San Carlo Italian Bistro
(919) 676-3262
9660 Falls Of Neuse Rd
Raleigh,
NC
27615
35.9067
-78.6016
Neighborhood: North
What People Are Saying About San Carlo Italian Bistro
The Editor
Contributor
Citysearch
In Short
Inside, wrought iron grapevines and fun, over-the-top Italianate mirrors compete for attention. A well-trained staff maintains the sultry ambience, with each server dressed in black button shirts, neckties and low-slung bistro aprons. Amid the formal flair, you'll find a family-oriented menu. San Carlo is as much a pizza place as a specialty pasta emporium. Stick with the simple Italian basics.
User Reviews
vlsmith4
July 04, 2009
Some friends and I visited San Carlo this evening arriving at around 8:30PM looking forward to a wonderful Italian meal. We were seated in a booth and promptly greeted by Rachel, our server for the evening. Everything started out great, we got our drinks, gave our order and received a huge plate of varietal bread. Our meals came, perfectly prepared and full of great taste. However, I have to say that things took a turn for the worst just as we were finishing up our entrees. Rachel seemed to be in a hurry to leave for the evening and her pleasantness quickly turned to bitter disregard for our patronage. She was concerned about not having "time to do anything when [she] got off work." And was off put when we asked her about desserts. We needed to see a menu and she was clearly irked that we weren't sure what we wanted right away, even making a comment that the kitchen was closing in 30 minutes and we should hurry to make our orders. At this point, she is no longer smiling and is obviously annoyed that we are still there. Our desserts come (3 creme brulees and a tiramisu) and tasted great. However, when the bill came, and you can believe it came in a hurry, there was a small disagrement regarding a coupon from the Citi Pass book that we wished to use against our bill. Rachel said that she would not accept it because it was a holiday. We requested to speak with a manager (who's name we were not able to get), we showed him the book where Independence day was not listed as one of the exceptional holidays and he accepted the coupon. While the manager was at the table, and Rachel was taking the checks, with our credit cards, to process the payments she made a comment under her breath that it was already 10:00 PM. Her and the manager walked away from the table at the same time. Within 5 minutes Rachel returned with our bills and noted that the coupons and been accepted, "by the way," she added "we are already closed." We said that shouldn't matter, we were seated well before closing and were frankly in disbelief that she even would say such a thing. We asked to speak with the manager again and Rachel walked off. We waited around for a few minutes and asked the bartender, Julie, if she could get the manager. We were told that he had already left for the evening. Which we found suspicious considering we had just spoken with him about 5 minutes earlier and there were no less than 6 people being served alcohol at the bar. We could not believe that the manager would leave before all tabs / checks had been settled for the evening. As paying customers we find it completely unacceptable to be treated as we were this evening in your establishment. We in no way did anything to deserve such treatment. We are completely baffled that adding 4 desserts to our order would instigate such behavior from our waitress. While we did find that the food was great, the way we were treated will keep us from coming back. We hope that strong considerations will be taken with Rachel as you can be assured that her hastiness and rude behavior has cost you future business. We will use every resource available to let people know how San Carlo treats its paying customers.
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festivalcandy
June 06, 2009
I thought this was going to be a nice evening out with my husband. I was told from a friend that this restaurant had good food but my husband and I beg to differ. We both had ordered the linguine with frutti di mare, basically pasta with seafood, and it was terrible. We both thought the seafood tasted a little old and past it's freshness peak when we tasted it but decided to finish since it cost us more than we thought it was worth. Huge mistake. We both ended up sick for 2 days. I will never go back and urge anyone who goes to stay away from the seafood. : - (
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KeithLitaliano
May 22, 2008
I really like this small little bistro. The food is always decent. Disagree with reviews where people said that the food was salty. I never noticed that during the times that I have eaten there. The menu is full of some pretty authentic Italian dishes, and everytime I've been I've tried something new. They have the best pizza in North Raleigh, hands down - try their Siclian pizza. It's got plenty of servings and is inexpensive too! Service can be slow when they are busy, but they are attentive with the drinks. The only other drawback is that if you get a lot of loud people at the bar, they kind of "take over" the whole restaurant.
read full reviewThe Details on San Carlo Italian Bistro
Category:
Payment Methods:
American Express, Cash, Visa, Discover, MasterCard
Restaurant Special Features:
Family-Friendly Dining, Lunch Spot
Cuisine:
Smoking Permitted:
No
