Carbone Dallas — Restaurant in Dallas

A group of my associates and I dined at Carbone Dallas this weekend to celebrate a birthday. Hands down and by far, it was the worst dining experience any of us have ever had to endure. We had originally booked a reservation for 8 people, but when a significant other decided to join our group we called to adjust the number to 9. The phone line that is listed goes straight to an automated message that prompts to email for changes to reservation party size or time. We did so at least 48 hours in advance and never heard back. On Saturday we arrived for our reservation and were told by the maitre d' that it was impossible to do so because anything larger than 8 has to go through the banquet coordinator, and that there would be extreme and serious consequences for the staff at the restaurant from the corporate office if they were to allow the party an extra chair. We were then told that we could either dine for 8 guests, leave, or cancel our existing reservation and try to book ourselves 2 reservations of 4 and 5 online (at 10:30 pm on a Saturday night).

We ended up speaking to the general manager, Mark, who was not only unhelpful but was frankly combative and disrespectful with his language. Good customer service entails finding a solution to fix an error, even if it is not perfect, and we were told there was simply no way forward. We explained that nowhere online does it state that 9+ requires a banquet coordinator, which according to this gentleman requires many weeks of planning, a bill minimum, and a set of fees he would not disclose even after we offered to meet those stipulations. In addition, despite numerous attempts to contact the restaurant, it was explained to us that Major Food Group has many thousands of reservation requests to respond to, and we should have taken that into account when we wanted to adjust the details of our reservation. Finally they conceded that they were able to put 5 of us next to the other 4 at two tables next to each other, and we were assured there would be action to make sure we were well taken care of. This did not happen, and the service continued to be disorganized throughout the rest of the meal.

After speaking to numerous others in the restaurant and in social circles afterwards, we were surprised to hear that many others had similar poor experiences at this restaurant due to the lack of service standards. The quality of food is irrelevant if you leave feeling disrespected, especially at a restaurant where you are prepared to spend large sums of money for a premium experience. I have dined at numerous multi-Michelin star restaurants around the world and have never seen management that is so unprofessional and unkind to their patrons.

The only bright spots of the evening were Allie (or Ally), one of the main hostesses, and Cameron, our sommelier. They were attentive, positive, and apologetic for the service we were receiving from others in the restaurant. We are grateful to have had them during our meal and they were memorable amongst the mess that was the rest of the evening.

I would absolutely recommend any of the other premium restaurants in Dallas over dining at Carbone, as your special occasion and money are much better spent with a hospitality group that knows how to provide excellent customer service...

Extremely overrated and overpriced except for the ambiance. Do not recommend.

My girlfriend (big time foodie) has been wanting to go to carbone for years to try the spicy rigatoni. I read from others that the veal Parmesan is amazing and a must try.

Restaurant ambiance is great. Looks cool inside.

Food started out great with the provided bread basket.

We ordered the spicy rigatoni and veal Parmesan as we planned. Waiter seemed to think that this required a side and pushed for a side between potato’s or broccoli. We opted for broccoli.

Spicy rigatoni was very good. We used the remainder of the bread to mop up the spice.

From there everything went downhill fast. The chicken parm (literally nothing special to it) was okay, but nothing special, and was overly salted. The veal was not as flavorful as expected and was also a letdown. Absolutely not in any way worth $94 - don’t fall for anyone who says so. Make it yourself at home for $20 of basics from the store and it will taste the same

The broccoli arrive a few minutes later (we had literally forgotten we had ordered it). Took one bite and that was it. It was extremely extremely bitter - really just not good at all. So bad I had to take some deep sips of the drink I had. That left a bad taste in our mouths.

We were too full to look at a dessert menu, but I had read online that there are little rainbow cookies they give complimentary. The table right next to us had some that they didn’t end up eating that we had been eyeballing. Those were not offered or brought out.

The waiter brought the check and at the top there was a QR code for the VINO app that said “pay with VINO and get $50 off of orders $150+”. We were at $180 ish and wanted to do it to help offset the cost of the $20 broccoli that was inedible. My girlfriend spent a few minutes downloading and signing up and the app then said “tell your waiter” or something along those lines. BTW it’s very dark lighting so being on your phone stood out and felt awkward. We told the waiter who walked away for less than a minute and came back and said he was sorry he didn’t see anything. So this was either some stupid lie where VINO doesn’t work or just the waiter not wanting to potentially lower his tip.

The waiter - he made a point of asking how everything is except when it came to the broccoli. We think he knew it was a bad dish and purposefully didn’t ask our opinion when he took away the full plate of broccoli that was untouched.

Overall - the food is hit or miss. My girlfriend is very upset from the service experience and lack of clarity on the VINO thing which seems like a bunch of BS to us now. Will not be returning again and would not recommend to anyone. Spend your money elsewhere if you are looking for a high end dining experience for...

This one was a tough one to write since I've been to Carbone in the past and have enjoyed the meal, service and atmosphere immensely. However tonight was different. We had a 5:45 reservation and we were seated early at 5:20ish. It was my wife's birthday and everyone was pleasant and friendly throughout our dining experience. We had the camari, caesar salad, two orders of the spicy rigatoni (it's my wife's favorite dish here), the salmon and desserts: lemon cheesecake, carrot cake, hazelnut chocolate cake. We've tried the tiramisu in the past but the marsala wine is a bit too strong for our taste. All the food came out great and the pacing was wonderful from Julia, our captain.

So why are we rating this restaurant one star? table 43. Table 43 is where we werre sitting and is the closest table to the service/ bathroom door between the terrace space and indoor dining. table 43 has patrons and staff walking through every 1-5 secs for two straight hours. It is hard to describe how close to people table 43 is to this high traffic walkway but if you give me a minute, I'll try to describe it to you. imagine yourself in any major city on the subway or bus and there it was packed to the brim and people were constantly shuffling on and off the train/bus while you stood there. That is disruptive enough but there is more...

indoor dining and terrace dining are two very different experiences. the main factor being dim romantic versus bright &bustling and the open air versus A/C. 43 table sits in between these two worlds. That means every 1-5secs for a two hour dining experience you are in a dimly lit romance venue and then pull out of it into a brightly lit section. If you suffered from eplipsy you would have a seizure sitting at this table. It switches between light and dark without any rhythm or cadence. I asked if they could just leave the door open but they declined stating the indoors was cooled with A/C and it wouldn't be possible. I asked to move and they stated they couldn't accomedate the change due to scheduling. They did offer to provide compliement desserts and did give us two out fo the three complimentary(Although when they said they were going to give us complimentary desserts and then Julia asked us to pick three, I assumed all three would be comp'd) but even then I did not have a good experience. Honestly, I have never had a worst dining experience based off of location only and no one at my table was happy about it.

If you come here for dinner during the early evening, avoid table 43. If you come at or after sunset,...