Booyah! After a six month exile from the Roman Empire – located in and around both New York City and Boston (good Italian food can be found) – I spent a few hours at Carmine’s in mid-town Manhattan to help ease the pain. Yay me!

For those of you that have never been to Carmine’s it’s a casual place that serves its Italian food family style… That means that you order an entrée for the table and pass the large plate around to everyone, which is similar to how people eat at a Chinese restaurant: order a bunch of different stuff and share it.

So we ordered a plate of chicken parmigiana, another of ravioli, and we started with calamari as an appetizer. Between the four of us we couldn’t finish the food: left more than half of the calamari, half a chicken cutlet, and a third of the ravioli.

Add to that two orders of dessert and a few coffees, and the total was just about $120 for lunch; I think that’s extremely reasonable for a lunch in mid-town. It’s also some of the best Italian that I’ve had in NYC. Sure, it’s not the most exotic place to eat and if you don’t like standard Italian fare it won’t be for you, but they consistently offer great Italian food and that’s no small feat (as my time in WA has shown me!) The fact that their menu is printed on the wall, and never print on paper or available at the table, just adds charm to the place

Carmine’s has a place on West 44th, between Broadway and 8th Ave. There’s also another location on 90th and a third in Atlantic City… there’s also Arturo’s, which is modelled off of Carmine’s, that’s located in Hong Kong: the food is good there too, but the Chinese influence makes it a little different… and of course, a little far to go to for us yanks!

In NYC and want some good Italian? Check out Carmine’s; and this especially goes out to those of you that don’t know what New York-style Italian is like!