Cafe Carlo, City Centre North

Visited here twice as we had vouchers on a deal. Had soup which was lovely but it was served with sliced bread the first time and brown bread (like Mc Cambridges) the second time.I like Mc Cambridges but not very exciting when eating out.This made Carlos a cafe and not a restaurant. We had chicken with a nice mushroom sauce, served with a bowl of chips. Not a hint of a vegetable available as a side dish. Service was friendly without being intrusive.The location was convenient and the meal was good value on account of the deal.

We booked a table for two on a Friday night and we we're quickly seated by a very friendly, pleasant waiter who immediately told us what the soup of the day was an offered us a glass of wine/beer (it was part of the voucher deal). It looked like pretty much all the diners were there with vouchers also. The cafe's small, but well laid out. A few of the leather chairs were torn and the cutlery didnt match...but I'm just picking here! We were given the a la carte menu, and at first glance, it was a nice mixture of Italian and Irish. I ordered the calamari for starter and my parter had the duck spring rolls which were supposed to be accompanied with a ginger sauce. It was salty soy sauce. My calamari were pretty good, but were served without any lemon. For main, I ordered the frutti de mare spagetti and he had the steak. Main course was a huge let down. My spagetti turned out to be over cooked penne, the sauce was like a pot of cream and the fish......a few flakes of salmon, 3 baby prawns and 3 pieces of some unidentifiable white fish. Also....no lemon. My partner's steak looked like a cheap piece of meat beaten within an inch of it's life....but the chips looked gorgeous! I had a glass of the house white, and it was delicious. He had a pint of Heineken, but he didn't like it much, saying it was to "fizzy". Overall, the service was fantastic, but the food was a let down. I wouldnt go there again.

Booked a table for 1pm today, very quiet, definetly has that Italian feel, maybe even Venetian, had steak on a stone, it was very nice different to the everyday run of the mill stuff, staff very nice , easy place to find . It's not a 5 star restaurant but it's very enjoyable , I used vouchers from menu pages and it was really excellent value, I willl go back again.