Carmela’s at Macri’s

Terrible service and mediocre food. Who the hell uses canned clams in a pasta recipe? Sham on the chef. Take the Linguine can Vongele off the menu if you aren’t going to make it the right way! It took 30 minutes to get drinks and another 30 for the appetizers. Our waitress was clearly overwhelmed! Granted it was a very busy night but. Bring on more wait staff!

Great people, great menu. Wait staff hustles and knows their stuff. Lots of veg options and fun daily specials.
Apparently word has spread so you may need to call ahead to get a table!
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My wife and I were on a date before the symphony. I had been here back when it was Macri’s. I love original Italian so we thought we would give this a try. We were not disappointed. Very complete menu, excellent service and the food was better than expected. I had smoked ravioli.

On a Friday night before a ND home game, we wondered about the experience we would get at a local restaurant. Carmela’s at Macri’s was the best. It was plenty crowded, but the service was attentive, we met the owners, we had great food and excellent wine. The bruschetta was not to be missed, chicken parmesan was healthy and responsibly-​portioned which made us all happy. We left with some cookies from the bakery which were a hit on game day. Try this place out for sure. The family atmosphere and attention nourishes your soul.

CARMELA’S is our go-​to restaurant. Excellent food, service and ambience.
What more could a person want, when out dining!

So so italian food, and by italian I mean Olive garden italian not real italian.
Service was ok, not interested in going back ever again.

Great Italian fare at a reasonable price. Ambiance was nice and was within walking distance to the East Raceway. The gelato was amazing!

Food was excellent. Not crowded. Lobster ravioli is amazing. Could use a better beer selection.

Excellent calamari appetizer. Loved the house salad, spaghetti bolognese with meatballs, and the tiramisu.

Great food and a fantastic staff… made me feel like part of the family

Very cute restaurant! It was very crowded the night we were there because it was graduation weekend but the servers to the great job of serving considering the extra people. Great wine selection! Good for families. Not the best bread ever, but still very good food overall!

Delicious food, fantastic service, great people! I sampled many of the appetizers and especially loved the Lasagna… not to mention the fresh baked desserts. The cookies from Macri’s bakery were some of the best I’ve ever had. Worth the trip to South Bend for some real Italian cooking and hospitality. I will be back for sure!

Amazing food! Not only is the food delicious, you are treated like family the moment you walk through the door. If you are in South Bend Carmela’s is a must-​go spot for dinner, and don’t miss dessert!

I’m from Laguna beach, CA so I’m a picky About food. I got the spaghetti w meatballs. Which comes with a salad or soup. I got the salad dressing with house dressing, I thought it was really good. The spaghetti was a tangy sauce which was very good. The service was A+ My server D’anna was five stars! Overall a very good experience!

This restaurant had fantastic food and a great atmosphere! It’s actually a bit cheesy that the sky is painted in the walls, but it’s a kind of endearing and quaint cheesy that makes it worth while. The food was amazing especially the rice ball with cheese and marinara sauce (I forget the name). I went with three others and we shared among ourselves and everything was absolutely delicious!

This is the best restaurant in south bend hands down. The prices are reasonable and the food is outstanding. Its family owned and the food is cooked by Carmela herself! Check it out.

This place is great for lunch. Restaurant is next to Marci’s deli which is a plus. If you are in a hurry, you can order freshly made sandwiches in the deli and go to the bakery and order from a large selection of desserts. We had time so we sat in the restaurant.
Wife had the turkey and I had the salmon blt. The salmon blt was on a croissant and I was expecting a baguet or hard roll but the sandwich was unexpectedly good on a croissant. It was crunchy on the outside, soft on inside and slightly buttery. Went well with the salmon and bacon.
Highly recommend this place for lunch.

I came here with the Italian Club for a special price-​fix menu, which consisted of 3 courses along with some basic complimentaries. Maybe it’s because I have higher standards when it comes to Italian cuisine, coming from New Jersey, but I’m pretty sure that I was more satisfied in getting food in my stomach after having not eaten all day.
The atmosphere of the restaurant is incredible. I love the dark rustic feel of the place, and how the layout made it seem like we were dining outdoors in a small square of Italy. It was so cute. The staff was also extremely friendly.
Our courses consisted of a platter of Bruschetta, a choice of an entrée that came with a house salad, and tiramisu. Out of the three choices that were given, which I was not very impressed about to be honest (Fettuccine with Alfredo was invented by Americans, and Pollo Marsala is very simple to make…), I opted for the Homemade Lasagna.
First came the Appetizers. The Bruschetta was very fresh and flavorful, but I wasn’t very fond of how it got a bit too soggy from all of the vinegar. The House Salad was really just a pile of raw lettuce/​cucumbers/​tomatoes with a side of «house» dressing. The complimentary bread, which is a staple food in Italian Restaurants, lacked in so many different things; the crust wasn’t crispy, the inside wasn’t fluffy, and the basket was overall not hot to the table. On top of that, it kind of tasted cheap to be honest.
The Entrée came next, and I am happy to at least say that the portion at this place is just right. Any bigger, and I would have been too stuffed from this Lasagna to move on to dessert, but any less and I would not have been enough satisfied. The Lasagna itself tasted so-​so. I expected the food/​plate to be much hotter. The pasta layers were even and had a soft texture and the Bolognese sauce tasted fine, but it tasted like the sauce came out of a jar and they mixed it with some ground beef to make it a «bolognese». It also didn’t seem to be as hearty and flavorful as I would like it to be, probably because of the lack of seasoning and meat. Like I said before, I hoarded it down not because it was delicious, but because I haven’t eaten all day. I tried my friend’s Pollo Marsala as well, and it had an extremely strong taste of alcohol, which my friend liked. I personally thought that it was a bit much, and I would have preferred a slightly milder presence of the alcohol. My friend’s choice for the night unfortunately didn’t pop out at me in the end either. Overall, the dishes were sub-​par.
We finally ended our dining experience with the last course of the night, which was Tiramisu. Visually, it looked appealing. Taste-​wise, it was okay, and the lady fingers were done right, which is good. However, the bottom was very soggy. I’ve never had an Italian restaurant serve me a soggy tTiramisu before. I ate it anyway because I was hungry, but as a critic, I expected more from this restaurant, especially with the Tiramisu since it is such an iconic dish that should successfully end our night out.
It was wonderful for the Italian Club to take everyone off campus for some food that is different from everyday dining-​hall buffet-​style cuisine, and I really did have a great time. However, after this experience, I now miss east coast Italian food even more than before. South Bend and Mishawaka have many more Italian restaurants around that I’ve passed by or heard about, so I would like to try those out, in hopes of finding the one that will really hit home.

It was the only well-​rated italian restaurant we could find. I had an Ironman the next morning and needed something good. This hit the spot.

Stopped in a little before 9pm on a Saturday night, thought the place was closed. A little confused as we navigated through the store/​deli and found the actual restaurant. Pretty dark inside, only a few other diners. By the end of our service, we were the last two standing. The bartender was the first to greet us, and had us sat immediately. Shortly thereafter we had a very pleasant waitress bringing out water, bread, and taking our orders. Menu prices seemed a bit above market, much the same with the drinks/​wine. Put in orders for a bottle of wine, an appetizer, and our entrees without a hitch. Wine came out chilled, and was worth the few extra bucks. Great taste. Our app, the Arancini was mistakenly forgotten, but quickly resolved and brought to our table. Once out, we found it was quite solid dish. Fresh, excellent temperature, seasoning, and the marinara was spot on. Shortly after, out come the entrees… the Portabello Mushroom Ravioli and Lobster Ravioli. Both left us grinning. Plenty of food to quell your appetite. Much like the Arancini, we found proper seasoning, the right temperature, and didn’t have much to complain about. The Lobster Ravioli was served with Shrimp, which was a bit of a question, but was solid nonetheless. Either way, all of our dishes went very well. Too stuffed for dessert, maybe next time. The staff obliged our request to look through the grocery before heading out, even though it was closed. Very cool of them. All in all, highly recommended after our first visit. Hopefully we’ll be back, and can stop in with the kids for a nice dinner.