Carmine’s Atlantic City

Inauspicious start that ended with a delicious meal. We walked up to the hostess at 6:50pm on a Tuesday evening and were told it would be an hour wait for 4. I turned around, made an Open Table reservation for 7 and we were seated within ten minutes. Our server was personable and knowledgable and the food was delicious. Pasta with meatballs, veal parm and a side of sausage. Will definitely do again.

I love Italian food and I hate sharing so this place is perfect for me. Heard it was family style, you said? Well yes, but Carmine’s dishes out SO MUCH food no one should be leaving the table without their top pants button undone. It’s borderline obnoxious how big the plates are but I loooove it.
This time around I came for a post graduation celebration in the afternoon with a party of 6. Not a group of big eaters but, we decided on 2 appetizers and 4 entrees as recommended to us by the waitress (6 plates for 6 people). Appetizers were Fried Calamari and Cold Antipasto. Honestly, these 2 were enough as mains on their own. Calamari was not overly battered but super crispy and the antipasto platter was insanely delicious — so much more than your standard Italian meats, cheese and pickled veggies. Since we had gluten free diners we ordered GF Penne Vodka in addition to Mussels Marinara, Chicken Parmesan and Lasagna. Everything was so delicious! The GF penne could pretty much pass for regular pasta, making it a favorite for anyone who loves vodka sauce… which is everyone. The mussels were HUGE and also super tasty. The lasagna didn’t have any meat, which was a little disappointing because it was just a lot of mush between the sheets of pasta and mounds of ricotta cheese. Can you ever go wrong with chicken parm? These cutlets were thin and lightly breaded, which you somehow felt less guilty about on top of all the other carbs. We also brought our own desserts and the restaurant had ZERO qualms, they even kept it refrigerated for us during our meal.
The drinks were a little skimpy but I’m not really sure what I expected for a Sunday afternoon. Our waitress was super friendly and very attentive as well, adding to a great afternoon here. Whenever I’m looking to carboload before a night out in AC, this is where I’m headed.

While it’s very very noisy, the service was superb, and the pasta cooked perfectly… like being in Italy and eating in a ristorante there… of course ‘family style’ means agreeing on one dish, since there is no way you could eat the whole bowl of pasta.

Been to the one in New York. This one is in the Tropicana Casino resorts. I did not get the country family home setting feeling as I did in New York.
However the food was so good. As it was in NY. The service was equally as good. The staff is very attentive. And get you in and out in good time considering the large portions they are delivering tip the tables for the customers orders.
Definitely a return to place when in Atlantic city.

Great service. Portions are huge. Family style. Restaurant has upstairs and downstairs. Plenty of seating. We had Manicotti and a side of meatballs. Started with a Caesar salad big enough for 4. Only 2 of us. The manicotti was delicious. The meatballs were also delicious. Great meal, I recommend.

Awww… An old love in a new place. I have visited Carmine’s in both NYC locations but the one in Tropicana’s The Quarter is indeed near and dear to my heart. From their chicken parmigiana, to the freshly made Caesar salad and homemade dressing… This place never disappoints. Unlike the busier louder and far more crowded venues, this one has a more homely feel to it.
For those new to Carmine’s, please take note that they are a family style venue with serving size appropriate for 3 – 4 individuals per plate. Also, their menu is on the wall… No physical menu to speak of.

Honestly I want to stick my finger down my throat. How ANYONE can eat that food and keep it down is beyond me. We ordered the fried calamari and it tasted like rings of fried breadcrumb. The Cesar salad was the most edible thing. The chicken parmigiana was paper thin, and covered in a solid inch of halfway melted «mozzarella» and the entire plate was drowning in red sauce aka Hunts crushed tomatoes. The raviolis were definitely not homemade and they’re portion was 12 raviolis… for $ 32. The shrimp parmigiana was completely inedible; doused in thick breadcrumbs and the actual shrimp was hard chewy and to be honest I don’t think it was even shrimp at all. (I spit it out). My family said the meatballs weren’t bad but I couldn’t swallow them. They were soft mushy and just terrible. We didn’t even bother with dessert.
I would not recommend this place to anyone. Don’t go here in a group, don’t go here if you’re just a party of two just don’t do it. We were a party of 6 and ordered 3 meals and 2 appetizers. I don’t think the portions were that big. Overall disappointed isn’t even the word, we were so looking forward to coming here and can promise we will never be back. Throwing garlic breadcrumb and sauce on top of plates is not considered authentic Italian anything.

Come on. What can you say. IT WAS AWESOME AS ALWAYS!
Large family style, excellent quality, fair prices. This place packs me in.

3^rd time NOT a charm. Food each time is mediocre at best. Main pasta courses are very heavy on garlic; thick slices of garlic that border on burned. The taste and smell are very off putting. I have not enjoyed any of the pasta’s on any occasion. The fried calamari appetizer is always very salty and the past two times I’ve had it, tasted like it was fried in old dirty oil. Even the color of the dish bordered on murky. Yuck! Never made it to dessert because we’ve been overwhelmed by the enormous mounds of food and sickened by the lingering bitterness of garlic.
The place is always packed to capacity. I believe most people are wowed by the experience; large portion sizes, loud, upbeat atmosphere, scantily clad women celebrating their bachelorette parties… whatever.
If you truly analyze the food you will realize it is nothing special. Over sauced, over salted, over cooked, over sized and not enjoyable at all. Save your time and money and go elsewhere.

Came with a group of friends and had a good experience! We made reservations and we ran a bit late but they were very understanding and as soon as we got there we got seated a few min later.
Worked out so nicely! Ordered our food was enough for us all and very tasty!
Had a small issue and Christina the manager was very attentive and made sure everything was taken care of! She was very nice and we really appreciate that!
Everything went well we had a nice time! And loved the food and portions were perfect! Thank you so much! And our waitress was very sweet!
Thanks

We were very disappointed. Around us, parties of 4 were sharing 1 – 3 plates of food. Our party was just the two of us. They have no way of handling a two person table if the two people want different dishes.
I’m vegetarian, so my dish was Penne & Mariana. My partner’s dish was Chicken Parmesan. Since they could not accommodate half orders, or adding my pasta to his chicken, we were forced to order two extra-​large family dishes with an extraordinary amount of food.
It cost $ 30 per plate. I ate 30% of my plate. My partner ate 50% of his plate.
We gave the rest of the food to a homeless gentleman outside. At least it didn’t go to waste.
Additionally, the food was average. Nothing special. We ate at the Grotto Ristorante (Italian) at the Golden Nugget yesterday and the food was amazing, the correct portions, they could accommodate two people with different tastes, and we had alcohol and dessert for $ 10 less than at Carmine’s.
Again, we were very disappointed. What a waste of food, money and time.

We stop in EVERYTIME we visit Atlantic city.
Everything is served family style so usually for a group of five we split two-​three main dishes.
Careful not to fill up on the free bread!
We’ve never not started with a carmines salad. It’s full of meats and cheeses, and the dressing has a nice bite.
The chicken marsala is a really great dish, but the chicken parm is a top choice as well.
My favorite are the stuffed mushrooms — a good bite of meat inside a juicy mushroom.
It gets pretty loud in there so not great for a quiet atmosphere. Try to make a reservation, it gets packed.

This place is very disappointing. Mediocre Italian food at best. The pizza place on the corner is probably better.
A franchise like carmines should stand up to its name and serve good food. The food was bland and boring (penne alla vodka and chicken parm) the service was bad. We had to ask 3x for bread. My white wine was hot. And our server disappeared only came around and hovered over our table to watch how much we tipped.
If you want to actually experience carmines go to Manhattan and get real Italian food.

It was my second experience at Carmine’s. I remembered it being fantastic and wasn’t disappointed. We had excellent service, our waiter was so friendly and helpful in recommending food to us. The place really transports you to a different place, you forget about all the chaos in the casino/​hotel just outside the front doors.
It was a Valentine’s weekend dinner and my boyfriend had never experienced a Family Style restaurant before. So he was pretty shocked by the portions. But we ordered the garlic bread as an appetizer and rigatoni country style (at our waiters recommendation). Perfection, seriously. It was way more than two people could eat, and we wished we hadn’t ordered the garlic bread since they present you with a bread basket. But we left stuffed and needed naps. But only after cramming some cheesecake in our mouths after the meal.
Also, I highly recommend the Pineapple Mojitos!

Went for a good friends birthday and can’t say I was impressed. I had been once years ago and didn’t remember a poor experience so was excited to return back.
We started at the bar upstairs and had great service by the two bartenders. They were friendly welcoming and patient while I took forever to decide on a drink! Blood orange margaritas were the drink of choice and it tasted like a vacation in my mouth!
We went downstairs for dinner and were a party of 8. Were explained the menu well and the manager came over due to a friend with an allergy, that was nice. The great service stopped there. Took forever to get drinks as well as to order our main food. It was busy sure but overall everything was super slow. Fine, we dealt with it and chatted, but come on bring the drinks! We finally caught our server again and she said they stopped making the margaritas. Which you could imagine was a tragedy since the whole table was drinking them! It also seemed strange given they seem to come out of a slurpee machine. Feeling determined, one of us went to the upstairs bar and came down with 2 blood orange margaritas! Not a good look for the server or the restaurant! I do think she was busy without much help and perhaps that’s what she was told but we spent well over 500 bucks with tips and were prepared to order and have more. Once we got the check we were out. Food was ok not bad at all but when you live in south jersey you have to bring it with the Italian food! I would compare it to maggianos which has been more affordable.

Came here for my good friend’s bachelorette party dinner. The decorations of this place are definitely the more than enough.
We had reservations and got seated promptly. We did have to walk through tight spaces between tables and chairs. The service is average, they did not even congratulate the bride to be. Yes, they have a lot of customers but make your customers feel special! This place is also very loud; it was hard to hear each other!
The flavors are all there but it is not what I prefer. The tomato sauces are quite sour in my opinion. The portions are large and meant to be shared… family style. It is fun to share! We got pasta and meat balls, chicken parm, egg plant parm, and lasagna.
Even the desserts were huge but again, the flavors are not what I like either. I don’t know exactly what it was, just huge chocolate cake with vanilla ice cream and lots of whipped cream!

I was in AC celebrating my bday and wanted to have dinner here. I made reservations in advance for our group and it was pretty simple, they even called me a day before to confirm and ask the name of the bday person for them to able to sing happy birthday with dessert.
My only complain was the lack of real menus since they only have menus on the wall. Once my back was towards the wall and two I wasn’t wearing my contacts/​glasses so I couldn’t read it.
We were a party of 6 so we decided to order two appetizers, baked clams and fried calamari. The calamari was okay but the baked clams were delicious.
For our meal we also ordered two dishes, chicken scarperiello and penne a la vodka. Both were delicious especially the chicken which was super flavorful. We weren’t sure if two dishes were going to be enough for our table but It was more than plenty since we even had leftovers.
The service was on point and the food was good, I’m glad we came here for my bday since we all enjoyed a great meal.

Excellent Italian-​style dining with a great atmosphere.
Who doesn’t love an Italian, family-​style dining experience? This is the place for that. Parm or pasta, you can’t go wrong here with any of the options.
Small group or large, you’ll have a good dining experience here.

I came in with my family in search of dessert. We had just filled up on cheesesteaks and fries at various restaurants along the boardwalk, and we were in search of something special to finish up the night. We came in at around 8pm, and the place was bumpin’! They had bachelorette parties, families, guys out on the town — just a little bit of everyone in there!
I ordered a tiramisu ($ 22) to go for my family. They had it ready for us within 5 minutes. I was told that it would feed 5 – 6 people. However, those are generous portions! You can stretch this baby out to 10 people. The tiramisu was delicious and did not disappoint. They offered us plates, utensils, and napkins, and even a birthday candle. When we arrived back at our hotel, everything was in there except the candle. No biggie! We just wanted an fantastic dessert, and they certainly delivered.

What can I say that hasn’t been said already?
All you need to know:
— Pricey family-​style portions, but the food and flavor is worth every penny.
— The menu is on the wall so bring your binoculars.
— Wait times can be lengthy so I recommend reserving a table.
— Try the Italian cheesecake martini, it actually tastes like cheesecake! The sangria is pretty good too.
— It gets loud in here. Lots of families celebrating and having a great time.