Carluccio's Cambridge

Strange Menu Looks like an authentic Italian restaurant but actually is not at all. The restaurant had a lot of non Italian style cakes in the display. The menu provided American style burgers too. Weird. Has packed ink pasta for sale too. Slightly disappointed that the restaurant does not put ink pasta into their menu. Found a mini leaf on the table when being seated. The staff must be too busy at different tables therefore missed the details. Saturday was always busy anyway. The menu is quite limited, just standard. The pasta does taste like made from stretch like Aromi does. More like pulled out from a bag, I am not sure. But still, the dishes tastes fine, Standard flavour that suits everyone. Just the portions were a bit too small. Just little confused that the restaurant provides so much non Italian dishes and desserts. Why not focus on the Italian menu? Weird.

The restaurant was a mess! The waiters walk around all the time, nobody knows what to do while the costumers wait to make their orders or to receive their food! We had to ask several times do make our order and all waiters asked us to wait a little longer. Once the food finally arrived, the carbonara plate was so small, it came with less pasta than the kids version! Our drinks (juices and tap water) came almost after the main course! It was unbelievable! If you look around the restaurant you can see many tables not even clean after the exit of the costumers. I do not recommend it.

202405 dropping one star because of the lazy chef. The Arancini is lovely. Crunchy, not too oily, meting, not too heavy. Delightfully flavored and tastes good without the spicy tomato sauce (which tastes nice on its own too, but they somehow don’t get along.) The main dish came super slow. We spent 40 minutes waiting. (Eavesdropping: the chef is “feeling lazy” so the staff has to send back the defect calamari lol) Grilled prawns are not bad. The grilling part is done well although the prawns themselves may not be quite fresh. Chicken Milanese sees quite dry today too. Service is confused and slow. — 2-Chicken Milanese. Lightly breaded and crunchy. Not too dry or greasy. Good source of protein. It is more filling than the ragu parpadelle, though I like them both. (Ragu us more flavorful and lighter of course. The chicken breast may need the extra help of salt and pepper. Hope there was more rosemary. A little busy for lunch today but food came fast and service is welcoming and mostly friendly. Again pretty decent for the half price. —- Pretty adequate and not too filling for a pre-workout meal. It might not be as meaty as a meat dish, but the visible chunks of beef is about if not above average pasta portions. And it did arrive piping hot. The Ragu is tomatoey and flavorful. Pappardelle is a bit narrower than expected (it’s the standard— I prefer wider;) but the rough texture really holds the sauce. Service is friendly and the wait isn’t too long. The venue is spacious and not too crowded in the early evenings. I was skeptical about the chain store at the grande arcade corner, but with the 50% off main course deal it’s quite nice. Will be coming again with discounts :3