and he was the same fellow who had been fawning on the couple next to us. He was brusque and not very apologetic for his absence. Still, we were cordial and placed out order. As we did so, a couple was seated behind us who he proceeded to go to after speaking with us, placing our order behind in importance once again. Another five minutes and we finally have drinks. As we sit and talk and time passes further, I notice we still haven't received our appetizer. The couple that came in roughly thirty minutes after us received their appetizer fifteen minutes after we received our drinks. By fifty minutes after seating, with us needing to leave in twenty five minutes, our main courses finally arrive. Irritated by now, we ask what happened to our appetizer. The waiter blames the computer system for the error. I guess remembering your orders is too difficult or it's selective since the couple behind us received what they asked for. He offers to bring it after the main because I want an appetizer after my main dish. He then offers free dessert but his inept service has already threatened to make us late. The waiter leaves and proceeds to ignore our table for the rest of the night. We had to once again grab the busboy to get our check and, after another ten minutes with me inching the check further and further out to signal we wanted to pay and leave, finally had to ask the busboy AGAIN to grab the waiter. The food was ok. The poor service left me simply wanting to leave. Service has rarely left me as insulted as Carmine's did. Coming in early, before the dinner rush, it made little sense how we could be ignored in a largely empty restaurant. Whether it was personal problems or mediocre work ethic, I'm never coming back. Waiting an hour for food is beyond acceptable. You...

Carmine’s is a restaurant I’ve been going to for my birthdays and special occasions these past 3 years. It was my favorite restaurant in town the food was great, the service was amazing the second to last time we went I brought my dad, he pasta was way too salty and the calamari wasn’t done well but we looked past it because of the times before. Unfortunately this time around was the opposite of the first time we went. I went for my birthday this year and the food and service were way off.

The service was unlike any time before. In the past our waiters and waitresses were knowledgeable and charismatic, this time around they were not. This time around when they did check on us it was rushed and never asked if we wanted more drinks. They also wouldn’t take our empty glasses and dishes, it just piled up on the edge of our table. Once there was no space left for the wall of empty dishes and cups I made I finally had to ask for them to take it back after failing to acknowledge all of it again after checking up on us. The waitress also waited for my dish to come out before letting my girlfriend know they were out of the main dish she wanted.

The food in the past was amazing. This time it was for lack of better words, really bad. The salmon ravioli was always my favorite. This time the raviolis weren’t cooked. They weren’t cooked through. The edges were almost rock hard and it was dry inside when you cut into them. The lamb chops completely raw, blue if you want to call it that with little to no sear on the outside when we ordered medium rare and asked if it could be leaning more to the medium side. Kind of a bummer when 2 of the 3 dishes that came out were really bad. Mind you when we showed up they were not busy and by the time we left there was maybe 1 or 2 tables still occupied?

It’s a bummer because this really was my favorite place but after this last time we will not...