Charlies Trio

This is one of those places that should be on «Kitchen Nightmares».
Came here for happy hour ordered the oysters. When it came out, the room smelled like month old dead fish. We asked the food runner if this was fresh– he replied «Yea, its raw isnt it?» WTF? RAW does not equal FRESH. Anyways mad unnecessary attitude for an honest inquiry.
So my GF, said she didn’t want to spend the night on the toilet and would not consume the oysters. I took the risk and tried it. Immediately spat it back out. Up to this point in my life i’ve consumed in the 1,000’s if not 10’s of thousands of oysters– I know when it’s not right.
So we politely told our waiter about the situation. His reply was this stone cold look, no apologies for the toxic shellfish– just the «are you serious?» kind of look.
He finally took it away after the long awkward stare down. Came back a minute later– «do you want us to fry the oysters?»
Head to palm– bad oysters raw= bad. Badly oysters fried= bad.
Maybe we reading into too much, but immediately after the complaint– the other waiter brought my gf her drink, and instead of handing it to her or setting it on the table gently– He hovered the drink an inch above the table and slammed it on the table for her.
We looked at each other, like «did that just really happen?!»
Really classless and unnecessary move.
Not sure if Ramsey could even save this place.
Eat here if you want to be disrespected and get and avalanche of attitude.

Straight forward Americanized Italian food with a clean quiet atmosphere and good service. Decently priced food and wine by the bottles. The fresh bread is fantastic here.

I’ve been living in Alhambra for over 30 years, first time set foot in Charlie Trios !
Anyway, food was good and reasonable priced. A bit surprise to hear they charge 75cents for extra shredded Parmesan cheese for my Caesar salad… in an Italian restaurant. Anchovies are $ 2 extra.
Giving 3 stars as there isn’t 2.5.

Italian Food is good and would receive higher marks, however, there is no excuse for bad service. There was only one waiter for a packed restaurant — nuts!

Great spot the on Charlie’s trio for me, amazing service chill set up and on the spot good food, shrimp pesto pizza is to die for and the drinks are never a disappoint

This time around I came with my 2 girlfriends for a get together because the other times I’ve been to this place the food was really good.
This time, I was disappointed in the food. We ordered 3 dishes between the 3 of us.
–Big Man Special pizza. We got the 12′ to share, comes with 6 slices. The pizza crust was burnt and did not taste good, it was hard and not soft. Was sad about this because I love pizza and especially the crust!
–Chicken Marsala pasta. The pasta amount was so little, not enough to get a good amount portion for the 3 of us. I ended up only eating a little bit of the pasta because it was not enough to share. It also had mushroom and grilled chicken. Both taste very bitter. We did not finish this dish because the bite of the mushroom and chicken was bitter. I do give them credit that the chicken was cooked good and not dry but it was just bitter. Bitter taste in every bite.
–Meat Lasagna. The lasagna was cook authentic, not too soft or too hard. The texture was chewy. It was layered with beef and cheese. It was a small dish and was barely enough for the 3 of us to share. We cut it in 3 pieces and it was gone in 2 – 3 bites. This was probably the only good dish out of everything. It came with a side of veggies and that taste so bland. Not good at all.
I do give credit to the server who had good service and was very nice. She came to us and checked on us a couple of times. We just felt bad to tell her anything because the food was already eaten half.
I don’t think I would want to come back to here for a while. I felt kind of bad for bringing my friends here because I was the one who told them that they got good food.

I came here years ago for my graduation, and when I came here that night this pasta was the best I had ever had. I’m unsure of why I never decided to come back. I think I was afraid the prices were steep considering it’s an Italian place? I have no idea. I came here again the past weekend and I had a great meal.
I came around 3 pm, and the place was completely empty. We were quickly seated and given our free focaccia bread with some kind of pesto oil mix. It was delicious! The focaccia bread is the perfect heat, and it was crispy on the outside and fluffy on the inside. The dip it came with complimented it perfectly. I couldn’t stop myself from eating it-​it was so delicious I found myself finishing 3 on my own.
I ordered the Pasta Bud since this was the pasta I got a few years ago, and it was still as good as I remembered it. Although it was a little watery, the sauce is good and the sausage is also cooked well. My boyfriend got the chicken parmigiana, which I thought tasted a little over cooked. but the spaghetti and marinara sauce was great. The best part was that both of these entrees were $ 10.50, and the portions were quite large. Nonetheless, we finished both (and finished with a huge food coma).
Service was good, but when you’re the only table, it better be good.
I think this place is definitely a kind of hole in the wall, I would definitely come again (and steal the focaccia bread).

Please upgrade the bathroom. All other areas are 5 star: food, ambience, seating, service but bathroom is dragging this nice place down. down. down on rating. I cannot wash my hands at such a dirty bathroom..

Excellent service from the waitress to the bus-​boy. The manager even walks around and checks in with each of the tables to make sure everything is up to par. The food was served nice and hot, fresh ingredients and tasted great. We were very impressed with this establishment and would highly recommend eating here — we will be returning. We love the fresh herb olive oil mixture they serve with fresh baked garlic bread — delicious!

Meh! I’m not sure I ordered the right dish to be fair to them. I ordered the pan roasted salmon. It felt a little over cooked and I wasn’t in awe of the seasoning used. Additionally the sautéed veggies it came with was very unappealing.
However, like I said, to be perfectly fair to them, I should probably go back and try a traditional Italian dish like lasagna or chicken Marsala and update my review based on those dishes.
Additionally, I like Italian restaurants where not all their dishes are served with a side of pasta or spaghetti. So I would’ve liked dishes like the chicken piccata, pan roasted chicken and a few other chicken dishes to be offered with something other than spaghetti.

I noticed that this place was one of the restaurants along the busy streets of Alhambra along where the majority of the popular restaurants as such as Dip’s Grill, Gen KBBQ, 38 Degrees, Boiling Crab, etc. that I wanted to give this place a try as well since I do enjoy eating Italian so much. We quickly found parking in the back lot of the Public Parking structure and walked over expecting a lot of people since it was dinner time; but to our surprise, there wasn’t yet and we got seated in about 5 minutes at a booth to the far inside of the restaurant.
I ordered straight from their Original Charlies menu of the Spaghetti and Bolognese, while my friend ordered Linguini and Clams with their creamy sauce and an order of fries to share between us. While waiting for our order, we ate their free starter focaccia bread basket with a nice dipping sauce and munched on the fries. The food took quite along time to arrive at our table (despite the slow Sunday night dinner rush) and I was famished by the time we got our meals.
I enjoyed their bolognese sauce which is not too spiced up and complimented the pasta quite well. I think i was able to eat about two-​thirds of it all before I was quite full from all the fries and bread combined. The only complaint my friend had regarding the linguine and clams were that majority of his clams were empty shells and not a lot of clams overall in his pasta at all.
Other than that, we enjoyed ourselves and I would certainly be back to try more of their food items.

First time here and the food was yummy friendly and fast service good vibes and nice surrounding

I rarely find myself in Alhambra. Not because I don’t like it, I just have most of what it has to offer in my own neck of the woods, but I went to a movie with some of my buddies as the theater there was the only one showing the film. We were all hungry after the film and it took us some time to decide on a place to eat as we all wanted something different, but in the end, we all could agree on Italian food.
The restaurant is on a great street and there’s lots of activity around. The restaurant is not very large which I like, but there are too many tables crammed in so you’re practically sharing a table with the entire restaurant. Nonetheless, we were seated and started to peruse the menu. Nothing really jumped out at me at first, but I did eye the calzones and after awhile, I decided on the Casalinga calzone. So did one of my buddies so it’s a popular choice!
We waited for our food and they had bread and pesto on the table. I didn’t eat this as I’m not much of a bread basket kind of guy, but my buddies were raving about. We talked amongst ourselves anyhow and our food came out at about the right time. The calzone was bigger than I anticipated and I would say is a fair price for the quantity. The taste was good, but not great or mind blowing. I only ate about half of it and took the rest to go. It reheated well. I didn’t really expect that either.
Not sure I’d recommend the restaurant to anyone as I wasn’t impressed with anything here, but I wouldn’t deter anyone either as the prices are great and the food is average. We parked at the theater so I don’t know where you’d park otherwise. They claim they make everything in house, but I don’t know… not sure I believe that. We had a piece of bread we are positive had mold on it, but they took it away and claimed it wasn’t mold… hmmm…

Came here with a group of 8 during a weekday lunch. Good location on main with parking nearby. The place looked clean and higher end for sure. The restaurant wasn’t too busy when we arrived. We got seated fairly quickly and orders taken shortly after. I really liked the focaccia with the olive oil. The appetizer trio wasn’t all that impressive. I ordered the bud. It was a relatively simple pasta dish. I tried my friends clam linguini with the wine sauce and I wasn’t a fan. It didn’t quite capture the seafood taste from the clams so it was pretty bland. I also tried the lamb. The flavor was there but it was over cooked. We had the Italian cheese cake for dessert. That wasn’t all that so I wouldn’t recommend it. Overall, the quality of food wasn’t bad for the price. I would come back for a simple Italian meal.

What I like the most about this place is the consistency of their food. Another important reason why I keep coming back is the freshness of the produce used in the preparation of their dishes. They have really good pizzas and overall it’s a great choice for Italian food. Definitely they’ve earned my 5 stars.

5pm reservation… Tonight’s hostess was such a doll. sweet, friendly, and attentive. Excellent service from everyone tonight.
The Broasted Chicken was perfect, even the the white meat was moist! Clams with linguini in white sauce was good. Kiddo enjoyed the Salmon with Risotto.

Lunch on Thursday, 10÷29÷15
They open at 11am! We parked in the back structure and walked being the first customers of the day.
We sat down and ordered a lasagna and butternut squash linguini. Shortly after they brought us complimentary warm focaccia bread with olive oil. It was delicious. We asked for another basket after too. This review is mainly for the pasta dishes since I don’t come here for the bar experience nor the seafood dishes.
Throughout our meal, the servers would stop by and check to see how we’re doing. I’ve been here a few times but not frequently so I can’t remember what I had previously. I just remember the tasty complimentary bread. I’ve never had a bad experience either so I would come back again for Italian food in the neighborhood.

It’s been ages since I’ve stopped by here… Today the family was craving boasted chicken so I ordered to go. Depending on your family of 3 – 4’s preference of white or dark meat you can either get the 11 piece economy that comes with one piece of white or the 12 piece family specials with three pieces of white. The economy, however, does not come with any sides so that would be al la carte. We now know to go with the economy.
Anyhow, really, really good boasted chicken. Very consistent throughout the years and we will certainly return.

Charlie’s is my new fav spot! My waiter was so nice and accommodating. I showed up like 30 minutes before my friends who were supposed to meet me there for dinner. I asked if I needed a reservation but he said since they were supposed to show up in half an hour it was ok. It wasn’t a crowded Wednesday night so I think it was cool either way. They ended up 15 mins late! So I sat there for 45 minutes! My waiter was so nice and gave me garlic bread and water while I was waiting.
He continued to check up on me and later on my friends when they arrived. I think his name was Cesaer. I ordered the bbq chicken calzone. I wanted to try something new. It was pretty good but the bbq sauce was too intense for me. I think next time I’ll order the fettuccine Alfredo. Great place overall! :)

I really want to like this place since it is so close to home. But it really is just A-​OK. I’ve been here a few times and have always thought it was OK but for some reason come back and try it again every so often. It is located on Main St. in Alhambra so parking can kind of suck. Thankfully, there is a new parking lot right behind Charlie’s Trio that makes life much easier. They do have outside seating so you can «people watch» if you want — or maybe you just want to sit outside.
I ordered the Porkchop while my girlfriend ordered the Southwest Pasta. The Porkchop was cooked very well (medium) but it was very flavorless. It just tasted like a grilled porkchop with roasted breadcrumbs on top. I’m not sure how it was supposed to taste? My girlfriend’s Southwest pasta was also very bland. It was not sweet, nor salty. I hate to say it, but I probably enjoyed the bread with olive oil and herbs dip the most.
Not really worth the time or the money, especially with all of the new establishments to eat at on Main St. Hopefully they get it together. I really did want to like this place.