Carmello's of Old Town Manassas — Restaurant in Manassas

A preface: I went to Carmello's to hear a pitch for retirement planning--one of those "Spend an hour listening to our pitch and we'll give you a free dinner." Unfortunately, due to very heavy traffic, I arrived late and wasn't permitted to hear the pitch. However, the dinner's sponsors did provide the dinner in a separate (the main) dining room. So, on the one hand, I received a free meal at Carmello's. On the other hand, the free menu was limited and I suspect the serving sizes were much smaller than Carmello's regular dinners. Nevertheless, I did have an opportunity to judge the restaurant.

Location Carmello's is in Old Town Manassas. It's very convenient to 66 and 28, though I was delayed about 20 minutes taking 28--it was raining during rush hour. Yes, I should have known better. However, it offers no parking. There's no valet service, no parking garage, and very limited on-street parking. There is parking a few blocks away--several free lots and reportedly a few garages. So you may have to walk a few blocks.

Ambiance Nice but not great. Brick walls, wood floors, padded chairs and booths. When I was there (Wednesday evening), the place was nearly empty--there were three other groups of two or three people. Even then, the hard surfaces caused sound to carry. It wasn't bad nearly empty, but it probably could get pretty noisy if the place gets busy. Some music--maybe Sinatra--was playing quietly in the background. Lighting was okay. Temperature was okay.

Food This may be the weakest part of my review since--as I mentioned--I had intended to attend a private dinner with a limited menu. The choices were steak, salmon, and chicken. I had the salmon, which came with broccoli and roasted potatoes. It was preceded by a salad and a warm dinner roll. All of that was pretty good. The bread was warm and tasty, with some sort of special butter. The salad was definitely fresh, and was okay. The salmon, too, was fresh properly cooked, and tasty. Very small portion, though--which probably was due to the limited menu selection. And ice water. There was no opportunity (even though I knew I'd have to pay for it myself) for coffee, tea, drinks, or dessert. And that brings us to . . .

Service Service was poor. The other three tables were served by a chipper, friendly, helpful female server. Nice personality and from what I saw she interacted well with the other diners. I got a dour male server. (I mention their sexes just to distinguish the two.) He wasn't impolite or nasty, just cold, inattentive, and noncommunicative. I asked him--as I often do--what menu item he'd recommend. As mentioned above, the three choices were steak, salmon, and chicken. I asked specifically about the steak and salmon. All he could offer was: "They're both popular." O...kay. He came around just once during the entire dinner to fill my water glass and to provide a clean knife. As I mentioned above, I would have ordered and paid for tea or coffee and a dessert but--maybe because it wasn't on the limited menu--it wasn't even offered to me. At the end of the meal he just vanished. Maybe because he figured I was only there for a free meal, he didn't see a need to be attentive. I really don't know. I did leave him a tip, though--about 25% on what I figured the sponsors had paid for the meal. After about 10 minutes, I just stood up and left into the nighttime drizzle for a three-block walk...

Took my Wife to Carmello's for the first time on a Wednesday evening for her birthday and we arrived at 532pm for our 530 reservation to an empty restaurant with no hostess or greeter at the door. We waited a few minutes and then entered the restaurant to find some help. A woman came out of the back and greeted and seated us.

The woman came back a minute later and asked if we'd like to try a complimentary glass of Twin Vines white whine which we accepted. She said our waiters name was Javier and he would be right with us. Javier arrived a minute later and told us about the specials of the day and the woman arrived back with the wine.

Having never been to Carmello's we wanted to try several appetizers so ordered the Oysters Rockefeller which were delicious with small chunks of chorizo sausage added to them for an interesting twist. The Oysters were large and flavorful and cooked just right. We also ordered the Salada de Polvo (grilled octopus) which was also delicious, cooked perfectly, and bathed in a citrusy sauce that my Wife couldn't get enough of. The last app we ordered were the Portuguese Crab Cakes which I didn't like because they were loaded with green and red peppers and onions but the wife enjoyed them. Less fillers and more crab would have been nice.

We then ordered two glasses of the Twin Vines white wine as the complimentary glasses were amazing. I ordered the Paehla Valenciana which is a traditional Spanish not Italian dish. The Paehla was decent but nowhere near as good as what I've had in Spain. The shrimp and scallops were perfectly cooked while the mussels, clams, and sausage were extremely overcooked. Clams and mussels do cook very fast but the sausage? Strange. The rice wasn't quite right either being pretty wet vs. Spanish Paehla where the rice is dryer and often chewy to crunchy in texture. It was okay but I wouldn't order it again.

My Wife ordered the Pato Assado (duck breast) which is her favorite meal and one of the reasons I chose Carmello's for her birthday because they have it. Unfortunately, the portion of duck she received, it's supposed to be 8oz, was SO fatty that at least half of the portion was fat and was uneatable. She liked her carrots and mashed potatoes and said they were both cooked well. We spoke to the Manager about the duck and he offered to cook her another piece which she declined and she was full. He then comped a portion of the cost of her meal but the experience was still ruined for her.

He then came back later and offered my Wife a complimentary birthday dessert. She chose the Black Forrest cake which was delicious though we don't know if it's made in-house or bought from Sysco/US Foods like most restaurants do. Either way it was a nice way to close out the meal.

We found it interesting that a restaurant that bills itself as Northern Italian cuisine has SO many food dishes that are not Italian. We've traveled extensively in Northern Italy and some of the staples of the region were not represented on the menu. The service and atmosphere were spot on, but the food was hit or miss. The apps were all hits, but both of the entrees were misses. The total bill with tip, minus the partial comped meal, came to $174. For that much money we were expecting a flawless experience which we did not have. After all, the best service and atmosphere means nothing if the food...

My wife and I haven't been out to eat very much due to COVID and wanted to have a nice dinner out, so picked Carmello's as it is one of the nicer restaurants close to us. While the food was decent to good, the service was, in a word, terrible; which is rather disappointing given the price they charge and the level of restaurant they seem to want to portray. We arrived for a late seating on a Saturday night, and though we were given menus when we sat down, we didn't see our waiter again for about 12-15 minutes, so placed our entire order (drinks, appetizers, mains) at the same time. The restaurant was busy, but not packed, so we were surprised. I should also note that we purchased a bottle of wine that cost more than all the food together, but alas not even this improved our service. The appetizer ( a thin, not very good soup) came out roughly 30 minutes after being seated with the wine, and we had to remind the waiter we had also ordered cocktails, which were finally brought out. The food took another 20-30 minutes to be delivered to the table, and I should note that tables were leaving as we sat there, only one more group came in, so but this also didn't improve the service. Once the food was delivered, we didn't see the waiter again at our table for another 30 minutes, although another waitress did come by while my wife had over half her meal still left and asked if she wanted a box, which felt like they were trying to rush us out. By the time our waiter finally came back (only 2 tables in our section had people at this point) we decided that we didn't want to wait for dessert. We asked for the check, and somehow that got delivered to our table immediately. Somehow I felt simultaneously rushed, and ignored. I will admit, my food was rather good (and the wine was one of the best I've ever had) so I give 2 stars instead of 1, but with that kind of service we will not be going back. There are too many good restaurants in the area that provide excellent food and good service. Really...