San Carlo Manchester 

I really don't know where to start. For someone who has been fortunate enough to be well traveled in Italy, I feel quite insulted that these fraudsters are actually trying to pass this abomination off as authentic Italian food. Unless I've been going to different regions to the San Carlo chefs, then this sadly fell well short. In actual fact it was quite awful. The only thing i I actually enjoyed (apart from the beer) was the burrata cheese. Apparently imported daily from Puglia. Although the team did there very best to ruin it by pairing it with aubergine absolutely smothered in garlic, so overpowering when all I had actually ordered was beautiful subtle creamy cheese, just black pepper and fresh tomato would have been sufficient thank you. The calamari was thick chewy and bland again disappointing. Sadly the main courses just got worse, the 'risotto San Carlo' well the less said about this the better, the fun thing about risotto is almost chasing it round the plate with your fork, this poor excuse was stodgy, bland undercooked and literally a dead still mountain on your plate. Never have I seen such little movement I think maybe the chef needs a little more practice on the art of risotto. Over cooked pasta can never be recovered from, this being paired with a disappointing amount of bacon, mae this a disaster of a spaghetti carbonara. Wait it did not end there a baked vanilla cheesecake was stodgy and grainy. Aimlessly squirting a little strawberry coulis on the plate was not gonna bring that back to life, although the coulis was probably the highlight of the whole meal. One think I certainly steared clear from was the 'trio of pasta' I can't give an honest opinion on this, but I struggle to see how a tomato pasta, a cream pasta and a Bolognese can ever work on the same plate, but this appeared to be a favourite with the surrounding tables. Maybe i missed out on this one although I am quietly confident I made the right decision. What infuriates me the most is the words 'authentic Italian restaurant' because you have pasta pizzas and and overwhelming amounts of garlic on the whole menu, this does not make you authentic. This is the first and last time I will ever be dining here. I advise the same.

With love

The food scene


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