Carmine’s Bar, Grill & Stage

Hanging with the crew. Carmine, Holly, Kyle, Crystal and Emmy. Awesome service as usual. These guys rock. Just had the grilled salmon unbelievable.

Visited from jersey and was happy I did, if you are in the area do yourself a favor and stop in Carmine’s! The atmosphere is lively and carmine the owner runs his business off the definition of hospitality. The happy hour appetizers are to die for! The beer battered fries with homemade ranch dill dipping sauce along with two others are an amazing combination. Stop by, you won’t b disappointed!

Tonight was my first time at Carmine’s, it also happened to be the 1 year anniversary of this gem! The food was amazing, it’s homemade. I had the vegetable pesto risotto. Also had the East Hartford Cosmo, recommended by our great server, Kyle! The atmosphere is a great and comfortable setting. Extra bonus they have live music!
Do yourself a favor and check out Carmine’s!

Just had a amazing time with Emmy at the bar and the bestie Jackie. Spent 4 hours but felt like 20 minutes. Great food and Happy Hour. First time here but will be coming back for sure.

Went in for lunch one day, we had a group of 8 but we were seated immediately. The waitstaff was extremely friendly and helpful, and the food was delicious! I had the pasta special, sweet potato and ricotta ravioli, and it was amazing. I will definitely be back again.

This place is a little piece of heaven. Every item on the menu is mouth watering. The owner is a true connoisseur! The man knows food! I would recommend this place to everyone! Great atmosphere! Stop here at least once but I guarantee it won’t be the only time!

They make you feel right at home. The food is the best around. The owner, his wife and staff are very friendly and efficient. I highly recommend coming here.

Crystal and Deanna are unbelievable bartenders. Friendly is an understatement and the food is some of the best I’ve had in a very long time. Homemade is they’re credo. You can’t go wrong at Carmine’s.

Friday April 30^th was our first time at Carmines. Went to see our friends band Flashback IV (great band by the way) Got to the restaurant around 7pm, wasn’t very crowded. Found a table that kind of afforded us a view of the band (weird wall system, blocks alot of the view for entertainment) we were having dinner with another couple and they had not arrived yet. A woman approached our table asking if we were having dinner and drinks, we said yes, she then went to another girl and sent her to our table with menus. This girl took our drink orders and brought them in a timely manner. We were still waiting for the other couple when she came back to take our order, we declined at that time so she brought us bread with a carafe of melted butter (had a garlic flavor but no spices). Our friends arrived and after we found and flagged down the waitress (still wasnt very busy) our friends ordered drinks, which she brought incorrectly. One friend decided to keep his but our other friend waited 15 minutes for her correct drink before I got up and went over to the bar (about 6 feet away mind you) after another 5 minutes the waitress finally brought her her drink. We then ordered another round and our food. Drinks were a bit slow in coming (our waitress seemed to like hanging out in the kitchen instead of taking care of her tables) Our food finally came out, but i had to get up and go find utensiles and salt and pepper for our table. I ordered a cup of the homemade mushroom soup, creamy and delicious. My husbsnd ordered fried calamari, cold and tasteless. Our friend ordered risoto with grilled shrimp, he said it was good.
The owner had come to our table and chatted with us, he seemed very nice and offered us a round of drinks. (Our waitress never brought them)
We had a fun night all in all as we were with great friends listening to a wonderful band. Will we go back… probably not. Menu was very limited, service was poor, food was ok, mixed drink prices were a bit high ($ 7.35 for a Margherita in a rock size glass). I wish them well, but they need to seriously train their servers better.

Can’t wait to try this restaurant out tonight… Our favorite band is playing Flash Back!
Come on down, your in for a real treat (Food, and Band) See you later!!!

Delish! Tried it on a whim and it was great. All homemade and really wonderful people and service. I’ll definitely return.

Been there twice… both times the service was very good and attentive but not overly so. Can highly recommend the homemade chicken manicotti if your lucky enough for it to be available. The clam chowder was a little thicker than I like it but quite tasty; could have been hotter. My wife had the shrimp Bolognese… another special that day. It should be on the menu regularly!
Keep in mind that every entrée is made to order.
Carmine and Holly are the nicest people I’ve seen running a restaurant in quite while.
I agree with Max C. «Cheers», sorta.

Loved meeting the owner — Carmine’s excitement is infectious and he loves his food and his employees ! Few comments –the Caesar salad had too much dressing in my opinion but it’s personal preference. next time I’ll ask for lite. Hubby got the bolognese and all I can say is wow ! Will definitely be back to try their wings

Visited Carmine’s for the first time last night… it was fantastic!!! There were 6 of us so we each had a different app and entrée… all amazing! Wings, calamari, mozzarella, flatbread, shrimp, antipasto… then onto entrees… wow!!! The dinner was great as well chicken, pasta, steak tips, risotto, eggplant parmigiana… The homemade pasta seriously delicious… and there’s more! We finish eating and then comes live music by the Instigators… great band and amazing sound system! Then there’s more… surprise visit from Jimi Bell who did a set… oh and I forgot to mention Carmine and Holly who own this gem couldn’t be nicer. We will be back

04÷01÷16:
All I can say is clean, fun, and welcoming! This is a modern version of «Cheers» where everyone knows your name. All it needs is Norm sitting at the end of their spacious bar. It made our night when Carmine’s daughter ended the last set of the night with a cool blues version of «House of the Rising Sun». We will be back!

Fantastic food and Carmine makes the experience fun! I would recommend you check it out and try the shrimp appetizer. Fantastic!

I have been a local resident of East Hartford almost my whole life. A lot of times I think about east Hartford the way it was when I was a kid instead of the semi run down town it has become thought of as. Carmine’s is a great reason to still think of it as a nice place to be.
I went there for the first time tonight. Things I loved right off the bat– the chalkboard with entertainment almost every night of the week, the cool area for the band, the huge bar that centers the whole joint and means I will always be able to find a chair, the corner booth I can see having future parties of 10 at. But it doesn’t stop there. The happy hour specials for $ 3 and the flatbread that boasts spinach ricotta and balsamic on the same pizza didn’t take me long to order. Followed by a pappardelle dish with handmade noodles that was both impressive and authentic. I finished with the tiramisu that… Well, I just don’t have words for. Heavenly. Both the owner and his daughter worked behind the bar and their affection for each other was as palatable as the great food. This is exactly the kind of small business I like to give my hard earned dollar to. Get behind them with me and check it out, you won’t be disappointed.

The drinks and food are great. The staff is even better. They always make us feel very welcome.

We came for the comedy show, which was supposed to start at 8; it is now 8:45 and it is just starting.
The bartender was nice and the service was good, but she didn’t know the drink we ordered from the drink menu. It did taste good, though (tea with honey, cinnamon whiskey, and lemon). We also got the blue cheese burger (rather good), the garlic Parmesan wings (dry and not very flavorful, no garlic flavor) and the beer fries (just okay). We had ordered the blue cheese dressing but the ranch came out. The bartender brought out the correct dressing right away. However, as the other reviewer mentioned, both were a bit watery.
For atmosphere, it’s definitely a bar and not upscale, but the lights were way too bright for a dive bar.
Overall, it wasn’t horrible, but there are better places and we won’t be back.

Great atmosphere, great service and great food. Can’t wait to go back and enjoy some live music. I had the classic burger with fries. It was cooked perfect. I wanna eat another one as I’m typing this. Stop and give this place a shot, I’m sure you will enjoy it as well. I also met the owner Carmine. He’s very personable and has passion for his business. A+