Amazing food, outstanding service and a gorgeous setting. Happy days! Made my hubby's birthday a special occasion. Thank you x read more

Came here for my Sons graduation dinner. Their air conditioning had broken, and it was stifling. It's a shame that they didn't buy some fans but we made the best of it. The cocktails were great, the food tasted amazing, and the service was exceptional (especially considering the heat). The limoncello at the end were a nice touch by the waiter. read more

Had a fab bottle of wine, great calamari and pleasant service! Food is good. You should get a reservation if you can. Walk-ins can be tricky. Somewhat dressy (business casual) attire. read more

Great location and big, bright, clean interior. Pleasant staff. However, food was not worth the price. We had the steak & lobster sharer. But the lobster was tiny and the steak was just one rump cut into 4 slices. The langoustine lobster was overcooked which made it tough & chewie. The steak was overcooked considering we asked for medium rare. It also tasted very bitter as the outside was far too charred and salty. Asked for garlic bread but got given a basket of stale ciabatta. The table was so small that I had to keep hold of my plate so it didn't fall off. The plates were hanging over the edge of the table which made it very awkward & uncomfortable to eat. Our visit was a quiet Saturday afternoon. Sadly, I won't be returning. Disappointing as I had high hopes. read more

San Carlo has arrived in Liverpool. This has always been a bit of a hunting ground for older suits in my experience. However over the last few years the Italian chain has gained some popularity with young professionals and celebrities alike. With talks of franchises opening in Abhu Dabi and Dubai, San Carlos is setting sights on global domination indeed. The food is sensational, with Linguine Con Vongole E Gamberoni Pasta deserving a special mention. This is my pasta of choice which comes with clams, tiger prawns, tomato sauce, touch of garlic, cream and sun blushed tomato. Wham, bam thank you maam indeed!!! I have smashed this one out the park with ease on my latest visit. There is more of a sense of space also with this one compared to its sister restaurant in Manchester, which is refreshing. With it being in the business district expect lunchtimes to be very busy, and booking in advance is advised. It is pricey, which means mere mortals may not have the luxury of dining here as often as the likes of Alex Ferguson, Roberto Mancini, Julia Roberts et al, all of whom have been seen dining here. For that special occasion though this is well worth a look, whether you are in Birmingham, Manchester, Liverpool, Bristol or Leicester. read more

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Every Christmas my brother and I head back up to Liverpool to see the family and the structure is always pretty much the same. Christmas Eve as long as I've done all of my wrapping we go out into town to catch up with old friends, Christmas day is with the family at my Aunt's, Boxing day, if we are lucky we take in a game at Anfield to watch Liverpool and my cousin then normally has a party in the evening, thank god there was no Karaoke this year! The following evening my Aunt always books a table at her newest find. This year we went to the Newly opened San Carlos in Castle Street. I always think first impressions are so important and create the setting for the rest of the evening, we had all met at another bar in Town and then went for a 15 min walk through town to get to the restaurant, for some reason I was expecting something rustic, instead we walked up to a glass entrance and a very smart "San Lorenzo" type, modern looking restaurant with a long bar at the front and a bar area. The good thing was as soon as we came to the door one of the waiters ran to the door to open it for us with a big cheesy grin and one of those big warm italian greetings you only ever expect from your favourite italian local, always a good sign. We where then led through to the restaurant area, again very smart and light although I couldn't help smiling at a wall on the left that had photos of previous patrons to the restaurant, again another cozy feature. For starter I shared an antipasto plate for 2 with one of my cousins and to be honest it would have been more than enough for 3 as a starter, a selection of cold meats, olives, artichokes, mozzarella and deep fried goats cheese which was my favourite. Everyone else thoroughly enjoyed there starters too. For main course as it was Christmas I stayed away from the Specials and opted for comfort food and went for the Escalope Milanese but asked for pasta instead of veg. I always gauge my Italians by this dish because even though it is a fairly simple dish if its not right i don,t come back,full stop. This was great, the veal was thin but cooked perfectly inside and tasted fresh and not as if it had been breaded and left in a fridge with a million other things overnight, the pasta was "al dente" and the tomato sauce tasted fresh and herby. My brother had the Osso Bucco from the specials list that was equally good although my uncle found his fish dish a little on the salty side. By this time the place was completely full and had a very good buzz around it, typically italian ,loud but more atmospheric than ear splitting with alot of smiley waiters running around keeping everything ticking along. We also recognized a couple of faces on other tables, ie a certain useless Italian footballer was on one table and the red haired girl from Girls Aloud was another. All in all it was a good evening with good food and good service, there was one hiccup at the beginning when we waited 15 min for bread but sometimes these things happen and once the maitre d knew of this he was quite prompt in coming over, apologizing and more importantly rectifying the situation, to be fair we weren't in a rush and half the table had hardly noticed. All in all I'd say that this is another decent addition to the city centre and yes I will be coming to eat here again. read more

This Italian restaurant is part of a small chain which are based in five different English cities, including Liverpool and Manchester. I had been to the Manchester branch before which had excellent service, and the food was delicious, so I expected something similar when I arrived in Liverpool. I was disappointed to say the least, I felt like I was either forgotten about or a pain in the bum to the staff. I was kept waiting an hour before I saw my food coming out, I thought an hour wasn't too bad considering it was busy etc. and I was hoping the food would be great. Again, I was let down. The waiter brought out our main meals when we hadn't even received our starters! I told them to forget about the starter and wipe it off our bill. As I tucked in, I was gutted, the food was cold, miserable and nowhere near what I was expecting. It then took around an hour and a half for us to get dessert and our bill. What a waste of an evening. read more

To be honest, was expecting so much more from San Carlo seeing the pictures of current/ex football players there. Was a serious disappoint to be honest to a foodie like me... The Minestrone soup - with no pasta and no beans? I know its not to everyone's taste, but strikes me as vegetable broth. Garlic bread with tomato sauce? Too sweet..credit to the tomatoes, not enough garlic... Main course - chicken stuffed pasta with a porcini sauce....gorgeous but so heavy!!! Too much cream after a couple of courses - probably my own fault but don't want to put people off the place too much. Overall review? Above average food wise, but not outstanding. Service excellent. Drinks outstanding but very expensive. read more

The San Carlo group now spans five superb cities in the UK, including Manchester and Liverpool. The north westerly ones are the places we're interested in here, and this one's located right in the heart of Merseyside's business district which means the restaurant is an exciting bustle of suits, mobile phones, briefcases with papers and wind-downs with wine. This all adds to the atmosphere, but don't think that excludes ol' Carlo from having boho/student/family visitors. It's eclectic enough. The menu adopts a traditional Italian spectrum and the antipasti is the perfect thing to start a long and unwinding meal (the fried pecorino cheese, avocado with crabmeat and smoked salmon with artichokes being exceptionally stunning) where you can sit back, relax and take in the plush black and red furnishings and airy white space which lends itself well to a spacious enough venue for a busy restaurant as well as an ambient lounge and bar area. The chefs also pay superb tribute to pasta with seven mouthwatering choices, including a standout one full of aubergine. Yum. It's actually very reasonably priced, so it's no wonder that San Carlo is so popular. It might be a chain by now but it's a good one, and certainly worthy of repeated custom. read more

Had early dinner here today(4.30) Food absolutely brilliant. Service...... the worst in years. Took 55 minuets for mains. Good place if you have ALL DAY to eat, if not avoid like the plague! read more

Food, presentation and staff were one if the best on my week long visit! Avocado Bernardo was beautiful and tasty full of shrimp! Staff were helpful and engaging with our eclectic work group! This will be a definite stop on future business trips! read more

First, the staff was awesome for allowing us to come at later time. Can't say that I stood out as an obvious tourist, I came for the food which I heard was amazing. Food presentation, flavor, serving was all great. Desert good. Very fresh and great again. read more

Came here on a Saturday night. Completely packed bar/restaurant which is the place to see and be seen. A must on a night out in Liverpool. It's madly busy and takes an age to get served. You gave to badger the staff to get what you want. The staff have an unaccountably high opinion of themselves. It's great for people watching and I did see a famous face or two, including one current Liverpool FC player. The pizza was tasty, the drinks were good. Just don't come here if you're in a hurry. read more

My wife and I went to the San Carlo in the summer time,on a friday afternoon, in July 2012 to celebrate our 10th wedding anniversary. Nice surroundings, well dressed and polite staff, didn't like the photos of celebs on the wall, some of them were clearly not taken at their Liverpool resteraunt, I felt a bit under dressed in my shorts and smart casual shirt as there was a lot of business people there at that time. We ordered minestrone and veg soup respectively for starters followed by beef medallion and tagliatelle bolognese with a red wine and lemonade for drinks. All meals were delicious 5/5 stars and very filling, in fact the soup alone made me feel quite full already. Lots of strong flavours and well presented. However, one criticism, we ordered more drinks, that never arrived. Also waiters could have been a bit more friendly and attentive. Having said that, I would return to the San Carlo. read more

My Wife and I recently visited San Carlo, Liverpool with an old friend. We are all from Liverpool so know the City well and have visited a lot of the restaurants. We tried San Carlo as it is fairly new to the City and we had received a recommendation. Upon entering the restaurant we were greeted by dozens of people either standing around waiting or drinking at the champagne bar. There was a wall of noise which was not pleasant at all. Eventually, after fighting our way through the crowds we confirmed our reservation and were shown to a table deep into the restaurant. We were left with one menu between us and were not visited by anyone again for 20 minutes. When we did manage to get the attention of a waiter and inform him that we only had one menu, we were addressed very abruptly. I then mentioned that no one had been to take our wine order and the same waiter was again aggressive in his tone, telling me "I am obviously not used to the way they do things at San Carlo"?? He then proceeded to hover at our table muttering under his breath. If you want customer service, you don't go to San Carlo, Liverpool. My Wife and our friend ordered fish to start and I ordered pasta. Unfortunately, the fish was inedible as it was riddled with bones. My pasta was luke warm and came with hardly any of the shell fish it was meant to come with. For our mains, my Wife ordered pasta, our friend steak and I ordered chicken (supposed to be wrapped in ham and breadcrumbs). Unfortunately, my Wife dipped out for a second time with the pasta which was luke warm, had very little in the way of chicken and a cream sauce not that different from diarylea. My dish was a complete joke. Completely battered and flattened chicken wrapped in paper thin ham and it appeared to have been deep fried in batter? Fortunately, the fillet steak was I was informed acceptable! After an incredibly disappointing meal and shocking customer service, we were then given our bill with a 10% customer service charge added to it! I am sure that you will all be pleased to know that we asked them to remove the service charge. I would advise anyone tempted to go to this restaurant not to. Also, after seeing the faces on some of the tourists at the restaurant, I would advise anyone visiting our great City, to give San Carlo a miss. read more

Don't waste your time at this restaurant. The wait staff were inattentive, uncaring, rude, and frankly didn't seem to give a damn. There was a large group of women at a table next to where we were just seated who were complaining furiously to the floor managers. They had obviously spent a significant amount of money based on the wine bottles on the table; their experience less that satisfying. That should have been a clue to what would ultimately be our same experience. Take this as a serious and level headed rating. When I say that I have rarely in my life ever complained at a restaurant, this would not be the case tonight. I complained to the floor manager about the rude waiter who began his initial interaction with us by uttering the words, "are you ready to order?". When I called over the floor manager to let him know that that was our greeting. He apologized and said first of all why is your beautiful lady's champagne glass empty? I said it was empty when your waiter asked if we were ready to order. He apologized and said let me send soe bruschetta over complimentary as we ordered a bottle of wine. So you would think he would make sure we were treated decent from this point forward? Nope, not the case. The same waiter came back half hour later and uttered, " are you ready to order now?". I said no bring the fcking check. I then got up walked to the front reception area and asked for the head manager. I angrily explained the entirely failed experience and incompetence of the waiter and floor manager. Again an apology snd offer to comp the bottle of wine as well. I said I don't want a damn thing comp'd, I wanted service. Now give me the bill and add the charge for the comp'd bruschetta, I don't want jack sht for free. Free advice, don't waste your time here, you would get better service at McDonald's. If I could give a rating of ZERO I would. Peace out... read more

I took a client out to this restaurant for lunch once. The restaurant opens at 12pm during weekdays. We were there earlier and despite having made a reservation no one came over to ask whether we require a table. A star deducted. Thereafter the waiter that looked after us was charming and polite. Very attentive. The food was good particularly the veal which I had as the main. I was a bit disappointed with the starter - I had octopus but they sliced it too fine. Another star deducted. Overall the atmosphere was great for meeting with clients. The client was impressed. I will definitely come back particularly for business. read more

The food was excellent, the staff were very friendly and helpful. We were there on a Friday afternoon and the atmosphere was good but I can imagine it gets very busy in the evening. I would go again. read more

The Emperor's New Clothes! I was looking forward to trying this restaurant but left feeling disappointed and vowing never to return. The food was very nice but this can be said about many restaurants so it does not set it apart. It felt like a canteen, i.e. they had crammed as many tables into the space as possible. They also have paper tablecloths which I think is very poor for a city centre restaurant. The service could have been better. Our table was not offered back pepper or parmesan (surely the norm for an Italian restaurant) and had to ask for it. I feel that it has become the place to go in Liverpool for all the wrong reasons! read more

Lovely looking restaurant with good service and overall excellent staff. I have visited this establishment a couple of times and the food seems to be consistently good. This considering the fact that San Carlos does have an extensive menu with some daily specials. Very good read more

Went at Christmas time. It was incredibly busy and a little packed in with too many tables. A place definitely to experience, v glitzy and glam. The staff were v friendly. The food was superb and worth every penny. The best Italian I have had in a very long time. I would definitely go back there. read more

Amazing went for my friends 18th they sung happy birthday to her in Italian. Food was fantastic, also all the staff are lovely.