Carmella's Plates & Pints — Restaurant in Pittsburgh

My first time at Carmella's was about a week ago (on a Friday night). Overall I think this was a great place to eat, aside from one minor thing which was the seating. However, I know that the staff doesn't have much control over that. But I wanted to share my experience so other patrons can have some clarity before checking this place out. I wish I had taken photos but at the time I was not planning on writing a review lol.

I was going on a first date, and my date chose this restaurant because it was near my house. He made the reservation and we found parking right away in the lot next door (yay!!). We walked inside and towards the back where the hostess stand was. We could see beautiful tables behind the stand and we were impressed and excited about the atmosphere. However, our hostess had us turn around and led us to a table directly adjacent to the bar near the front, which was a bit of a let down after seeing this amazing room. My date (who I literally just met) was kind of embarrassed and asked the hostess if there were any tables in the back, which there weren't. Not sure if it's a first come, first serve thing? Anyways, it wasn't a big deal at all, except for the fact that our table was MILES LONG. I'm pretty sure it was two tables pushed together, end-to-end. We were sitting across from each other, trying to get to know each other and have a conversation, which was nearly impossible. He would ask me something, and I had to ask him to repeat himself over and over before I could finally understand what he was saying and vice versa. He did complain a bit to the staff, who were very nice and apologetic that this was the only table available. I'm not sure who would ever sit at this table and actually enjoy their experience, unless they were alone. Or if they had 2 cans and a string lol.

Other than the table, everything else was wonderful. The staff was friendly and attentive (and made great recommendations, thank you!!). The food was amazing, I got the lobster risotto. The takeout container was a small, sturdy cardboard box which I really liked (lol kinda silly but details matter to some people). But honestly, I'll probably never come back here for a date unless I was guaranteed a normal...

Horrible staff. My friend and I were catching up having a drink. My friend started to have a reaction to something in the bathroom, and the manager was informed of a girl sitting on the bathroom floor. The manager approached me at the bar and said "my friend had too much to drink and needed help in the bathroom". (she had 2 drinks) When I entered the bathroom she was having a severe reaction. Could hardly speak nor move and was sweating and cold. If the manager had even asked her if she was okay she would've known this wasn't some drunk girl in the bathroom and that was in fact a medical emergency. Upon waiting for the ambulance arrive (still sitting in the bathroom) the manager came in again and asked if I wanted to move her outside for air. Im not sure if this request was out of kindness or because she didn't want to have all the negative attention to a customer having a MEDICAL EMERGENCEY. I said no she cant move her arms/hand she should not be moving and especially sitting outside in a public space for every bystander to look at. After the medics arrived they were taking her out of the bathroom to the ambulance on a gurney chair and the manager had the audacity to stop me and ask me to close the tab of 4 drinks. I understand we had drinks and they needed to be paid for, but at the time of medical emergency???? when I'm walking my friend out to the the ambulance ???? All you care about is the money for 4 drinks and not the safety and wellbeing of a customer? Down right rude, unprofessional, greedy and completely disrespectful. And to think this all started because the manger didn't have the decency to ask if she was okay in the bathroom and just assumed she was drunk on the floor? I used to love this place and the atmosphere but now this place along with the manager repulses me from...

Honestly, I'm so bummed. I had been wanting to try this place for a LONG time. Finally got around to going. We had a reservation for 630pm, they took us right away. Wasn't very busy at all when we got there (although it did fill up towards the end of the meal). I started with a beer off the tap, it was delicious and they did have a decent beer selection. We started with the cheese plate appetizer. Out of the 4 or 5 cheeses maybe 1 (cheddar) was really good, the rest were just ok, as one person said before the bread etc that accompanied the cheese was scarce...but again, appetizer. For dinner we both ordered the lobster shrimp butter risotto. The risotto was mush and the lobster seemed like it was cooked twice over. Small lobster to begin with especially for almost 40 dollars. The flavor was decent of the risotto but it was OVERPOWERED with fennel. So much so that my wife had to stop eating it halfway through because all she could taste was the licorice. We ordered the peach bread pudding for dessert. Ice cream was good, the bread pudding was too bread like, not enough milk or moisture. Seemed more pound cakey than bread pudding. And there wasn't a peach or peach flavor to be found. The bill came and it was pricey! We don't normally look at the cost of things...if we're going out, we're going out...but this was enough to jump off the page for what we ate. I wanted to come have a pour of bourbon, but to be honest I was so taken back by the pure disappointment dish after dish, that I wouldn't have enjoyed it so I just said nvm. We won't be back and I'm deeply...