Carbone's Prime — Restaurant in Rocky Hill

This is the best spot I have ever been to. We discovered this place after a day at the aquarium and it was around 4pm. We were under dressed, wife wanted steak and my daughter wanted pizza. If they couldn't have given me a harder assignment , so here I am browsing a list of food spots trying to actually find a spot that serves steak and pizza. After browsing 20+ spots, I came across Carbone Prime. They actual served pizza and steak, perfect, but then I saw the $$$. Great, I thought, looking down at my sweat pants and t-shirt. After arriving and sitting there debating if we are too under dress to go in, we decided to take our chances head on in. The staff couldn't have been more pleasant. We were seated right away and on top of that, a table over was a guy in a tank top. Atleast if we were under dressed, we weren't under dressed alone :). At this point, my 4-year old daughter was knocked out in my arms. Our waiter offered to gather chairs to create a bed for her. Honestly, how many spots to you go to where they offer to make your child a bed. The overall atmosphere is great. The interior design is very nice with candle lit tables. I felt like I was in a fancy restaurant but also family-friendly. The menus consisted of entrees, kids meals, and family sharing dishes like whole pizzas. While you are looking at the menu, they start you out with a glass of water and a platter of 4 different types of bread. The bread was amazing. For our entrees my wife and I decided on the the steak filet with mashed potatoes and the daughter got a pizza. The steak was tender and made exactly how I requested and the potatoes were so smooth with no chunks. Throughout our dinner, we never had our drinks including the water ever go empty. The Server (wish I remember the name as it was a couple weeks ago, but he was an older Italian gentleman) was amazing. Also, the pizza, I had it for left overs the next day and even reheated, it was fantastic.

Overall, this was a A++++ spot and #1 on my list of Top Restaurants. Perfect for families who wants a premium dinner and also bring their kids. The only downside is the check will make you cry a little, but...

Not a great start given that we had a 7:30 reservation and showed at 7:25 to Check in. We were met with 2-3 minutes of 3 people at the hostess station completely ignoring us. Not just a little ignoring but specifically going out of their way to ignore us and not make eye contact. Once someone finally talked to us they told us it would be any minute and our table would be ready.

Fast forward to 7:55 still no table. We inquire about the table and they tell us ok we can seat you now. They proceed to put us at a high top table literally in the hostess station on the outskirts of the bar. Obviously this is not where you want to eat dinner so we asked if there was another table and we were told in a snotty manner that when you make a reservation “you get what you get”.

After that we decided we would leave and go to one of the other 20 restaurants in the area. On our way out one of the front staff managers stopped us and somehow all of a sudden had a regular table for us. We were seated in the back dinning room which was nice with the exception of the very low chairs at the table - think table level at your chest for an average height person.

Our server came promptly but wasn’t very well informed about the beer selection, and told me that the only beer they had was on the menu when it clearly said “ask about our rotational taps”. I ordered whatever was on the menu and later stopped by the bar to inquire only to find out they had multiple other craft beers not listed. I also ordered a second beer half way through dinner which never showed up.

So far a 1 Star performance... until the food came. Thank goodness it was excellent. We ordered appetizers from the raw bar and had the hanger steak and short rib. Everything was spot on and it made up for the complete lack of service.

Here’s the cliff notes for a long review. Subpar service and horrible initial front of house experience. Excellent food that will bring us back to try our luck...

We had our wedding reception in the Sunroom in Carbone’s Prime. The experience exceeded our vision and would highly recommend you to have your wedding reception at Carbone’s if you want a dinner party styled reception! We chose the plated dinner and it was amazing, the servers were the sweetest and highly professional. Our reception was about 4 hours long and the level of organization and execution of every dish was outstanding – we could not have asked for a better run event for our wedding! Our guests are raving about the service and food. My one and only regret was that I was too full to eat everything! Luckily, we had some extras packed for us without asking and it was great being able to eat my wedding food for leftovers over the next days.

Beyond the service during the actual event, our coordinator Mary-Beth at Carbone’s Prime was amazing from our initial inquiry of the space to the conclusion of our reception. Her communication was quick, and was always happy to help with any question or request. She helped us curate a menu, talk us through the options for our budget, décor set-up and made the planning stress-free. We had our wedding cake delivered to Carbone’s and after our cutting of the cake they served it to our guests and packaged the leftovers. Upon our arrival her greeting was genuine and we could tell she was genuinely enjoying our reception and went above & beyond ensuring we had a great evening. Thank you Mary-Beth and all our servers – we cannot thank you enough for hosting our...