I heard you paint houses…
Carmine’s (Atlantic City): Hey how ya doin’? I came to shoot craps! Bada bing! OK, now that I’ve gotten that out of my system, let us get down to the nitty gritty: this place is a great family style Italian restaurant. I came here with about 5 other people this past Saturday night. We had the following: Veal with butter and lemon sauce (I know, I know, it’s delicious delicious cruelty), eggplant parmigiana, penne with vodka sauce, and meatballs. We then shared a delicious banana split.
The food was amazing. A lot like howa momma used to make (not really, my mother is Filipino and, no insult to her, she is not the best at cooking Italian food). Although a lot of comments were that other people’s mother’s eggplant parmigiana was better than this places, I’d like to point out that when it comes to Italian food, everyone invariably has a relative or knows some one’s relative who is insanely good at making Italian food and it is to this person that all Italian food is compared too. While understandable, it should be noted Italian food at a restaurant almost never compares to Italian food made by a kind, loving, and slightly overbearing Italian grandmother, mother, aunt, second-cousin, etc.
That being said, the food was superb. The veal was deliciously tender and the butter and lemon sauce was smooth and just right. The meatballs were great, not mealy or tough. The penne with vodka sauce was also great, the sauce was very nice, not too thin or smelling like alcohol, and I really liked the eggplant parm. The sundae was also really good, but it’s ice cream. Very hard to screw that up.
Carmine’s is in our locations: 2 in NYC in the Theater District and the Upper Westside, the one in Atlantic City, and one in Paradise Island in the Bahamas. I’d say go to all of them as you are reading this blog and are not currently outside. it will give you a reason to get out more.
Price: $$ - Moderate (very affordable if you share. It is family style)
Location: The Quarter at the Tropicana Hotel, 2801 Pacific Avenue, Atlantic City, NJ 08401
-R
