Carlo's at Watson - "Not happy, Con!"

You should have waited until 11:59am to place your order. Then, by the time the order was placed with the kitchen, it would have been after 12:00pm and caused a spontaneous combustion.

It’s a win/win!

Nice thread bump by the way.

why would anyone go to Carlo’s when there are so mnay great places to eat in Dickson? Or the new place at Hackett? or Ainslie? Or Braddon? Like, how far is it from Watson to any of these places?

Overpriced, unchanging menus that belong in the 90’s. Although I haven’t struck bad service as others have, the quality is enough for me to keep it well down the list of places I might go to for a quick bite.

These guys are a bunch of Wankers!

I’m a new (and no longer) regular with these twats. Been there about 8 times in the past two months. Spend over $200 there. Could have been more.

Today i stolled down to the watson shops to get a feed. It was near lunch time and i thought i’d give Carlos’s a visit.

Walked in at 11.48, had to find my own seat.

Said hello to the waitress who scowled at me. Didn’t give me a menu, asked what I want.

Asked & Got the menu, was breakfast menu.

That’s wierd i thought, she’s given me the wrong menu.

I politely stated i needed the lunch menu, and she said i could not order lunch as it wasn’t 12 o’clock. It was breakfast or nothing. I said i really didn’t feel like breakfast and she gave excuses like ‘another table has to wait for lunch too’

Now i understand the concept of kitchens changing over from breakfast to lunch catering. But what is this, McDonalds? The attitude of the waitress was that i was breaking some rule and that i needed to be put into line… i was flabbergasted.

I made the mistake of asking the managed what the deal was that i couldn’t order lunch (it was now 11.52) He said that’s the way it was and turned away. What a arrogant prick.

Unbelieveable. Heard of customer service?

ALternatively, they could have said

“Sure, here’s the Lunch menu. The kitchen will be changing over shortly so there will be a short wait…”. But NO.

I walked out in protest after giving the Manager a serve about treating regulars with respect and rants about stinking attitudes. I got the feeling he’s got this before! Some guy strolled out shortly after me and shared with me the many nightmaries experiences he’s had with the place.

What planet to these people live on? It surely isn’t one which earns the respect of repeated patronage!

My South Korean colleagues often complain about the difficulty of locating dogmeat restaurants in Canberra, and feel they are not welcome trapping dogs in the suburbs. Maybe there is such a restaurant in the inner north?

The dog culture of the inner north is prized and highly developed.

Restaurants always have to right to say no but the smart ones value the custom and the ambience.

Carlo’s staff take their cues from the boss who, in my personal experience, holds his customers in contempt.

they also hate prams.

and they serve champagne by the glass – always flat.

Hey! I resent that. Oh, wait…I’m not flea-ridden…2 outta 3 ain’t bad though.

Carry on…

Perhaps like me, they were pissed off with diners who insist on taking flea-ridden, flatulent mongrels to restaurants.

The following happened at Carlo’s (Watson) about 18 months ago for a group of 6 to 8 people, but it doesn’t sound like it has improved much.

A table had been booked outside for dog-sitting reasons. When we turned up, they had reserved a table inside the cafe. C’est la vie, we went with the flow, tied the dogs up outside and watched them as best we could.

It took 30 minutes before our waiter would tell us (with disinterest) the specials, answer questions about the menu (treating us as imbeciles) and take our order. When the food finally arrived, it was okay, if a little expensive.

One member of the table ordered a latte. A cappuccino arrived and she requested a latte again. They took it inside, scooped off the froth with a spoon and brought it straight back out.

An outside table was vacated. We moved there so we could better supervise the dogs and finish up. The original waiter (A) looked around as though we had skipped the bill.

A second waiter (B) took our payment for the bill, but didn’t return with a (sizable) refund. (We weren’t interested in tipping by this stage.) We asked the original waiter (A) if we might be able to retrieve our change. He intimated that we’d already received it and were dipping our fingers into the till a second time (seriously, not jokingly).

Honest mistakes are made, but arrogance and incompetence isn’t going to win my patronage again. Goes to show you that suburban businesses can be maintained because a high concentration of locals don’t want to travel elsewhere for a basic level of food and service. If I won a free meal at Carlo’s, I’d give it a miss.

User reviews of Canberra restaurants at:

http://www.yourrestaurants.com.au/guide/index.cfm?action=browse