**I am amending this review and adding a star to account for the fact that the restaurant not only read my review, but took the time to look up my reservation and contact me to discuss my experience. On the whole this was a much appreciated, gracious and unexpected gesture.** \r
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We dined at the Carlyle for our birthday on a Thursday night. One hour before our reservation time, while we were en route to the restaurant I received a call from the Carlyle indicating that they needed a credit card number to secure our reservation because there is a high incidence of ""no shows"". I told them that we were on our way to the restaurant at that very moment and would be there shortly. The person I spoke to was unable to process my response and said ""so can we have a credit card number?""...over and over, to which I replied we are driving there now. It was odd and put us all off. Why didn't they secure the reservation when we made it?\r
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Worse yet, our table was outside of a private event room. Service was EXTREMELY slow as all of the attention was focused on the private event. We waited close to an hour between courses, each of which came AFTER the private event was served their course. \r
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Oh, and the kicker, that halibut we came in for? Gone -- all reserved for the private event. Very disappointing -- make sure there are no large private events scheduled when you make your reservations! This restaurant clearly does not have the capacity to concurrently serve smaller reservations and large private events. The restaurant should have been closed for the event rather than deliver poor service to regular customers. *<:(
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