San Carlo Manchester Reviews 

Extremely rude staff. They were insulting and implied that I was too drunk or that I wouldn't have been able to pay the bill.

Great food - service could have been better

Went for my birthday and it was horrendous, a waiter sexually assaulted my friend whilst I and another girl went to the toilet, leaving two girls behind. When we arrived back and they told us what had happened, the waiter in question came over to me and asked what I was dressed as (as we had fancy dress on) and I told him what he had done was inappropriate and he cannot grab someone’s face and kiss them without consent, I do not give a f if you’re Italian and that’s what you do in Italy, we’re in Manchester. He apologised, went off and then came back and said sorry again, whilst we were eating our main course, then we see a group of the waiters and they’re all laughing about it, walking past us making it clear they are laughing and and then he is with a big table near us, obviously telling them and then kissing them all and they are laughing which is just unbelievable. It ruined our evening and we didn’t finish our ‘uncooked’ pasta, we advised a manager and he didn’t care at all, another waiter came over and took the P out of my princess costume, insinuating I need to receive princess treatment whilst I was complaining, I honestly can’t believe how utterly horrendous the staff are… so we spoke to a general manager who also did not care; said he would come back and never did so we had to call him over again, as they tried to make us pay the full bill. Honestly, it was the worst experience at a restaurant that I’ve ever had to go through. Having been through a sexual assault myself recently, it reduced me to tears and ruined my entire evening. In a nutshell - The staff are rude and slow. Pasta was uncooked. We will never go back there.

Alderley Edge!

We went for the tomahawk medium. It came with a pulse. Asked for garlic butter and pepper corn sauce, both were disgusting sent the garlic butter back which was just melted butter. Oysters were the nicest bit but it’s not hard to make oysters. Come as there are. Don’t know how it’s so busy, burns a hole in your pocket for below average food.

Went to san carlo last night from my birthday with my husband, I’ll start of with the starter , it was absolutely terrible,4 prawns in abit of tasteless sauce with the most pathetic crisp bread I’ve ever seen, I’ve had better prawns from the Chinese chippy. Main course ,we both had fillet Rossini.. steak was full of sinuses it was tough and tasteless, couldn’t find the crouton it was that small , the pate was just plonked on top no sauce hardly (crap) , veg was know better, peas over cooked didn’t find one piece of pancetta in it , dessert .. my husband had the tiramisu , u can buy better from Aldi I’m not joking , mass produced products . My pavlova was ok , waiter was not very interested in our order , tables are too close together, it like being in a canteen it’s that loud. My head was banging. I wouldn’t recommend this San Carlo to anyone, And if I was invited here again by anyone I would decline

Nice place! Great food and service!

Very disappointing, went to the restaurant near Manchester airport and was lovely, but service was not great here. Far too loud (not totally the restaurants fault but they do cram people in) and was far too hot in there - to the point it was uncomfortable . Asked for a drink 3 times before it finally arrived. Also was only asked if everything was ok with meals just as we were finishing.
Drinks were not cold, but food was hot to be fair - but just ok, not amazing

Would not recommend if you want a romantic meal - or even if you want a decent conversation with someone opposite you - as could hardly hear them over the noise…

Lovely meal at San Carlo for a graduation celebration! Great food & attentive service by Eduardo☺️would definitely recommend

Always enjoy my meal in San Carlo & the staff always make a fuss. Had a lovely meal this evening and Eduardo was fabulous; very funny and made us feel like valued guests. Thank you.

We had a great evening in the private dining room. Really enjoyed the food and very efficient service by Eduardo. Thank you!

San Carlo Manchester presents itself as an upscale Italian restaurant and does deliver on many of its promises, but there were certain aspects that left room for improvement. The contemporary decor of the restaurant, with chic all-white space contrasted with stylish red accents, certainly gives it an appealing ambiance. Their selection of regional Italian wines was impressive, offering a wide variety for wine connoisseurs to explore.

However, the 'unparalleled quality' of food did not quite match the hype. While the dishes were tasty, there was nothing exceptional that stood out or justified the premium price. I found the cuisine to be quite ordinary, lacking the creativity and flair one would expect from a high-end Italian establishment.

Service at San Carlo is friendly but not always prompt. It's not an issue if you're not in a hurry, but this could prove inconvenient for those with limited time. Overall, San Carlo is a decent choice for an Italian dining experience in Manchester, but there's scope for them to elevate their food and service to truly stand out.

Complete lack of customer service.
An abundance of unmotivated staff stood around only acknowledging us when we said hello as we arrived and again when we asked for drinks .
I also had to instigate payment as the man behind the bar served us then just lingered around us .
The bar decor was quite tacky with a plastic orange tree and empty champagne bottles which look like they’ve been sat for years and the bar looked like it needed a clean which was disappointing as we were the only customers and there were three people stood on the other side doing nothing.
The whole experience was odd and nothing like we expected.
We quickly moved on for a lovely meal elsewhere as did not want to waste any more time here.
Would not revisit or recommend.
The place is clearly open purely based on past reputation .

Lovely lobster and service, not so great pavlova as it was like chewing gum.

The worst aspect was tabled crammed too close together and acoustics which made talking to the person next to you almost impossible.

Won’t be rushing back.

They do not have a kids menu so we had to order a full size meal for my 9 year old son - aren’t Italians supposed to be family friendly?? Front of house ladies were not friendly at all. Table was cramped and squashed in. Food did not come cooked as we requested. Waiters were friendly but overall for my Dads birthday I wanted a great atmosphere and just found it basic, unfriendly and very over rated for a very expensive meal. Won’t go again. Really disappointed.

After all the hype that surrounds the name, we found the experience extremely disappointing. Excessive amounts of staff doing very little. The ambiance is very pleasant and initial staff interaction is comforting but as the night continued we found service disappointing. Asked three times for more water, brought two meals incorrectly, but most disappointing was the food was bland. We were expecting this to be a step up from fumo our regular san Carlo Resteraunt.

I have been a customer of San Carlo in Bristol since it opened in the early 90’s. it is (and always has been) one of the best restaurants in the City. On a visit to Manchester recently we were therefore very keen to try another of their restaurants. To cut a long story short it was one of the worst experiences I have had for some time - both in terms of food quality and particularly the level of service. At the end of the meal one of our party who lives in the city mentioned the poor service we had received to one of supervisors - who simply said ‘what do you expect on a Saturday night’ the situation escalated when we then refused to pay the service charge and were advised by the same individual that it would be taken out of the staff wages and after our continued refusal - the very angry supervisor threatened to call the Police. Fortunately the General Manager arrived to resolve the situation and after paying the bill we left the restaurant. Don’t bother going to San Carlos Manchester - go to Ivy Asia or come to Bristol

Not impressed we were sat near the door which opened to a private party the draught was freezing and people and waiters rushing past. Asked ( manager) for door to be closed he started shouting it’s not a a draught and was almost aggressive!
It is very noisy , no real service they just handed you the food and drinks overall a very bad expensive experience NEVER AGAIN.
Asked for the service charge to be removed, we should of been compensated.
The steaks were lovely but so they should be considering the cost. 7 on our table young and older - we all left stressed and decided to get out as soon as possible.
Had dessert at home in comfort !!

My boyfriend booked here as a surprise for valentines.. our table was book for 5pm and unfortunately we was was late (fully our fault). I rang the restaurant to let them know so they did not get rid of our table! We arrived at half 5 to a very rude and abrupt lady on front desk saying “you are late! we only hold the table for 15 minutes, we could of got rid of your table” I politely explained to the lady that i understand but I did ring to inform you we was stuck in traffic but on route so that you wouldn’t get rid of the table. She then continued to be extremely rude! I was very close to waking out but like I said it was valentines and we wouldn’t have been able to get in anywhere else. So she said we had our table for one hour even though our original booking was for 2 hours (so until 7pm). So we sat down anyway to which the tables were VERY close and a table which was on route to the bathroom so there was a lot of people banging past us! A waitress then took our order who was also rather rude! Food came super quick which I was happy about as I just wanted to get out. Food was excellent can not fault the food at all! We then asked for the bill which had a service charge (which a friend had already told me prior to our meal) I was not told this service charge was optional by the waiter nor did it say it on the bill! I asked the waiter if it was optional and he replied “yes”to which I replied “I wasn’t happy with a few things and would like it taking of the bill”. The waiter then took the bill away then came back with a new one. I was never questioned what my problems where, nothing! This is not service I’d expect to receive from 5* restaurant nor any restaurant to be fair! But when you are paying that extra you expect the staff to go that extra mile, excellent customer service or just some manners would have been nice!

Our food was nice but the service is not great. I have been on several occasions and it feels like they want to get you in and out as fast as possible.
For this reason, I don't recommend it.