Carley's Ristorante — Restaurant in Harrisburg

Very disappointing this time! We have been before to Carley's and enjoy the atmosphere and the piano music and loved that it was an Italian restaurant. We are not from the area so we don't know if they changed ownership, but it is not the same as it used to be. We made reservations and arrived to a half empty restaurant. My husband said we had reservations and we were told to sit at the bar that they were backed up. Working many years in the restaurant industry, I could see they only had 3 people working and gave them the benefit of the doubt. We sat at the bar and waited a while for anyone to take our drink order. After sitting for 30 minutes and realizing other people were being sat, we questioned our reservation. He must not have heard my husband and they sat us then immediately. We were celebrating a late Valentine's day and we were sat right in the aisle way where everyone was walking through. The people working were basically running through every time they passed the tables. I get that it was busy, but even the way we were treated, the way the waiter talked to us was hasty and made us feel like we were a nuisance. The menu has changed and now seems like a hodgepodge of different styles of food, no longer Italian (google still has their old menu up) and no bread was served and by this time we were an hour past our reservation and starving! They did comp the first round of drinks for the confusion, which was appreciated, but considering this was our first night out in over a year and none of our expectations being met, it was not enough and ruined our night. Unfortunately we...

We visited this restaurant in mid-March, the Friday right before St. Patrick’s Day. It was around 7 PM. I was in Harrisburg for a conference and I was looking for a good Italian restaurant, and this restaurant came up as a suggestion online. When we entered the restaurant, there weren’t many people there, and most of the patrons were sitting at the bar. The server greets us and seats us in a corner in the back of the room facing the dumpsters and trash cans outside the window. I asked to be seated elsewhere where we weren’t in a dark corner, but the server did not move us. We ordered drinks, and then as I tried to place my entree order, the server tells me that the restaurant only serves two kinds of pastas that I’ve never heard before. I asked if they are similar to spaghetti or rigatoni, and at first he says no. Then he says one of them is similar to spaghetti, but not really. He didn’t want to explain to us what the pastas were, and he seemed really snarky and curt in his responses. We told him we didn’t like the way he was talking to us, and he gave a dry, sarcastic, “oh, I’m so sorry” and he walked away. We ended up leaving and paying only for the drinks, and he tried to get away with not telling us how much the drinks were at first, and he wouldn’t give us a receipt. I asked him how much it was altogether since he wouldn’t print the receipt, and he told us, so we gave him the “exact” amount. I don’t recommend people of color...

I still wonder if we actually went to Carley's last night or if it was a dream. This hidden gem was perfection begining to end. Between the great service, cozy decor, and incredible pianst we felt very welcomed and comfortable while also being entertained. And then the food, oh my word what sweet sweet bliss of every single bite that entered my mouth. We ordered a meatball appetizer that came with a side of pesto and marinara sauce that were out of this world. And as for the main course... I felt an explosion as various enchanting flavors enveloped my taste buds. I am not being fictitious when I say that I have never tasted a better meal than I had last night with the steak, garlic potatoes and asparagus that was cooked to perfection. I normally am a very picky eater in which I've never liked the taste of asparagus before and the steak I've received in the past is never cooked right, it's either been bloody or overcooked dry. But this steak was cooked the whole way through yet melted in my mouth! I literally cannot properly explain just how incredible the food really was. Words do not do it justice. Compliments to the chef who was delightfully humble. And back to that pianst, he also sings! He's a wonderful performer and a very kind gentleman. Your entire life will change by the experience of walking through the doors of Carley's Ristorante. We live about an hour away but it's worth the drive. We cannot...