Tuesday the 4th found me shopping for a formal dress, accompanied by my mother and grandparents (on my mother’s side) for support, advice and ideas. After the many long hours of me putting on, taking off and modeling these items of torture we all decided we were hungry. The whole family is full of picky eaters and so it took us a moment to decide.
First we were going to do Ryan’s (a buffet done in the same style as Old Country Buffet) but they didn’t have anything out that my grandparents liked. Then we were going to do Joe’s crab shack but on the way there we decided to stop and eat at Carino’s.
I’ve never had Carino’s before, but my grandparents assured me that they were good. The inside interior reminds me of a Bravo’s or even Bucca, but it’s a little less crowded looking and the interior focuses more on a warm homey feeling with simple black and white photos and warm wood accents.
And no Italian restaurant would be complete without the traditional hanging plates.
Like other more high-end Italian restaurants, bread with oil is on the house. Their bread is amazing! It has some kind of light salt on the top and I’m pretty sure they baked fresh sage into the bread. The bread is crunchy and crumbles on the outside while the inside is soft and melts in your mouth.
The oil also is seasoned, with roasted nuts mixed in. We helped ourselves to the oil bottle and by the time I thought to take a picture we’d reached the end of the bottle, which is why it looks like the seasoning is saturated in the olive oil. None the less, the dips was good even with all the seasoning!
We ordered an appetizer of ‘Italian Nachos’. Now, usually if the dish doesn’t fall within the ‘traditional’ dishes of a nationality, I don’t order it. I won’t order a hamburger at a Mexican restaurant and I wouldn’t order nachos at an Italian restaurant. That being said, I’m glad we did!
The chips are very crunchy, light and have a nice ‘crisp’ sound when eating. The cheese was a smooth fettuccine-like sauce with chicken, tomatoes, olives, hot peppers, seasoning and a side of crumbled sausage.
It was gone in 10 minutes as we consumed them.
After the appetizer was ravaged it was time to order. Mom and grandma went with the lasagna (made fresh daily), papaw went with their skillet dish and I went with shrimp scampi.
At this point I’d like to make my only would-be complaint of the place. This is what I like to call a ‘quality over quantity’ restaurant. What does that mean? It means that instead of the chief knowing a lot of recipes pretty well, he only knows a few recipes VERY well. As a result, menu selection is very small with a few very good dishes. I recommend that before you go you look at their online menu and if nothing sounds good you skip out on it. There’s isn’t a lot to browse.
Now that that’s out of the way, let’s get to the food!
First the lasagna:
I didn’t try it obviously, as it contained sausage but both my mom and mamaw seemed of have liked it well enough. They cheese just seemed to melt off it with plenty of sauce. Mom flat out told me I wouldn’t have been able to stomach it, as it was on the spicy/greasy side of the scale. She also later regretted eating it all in one sitting versus getting it to go-the pictures don't really convey how big the portions were.
Next was the Skillet dish papaw got:
Our waiter joked that it looked like fajitas, and it does! It’s a bunch of peppers, onions and cheese on top of spaghetti which you scoop out onto your plate with tongues and eat. Again, I didn’t eat as it was sausage (it also comes in chicken and shrimp as a meat choice) but papaw ate half of it before he took the rest to go. It looked and smelled wonderful and the concept was very interesting.
Next, my dish! The shrimp scampi:
This shrimp scampi came in a white wine sauce with shrimp (duh), tomatoes, mushrooms, spinach with angel hair pasta and parmesan cheese.
It was great! I was afraid it would be greasy (as I find with most scampi’s), but not at all! It had a slightly sweet taste and was very smooth. The tomatoes and mushrooms gave it a nice texture and the shrimp was shelled (joy!) and nicely sized. Dipping the bread into that sauce was sheer genius on my part and I ended up taking part of it to go!
At this point I’d like to give a thumbs-up to our waiter Clay, who we ran ragged. We had him going to sides, extra this and that, refills and so much bread! The poor guy couldn’t walk past our table without being stopped for something and he always got it promptly and with a smile. Clay if you’re reading this, tell your manager I said to give you a raise!
We split the check (desert wasn’t even an option) so for my mom’s lasagna, 2 drinks and my scampi the bill (without tip) came up to around $33, which is average for these kinds of places.
The place is good for family, friends and dates. Again, I recommend looking at the menu before you go, especially if someone isn’t a big Italian Food Fan-they’re not going to have a lot to choice from that isn’t traditional Italian food. They also have a fully stocked bar with TV’s, so a good place to go for late night football too.
Overall, a pretty good place! Maybe next time I go, I’ll try for a desert!
Carino's Italian Grill
Greenwood, IN 46142
317-885-5735
