Carbonara Trattoria

This is my favorite Italian place in the metro. We live down in Decatur and come up to Dunwoody when we want good Italian food. The owner is friendly and knowledgeable and the chef is happy to modify dishes to fit your culinary tastes! Spectacular place for romance and families too…

I’m a little concerned about writing this review. It’s our first time here, and it’s so great that I’m afraid a good review may start packing them out and I won’t be able to get a table.
Regardless, nesting in the Dunwoody Village is the gastronomic gem. Unassuming on the outside and exploding with Italian goodness within.
We ordered the prawn appetizer in a lemon caper sauce over crostini. Each bite was better than the one before. The prawns were delicate and the lemon sauce accented their yummy flavor.
My wife ordered the veal risotto and I had the Zuppa de Mare.
I don’t typically order veal because everywhere else they tend to bread the heck out of it and then cook it until it’s shoe leather. When my wife let me taste hers, it was moist and tender.
My zuppa de mare was cooked in a tomato saffron broth over a small amount of linguine. Never mind that it was oceanic in the amount of lobster, scallops, shrimp, calamari, mussels and clams. The broth was equally delish. The saffron gave it the perfect amount of velvetiness.
To cap the night, we split the limoncello cake. The eighth deadly sin.
So, you have two choices. Ignore this, and I can continue to enjoy this fine restaurant without fighting for a table, or treat yourself to Italian dining as it was meant to be.

Atmosphere is nice and reservations can be made through OpenTable. A bit hard to locate though. Food is pretty good, although the one appetizer I would avoid the the one w/​prawns. Priced way too high for what ends being a disappointing dish w/​less than satisfactory portion. Get the mussels instead.
Here is what I’ve had in my first trip:
Steamed Mussels — A must.
Kids spaghetti and meatballs — Angel hair pasta, a couple of meatballs, and a hefty tomato sauce.
Tricolore Salad — Very tasty, recommend trying it.
Bread with butter — Complimentary, comes on a cutting board nice and warm.
House Italian Chianti — I enjoyed it, but wine really is a personal preference.
Baked Rigatoni — Great dish, would recommend. Hearty, large portion. Wife had to take it home. Made for great leftovers.
Chef Special — Risotto — If I remember right, it was a seafood risotto that I destroyed.
I plan to frequent this place when in the mood for good italian.

The food is excellent and everyone is extremely nice. I have never had anything but an extremely wonderful experience. We live nearby and dine in and pick up carry out often — my son absolutely loves the spaghetti and meatballs!

The food here is amazing. I started with the Pear and Prosciutto salad and my husband had the Beet and Goat Cheese. The next course was the Seafood Linguini and the Veal Piccatta. The linguini had every seafood imaginable. Mussels, clams, shrimp. calamari and scallops. Our server Jennifer was great too. She knew everything about the food and wine. She recommended a great bottle of Grenache to go with our meal. It’s nice to go out and not think about anything. The Limoncello Cake was to die for…

I’ve sat at the bar several times and was served by the nicest and most attentive girl named Kelli. She was friendly, personable, and a pleasure to be served by. Her recommendations for wine and dinner were excellent. I had the fried green tomato with goat cheese appetizer and the filet mignon for dinner. I highly recommend dining at Carbonara Trattoria – I will keep coming back! If you’re coming in solo or with just one other person, sit with Miss Kelli at the bar. She made a good experience an excellent one.

I live very close to this restaurant, and have been there 4 times in the past few years. Always loved the food but the service was never good so thought we’d give it another shot and glad we did. we had probably the best calamari in ATL veal Marsala, and rigatoni, all suggested by our server Jennifer. Everything just flowed! Last time we are here our waiter forgot our appetizer, and we left with bread and some dishes still on the table. I probably had the best cappuccino ever made by a fellow named Daniel. It’s nice to have someone serve you who is knowledgable about food and wine. Last time waiter brought the wrong wine to the table and had to ask another staff member what kind of wine it was.Mmmmm. Much better this time and we’ll only stop in if we can have Jennifer.

I was so glad I finally tried this restaurant! I’d driven by several times. While tucked away in Dunwoody Village, it has such a great, comfortable interior. The food was fantastic! The bread was unreal (toasty on the outside, warm on the inside) and the entrees were incredibly tasty. I highly recommend the prosciutto potato gnocchi! My only complaint is that it took a very long time to get the food. We sat in the bar and the bartender apparently put everyone’s order in at the same time; she accepted the blame for the wait time. I highly recommend for a nice dinner out but wouldn’t suggest taking young kids as they don’t have high chairs.

It was our 16^th anniversary last weekend and my husband and I decided to celebrate it by going to our local Italian restaurant for a nice dinner. We made a reservation for 7.30pm but arrived 10 mins ahead of time. It wasn’t an issue and got seated by the friendly hostess shortly. The place was busy but a server came by to serve some bread quickly, which I appreciated. It was nice and warm, so far so good. But unfortunately, that’s also when the positives ended. It was almost 30 mins later before someone came to get our drink and food orders. After another 20mins, the server who took our orders came by to apologize for the delay and said he would be back to get our order. We reminded him that he already took our order and he looked surprised, which made me wonder if the order made it to the kitchen. Anyway, it was over an hour from when we first got seated, before we got our food. We had planned to order appetizers, salads, entrees and dessert but since it took over 30 mins to order something, we decided we would only get entrees. Poor service aside, we were very disappointed in the food. I had a spaghetti carbonara dish, while my husband ordered a seafood penne dish. My spaghetti turned out to be linguini, which frankly, isn’t a big deal, but it tasted like it had been under a heat lamp for a long time, because the ends of the pasta were hard. The pasta was also drowning in a lot of sauce, which unfortunately was also pretty bland. The penne dish wasn’t much better, and even copious amounts of pepper could not rescue it from the lack of flavor. We ate as much as we could, and got the hell out of there.
We’ve actually been here before a few times before, a few years back, and we were glad it was still in business since in general, we enjoy patronizing local businesses. The last time we were here, we thought the food was not that good, given the high prices but since that was a few years ago, we figured we would give it another chance. It looks like it’ll be another few years before we would venture back here, given our experience. The people who work here seem very nice and I hate to write a bad review, but given the prices they charge, I really expect better food.

I have been here three times in spite of living in Dunwoody for 19 years.
The food is good and it has a nice atmosphere.
Service is good. They have a martini for 5 dollars on Thursdays and 10 dollar pasta on Sundays.

Another great dinner. Wine was half price and good specials. Had the regitoni (sp?) With eggplant & spicy sausage — always good! Big portion, enough for lunch. Friends enjoyed the chicken & veal. Nice crowd for a Wednesday night.

This place is tucked away in Dunwoody Village and you feel like you’re miles away from Dunwoody inside.
It was almost full at 730 in a Saturday night. Some people had reservations but it wasn’t totally needed. I was in awe as to how good this place was. I felt like my date and I were the only ones who didn’t know anyone else or the owner. It’s the kind of place where the owner stops by your table to chat. He even waited on us (I think they were under staffed).
Great wine list without feeling overwhelmed by it. Decent beer list too. They don’t shy away on the wine pours which is a nice thing.
We had the bruschetta to start. I could have licked the plate it was so good.
I had a shrimp pasta that was delicious. The shrimp were fresh and plentiful. The pasta was hot, tasty and just amazing. I couldn’t finish it all! My date gave the lasagna great reviews as he cleaned his plate.
We skipped dessert but might go for it next time.
It’s casual here but not that casual. Jeans are acceptable but you don’t need a tie or dress. I will be back again even if it was a little pricy!

This is a lovely local Italian. I think that it is family owned. Comfortable, warm, relaxing, sit down dinner-​out atmosphere. Solid menu… love the pastas esp. the Bolognese. Great Sunday night specials. A great option for a quiet, cozy dinner with good friends especially on a rainy night in winter.

Excellent food. We had some wine with bruschettas and steamed mussels. Yum yummy. For main course we had the chicken Marsala wow. It was just perfect.

We came here for the first time tonight. The ambiance is nice and felt pretty authentic compared to many other Italian-​American restaurants. The pasta and the sirloin were delicious, so were the deserts. The espresso could have been a little thicker and stronger. The only disappointment was the waitress who didn’t seem to care too much about her tip. We will definitely be back and hope for a different waiter next time.

Well, this was the first time I have ever gotten up and walked out of a restaurant before the meal was over. So there’s that. We had some wine and calamari which was good and then we never saw the waiter again for an hour. After letting the manager know that we were waiting on food, he said he would take care of it. He produced a soup and salad for half our party, which we had even forgotten that we ordered at that point because why the hell would it take an hour to get out soup and salad? Then we waited some more. And some more. And then decided we were clearly going to die at Carbonara Trattoria if we didn’t make the decision to leave because the food was not ever going to come. The waiter was scurrying around our table not making eye contact so again, we called over the manager and told him we wanted our check and that we were leaving. He proceeded to argue with us about how the food was coming and how long we had been waiting. In a great display of self control, I calmly explained that at this point we had been there since 7:15 and it was 8:45 and there was no entrée in sight. He told us just to go which was the only wise business decision made in a sea of bad choices but even that can’t save such abysmal service from a one star rating. Do yourself a favor and spend your time somewhere else, where your money and business will be appreciated. I can’t believe this place still has it’s doors open.

This is the best Italian restaurant in Dunwoody, perhaps in Atlanta. The food is always great and the wine selection is hard to beat.
The staff is friendly and the service is fast. One of the best places for date night.

Went here with a large group for work on a weekday evening. It was a bit hard to find in the dark, but worth the trouble.
We started with some shared appetizers which were delicious. I had a salad and the sun-​dired tomato Gnocchi — it was soooo delicious. Everyone raved about the food and the service was really good as well.
I splurged on the Tiramisu for desert and it was so moist, rich and delicious. The piece was HUGE! Plenty to share with a friend or date.

I came here to celebrate my birthday dinner, and was excited to see how they fared as this was a first time visit. I ended up having a great experience and can’t wait to return!
My roommate and I ventured here on a Monday night around 6:45 pm. We were immediately greeted and seated by the hostess who was very upbeat and kind. The atmosphere was more intimate than we were expecting, but on a warm summer evening it definitely sets the tone well. They have a limited outdoor seating area, but inside the small space seems much larger than it is. The front area had high tables and a nice bar/​lounge area to grab a few glasses of wine and apps. I could see myself here late night relaxing after work or an event. The dining room is set in an old world style with Italian landscapes on the walls, white tablecloths and candles, and some booth areas on the sides. It could easily transition into a group event if needed.
Ethan was our server and he did a great job! He was very attentive and made personalized recommendations based on his favorites and my preferences. Now — on to the food! They have a prix fixe menu option which allows you to choose an appetizer, entrée, and dessert for $ 29. Some of the entrees have notes that add a few dollars extra on to the option (for example — you have a $ 5 upcharge on the prix fixe if you add filet mignon). My roommate and I both chose that option and split the apps and tried each others entrees. Most everything was on point.
Appetizers:
1. Fried Green Tomatoes — These were phenomenal! It was three large fried green tomatoes cut in half to make six total pieces. The breading was light and the inside was filled with warm, creamy goat cheese. The red pepper coulis base really accented the dish well.
2. Antipasto Platter — This will definitely feed two — three guests with ease. It included salami, prosciutto, parmesan, blue cheese, goat cheese, toast points, olives, and a mixture of pickled vegetables like artichoke hearts, carrots, and cauliflower. The only drawback I had with this is they drizzled additional olive oil on the top. Everything is already so rich/​fatty/​creamy it really didn’t need that extra touch. It was a bit too greasy and I had to wipe some of my items down.
Entrees:
1. Gnocchi — This made the whole trip worthwhile! I rarely cook gnocchi for myself so I took advantage of the opportunity. It was cooked in a gorgonzola prosciutto sauce that was so good! My mouth is watering now just thinking about it. It was very rich and the perfect cheesy accent that would be perfect in the winter. Definitely a stick to your ribs kind of comfort food dish.
2. Grilled Lamb — The lamb was very tender and presented beautifully. It was bone-​in with three pieces atop cauliflower mashed potatoes and crisp asparagus. A warm red wine reduction sauce topped it all off. Another rich dish, I would have loved to have something acidic paired with it to cut through the flavors, but extremely tasty and something I would get for myself.
Desserts:
1. NY Cheesecake — I was a little disappointed with this one. The cheesecake was warmer than I would have liked when it was brought out and it had lumps (I’m assuming of cream cheese) throughout. The crumb crust fell apart pretty easily and I prefer mine a little more firm. In future I wouldn’t choose this one again over their many cake offerings.
2. Pistachio Gelato — Not as soft as a traditional gelato, this was more like ice cream. Served in an old fashioned glass dish it melted well in your mouth and definitely had the flavor my roommate was looking for.
Overall, the great food and stellar service will have me come back to try more of their offerings and explore their extensive wine list. I had no idea that such a nice restaurant was hidden behind the oak door a few steps away from my neighborhood Bruster’s.

We came here for Valentine’s and had a nice dinner. The location was a little tough to find, but it’s in the same strip mall as Dunwoody Prep. The great thing is they don’t subject you to a «special» overpriced v-​day menu. They do offer a daily prix-​fixe option that lets you choose an app, entrée, and dessert for $ 29.
I chose the caesar salad, which was nothing special and definitely overpriced at $ 9. Luckily our entrees were better– we had gnocchi in a gorgonzola sauce and a mushroom risotto. The gnocchi sauce was excellent– flavorful but not too rich.
The owner came around and talked to us about dessert. The tiramisu was a flavorful option, while the pink champagne cake was decent. The restaurant has nice décor, and definitely draws more of an older suburban crowd.