Would prefer to give it 0 zero starts. Right before my husband's birthday, I made the mistake of mentioning that I have never had a good meal at Carmelo's. So, when said birthday rolled around, of course this was his restaurant of choice. I tried to keep an open mind...all in vain.
I like to say something good about every restaurant so here goes. The bread was fresh, served with olive oil and the tableside prep was fun to watch. That's it.
My food was terrible. I had to make myself dinner when I got home. That bad terrible.
But the worst sin of the restaurant was the wine list. We were very excited to see some interesting selections. We made our first selection and fnished our cocktail. Our waiter was soon back to tell us they were out of that wine. To make a long story short...after our FIFTH SELECTION was unavailable and we sent our food back because we still didn't have wine, the manager came over. The waiter didn't want to tell us yet another bottle was unavailable. The manager made up an excuse and said he would like to help us pick out a wine and and give us a discount. We told him what we like (Big CA Cabs).....and shows up with....an Israeli wine! My husband told him to open it before I could say a word and it was....a total disaster. I am convinced the manager picked that bottle because it was expensive and they couldn't move it...you know, Israel being renowned for their wines and all.
Anyway, from now on, I pick the birthday restaurants for hubby, this was even worse than last year's disaster.
Do yourself a favor and STAY AWAY. This beautiful building needs a decent restaurant.
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