Carluccio’s

Complete and disappointment! Carluccio’s seems to spend too much for branding and corporate identity. However, the quality of food was terrible. They don’t do pizza as well which was very surprising!
We had a calamari, olives and some garlic bread. As soon as i’ve eaten the olives, something wrong with it taste and its smell. Its taste was mouldy. Calamari and garlic bread as a starter was nice.
We had lasagne as a main dish. Again complete disappointment! Lasagne was mouldy. It seemed like reheating again.
Desert wasnt even considered and we decided to continue our evening elsewhere!

HOly Moly its fodmap free joy!
Lets start with the menu — if you don’t eat FODMAPS — being presented with a gluten free menu is freaking awesome! A whole menu — then in addition the staff, wow! they knew exactly what was in everything. And i didn’t have to have the whole back and forth of going to the kitchen to check for every single dish. The staff after learning I also couldn’t have onion and garlic went to the kitchen and checked — and then informed me every single item on the menu which i could have– and there were a few because a lot is cooked to order — only a few with the sauces premixed.
So I cheated — I had the liver pâté which had a bit of onion already in it — but my tolerance levels managed it — and it tasted amazing! I also had the carbonara — and this is where is lost its star — wasn’t amazing, a bit too salted with parmesan, and not creamy, and the mixture of the sauce was a little clumpy, and a little bland, just salt and cheese.
For desert the gluten free options were amazing — I tried some of my friends Gluten free chocolate cake desert with kalua — amazing! I myself had a frangelico.
Atmosphere:
The atmosphere was nice — we were outside, and we moved inside when it was raining, but the staff were perfect — they sensed a change in whether and helped us move. It looked like most Carluccios, fresh, clean, open, a little chainy — but slightly higher up the chain than pizza express — without pizza. We could hear ourselves talk which I think is important.
Waiting time: The staff were really fast, they responded, the manager (we think) and our waiter were really good — and there was one waiter who didn’t enjoy her job and she looked sad. But she didn’t ruin our evening. And it wasn’t full.
Food options: Amazing, inconsistant quality
Staff: Amazing
Atmosphere: As expected, but I like what I expected.

Great company but the steak could have been bigger! Nice intimating setting at the back!
I did think service could have been better than the waiter dumping the food and bill on our table !

After crawling off of the tube and in desperate need of a caffeine kick, Carluccio’s bright lights drew us straight in. The décor was very rustic and inviting, and we were swiftly greeted by a friendly waitress.
To the delight of my inner ‘coffee geek’, the waitress asked my preference of coffee (as much to my surprise, they supplied two different types of grind — Robusta and Arabica!) and sent somebody to fetch pouring cream for me from the kitchen (much to my embarrassment!). The coffee was a good size, very reasonably priced and most importantly of all, tasted absolutely gorgeous.
I would thoroughly recommend for anybody whose passionate about good coffee. Keep up the great work!

Loved it was a bit to crowded when I went there the food was great, the service even more love the fact that its opposite the train station. The deserts are heavenly must order.

stale bread. warm food that was clearly not freshly cooked. hard sell by waiters. probably the noisiest restaurant in London even when it’s not so busy due to the fish tank design. 2 out of 3 of us were sick after eating their bruschetta. they only sell ‘small’ bottles of water at £3 per bottle to force you to buy multiple bottles.
diners — vote with your feet & don’t let Carluccios get away with their increasing prices & deteriorating standards.

Snob that I am, I’ve been guilty in the past of dismissing the Carluccios chain restaurants as overpriced delis with café tables. The one in Oxford Circus used to be a default working overflow when we ran out of meeting rooms and we’d occasionally pick up croissants and expensive but good coffees as a treat on a dull or hungover morning. Spending Friday night in one has never been something I’d think of, much less look forward to. Wandering into the Richmond branch at the end of a busy week to meet up with friends didn’t tick many boxes. I’d have been happier with a curry at home, a little bistro or, frankly anything else than a bowl of overpriced, mass produced pasta among the young daters an the elderly middleclass they would inevitably morph into. As I say, I’m a snob. Closer consideration of the menu gave me some hope. There are a range of pastas to follow a good choice of starters taken from around Italy and a relatively uncomplicated fish and grill section if you’re trying to avoid carbs. No pizzas feature. The ingredients were reasonable, the pasta and gnocci fresh and perfectly cooked. My sauce, a venison ragu, was a meagre portion slopped on and rolled in the pan to give some coverage, the bulk of the slightly dry meat managed to cling together, fearful of separation. Shared starters were assembled from good ingredients, all available to buy from the deli counter alongside and not really worth much more discussion. The service was abrupt and desultory in places, amateurish but friendly in others, the furniture ‘wipe while you’re sitting’ café style. While I couldn’t say anything actively bad about it, I couldn’t say anything particularly good either and with prices equivalent to some of the better mid range Italians in town (certainly comparable to Zucca, Trullo and Mele e Pele) it just doesn’t stack up for me. Somewhere to go when you run out of meeting room space, or a fallback mid session, but definitely not somewhere I’d plan to go again.

A crèche at lunchtimes. Overpriced. Not for business lunches.

Pretty good italian food and not too expensive. This place has much more of a deli/​café feel than it does a fine dining place.
That is fine with me. I prefer the casual vibe. There is a nice little store where you can get freshly sliced deli meats as well as take some of their home made ice cream to go.
Service was friendly and the food was pretty good. Had the fettucini with wild boar ragu and the lasagna. Both were rich and flavor and the pasta was cooked perfectly. If this is an indicator for the other pasta’s then I would say stick with the pastsa. I found the seafood salad and the osso bucco to be a bit underseasoned and generally a miss. The risotto with the osso bucco was too stuff (tasted like mac and cheese) and the seafood salad didnt have the freshness I was looking for.
Finishing the meal was some really nice homemade ice cream. Nice because the flavors were very true to the ingredients. The coffee tasted like real coffee etc. That said, the ice cream tasted a bit icy and didnt have that rich creaminess that I would expect from Italian gelato.
Overall, not bad for a place we just stumbled into, but I wouldn’t rave about this place.

The lasagna I had was OK, but nothing special. It was broiled just to the point of being overcooked. The outdoor seating was quite nice, even in November. Wait service was good and more than accommodating when asked to split the bill onto two credit cards.
I’d visit here again just to try a few more items on the menu before I really make up my mind about this place.

Decent Italian but pretty disappointing, since my friend has been desperate to go here and try it for a while. A big fat ‘meh’ is all I could manage. My mum reports that she once got served undercooked aubergine here, which is pretty unforgivable.
It’s difficult to mess up gnocchi and cheese sauce, and it was as tasty and, er, potatoey as I’d expect. The boy’s pasta with seafood was something I could envisage cooking at home in approximately 10 minutes, nothing impressive there. Can’t remember the third dish. The bread tin was… full of bread.
If you’re in the mood for Italian, it’ll hit the spot but don’t expect anything special. May as well go to Strada (actually, I have a soft spot for Strada if it wasn’t for their awful service) or Ask.

There are a few of them around, and I have to say, having been in three, that the level of consistency is very good.
This one is in a nice location in Richmond and is quite roomy, giving it a relaxed feel. The food on show at the front is very tempting and well laid-​out, and I like the idea of combining a shop/​deli with a restaurant… and the seated area does feel like just that, a restaurant, as opposed to a café or bistro.
The food is very good and I’ve always enjoyed good service. The wine is very tasty, and at reasonable prices, and thee are plenty of options for everyone — vegetarians, meat lovers, celiacs (there’s more than just pizza and pasta!)…
All in all, it’s a really nice place to enjoy an evening with friends, as there’s something for everyone at good prices.

Part of the Carluccio’s chain, this branch seems to have made a name for itself as being very Yummy Mummy friendly in the week. At the weekend it’s much more like other Carluccio’s and on rugby days runs some outdoor BBQ’s and sells Italian sausages in rolls and other takeaway food for cold rugby fans on their way to Twickenham.
It’s fine Italian food that looks pretty and is reasonably priced considering its stable & famous chef.
Rather strangely thick hot chocolate which was almost like eating chocolate soup. Although I’m told it’s authentically Italian.