Carmine’s 901 Grill

Favorite spot in WSNC. Well hidden. Always a great place for good food and wonderful service.

This place is addicting and it is stinking cute. Parking may be a hassle at times but that doesn’t deter me from my chicken carbonara. I realize that the pasta isn’t made in house but whatever brand of pasta they are using is quality and cooked to perfection. They are a little light on the sauce and the bread (who needs the carbs anyway!) but I do not mind because the food is amazing.

I love this spot! I ordered takeout today and got the pescatore. The servings are generous and the salmon was cooked well! There are many options that looked so good. ill be coming back. Everything is $ 9.01 even if it’s a whole pizza!

Value. The great conundrum.
That’s my deal when I go to Carmine’s.
If you are like me, when eating out, you scan the menu looking for the best values.
«Lobster rolls for 7 bucks? Yes, please.»
At Carmine’s I play that game.
Do i get the the Grigliata (shrimp, chicken — good value), or do i go with the Romana (chopped lettuce, dressing — not so good value) even though I’m REALLY craving a Ceaser?
How about the Carbonara (with bacon — great value) versus the Genovese (pesto penne — bad value) even though I wanted pesto?
Order incorrectly and you’ll be kicking yourself when the food arrives.
Hit it right, and you’re the king.
At Carmine’s it’s a crapshoot until you study that menu and see what comes out.
We loved the pizza and some of the pastas but even those felt a little small. And then a couple skimpy salads crushed us.
Overall, the food was mostly good, and the server was super nice. Just a little small on the portions.
3 stars

I really enjoy coming here. The owner and staff are really amazing. My favorite dish so far is the lasagna but I’m working my way through their menu every time I visit. If you haven’t checked them out yet, it is worth a stop!

I’ve been here a couple times since it opened because it is so close to my house and I’m always looking to find new favorite spots. Issues that I thought would resolve after some time being open and working out the kinks have not gotten better.
The highlights:
–predictability price wise ($ 9.01 as an homage to the name and address)
–a heavy wine pour almost without fail
–range of options (basic but varied)
–events like karaōke!
The lowlights:
–negligent if not bordering on rude staff
–generally oversalted
My favorite menu item is the saracena pasta. When I have dined with friends here, twice I’ve heard, «I would just order what you got.» The pizza romano felt like a bizarre flatbread sandwich. I imagine this would be a decent place to bring your kids, there is a bunch of space and it is a bright lively atmosphere. Ultimately, I’ll continue to go once in a while because it’s conveniently located but when I’m craving true and delicious Italian in Winston, I’ll go elsewhere.

Carmine’s 901 is quickly turning into «our place» as we have been twice in the past week and plan to go back early next week. We stopped in when it first opened for a quick beer, just to check the place out. We liked it but because we did not eat we did not have a lot to base anything off of. We decided this past weekend to stop in for lunch and we LOVED it! We shared the taco pizza and pasta veggie soup, both were delicious and more than enough to split. My husband’s birthday was yesterday and he chose to go there again to try more of the menu. I got the vodka pasta penne with a glass of Brut champagne and he ordered the margherita pizza with a IPA. We both loved our meals and had enough left over for lunch the next day. We also noticed that trivia was starting up shortly after we arrived, so we have plans to return next Tuesday to compete! :) For dessert we got the tiramisu and it was amazing. Great location, friendly staff, and wonderful menu selection. I also appreciate that nearly everything on the menu is $ 9.01. respectively.

Great Sandwiches ! Fresh and made to order not chain restaurant style. Good beer selection, great deserts, awesome service.
Price is right.
Restaurant is very clean and open.
Don’t get turned off by the lack of parking. There is an other lot next to the restaurant on Northwest Blvd
Support local restaurants ! stop by

Before I say anything else, I need to comment on just how nice the staff here is. You are greeted warmly when you enter, and the smiles make you feel like they are genuinely glad to see you. We were given our choice of tables (early lunch) and our waitress could have not have been any more helpful or kind. She had a beautiful, thick Italian accent and it was a joy to listen to her describe the dishes on the menu and make (very helpful) recommendations.
The food we ordered was good. I do have a few nitpicky qualms that I think they could pretty easy rectify.
Water served in plastic cups — small thing, but I would have preferred a glass.
It was our first visit, but I already knew about the pricing concept (everything is $ 9.01). They really should state that on the menu. My dining companion was not aware of the concept and asked me if we were supposed to guess the prices or if he was missing something.
We ordered the pescatore panini (salmon, red onion and arugula) with fries and the penne with the prosciutto, sausage, pink cream sauce, etc. (I can’t even begin to remember or spell the name). Both were good, but not great. The pasta was fine, but a really small portion (even for lunch). A couple of small pieces of garlic bread. A side salad would have been perfect to go with it, but then you’re getting into some fairly pricey lunch territory. As it was, the pasta dish was just not filling enough for lunch in the portion size that was served. The panini, to me, was not traditional. It was on a round bun (toasted with grill marks), a lot of bread, but served open face with the strip of salmon down the middle. No sauce — something lemony or garlicky or roasted red peppery would have been really good. Even though the salmon was cooked perfectly, the sandwich itself was just dry. The fries were very good though. We would have loved to have gotten the fettuccine alfredo with chicken, but then again, you’re adding $ 4.50 and it just gets to be a bit much. Same with a salad. They have one salad that includes meat, but all the others its $ 4.50 to add a protein.
Our water (cups) never got empty, the staff was exttremely attentive and just could not have been friendlier. I’d love to see them be a big success, but I honestly think if they just priced the menu correctly and served larger portions, they’d have a lot more repeat business. They have a neat location. A liquor license and a better priced menu would go a long way.

I had high hopes for this place. First time here and ordered the special, a Buffalo chicken/​crab ravioli with Buffalo cream sauce. It was uninspired, lacked distinctive flavor, and the chicken was mush.
It was served with a soup or salad and I opted for the Italian wedding soup. I honestly couldn’t taste anything in this bland version of the soup.
The tiramisu dessert was OK, but not enough to save the meal.
And for the presentation? Get rid of the bowls with extremely large lips and the presentation of the tiramisu was just silly…
I will say the service was above average.

Ok it’s not bad, it’s not great, it’s a bit better than just good, but they just don’t have it all together yet! It’s in a old service station which I give them kudos for doing, and the fact of keeping the old garage doors makes it quite interesting inside! There’s a small bar area to the right as you walk in, but they only serve wine and beer which would cancel most people out from just hanging out! It wasn’t very busy at 6pm on a Friday night, and our server seemed just as ho-​hum as the atmosphere last night! Only after reading their website the day before did I know that everything on the menu was $ 9.01. The menu doesn’t state it, and our server never explained that either. It’s a cool concept, but only if you make that known! Granted the catch to that is that by the time you add any meat to their pasta dishes you’re back to the traditional $ 14-​$ 16 Italian dish! The Calamari appetizer was tasty, but extremely rubbery! I tried the Vodka Penne dish which I found to be really tasty, a fair portion size, but just lacking the wow factor. The special of the night was a pasta dish in a nice cream sauce, topped with grilled chicken and prosciutto and cheese. It was really good, but not sure it was worthy of the $ 16 price tag. There is no kids menu so we had to order a pepperoni pizza for $ 9.01 off the adult menu. Granted it was nice to have a larger personal size so that we could sample their pizza, but most parents are wanting a kids menu for the size/​cost. The pizza was nice, but certainly not extraordinary! I probably wouldn’t come back on my own accord, but if someone wanted to go I’d be fine with going back. The lack of enthusiasm from the staff, no advertising of their $ 9.01 concept, no kids menu, and no wow factor from the food has just left me indifferent.

We went for a group of 7. All the pasta we ordered were too salty. The panini was alright. The price was not bad for Italian. Service was ok. Probably would not be my first choice for Italian cuisine.

Let me preface this by saying that I’ve never felt compelled to write a Unilocal review until the experience I had today.
I came here for Friday night dinner with a friend. Upon entering, we were greeted by a plethora of kind, friendly front of house staff that direct you either to the bar side or the dining side. Our experience started out great; our server Maria was friendly, attentive, and gave us her recommendations for her favorite dishes.
We ordered several dishes: one pasta Sarracena to share, while I got the Porchetta panini and my friend got the Rustica pizza.
I enjoyed the Sarracena, though for the more refined palate it was on the «one-​note» side of things. Although we ordered it without mushrooms it still came with mushrooms, though this was not a huge deal since the mushrooms tended to get lost in the dish and didn’t contribute overall to the flavor profile at all.
After polishing off the Sarracena pasta, we were served our main courses. I took a look at the Porchetta panini and was immediately disappointed. It was predominantly bread, had no sauce that I could appreciate, and was not a characteristic grilled panini sandwich – it was more of a sandwich with toasted bread. After biting into the sandwich my disappointment continued. The meat was dry, rubbery and had a metallic flavor that resembled old chicken that has been sitting in the fridge too long.
I rarely, if ever send food back, but ultimately decided to do so. Maria, the server, was very apologetic and took the food back without hesitation, and asked if she could get me something else in its place (which I did). A couple minutes later, a gentleman in a black chef’s coat peered out of the double doors from the kitchen and gave me a sinister look. About a minute after this, this same gentleman aggressively confronted me about why I sent the pork back. Asking if I had ever eaten pork before, following up by saying that it was entirely fine since he was eating the other half that I hadn’t touched. I kindly responded that the pork had an «off flavor» but apparently this answer wasn’t satisfactory (though I could have mentioned the fact that it was mostly bread and that it was very dry but did not feel compelled to justify myself to someone who was interacting with me in such an aggressive and abrasive fashion).
After being pestered I simply told the gentleman, who after perusing their website appears to be Alfredo, one of the co-​owners, that I was no longer interested in receiving a dish to replace the one that I had sent back.
Following this encounter Maria apologized profusely (which was unnecessary, since she did a fantastic job) and implored us to come back and that she would take care of us when we did.
I find it pretty unsettling that someone who enters the customer service business, who is a co-​owner, thinks that it is proper form to treat a customer in such a disrespectful fashion.

The inside is clean, you can tell it is a new place. Nice atmosphere. There is a bar, and also some outside seating. Customer service was great.
I ordered pizza. Everything about it was very good. My husband ordered Pasta (Carbonara). He said it was one of the best pasta dishes he has ever had.
Would definitely eat there again.

A bit torn on this review, because the food was good, and our server was very good, but I don’t like the pricing model. Everything is $ 9.01. That definitely simplifies things, but if an appetizer is $ 9.01 and an entrée is $ 9.01, does that just mean the appetizer is entrée sized or the entrée is appetizer sized? I want to pay a bit less for my appetizer and get a smaller portion of food and a bit more for my entrée and get a bigger portion of food.
Also, not everything is $ 9.01 — I had the chick parm special and it was $ 10.01. The dollar is neither here nor there, but if you can sell a bruschetta appetizer for $ 9.01 you can sell your special for $ 9.01. Even at $ 10.01, the portion on the chick parm was small, I would say less than a handful size portion of pasta.
If you don’t care about the pricing model and portion sizes, the food here is good enough.

I loved the carbonara pasta. The only thing I was a little disappointed about was the 4.50 extra charge for chicken in the pasta. That’s half the price of the pasta itself. But other than that, it wasn’t bad for a random find!

Very good food & service! We’ll be back!
We ordered a pizza & panini and they were tasty! The server was enthusiastic about the food, and the specials sounded amazing! Side salad had olives, red onion, two colors of tomatoes, house dressing was good, too.
The Napoli panini was piping hot and crunchy. The Rustica pizza was loaded with meat and surprisingly big for a single serving. Well crafted food. Great spot, outside is dog friendly.

The location is great, it’s right on the intersection of Reynolda and Northwest Blvd. Tip: make sure you have the right address plugged into your gps because there is another restaurant called Carmine’s located on Jonestown road.
There is plenty of parking a few buildings down, there are actually two different parking lots but I think both you can park in after 5pm.
The food options were nice, with categories including appetizers, salads, pastas and paninis. Plus they always have a creation of the day in almost every category. Each meal item is only $ 9.01 which is a great starting price.
The drink menu I was very pleased with, they have great selections of beer and wine and all the prices I thought were very reasonable.
The portions were very decent, enough to fill you up and more than what I was expecting for only $ 9.01. The paninis looked great and so did the pasta dishes. I ordered the carbonara and altogether I was pleased but they did over spice it a little.
Overall the staff was very friendly and attentive and I’m looking forward to going back sometime :-)

Great addition to the neighborhood! They just opened recently and seem to be still training the staff a bit and I’d love to see the plastic Dixie cups for water go away but they have a great menu with diverse offerings and I look forward to their specials. Also, special kudos for being open for dinner on Sunday night when there are so few places open.
I had the mussels which were in a great wine garlic butter sauce and a good portion for 9.01. There were three unopened which is a peeve of mine — is it really that hard to separate out the unopened mussels before serving? Especially when I’m there at a supremely dead time of day?
Can’t wait to go back though and try more of their offerings and bring the family!

Really happy Carmine’s 901 took over this location. We had an awesome dinner last night. I want to start off by saying Amber was a great waitress. Really friendly, attentive, and conscious of food timing. I also really like the concept of the restaurant, almost every dish on the menu (except for sides and desserts) is $ 9.01.
The salad list was pretty impressive but of course the husband wasn’t interested. We started off with the Italian street fries and they are pretty much what you would imagine, pub fires with some tasty sausage thrown in. We also ordered the calamari off of the Munchies menu and it was quite delicious as well. I am a sucker for penne with vodka sauce so we went that route. It was really, really good. Definitely one of the best I have had in the Triad. I also liked that the portion was super reasonable, it was a decent price and you don’t have pasta leftovers for days. The fettuccine alfredo is calling my name for next time.
On to desserts! I asked if the desserts were made in house and Amber was not positive. Since the dessert menu was pretty extensive my guess is half are in house and half are not. I don’t think they are baking the chocolate cake or that tasty limoncello cake every Italian restaurant in the area has themselves. The tiramisu looked homemade and my guess is the panna cotta is as well. Now, let me tell you about the Sfogliatelle. Once I saw that on the menu I knew I would be ordering it. I use to work at an Italian pastry shop and the Sfogliatelle or clam shells as we often called them was one of my favorites and they are not a dessert you see everywhere. Turns out they bake these babies to order so they come out warm, chewy, and delicious. The ricotta filling was a little more lemony than I am use to but trust me it is so freaking good. I don’t think I will be able to come here without ordering one every time. If you have never tried one and you like lemon, ricotta, chewy dough deliciousness, order one!