Carbone — Restaurant in Paradise

Horrendous experience. If you have a food allergy, intolerance or sensitivity, BUYER BEWARE!

I went to great lengths to secure this reservation. To say we were excited is an understatement.

Just after we sat down, we notified our server that we had a gluten allergy and a dairy sensitivity (mine) at our table. His attitude immediately shifted and he treated us as if we were a blistering inconvenience, wrote us off and clearly did not want our business. He could not have given less...f...cares...whether we were there or had an enjoyable meal.

I am a very reasonable person and worked in food service early in my working career, both front and back of the house. I know how easy it is to make certain substitutions while others may destroy the integrity of a dish. And of course, prepped meals and batch sauces can't be altered easily. I know that my dairy intolerance is my issue. I mention it up front and do my best to work with any server to find the easiest solution that won't mangle the quality or identity of a dish or cause a busy chef to go out of their way unreasonably. I have even developed quips and jokes to lighten the exchange to make sure the server knows I'm open to options and willing to work with them to find a positive solution.

Our server's abruptness, indifference and disrespect didn't allow our exchange to get past his malcontent.

Our drink orders took exactly 44 minutes to arrive. We all got the feeling they were hoping we left in the interim. When describing the menu options, the server went out of his way to tell us what we could NOT have without providing any solutions, alternatives or suggestions. He tried to push a gluten free pasta onto my friend with celiac that she did not want, to the point that it made her openly uncomfortable. I was pressed into the Dover Sole which was presented as my "only option" and suggested that it could be prepared without butter. The dish came out absolutely swimming in butter. The violent gastrointestinal reaction I endured for the rest of the evening confirms that it was in fact butter.

The tardiness of our drinks and that our entire experience was languishing into oblivion was completely lost on the Host. The 2-hour time limit however, appears to be taken much more seriously than prompt service. As we approached an hour-45 (still without our food in front of us) she started hovering around our table, making it clear that we had worn out our welcome. We rushed our entrees and took the check before they could ask about dessert.

The food is cooked well and has suitable flavor if you are capable of eating from their unwavering menu. If they would state from the onset "No substitutions" or that allergies and food sensitivities will not be accommodated, that would be one thing. They very surely do not, and would apparently rather disrespect you as an unwelcome guest instead.

I have dined all over the world and been to Vegas dozens of times. My number one point is always how consistently exceptional the service is at every point of contact; from Concierge to casino floor to the dining venues. Hands down (at least prior to Carbone) everyone has gone above and beyond to prove how magical a place Las Vegas is and can be.

Carbone was a tremendous disappointment. We were prepared to order several bottles of wine and far too much food in true Italian family style to make this a memorable experience. After waiting 45 minutes for our drinks, this idea immediately dissipated. Now it is memorable for the exact opposite reason. The vast delta between my initial excitement and the reality of our experience is daunting. I could not be more disheartened. This was intended to be one of the highlights of our trip and turned into by far the lowest point. I am embarrassed for having even suggested Carbone to our group.

1500% will not return, will not recommend and will go out of my way to make sure that every one of my friends, family members, business associates and any random ear I may catch never makes the mistake of visiting this...

One of the worst dining experiences I've ever had.

We had an amazing dinner at Carbone Dallas a couple years ago and were really looking forward to visiting Carbone Las Vegas for months leading up to our trip.

We arrived at the restaurant about 25 min before our reservation. I checked in with the host and was told 'your table is no where near ready. Try back at your reservation time.' I thought that was a little weird. Most restaurants atleast will offer getting drinks at the bar while waiting for a table. We went down to the casino until closer to our reservation time.

We arrived back at the restaurant at our reservation time and checked back in with the host again. She asked to wait a couple more minutes before finally being able to take us to our table.

We watched as tables around us that were seated after us were greeted and handed menus. After about 15 min a back waiter came and asked us if we wanted to order drinks. (We were still not offered a menu). Finally after about 25 min, our server finally came to the table handed us menus and then immediately said "so do you know what you want to order". We said that since we were just handed the menus we'd need a couple of min to look at it. After about 5 min, our server returned to take our order. Once again we were asked 'so do know what you want'. We mentioned that we had some amazing meatballs at Carbone Dallas that were on special and asked if they had any specials for the evening. Our server than rudely says 'of couse. we are known for our specials'. It was followed by awkward silence where we were waiting for him to tell us the specials. We had to then ask 'well are you able to tell us what the specials are.' The server finally told us the specials. We asked about a couple of the dishes again cause it was really hard to hear him, but ended up just ordering off the menu. When it came to ordering the Shrimp Su'modo dish, our server cut us off and just said 'scampi'. My partner said 'oh it says shrimp su'modo'. The server rudely said 'that means for you. but we can cook it scampi style'. I said well if that's how it comes, that would be great. He then said 'no we offer it 3 different ways.' I asked him if he could tell us about those 3 different ways since I didn't see it on the menu how that could be done. He seemed to roll his eyes at us and tell us the 3 different names of styles it could be cooked. I wasn't familiar with the other ways he said, so I asked if he could tell us more about those styles. He once again rolled his eyes at us. At this point, we were both very frustrated with the service.

We watched as food started coming out to tables that were seated and ordered after us from the same server. Finally our appetizers started to come out over 1 hour after we had been seated. I had to flag down a back waiter to try and put in another drink order as it seemed no one was coming to check on our table.

Thankfully the food was actually good, but the lack of service and horrible service when someone finally did come to our table left us really wanting to get out of there. I tried to flag down our server and the back waiter to see if we could get our check to leave. I finally had to flag down what seemed to be a manager in a suit to ask for our check. When we were about to be handed our check, the server returned and tried to take away the check and said 'but wait, you haven't gotten your rainbow cookies'. I let him know we were ready to leave now and didn't want to wait.

Honestly this dinner was the biggest disappointment and I cannot stress how bad service was. With so many great dining options in Las Vegas, please go somewhere that wants...

We were very much looking forward to dining at Carbone for the first time since Covid. Food was excellent - especially the spicy rigatoni vodka they’re famous for. Their chefs are wonderful.

Toward the end of dinner, we asked about limoncello and how this was something we got at the end of dinner in our previous visits. Our server said “we don’t do that anymore it cost the restaurant too much money.” We were kind of surprised and then he suggested “I’ll get it for you”. The bill came next. We asked to do a room charge. The ability to charge to the room went down. (Technology. Sometimes this happens.) They asked for our credit card to pay. With a bill totaling $800 for the two of us, we were hoping to apply our dining credits to the dinner. But without a room charge, we didn’t understand how this would happen so we asked. Our service captain said we just go to the mlife desk and they’ll fix it.

This didn’t sound right to us… and the last time we were at the Aria was during the cyber hack - so we were skeptical of this being the down process for this (and about tech in general). We asked the managers name who could confirm this for us. He did not give the managers name and was extremely unhappy we were pressing the issue. We pressed again. while he doubled down, the manager Johnny was walking by - the service captain called him over. Johnny confirmed this was the process. We voiced our confusion over how this would work - and he assured us that the rewards desk would be able to handle it and this happens “all the time”.

We paid. We left. We went downstairs to the mlife desk and told them what transpired. They were bewildered and said “this doesn’t happen all the time” and that “we can’t just comp restaurants that way. This is up to them to handle the payment and transaction.” We were stunned. The two managers gave us their names. We asked what to do and they said we needed to talk to the restaurant.

So. We went back upstairs. We asked to speak to Johnny. We told him what the desk told us. He did not seem surprised. He said he would try to refund the charge tomorrow and charge it to the room.

He did follow through with this. The charge was eventually placed on the room.

I’m not the best writer: so expressing these events in words is challenging. But what made this situation so infuriating to us was the gaslighting that occurred in the restaurant. We voiced our concern of what would happen - (which is what DID happen) and the service captain and manager lied directly to our faces to move us along and make us someone else’s problem. Ultimately having us running around the resort looking for SOMEONE to help us.

We will never return to Carbone. Our fond memories of the place are gone. It’s been 3 days and we are STILL angry about this experience and how pathetic Johnnys “customer-no-service” approach to management ruined the dinner we had been looking forward to for months…. And came close to ruining our entire trip overall. But we will try to not give him that much power.

And just as a last note, : in the end we never...