Carlucci’s Italian Grill

Excellent food, superb service. Generous portions. Would definitely go back! Kristie made our evening fun, enjoyable while delivering terrific service.

The food was delicious. Heavenly. The most awesome thing was the service. Man! I can’t believe that such service still exists in America. The waiter Colins made us feel so special, our evening was made. He took such excellent care

Good food and fairly quick service. Had pappardelle neptuno lunch special and it was tasty and just the right size too! Rest of family was also happy. We have been coming here off and on for years and it’s a good place of the many Italian restaurants in the area.

Thank you Unilocal for the 15% check in discount. It pays to check in :)
Had been thinking of eating here for quite sometime — the restaurant looks inviting from the outside, looks spacious — which it is. It was filled up on a Friday night. A very ‘with family’ place which was nice to see — children, parents, grand parents and everyone having a good time ! So thumbs up on that.
The food — had to try the puffy bread which everyone has raved about on Unilocal– to be honest it is similar to the Indian Naan bread — with a lot of garlic and butter. It wasn’t bad but it it is not the Italian bread that you expect. It got cold really quick .
The pizza Bianca was nice and simple– the brick oven pizzas taste so much better than the dominos or Pizza Hut ! The gnocchi, the chicken and the seafood linguine was all average nothing much to rave about.
The service is what lacks the most at this place. Not being attentive, not knowing the menu well, suggesting wrong things — this has a lot of scope for improvement. You better know what you want when you go here !

The best italian food the I had chicken Santa Lucia was outstanding
My wife hand crab cake and she loved the service was very good

The menu is very well laid out and anything you order is great. I had the veal cardinale special a couple weeks ago which was very well prepared. They had a new bread that was basically a bunch of pizza dough cooked with some garlic and oil thrown on top, but their bread with red sauce on top was great. The scallops appetizer was first-​class and plated very nicely. Think I have a new mainstay Italian restaurant when I’m up from NC.

Poorly cooked pasta, bad service, and got order wrong. I despise the Olive Garden, but would go there before coming back here.

First time coming here last night and based off their 4star ranking on Unilocal I thought it’d be worth coming but ehhh I don’t know, I guess it’s a your or miss depending on the waiter.
Service: I’m not even sure if our waiter spoke English because I couldn’t understand skut. I asked him what pasta he could recommend that had a white sauce and he gave me two choices. I chose and the food came out with red sauce. I asked to get it changed and the manager switched it hesitantly. The manager was nice but he seemed just as lost as the waiter. Was this there first day on the job or were they high?
After I got my correct order my waiter came by and basically scolded me on how it was my fault for ordering that I got. Uhm? Excuse you? I told him exactly what I wanted and he recommended something that he said would have white sauce.
To add to his rudeness he kept staring at me as I ate and continuously walked by but never refilled my water. It got to the point I wanted to flip my cup upside down and have it at the edge of the table.
Food: I gave it 3 stars only based on the fact that they redid my order but honestly the flavor is ok, probably worth 2 stars.
I’d probably go again if they got new wait staff. Good luck if you go here.

I like this place. The service is kind of hit or miss, but the food is always good. Last visit had be a tad worried about cleanliness (floors were gross and there seemed to be an abundance of flies) but that was the first time I noticed anything of that nature. Menu has a LOT of options to please everyone, portions are gigantic, and two (ya hear me, TWO!) different kinds of bread are always served fresh and hot. Good, not excellent, but surely worth a visit

This is our go-​to Italian place in this area! The Shrimp Diablo is phenomenal. BYOB too! Pizza is great — not greasy at all. Huge portions and come with soup so there’s always more to take home. You can get coupons online too!

average food with higher price than the other Italian Restaurant in nearby area. The Waiters are always have the Maxican Poker face. We went 3 time for lunch and diner and can not enjoy the face. Will not go back again!

Food was okay, not great. Pasta Fagioli was decent. Maybe their pizza is better then there entrees… I would give this place another shot.
update** tried their pizza. So gross, won’t be returning!!!

Crab cakes are awesome, along with everything else on the menu. Huge portions, so be easy on the apps. Definitely a great place to eat, but suggesting you don’t forget the coupons and some wine (you can find conveniently next door!) because it can get a little pricey, from time to time. All n all, this place is bang bang.

Came here for a birthday dinner with a group of 20. We had reservations so as soon as we walked in, we were seated to our table. The ambience was excellent. I was also very pleased with the service. It’s BYOB and we had plenty of wine bottles with us. The waiters asked us which bottles we wanted open and then we would just pour the wine ourselves. The marina covered focaccia bread and garlic bread they served at the beginning looked very tasty. My friends enjoyed it. (I passed on that since I had brunch earlier in the day-​see my review on the Cuban in Hoboken– and wanted to save my stomach for the main meal). For my entre, I ordered a chicken parm with linguine with the house salad.(soup is also an option) I enjoyed both the chicken parm and the salad. Nothing to WOW over. But every one of us did enjoy what we respectively had. As for dessert, we brought in a cake which they had no problem with. They served that to us when we told them to. Staff was nice and didn’t rush us out (even though we all exited exactly at 930pm and they close at 930pm on Sundays). We were also pretty loud and sang happy birthday and there were no complaints from the staff or from any other table. All in all, all 20 of us enjoyed our time here and we’re glad we held this birthday event here.

Nice atmosphere and great food. As others have mentioned, the puffy bread with garlic is quite amazing. Italian dishes as well as the brick oven pizza are also to die for.

Average food served in an inviting space is seriously hampered by a disjointed, abrupt, and unprofessional staff at Carlucci’s.
My wife and I were excited to try Carlucci’s after reading the many positive reviews here on Unilocal,however we both came away from our initial experience doubting that we will make a return trip, even with the promise of another Unilocal «check-​in» discount waiting. My wife characterized Carlucci’s as a local Olive Garden, just with higher prices and worse service.
PROS
The best part of our experience was the ambiance. The dining area at Carlucci’s is very nice. The booths are comfortable. The noise level is perfect for a slightly upscale, yet casual dinner. The décor is tasteful, yet not overbearing.
The food. Well, the food is fine. It is not the best Italian I’ve ever had. It’s not the worst. To be honest, it didn’t really leave much of an impression at all. I had pasta. There was some sauce on it. It’s a day and a half later, and I’m not sick, so there you go.
The puffy garlic bread. This is mentioned in lots of reviews, and I’ll put it in the PRO section, because it was quite tasty, if a little overbearing on the garlic for my taste. I would personally take more of that and skip the tomato sauce covered bread they start with, but that’s just me.
CONS
I think the food could also be listed here. The complete lack of anything thrilling about our dinners had both of us walking away feeling «meh.» When one of the best things you can say about a dinner is that it didn’t make you sick…
The biggie here is the staff. Over the course of our dinner we were served by four or five different people (which is fine), however, none of them seemed to have talked to each other. We were asked about ordering drinks two or three times. Asked if we had ordered food twice. Then, at the end of the meal, when I tried to present my Unilocal «check-​in» offer to someone who was asking if we wanted to order dessert, he told me (very curtly) that I needed to give that to my waiter, not him. I guess I shouldn’t make the assumption that the person wanting to take an order from me is my waiter. Additionally, I find it distracting and unprofessional for the staff to sit around in plain view on their phones while customers are waiting. I understand that you might need to check a text or voicemail from time to time, but do it in the back, not sitting at an open table.
The thing that pushed this from 3 stars to 2, however, is what happened when our correct waiter finally did come. I showed him the Unilocal offer, and his first reaction was that he couldn’t honor it, because he didn’t know what it was. After suggesting that he check with his manager, he promptly grabbed my phone out of my hand and walked off. He disappeared into the back and was gone for almost 10 minutes. I was very uncomfortable with this, and tried to ask him not to take my phone, but he didn’t listen. When he did come back, there was no apology that he was wrong, simply a surly «fine, here’s your discount.» I don’t walk into a restaurant expecting a discount, but if an establishment is going to make the offer, they should train their staff on the proper procedure (which is not walking off with someone’s phone).
OVERALL
In all fairness, I probably should give Carlucci’s another shot. Maybe the staff was having an off day. Maybe the chef forgot to put any seasoning in our dishes. But, the honest truth is that with so many other wonderful places in the area to go for truly amazing food (often for a much lower check), I don’t know that we will make the return trip. Sorry, puffy garlic bread. I hardly knew thee.

Appetizers soup pasta fazule (laughing out loud) secondo chicken bruschetta was fantastic. Very impressed with carlucci’s. Also the service was impeccable

Exceeds expectations for an Italian restaurant in the burbs. They are a byob and is a place to bring a date, family and friends. The servers are alway courteous and the food is always prepared fresh. They go great lengths to allow for gluten free, wheat and spinach/​salad substitutions so the menu is appealing to all. I love the 2 different breads they bring out, the marina covered focaccia bread and the pocket oil and garlic bread!
It really adds a nice touch.
For the quality it’s the best place for a meal in langhorne, but don’t forget your wine.

Finally made it back to Carlucci’s this week for lunch. I had not been there for a few years, which in itself suggests that there were other places I liked much more than this well appointed Italian kitchen.
I appreciated the look and feel of the restaurant. Very comfortable with booths all around for extra space and privacy. Mostly good service and friendly people to warm the spirit while awaiting the meal. And, awesome naan-​like bread that was like a light doughy pillow loaded with sautéed garlic given generously to every table.
This time I ordered the Chicken Parm lunch with a side of spaghetti with Red Sauce. My companion had pasta with Vodka Sauce. The chicken breast was smallish, but well breaded, fried, and plated with decent red gravy and a nice amount of Spaghetti. It was good, but not more than that. At $ 9.99 is was reasonable, but also one of the less expensive items on the menu. I tasted the Vodka dish. It was also competently prepared and presented, but lacking any zest that would come from a more dynamic sauce, or sides.
Service was a little slow and we had to inquire about the entries. This made it a tight squeeze to fit it into an hour lunch break, and impossible to stop at my favorite Grover’s Mill Café for an afternoon caffeine refresher.
Carlucci’s is a fine place for Americanized Italian cuisine with some interesting and original touches. They know what most folks like, and they do that well. But, as with all ethnic restaurants appealing to the broadest spectrum of customers, it sands off the edges to make their food the most palatable to the most people. That is understandable and expected, but left on the sanding room floor are the esoteric flourishes that can make Italian food the best on the planet.

I’m not the biggest fan of Italian.
food, that is.
carlucci’s, however, is pretty fantastic. I’ve frequented the place over the years (even had my high school graduation dinner here foreverrrrr ago), and it always seems to deliver.
taste = yummy
portions = generous
price = fair
puffy bread with garlic = addicting
some favorites include the gnocchi (never too dense or too gummy), and the grilled chicken parm… love the option of no breading!
ps– it’s byob… and if you forget, there’s a liquor store in the shopping center.
ps (part 2) — there’s a lovely outdoor seating area.
ps (part 3) — do it.