Carmines Italian Restaurant
Lincoln, RI 02865
Phone: (401) 723-3200
06/19/2007 Posted by revjeff
When we heard that Carmine's in New York was opening a branch at the Twin River ("casino") in Lincoln, Rhode Island, wer were in heaven. We always visited Carmine's when we went to New York, and now, with a branch about 25 miles away from us, we could go much more often. To get to the restaurant, you have to trek across the big parking lot, and then through room after room of slot machines and garish lights. The smell of cigartee smoke wafted readilyt hrough the air. Not a good introduction to the place, but nothing the management can help, certainly. If you don't like casinos (that is, slot machine cities) maybe you should eat elsewhere. But even when we got to the restaurant, the disappointments continued. The decor is not as warm and comfortable as at the New York location we've been to: here, at Twin River, it's more like a glorified food court. The service was friendly enough, but slow-- young and not at all well-trained; needing to be asked for place settings for each person; asked for water glasses; etc. The waitress didn't seem to know much about the menu, and had nothing to recommend when we asked. Maybe with time, this will improve (we visited about a month after their opening). The food was tasty, but nothing extraordinary. Servings seems smaller than in New York, but maybe this was the particular items we chose and the fact that there were more of us dining. But when we asked the waitrese if she thought if would be enough, she replied, "Sure." It wasn't. . We asked for angel hair; didn't get it; had to ask again. When it arrived, everything else was cold-- or already eaten. Then, worst of all, when we told the manager of our less than exemplary experience, he shrugged and said, "You should have been here a month ago." Full of excuses and very defensive: not the way to accept constructive criticism from customers, not if you want them to return. We won't-- to Twin River. But Carmine's in the Theater District of New York still has our hearts.
Pros: good food
Cons: inexperienced service
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