Carmines--new place at Forbes and King in Riverside

[ben says]

Jeez...

The few reviews coming back from this place are outstanding. Good news for the area!

[Dog Walker]

Good luck to them.  That location seems to be snake bit.

[David]

The jersey shore is so good it hurts. I've never had a fried calzone, until now. Thankfully I only downed half of it and spared a cheese blockade later on.

My friend had the lobster mac n cheese and gave it the thumbs up.

However, my lady had the little Italy calzone and said she was disappointed with the quality of the ingredients. She also hates the fact that they use canned mushroom instead of fresh ones (we've been spoiled by moon river pizza) She wasn't very impressed with the "dirty fries" ..basically steak fries you'd buy at the grocers freezer, toss cheddar, bacon and (ick) black olives on.

That said, we had an appetizer, two calzones, a house salad, two beers and our tab was under 25 dollars. This joint is in a good location, it's cheap and has such a wide selection of food & beer I think they'll do just fine in Riverside. I'll probably give the Chicago style pizza a whirl next.

[Gators312]

I picked up a Chicago style pie last week and it was great!

The staff was friendly, gave me a free drink while I waited.

The Owners/Management ?  were there making the rounds to be sure all the customers were satisfied. 

Hope they keep it up!

[fieldafm]

I went Friday night.  It was decent enough.  I hope once they get all the typical growing pains of a new business worked out it gets a little better.  I give it 3.5 out of 5 stars so far, which isn't bad.

LOL @ David... the lady friend said the exact thing to me as well.  My parents used to own a pizza joint, so I understand the significant cost savings from using canned mushrooms... but as I could take it or leave it on mushrooms, it didn't bother me at all.

I definately think Carmines is better than Moon River.  The beer @ Carmines is cheap too!

[Dog Walker]

Was there for lunch with some friends a couple of days ago.  The kitchen staff was totally disorganized.  Every person's lunch came out at a different time over a twenty minute period.  One friend had the wings, a huge mound of them that came out steaming and smelled delicious.  I had the eggplant Parmesan sub which was a complete disappointment.  Bread was OK but the eggplant was way over sauced. 

Other two had pizza slices which looked like pizza slices.  Both had previously had the Chicago style deep dish which they said was much better.

[Non-RedNeck Westsider]

Definitely growing pains.  The only thing that found strange, especially after the mushroom comment, there were 3 different types of olives in my salad - green, black & calamata, but they still had the pits in them.   I didn't have olives on my za, but would like to know - are the pizza olives sliced and pitted or are they whole?

[thekillingwax]

I've gotten whole olives in a lot of salads before, mostly at greek places- I don't know if it's considered traditional or something.

[Non-RedNeck Westsider]

I've gotten whole olives in a lot of salads before, mostly at greek places- I don't know if it's considered traditional or something.

But were they pitted?

[fieldafm]

The pizza olives I had were sliced.

I only had the ceasar salad b/c at the time they weren't offering many of the salads that were on the menu.  I want to go back next week once all the menu items are available and they've had some time to work out some of their staffing kinks.

[thekillingwax]

But were they pitted?

Nope. Weird, huh?

[Lucasjj]

Checked out this place for the first time last night. We had a group of 8 but timed it right and was able to get seating. The place was pretty much at capacity the entire time we were there. The kitchen was slow getting out the food and it did come out a few minutes apart, but that was our only complaint. The food was really good and the portions and price point are excellent. There service was also friendly. A really nice addition to the area.

[danno]

Went for lunch today.  Food and price was outstanding.  Service sketchy at best.  Server did not put in part of our appetizer order.  When we asked him here is was he said "Did you oreder that?"  We said yes.  His response was it should be here at any moment.  The rest of our food came out in dribbs and drabs.

The food was so good we would give them another try.

[letters and numbers]

I ate there again last night and the pie was great!

[JaxDiablo]

Had take out two nights ago.  Got the Al Capone Chicago Italian Beef and the Down and Dirty Fries.  Everything was as it should be on the italian beef, got the side of au jus, the meat was nice and lean, the bread was just the right consistency, the peppers and onions were phenomenal, and adding the giardinera to the sandwich just made it that much better.

The fries were hot, crispy, melty (the cheese was at least), bacony, and covered in olives... what else is there? 

I'm also glad I called in my order and paid for it before I noticed the dessert case.  The stuff in there looks amazing, and I can't wait to go in there for a meal and get the full experience.  I was able to talk to one of the owners and a lot of the staff while waiting, I was a little quick on the call in time, but I wanted to get a look at the place.  Everyone in the place was really friendly and a lot of fun to talk to.

I recommend this place, I do need to try out the pies.  I saw a couple come out to people who were having dinner there and they look to die for.