last time I had a meal in Carluccio's the experience was a bit disappointing.
It is true, though, that your expectations and your mood affect the way you judge the service and food.
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| the only difference, probably the glasses... |
Not an easy night for the restaurant, business-wise, as the customers rushed in around 5pm to avoid rush hour for the fireworks. That was the night, the night of Guy Fawkes.
By 7.25 pm the restaurant was empty.
We got in at 6.45pm, yes we, while we were refused to be seated 40 minutes earlier, as was fully booked.
A young guy at the entrance invited us to come back later.
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| the display of Italian style mouthwatering starters |
We did and the smiley manager took us to our table by the window.
What a view! I could see everything from there.
Less than one minute later, our waitress, lovely and smiley student, who confessed later she gets all the tips from her tables if they are cash, and 60% if by card, asked us our drinks.
Less than 5 minutes later she took our order.
Garlic bread and Homemade Fettucce (Tagliatelle) with truffle.
Grissini and Pasta with butter for my daughter.
Garlic Bread
As you can see in the picture below, it looks like toast. Tasty and generously buttery but I expected a slice of bread instead. Then, what is the point of the parsley?
5/10
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| garlic on toast |
Fettucce with (smell of) truffle
I wanted this time to check on the egg Pasta. It is not homemade, of course, as they state for the Ravioli, but that was expected.
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| Add caption |
They are not homemade and you'll soon realize it, though they actually can't be.
I guess that there must have been a shortage of truffle in the kitchen. Sometimes in Italy, when you have dinner in some posh restaurants and you order Pasta with truffle, they bring over your Pasta with some kind of sauce, more likely with olive oil. Then, at some point, the waiter comes in and shows you a truffle and you finally enjoy the intoxicating smell of this famous fungus. Then, the waiter goes back to the kitchen.
Here you had your Egg pasta with truffle. Just the smell, actually.....
Since this fungus is so expensive, the only way to let the people appreciate, it is to dust the pasta with some or provide a low quality truffle. In Carluccio's happened the latter. 5/10
The tiny waitress did checkbacks, which means she came back a few times to ask whether we needed anything or not. Smiley and professional 7/10
Interestengly, in the Children Menu there is a lot of scribbling stuff
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| lovely way to learn about Italy |
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another lovely way to learn about Pasta shapes
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This is
8/10 to me.
In the end, what do I think about Carluccio's in Norwich.
Being a chain is difficult. Carluccio had the lovely idea of this bumper Children Menu.
PASS
The service was lovely
, even if the rush hour had already passed, when we got in.
PASS
Food quality was below the expectations, like my previous visit. It could be high expectations.
RESUBMIT
Bye for now
This was another visit to a chain of Italian style restaurant.
Being a chain affects everything, from food quality to staff approach to customers.
Next time I will probably have a meal in some restaurant managed by Italian people.
Will it be better or worse? We just need to wait
