I've been coming to Carmines UWS for over 25 years. It was always a great place for large get togethers with my family for B-days and celebrations. Service has always been great, and the food was always a hit. Last night was one of the worst dining experiences I've ever sat through, for 3.5hrs no less...

We started off ordering water and a bottle of wine for the table, then appetizers. 15 minutes later, all the appetizers hit the table, still without water or wine. We finally flagged our server down to place the order for entrees, and inquire about the water/wine. We had all but finished our appetizers, the server came back and dropped a pitcher of water on the table for us to serve ourselves, 15 minutes later we got the bottle of wine after flagging down the server yet another time about where our bottle was. We were a party of 7ppl, and would have easily drank 3 bottles of wine had we been properly attended to.

An hour after the appetizers were finished, we flagged down a gentleman who looked like a manager, so we could inquire about our entrees. This entire hour, we saw very little evidence of any type of service happening throughout the entire dining room. The "Manager" apologized for the delay, and explained they were experiencing some issues in the kitchen, and that our entrees would be delayed. Delayed even more than the hour we were already waiting after we finished our appetizers? He said yes, maybe another 20 or 30 minutes, due to the kitchen wanting to make sure our chicken was fully cooked... the real question is, why did we have to inquire about our food, before being told that there was an issue? The manager left the table, 10 mins later we received the pasta, still waiting on 2 chicken dishes and our escarole. The escarole was dropped next, we were already on the tail end of our pasta. A 2nd "Manager" came by to check in while we were eating our pastas, we explained our situation and how horrible the overall experience had been since we sat down. She apologized, and assured us she would take care of the appetizers and check on our other entrees. An hour and a half after we ordered, we reviewed the 2 chicken dishes. We did not see our server for the entire time between courses, couldn't order another bottle of wine, and frankly it came to a point where we didn't even want more wine, because we didn't want to have to wait any longer or give the establishment another dime.

We had asked for more water when the chicken came, had to flag down a busser to ask for water again, and still had zero water on the table. The "Manager" said she would send us a dessert for the experience (we were also there for a B-Day) and we reluctantly agreed to the offer, even though we didn't want to wait any longer for the dessert. We asked for the check at the same time, because again, we didn't know how long it would take to see someone who worked there. 20 minutes later we received the dessert, I walked to the front host stand to ask to pay our bill. That took another 20 minutes.

My assessment is that they were understaffed, and that the entire team had not been trained properly, from the "Managers" to the server, to the busser who kept trying to clear our plates prematurely... there was zero presence on the floor, and anytime we managed to flag someone down and ask for something, we had to wait to ask someone again, because we didn't receive it the first time.

The entirety of the meal consisted of my family talking about the horrible service, and wondering how they managed to make so many missteps. I myself am in the service industry, and sometimes I can admittedly be too forgiving to service issues, however this time had taken the cake. Mistakes happen, there are a lot of moving parts in a restaurant. Even after we had complained a number of times, its as if they didn't care to turn our experience around. The server disappeared for a majority of our meal, didn't apologize even one time. We have been dining here for over 25 years, 4 times a year at minimum.

There is no coming back from this disasterous experience.