Carmine's Steak House — Restaurant in St. Louis

Yes this is a long review but they deserve every bit of it! I planned a last minute trip to St. Louis for my son and daughter's birthdays. I knew when we got there we would go out to eat but I wanted it to be a special place. When we walked in to Carmine's the hostess asked if I had a reservation and I said no, this was kind of a last minute decision. She was very nice and said that's ok follow me with a smile on her face. She seated us and said our waiter would be right there. He was there in no time. He got our drinks and gave us menus. He told us about the specials that they had and answered every question we had about other items on the menu. When I was getting ready to ask about food for my 5 year old son he beat me to it and suggested the perfect meal....something I definitely would have picked for him myself, chicken fingers with steak fries. He also suggested the drinks the kids should have. He was very knowledgeable about the menu and the food. The kids had Shirley Temple's and I had water with fresh lemon. We ordered lobster bites, scallops without the sauce, & he offered to have us try the toasted ravioli. We didn't have to pay extra for the ravioli samples and it came with a homemade marinara sauce that was amazing. For our entrees I ordered the 20oz bone in Hereford ribeye (aged 45 days I believe) medium rare and asked him if I should get the mushroom risotto or the twice baked potato. He said right away, the potato is a very good choice, so that's what I got. My daughter had the 14oz KC strip, medium rare, with a baked potato and her boyfriend had the jumbo shrimp scampi with crab meat, steak fries, and the vegetable of the night (broccoli with a jalapeno sauce). The food was ABSOLUTELY AMAZING! Everything was cooked perfect, the seasoning was spot on, and all of it looked great. The waiter checked on us all the time and asked if everything was to our liking. It couldn't have been better! I was very pleased with the service and how nice everyone was. For last minute plans, no reservations, and not really being dressed for the amazing place that it is, we all had a wonderful time and enjoyed ourselves. If we take another trip to STL we will definitely be going there again. I highly recommend Carmine's. Great food, great people, & great atmosphere. Thanks for such a...

Horrible experience! Rude host and managers! Not a great first time experience! They act like they DIDN’T want to sit us to begin with. Party of 7. Manager showed a dining room but also had private rooms available, which is where they sat us after telling us there was nothing available and we’d have to wait an hour and 15 minutes! The food took so long (over and hour) to come out and when it did come out, the server mixed up the orders. My aunt was given a T-bone when she ordered a ribeye and the server came back to inform her that HE’d given her the wrong $40 steak! He took the steak back and had the cook to remake it. He brought our steaks back to us with NO utensils to eat with. Within 5 minutes of bringing our remade food, the server and his crew were coming around the table to bag up our food. The server then brings a check for the table. He wanted to collect everyone’s card to pay individually for a $400 bill. We asked for the bill to be split, which he was able to do but the confusion started once he came back with those cards! The server mixed up every card and messed up payments and double charged some people cards. They were more concerned with collecting a payment than the experience that we were there to receive!! My brother stated to the manager that she should be ashamed of how she’s running the establishment and she looked back and rolled her eyes. The valet guy gave me the wrong car key then argued me down about ME handing HIM one single key to my car. I had not given him my parking ticket yet he argued it was my key. At this point, I’m livid! There was only one person out of the entire crew who wanted to accommodate us. He helped the valet find MY keys and also offered me a drink from the bar, more than the manager, server, or gm offered. This was a memorable dinner for me and it was ruined . Thanks for taking our money and serving us bland appetizers and packing our food up to go because you guys were closed and...

I came here based on the reviews. When I travel I don’t care for chain fine restaurants as they are reliable, but too familiar so I like to venture and try non traditional restaurants. I really love a good fancy meal and awesome cocktail. I’m not paid for my reviews and no matter how much they compliment the meal, my opinion is mine and won’t be influenced.

First, this is mostly a meat and steak restaurant - I’ve been a pescatarian for a number of years, but Ive learned that good steak places also have a good fish dish.

YUCK! Not this time. I only eat fish, fancy filets….mostly it’s salmon as it’s hard to mis-prepare. This was the worse piece of salmon I’ve ever had, no flavor and completely raw on the inside which they tried to say was medium. I eat this everyday!!! I know icy fish in the middle and overcooked on the top! They tried to make it right, put the raw fish that I picked through back on the grill and then overcooked the salmon- appetite over…..

Drinks weren’t that good, overpriced. I had the old fashion- hard to misprepare, but they figured out how to do so- I had two to suppress the hunger-

They did try to accommodate- I went back to the appetizer menu as again this is mostly a meat place, don’t bother with the lobster bites- fried too hard without flavor.

I’m here in St Louis for a wedding, I don’t seek to exaggerate good or bad service. And I am honest…

Speaking of service, I will say this was good. My waiter seemed genuinely embarrassed about the re-prepared salmon…offered dessert complimentary- I’m still hungry for food and didn’t come to be complimented so I declined. I’m going to pay my weak alcohol bill along with the lobster bites- tip 20% as it’s not my waiters fault and...