I fear it’s the case across the board. Shame, love Carluccio the man.

Regardless, I wanted to comment after having a similarly mediocre experience a few months ago at the Carluccio’s branch near Oxford Street.

I was having dinner with a couple of friends, one of whom was in the process of applying for the Carluccio’s graduate scheme, so we’d decided to eat there as “research”. I’d never been to any of the chain before, and I won’t be likely to again.

As you described above, the food wasn’t bad per se, just lacking. I had a special to start, fried risotto balls, one with mozzarella at it’s centre, the other venison ragu. Despite being slightly too large I felt for a starter, the balls were nice enough, but somewhat bland and nothing I didn’t think I could replicate at home. I was somewhat lucky though that I had accidentally ordered such a large and filling starter as I too opted for the spaghetti alle vongole for main. This proved inedible, despite initially enjoyable, as I moved further into the dish I began to get the distinctly unpleasant feeling of eating sand. In addition to this I found an unopened clam, which even I knew shouldn’t have been there. My friends convinced me to complain, and the restaurant manager was very good about it, personally coming to our table to apologise and comping my main, but I was still unimpressed that the dish had come out like that in the first place.

To finish we shared a chocolate fondant which although soft in the middle was distinctly more of a cake, apparently just slightly overcooked. A mistake I regularly make whenever I try to cook them at home, but not one I’d expect from a professional kitchen.

I had thought that perhaps we’d just chosen a bad night or a branch that just wasn’t quite up to scratch, but from the sounds of your review this is fairly typical of the chain, how unfortunate.