Carluccio’s

AVOID! This is a perfect example of what is supposed to be decent, authentic cuisine but is actually dumbed down blandness for the English market. If tasting bland was their worst offense they’d at least have gotten 2 stars but what really blows is quality and value. Not only is the food consistently cold but you get tapas-​sized portions at main-​sized prices. I have eaten at their Spitalfields location about 10 times in the past 3 years and each time it’s worse than the last. I have exchanged emails with the owners which only amounted to «Sir, we’ll give you another free, super-​crappy chicken sandwich if it helps?» Thanks but no thanks. Thank God there are starting to be some decent food options popping up which will eventually undress establishments like this but until that happens, do your part and AVOID this place. In short: bland, over-​priced, cold crap.

L’Italie à Londres. Ouvert toute la journée jusqu’à tard le soir, cette excellente épicerie italienne est un vrai régal pour les papilles. C’est également un énorme restaurant dans lequel, du petit déj au diner, tout est excellent.
Je m’y suis arrêté en fin d’après midi avec une amie pour faire un petit apéro tranquille à base de Prosecco et d’assiettes antipasti absolument délicieuses, de la charcuterie aux aubergines parmesanes en passant par la vraie mozza di buffalo.
Rien à dire, service parfait et produits au top.

We only tried the almond croissant and a ciabata bun. The croissant was a bit dryish, and not hot or fresh (at 8:20 am). The bun was OK, far from fantastic.

I do not normally do chains, but have eaten in Carluccio’s before and found the standard generally good.
I went as knew they were doing a special fifixed price mushroom menu as it’s the season, plus my friend was on a tight budget.
Service and wine were excellent, however food was disappointing. The quality of the ingredients was good, but flavours were lacking. For starter I had mushroom crostini, one slice of bread, topped with mixed mushrooms, very average. Main meal was porcini lasagne; the béchamel sauce was dense and heavy, completely overwhelmed the dish.

Mmm… why did I wait so long to try a Bicerin? This is a fun dish with 3 little servings: shot of expresso, melted dark chocolate and heavy cream that you mix and pour to your taste into a coffee mug.
I came for brunch before shopping at Spitalfields and it was very relaxed. Huge open windows let in the sunshine as we sat and enjoyed the Colazione Magnifica. This is the most dramatic name I’ve ever seen on a brunch menu — I had been expecting a huge portion with lots of filling grease. I was happily surprised with a regular size plate of fresh eggs with just the right amount of butter (no grease pool or stains on the plate) and crispy pancetta that was easy to snarf down without fear of huge food coma.
Other meals at my table all looked very good as well. I was eyeing the lunch menu specials written on the wall and would like to come back to try them sometime.

I had a really good experience in this restaurant, and I chose the ravioli! I have to say it did’nt look all that, but it tasted great! Get round to Dennis Seavers house afterwards, it’s …well check it out.

+ large restaurant with lots of space
+ friendly customer service, but…
— staff was inattentive
— bland food
I went to this restaurant on a Thursday night with a friend who found a 2−4−1 voucher. There were three of us and they honoured the voucher when four dishes were ordered amongst three patrons, which was a nice touch on customer service.
Unfortunately I found the quality of the food to be poor. The three of us shared a seafood linguine (linguine ai frutt i di mare) which looked like the leftovers of someone else’s dinner. The pasta itself had no hints of seafood, suggesting that the scant quantity of seafood was merely thrown into the linguine after everything was cooked or warmed through. The calamari rings in the pasta was rubbery and tasteless. Neither the flavours of chilli nor garlic come through.
I ordered a medium rare bone in rib steak (bistecca di bue con patate), which came with potatoes and a red bell pepper sauce. The steak itself was cooked as instructed, but the quality of the meat itself was tough and chewy. It also lacked flavour and seasoning. The sauce had a light hint of bell peppers but also lacked seasoning. Thankfully the potatoes were well seasoned and (sadly) the best part of my meal.
I don’t normally let food go to waste but the steak was so bland and such hard work that I left a sizeable chunk on my plate. It didn’t help that I was never offered a steak knife to begin with, nor did anyone come to check on us during our mains for me to raise the question. Nor had they bothered to refill our glasses of water during our meal until I asked when we were paying our bills, but only then the staff filled up just my glass and not the other patrons around the table.
One of my friends had ordered the breaded chicken (milanese di pollo) which came with a side of salad. When the dish emerged, it was in fact a handful of rocket leaves with a slight drizzle of dressing. As it turned out my friend hates rockets and the waiter, without hesitation, happily swapped it for a lettuce salad instead, made up of 3 lettuce leaves. The chicken itself looked ok but did not come with any sauce or other garnish.
Overall, the staff has been trained to be receptive but not necessarily attentive. The food was bland and visually unattractive. I wouldn’t recommend this particular Carluccio’s for dinner as there are a lot of alternative dining venues in the area, and there are definitely better Italian restaurants a short walk away.

Antonio Carluccio was manager of the Neal Street restaurant eventually becoming its owner, I think Jamie Oliver started his career there, before setting up an Italian food shop/​restaurant ‘Carluccios’ that has expanded to across the UK including here.
It’s fairly decent Italian food comes with a rather steep price tag but it’s the shop/​bakery out front you’ll usually find me. The Spitalfields has a relatively large food section compared with other branches around London and it’s not too busy so I can browse the jars of olives etc without having to push past waiting diners.
I come here to buy presents for those ‘difficult to buy for’ people and at Christmas for the pannetone (which my Dad loves).
I have no idea what this place is like weekday lunchtimes/​evenings as I’m not a city boy but on a weekend it’s fine.

Very dissapointed! I was looking forward to visiting Carluccio’s restaurant, be it only for a a capuccino and biscuits. Terrible attitude by staff members. It took more than half an hour to have some kind if response to our order. I had already spoken to the staff member twice, who looked like she was about to tell me ‘I know where u are don’t bother me’ lol! We finally had another staff member ask us if we were being served and then a third staff member bring the 2 capuccino and plate of biscuits, which I might add we paid £7.50 for which obviously was machine made and not much different to what u would have from a service station on the M25! What a terrible missed opportunity! 2 minutes from Barts Hospital, where I was visiting a relative. I think the staff were expecting a tip! When I refused I think they realised how dissatisfied I was and apologised! Lol the shop was empty, at 11a. m on Sunday, but they found making a hot drink and biscuits very challenging!

This place gets 4 stars for the coffee. They have two blends, Milano and Napoli. The Milano is smooth and soft, the Napoli has been roasted a little more and has a little bite to it. It truly amazes me how the likes of Starbucks, Nero and Costa have made such a success out of selling really bad coffee, when there are places like Carluccios that actually know what a bean is about.
Carluccios is an Italian deli, a patisserie, a coffee shop and a restaurant. They have some great cakes, some wonderful chocolates and are a welcome alternative to all the Pret/​Eat shops if you want to pick up something nice encased in bread.
The restaurant food is good for a chain, somehow it feels a lot more real than the likes of Strada, with a much more varied menu. Not really special, but perfectly acceptable. I come here to pick up a coffee and a little chocolate, there is nowhere else anywhere near where you can pick up a coffee to take away that is even remotely as good.

I like their breakfasts the most. They have pretty good choice but my favorite is scrambled eggs with mushrooms. Sometimes they don’t have wild mushrooms — which is disappointing, but in general they are good.

The main reason why I like to go to Carluccio’s is because one side of the restaurant is a glass wall overlooking private gardens. It doesn’t matter how crowded it gets — it always feels fresh and bright. I find it best for breakfast — I love the scrambled egg and mushroom, but you need to ask them not to burn the toast, and I always find there is too little toast. Also the Eggs Florentine are excellent. I am not such a big fan of Italian food so I don’t like lunch quite so much. the pasta gardiniera is unusual with deep-​fried balls of spinach as well as other vegetables, but it’s not a dish you want to repeat too often. They have very nice homemade lemonade.

An oasis of calm in a busy part of the city. Relaxed, good wholesome Italian favourites served outside or indoors. The staff are friendly and professional. The price is mid-​range. I’d recommend it.

In reference to the review below that says the food need attention I think this may have happened, although have only been there for evening meals, and it clearly meets the standards of St Christophers Place and the original Covent Garden restaurants.
Waiting staff seem friendly, etc.
The main thing that makes this place special and different from all the other ten-​store-​chains that are in the mall-​ish ‘new’ section of spitalfields is that it’s out of the way, away from the crowds, never packed, well spaced seating, with views over a set of private gardens that are always empty.
Go here to escape the teeming hordes of weekenders who hoard to the area to pick the last meat off the bones of the market.

Just had a lovely late lunch with a friend and her newborn baby, and we had a great time. This branch is very child-​friendly, and the staff were very helpful in finding us a table that was convenient for the push chair without sticking us in a corner. The food was excellent — I recommend the duck salad –and the wine I had was good as well. Service wasn’t rushed at all, so it was a relaxing way to spend a Sunday afternoon, and was very reasonably priced!

Make no mistake, I am an unadulterated fan of Carluccio’s food and coffee but have never been impressed by this Italian eatery’s service. In fact I recently made a point of not taking my Nana to the St. Christopher’s Place Carluccio’s because I knew she’d be appalled by the sometimes icy reception offered by this chain’s staff.
Service gripes aside, Carluccio’s range of specialty foods, breads, coffee and other such foodstuffs is divine. Its focaccia bread the stuff of carb-​free diet ending, can’t live without it deliciousness. Its coffee — which I always have to takeaway as I’ve been treated like a leper for deigning to sit in with one measly cup of coffee — is, likewise, top quality. That said, a little Italian charm would not go amiss.

There is only one reason I go to Carluccios. The Almond Croissant. OMG — a purely messy indulgence it is — if I am not getting dusted powder all over my nose, then it’s oozing almond paste on my chin and crumbs everywhere. It’s not an elegant affair — but that’s the fun for me. They’re not those light French butter croissants. They are rich and very tasty.
It’s best to catch them early in the morning while they’re still at their freshest. The best way to spend £2

I’ve been to a couple of branches of this popular Italian eaterie so I know what to expect on the food front. Or at least I thought I did.
We ordered dishes which we had tried before in other venues but everything that came to our table was very disappointing. The focaccia, usually warm and fluffy, was stale and hard. The pasta dish which is usually full of seasoning and flavour was bland and only had one small piece of chicken in it instead of the typical bountiful amount. Our wine was lovely but that wasn’t prepared in their kitchen.
Add to this the fact that our lunchtime experience took nearly two hours due to ridiculously slow service and a waitress who seemed to ignore everything we said to her and I think its safe to say that this branch of the Carluccios empire needs some serious attention.
Unfortunately this wasn’t a one off occurance either, when speaking to a friend the other day, they had also been for lunch there and had a terrible time.
AVOID AVOID AVOID!

owned by a very greedy individual, carluccios is a no-​frills restaurant with excellent food. staff is very helpful and friendly, fast and kind.
in my opinion, you should look no further than the pasta, cos the «secondi» aren’t good value for money at all. but pasta is great. try the luganica, a kind of bolognesa sauce with spicy sausage. and ask for another kick of chilli, it gets awesome. tortellini are also excellent, and so is the lasagna. just a shortcut: all the pasta rocks but the ravioli, which are awful. they look good on paper, but seven ravioli tasting butter would make you look with envy your neigbour’s dish, so don’t do ravioli.
desserts are not worthy. maybe icecream… specially chocolate… and afogato, which is icecream vanilla with expresso.
although the practices of antonio carlucios (do not believe his allegued corporate social responsability, it is all lies), the restaurant i must say, is a good option either for a swift lunch or for a relaxed dinner.
it does convince me