But no, disappointment all round, and I won't be going there again!
It was a beautiful evening in Manchester, sunshine all day long, so Spinningfields, and its many bars and restaurants, was buzzing. We had booked a table for four, at a relatively early time of 7.15pm. The tables outside were busy, but inside was quiet, perhaps 20% full.
We stood for quite some while, wondering if anybody was going to come and seat us, and eventually flagged down a harrassed looking manager.
We ordered wine, olives, bread and water and perused the menus. The olives are fab, no doubt about it. The bread really less so - for four people one piece of foccacia, 3 pieces of rather dry french stick, two breadsticks and a flat, tasteless thing, plus a tiny dish of olive oil with balsamic vinegar. Shame on you Carluccio's!
I chose the mozzarella and tomato salad; hard to get wrong, and they didn't, as such. It wasn't great though - it had clearly had a dusting of salt, but the olive oil was boring, not fresh, peppery and fruity like it should be, and I had to ask for black pepper.
My main course however was a disaster, start to finish. I LOVE calves liver. Hubs doesn't though, so I only get my chops around it when we're out. The menu description of pan fried calves liver, with red onion jam and sauté potatoes called out to me, and I answered. Unfortunately the chef clearly doesn't have the same regard for this dish as I do. The liver hadn't been prepared properly and was almost impossible to cut through, with the outer sheath left on and a few minutes too long in the pan. A generous helping of potatoes didn't make up for this, nor did the rather glutinous onion jam. A side order of courgette, red pepper and aubergine in tempura batter blew my recommended daily allowance of salt out the water for a week - I am not averse to a generous sprinkling of sea salt on crispy battered veggies, but I think the chef used a winter salt shovel on this occasion.
At this point, to be fair, I have to refer to the experience of my fellow diners: two started with the Arancini, which were fabulous (see this recipe, I'm going to give it a whirl!) the steak was 'good' and the veal was 'wonderful', testified to by two clear plates. The Carbonara however was underseasoned (perhaps I got hers?) and the pancetta untrimmed and undercooked, leaving big white fatty strips that are horribly unappetising.
I spoke to the manager, who had been racing around like a mad woman all night (staffing issues?) and she dealt with my disappointment calmly and admirably - no debate, just an immediate apology and stripping the cost off the final bill, with puddings for all as recompense.
It's a huge shame when businesses take their customers for granted, selling themselves on a name and a history of success. I'll never go back there, and I suspect I'm not alone. I'm not hard to please, but I do expect a certain level of quality and service, both of which were missing. It's easy to rely upon a great location and ever changing clientele, but laziness and complacency will eventually lead to disaster - time to get your act together Carluccio's!
carluccios.com
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