One of my favorite pre-theater destinations is Carmine’s in midtown. I’ve written about the uptown location before, and the midtown location seems even busier but still serves up the same great food. One night before going to see Hair the Musical, we managed to get an early dinner reservation for a large group of people. As usual, I stuffed myself silly with delicious wedges of tomato focaccia, which I’ve dubbed “pizza bread.” I even requested a basket of just focaccia (both the tomato and the onion), since there are never enough pieces of them in the regular mixed bread basket.
Basket of focaccia bread
We started off our dinner with two salads that were simply ginormous. The first was the Carmine’s salad, which is kind of like an antipasto salad. There are cubes of ham, salami, and provolone mixed throughout a huge pile of lettuce. There are also sun dried tomatoes, roasted red peppers, red onion, and olives on top, and the entire thing is tossed with a tangy Italian dressing.
Carmine's salad
We also ordered the special salad of the day, which was mesclun greens tossed with a tasty balsamic vinagrette and topped with cranberries, walnuts, and goat cheese. Both of the salads were very different but equally delicious.
Special salad with mesclun greens in a balsamic vinaigrette
We also ordered some hot appetizers to start. First was fried calamari that was lightly breaded and fried to a beautiful golden brown. The calamari was crispy on the outside, tender and not too chewy in the middle, and great for dunking into the tangy and sweet marinara sauce.
Fried calamari with marinara sauce
Last but definitely not least was my favorite appetizer, the stuffed artichoke. This is the artichoke that I keep trying to replicate at home, and although I’ve come close, it’s not quite there yet. This artichoke is garlicky, lemony, and very addictive. Part of the appeal is that I love the process of eating artichokes – dipping the leaves in the yummy sauce, scooping up some bread crumbs, and eating it all together. After peeling off layers and layers of leaves, getting rid of the spiny choke, you finally get down to the creamy heart. It’s a lot of work but also a lot of good eating along the way.
Amazing stuffed artichoke
For our entrees, we got an order of spaghetti with white clam sauce. As you can see in the picture, there are tons of clams on the spaghetti, as well as many cloves of garlic. This is definitely a dish for garlic lovers, as the flavor permeates throughout. The spaghetti was perfectly al dente, and this is always one of my favorite dishes.
Garlicky spaghetti with white clam sauce
The lasagna, like everything else, is a huge portion, and is basically a brick of pasta layered with lots of meat, cheese, and sauce. While it still tastes good, I miss the browned bubbly cheese layer on top, and it does get a bit messy to eat. It tends to fall apart when you try to cut pieces from it, and the proportion of pasta to sauce and cheese kind of gets thrown off. Personally, I prefer the other pasta dishes offered at Carmine’s.
Brick of lasagna
We also got veal parmesan, which was pounded thin and breaded. There’s a good layer of cheese on top but I wish that they had browned it more. It’s still quite tasty though, and the meat is always tender and perfectly cooked.
Veal parmesan
Our last entree was chicken scarpariello, which is one of our favorites so we always get two orders, as everyone wants multiple pieces of chicken. I think they deep fry the pieces, as it’s always crispy on the outside and moist and juicy in the middle. The chicken is covered in a lemony, garlicky sauce that is flavored with rosemary. It’s different from other versions of scarpariello, which usually feature sausage and peppers, but I vastly prefer this version.
Chicken scarpariello
We also got a side dish of escarole, which is sauteed with garlic in oil. Squeeze some lemon over the top and it’s refreshing, a good complement to all the rich, saucy food that we eat.
Sauteed escarole
Even after all the food and several magnums of Carmine’s house wine, we still saved some room for dessert. We got the massive Titanic, which is basically a chocolate brownie covered in scoops of vanilla and chocolate ice cream, paired with bananas, and covered in whipped cream, strawberries, nuts, and chocolate sauce. Like all the food at Carmine’s, it’s over the top but delicious.
The Titanic
Despite all the signs that point to a cheesy tourist destination, Carmine’s is, in my opinion, one of the best Italian restaurants in the city. It never ceases to amaze me how much food the restaurant churns out every day, and all the dishes we get are consistently well prepared. It’s hearty, homey, comforting red sauce Italian food, and lots of it. The value is good, and it’s a great place for accommodating large groups. The midtown location really gets hopping during pre-theater hours but service was great. Our water glasses always stayed filled and a server was always nearby to comply with any of our requests. When the waiter brought one of our magnums of wine, he accidentally spilled a bit from the full bottle and immediately went to fetch us a new one, even though the amount spilled was negligible compared to the size of the bottle. It’s little things like that which make you realize that they do care about service, despite the fact that they would probably still be packed every night even with lousy service. That’s what makes the experience so great every time, and I’m always happy to go back again and again.
Carmine’s (multiple locations)
200 West 44th St. between 7th and 8th Ave.
New York, NY
Tags: Artichokes, Chicken, Italian, Midtown