Carmine's on Penn — Restaurant in Denver

Ross and I dined at Carmine’s on Penn & had a fabulous Italian meal - la cena era deliziosa! Carmine's on Penn boasted a wonderful staff and equally good food to boot.

We arrived at Carmine’s on Penn and were seated in the dining room adjacent to the bar. The aesthetic of the restaurant was warm & relaxed with family sized portion Italian fare & a lively bar. General Manager, Jessica took great care of us. She was lovely and gave us a great background on the restaurant and menu items we should try. Our servers Shae & Aaron were attentive and quick with service.

Shae started me off with a White Wine - the Argiolas Costamolino, Vermentino 2021, Sardegna. The Costamolino had flavor notes of ripe stone fruit & citrus. The wine's lemony acidity paired well with the vegetables in the bruschetta & Caesar salad.

Jessica brought us garlic bread that was made fresh in house. The beautiful bread knots were warm, fluffy and filled with fresh garlic, butter, and olive oil taste.

For Appetizers we had the Bruschetta made with fresh mozzarella, baked crostini and tomato bruschetta mix. The Bruschetta was bursting with fresh flavor. The bruschetta mix had a beautiful balance of mellow acidity and subtle garlic taste. The baked crostini was made in house and I loved that it had some flexibility to it - it wasn’t messy and crumbly like standard crostini is.

For Salad we had the Community Caesar made with romaine lettuce, housemade croutons, parmesan cheese and Caesar dressing. This Caesar was amazing - the romaine lettuce was perfectly coated in thick, tangy Caesar dressing and each bite had parmesan cheese in it.

For Ravioli we had the Vodka Ravioli made with three cheese ravioli in a vodka cream sauce topped with arugula and garlic oil. The Vodka Ravioli was a lusciously melty dish. The vodka sauce was bright in color and flavor from the tomatoes, vodka and crushed red pepper. It was creamy on the tongue while the pasta had soft chew and a warm cheesy center.

For House Specials we had the Beef Short Ribs made with a pound of chianti-braised beef short ribs, creamy gorgonzola polenta, roasted carrots and cider vinegar poached kale with a chianti reduction. “These are the best short ribs I’ve ever had” Ross exclaimed after taking his first bite. The short ribs were fall-off-the-bone tender. We didn't even need a knife to cut the juicy meat; it fell right apart under our forks. The ribs topped dreamy polenta that made for velvety bites against the steaming meat.

Shae paired the Ravioli and Short Ribs with a Red Wine - the Cantele, Primitivo 2019, Salento. The Cantele had flavor notes of plum and sour cherry. It was an excellent pair for the rich vodka sauce of the ravioli and juicy red meat of the short ribs.

For Dessert we had the Carmine's Tiramisu made with fresh baked lady finger cake, dunked in coffee, topped with rich mascarpone cream sauce and drizzled with chocolate. This Tiramisu was sinfully delicious and I couldn’t get enough of the rich mascarpone cream sauce and chocolate drizzle that topped it. The pastry quality mascarpone cream was so silky and generously coated each bite of fluffy lady...

We had a very bad experience here, start to finish.

The first part of the experience wasn't the restaurant's fault and is why they get 2 stars instead of just 1. They sat us next to a family who were so over-the-top loud with the women and their loud shrill cackling in unison, that the hairs on my neck stood up on end and I got cold chills. The restaurant staff moved me and my girlfriend and were very understanding about it (thank you). The next family they moved us next to on the other side of the restaurant were also very loud, but not as bad as the first one. There are some sound-dampening boards on the ceiling, but frankly I think they'd need to cover the entire ceiling and walls with this stuff at this place to even begin to have an effect. This is not the place to have a nice, quiet dinner.

The menus are on the wall, just not classy at all. There are no descriptions of anything, except that they sell everything "for 2" or "family size". So I can't get what I want and let my girlfriend get whatever she wants. In addition, I told the waitress that I don't eat mushrooms and she said that the chef won't make any dish except one way... so she showed me that over half of the chicken, veal, and pasta dishes weren't available to me to order... no exceptions. Now, at this point, I would normally explain that I work hard for my money and when I spend that money I expect to get exactly what I want, and then just leave. However, I was trying to be nice for my girlfriend because she was very hungry, so we stayed.

We got the chicken piccata, carbonara pasta, and the house salad. The house salad was tasty, but they put all the dressing in the salad without asking if we'd rather have it on the side. The bread they brought was tasty, but extremely high fat. The chicken piccata was okay and too salty, but I make much better at home. The carbonara pasta, however, was TERRIBLE. It was so salty that it tasted like someone dropped the entire salt shaker into the pot by mistake. My girlfriend and I only ate half of the "for 2" portion and were struggling with every bite and left drinking numerous large glasses of water the rest of the evening and waking up in the middle of the night very thirsty. Again, she was very hungry because she had skipped lunch, otherwise we would've sent it back. We explained to the waitress how bad it was when she came over, and she just said "I'm sorry to hear that"... but didn't offer to take it off the bill or anything.

We'll never eat here again. The large portions aren't cute and they're not even very good at all. The entire experience was just loud and devoid of class,...

TLDR: Service and quality of food has gone downhill. Absolutely do not recommend Carmines anymore.

Carmines has been a favorite of ours but lately there have been way too many cons to justify ever going back. I’ll start with the service as I think the 22% automatic service charge is what has contributed to the decline. I have no problem paying 22%, and would likely tip well above that for good service. But I have to wonder if the servers knowing they are automatically going to receive 22% makes the level of service decrease. Why work for it when you get the same no matter the service. Also frustrating as if you are on this pooled tip model, that servers wouldn’t help one another out.

I was in the restroom when water was poured. They left my glass empty. Had to ask the waiter twice for water. When they portioned out the salad, one person ended up with a mountain on their plate while the last person served had only a few leaves, causing us to have to shovel around food to each others plates to make it equal. As the meal progressed, we sat there with empty glasses and drinks more than they had liquid in them. Had to ask continually for water. Pretty annoying to be dying of thirst when trying to enjoy a not inexpensive meal. The worst part? I saw the server look at our table multiple times and ignore our empty glasses. He did that cool trick of avoiding eye contact to avoid seeing what we needed. We would have had a considerably higher bill if we would have been able to order more drinks. At the end of the evening, we asked for takeout boxes. Not our server, but someone else came over with one big and one small box and started dumping the dishes in without asking how we wanted the leftovers divided. Since it is family style, we asked for two of the same size boxes so that we could share the leftover dishes equally. She stared at us looking annoyed and grudgingly returned with the correct boxes.

The drinks and food- wine selection was fine. The bourbon selection was sup par at best. This isn’t Olive Garden, but the whiskey/bourban choices are. The food was okay. Chicken Montana was pretty good, but the Baked Ziti with sausage was dry and cold. House salad was fine. Also had the bruschetta which was noting to write home about.

Would have been nice if a manager stopped by the tables, but no surprise, that didn’t happen. All in all, our last time visiting. We felt like we were inconveniencing them by our presence and the service was...