I sat next to Carluccio at my dad's wedding. We chatted about food for a bit and he seemed perfectly nice. Unfortunately my experiences at his restaurants in Covent Garden and Bond Street were not so nice.
I went for a family meal at the one in Covent Garden. The restaurant itself was nicely decorated but modest and understated. Olives were already on the table when we arrived. I didn't like them, they had an odd anchovy taste.
I ordered the Courgette Risotto (£10.95) which in itself was perfectly fine if not a little bland. The thing that bothered me the most however was that I waited over an hour for it to arrive. The entire meal was incredibly staggered, resulting in us all having to watch each other eat while waiting for our food. I know a good risotto takes time, however an hour and a bit is pushing it.
The second time I visited the Bond Street Carluccios I had Arancini with a Red Pepper sauce (£7.95). Cricket sized balls made with rice and filled with meat or pesto. This sort of thing is right up my street but these Arancini were just bland, thank god salt and pepper were on the table.
The quality of ingredients are probably high but have the chefs ever heard of seasoning? With that said my view isn't shared by the masses as each time I drive by the South Kensington branch it's rammed, so they must be doing something right. Perhaps I just had bad luck and went on off days!
I think I'm not wrong in saying that Antonio has sold his empire but kept the Covent Garden restaurant, at least that's what I heard. In doing so Carluccios has become more of a brand than the nice authentic Italian restaurant of yesteryear. They even have a shop attached selling branded ingredients like pasta, sauces, peppers etc...
My ultimate feeling about Carluccio's is that it's given a lot more credit and awarded a lot more culinary respect than it deserves. I'm sure if you stop in to have a bowl of over priced and mass produced spaghetti you'd be fine with it, but it wouldn't be anything special.
Carluccio's
5/10
International
www.carluccios.com
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