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Cara Mia
Rating Details »
Neighborhoods: Theater District, Hell's Kitchen
654 9th Ave
(between 45th St & 46th St)
New York, NY 10036
(212) 262-6767
654 9th Ave
(between 45th St & 46th St)
New York, NY 10036
(212) 262-6767
- Nearest Transit:
-
8th Ave-42nd St (A, C, E, 1, 2, 3, S, 7, N, Q, R, W)
- Attire:
- Casual
- Accepts Credit Cards:
- Yes
- Price Range:
-
$$
- Good for Groups:
- Yes
- Good for Kids:
- No
- Takes Reservations:
- Yes
- Take-out:
- Yes
- Waiter Service:
- Yes
- Outdoor Seating:
- No
- Good for:
- Dinner
- Alcohol:
- Full Bar
Sponsored Result
Special Offer Nearby
Trattoria Toscana
- Category:
- Italian
- Neighborhood:
- West Village
Sunday thru Thursday 10% off for Yelpers (cash only). Lunch specials all week for only $12.50, come join us and see what the Yelp is about
15 reviews for Cara Mia
I can't wait to return to Cara Mia! Came here with a friend for an early dinner and we really enjoyed our time there.
Try anything made fresh and daily specials - enjoyed their polenta, and risotto.
Molto Buono!
Been here on a several occasions.... my boss recommended it to me about 8-9 years ago and I've taken many friends here before & after the theater. Be prepared... if it's a theater night, they're gonna get you in AND out. If not, you can probably hang as long as you want. There's usually a wait, but they've always directed us to nearby places for a drink so that we didn't have to stand around in a cramped area.
Food has always been great and always substantial portions. It's typical italian... a bit on the heavy side, but always rich in flavor!
I've been on a linguine with clam sauce kick for a while now and that's exactly what I was craving when my best friend Jose (since freshman homeroom at Xavier) brought me to Cara Mia for my birthday dinner. When I arrived at the restaurant he suggested that we try Yum Yum Bangkok next door. I reminded him that the last time I ate at that trash Thai restaurant was on a second date with a theater nut from hell. Back to Cara Mia. My insalata di pera - arugula, pear, gorgonzola, honeyed-walnuts and crispy pancetta - was good and that was about it. Everything else went down hill from there. There were probably only six clams in my linguine alle vongole and I had to ask for parmigiano twice. Not very Italian! Jose had the prix fixe meal and he didn't have anything great to say about it. Maybe Yum Yum Bangkok rubbed off on Cara Mia. Maybe vice versa. I guess this food is acceptable to the B & T (bridge and tunnel) theater crowd, but not a New Yorker who loves Italian food. I should end it here. MEDIOCRE STUFF.
The restaurant looks like a cute find, and my monkfish wasn't bad but that's about the only good thing I can think to say about the place. Nothing was memorable in a good way. I've found a lot of good finds in Hell's Kitchen, but I suspect the only reason this place was full when I walked in was it's proximity to the touristy Restaurant row .
We shared the stuffed mushrooms to start and I hate to say but they were about the worst stuffed mushrooms I've ever eaten. I'm not sure which was worse - the stuffing - or the plastic cheese that coated them. From that point I knew I was in trouble. Expecting the worst probably made my roasted monkfish taste a little better. Slightly overcooked, but overall the monkfish's own natural flavour and a dijon sauce saved the dish. The fennel in the mix of fennel, olives, artichokes, shiitake and potatoes that the fish was served on top of was burnt and if there really was shiitake in there I missed it.
My dinner companion tried to play it safer by ordering the rigatoni with chicken in pink sauce, but the chicken was overcooked and the sauce was thicker than any good pink sauce should be.
It looks cute from the outside, but you won't find me inside again.
It is true when they say that if you're on vacation and hungry, if in doubt eat Italian food. Since Cara Mia stands out from the other Italian restaurants in the area, due in part to the bright yellow and red exterior, it really has become the "Port Authority" of 9th Avenue restaurants.
I'm saddened to tell you that Cara Mia USED to be one of my favorite Italian restaurants in the area, despite the fact that it was always crowded, and the tables are literally on top of each other... IN FACT, the tables are sooo close that one can practically take food from the neighboring tables without much reaching and without getting noticed... At one occasion my company and I were unexpectedly involved in a domestic argument with a straight couple who were sitting literally next to us... it went something like... Husband/boyfriend says to me: "Can you believe she (the wife/gf) wants to get a dog or cat (can't remember) after she knows I'm allergic!..blah blah blah" ...I smiled, turned my head, rolled my eyes, and kept on eating! ...if we weren't sitting so close.. i don't think the man would've felt the need to involve me in the conversation if each table had proper "personal space."
In any event, despite that whole MESS, I still enjoyed the food very much until about a year or so when I started noticing the food wasn't as notably delicious as it used to be. Perhaps it is due to change in management, chef, or produce... maybe my palate became a bit more sophisticated, but needless to say, the food became a bit mediocre and not worth the price-point!
The service was good... even though they only have 1 or 2 waiters for the whole restaurant, but [again] it is very small. Thankfully they have plenty of others staff (water boy, bread boy, etc) running up and down the 1 or 2 paths they've managed to carve out of the sea (more like a pond) of tables.
The restaurant itself is sort of cute, SMALL, but very cute and charming so I see how it can attract diners and dining-tourists. Since then, I have found better Italian restaurants in the neighborhood, so I have not been back. One of these days I may pay it another visit to see if they've gotten their shit together.
Here's a story: You're walking through midtown and see a sidewalk chalkboard menu that boasts some yummy goodness. You go inside for lunch where only two other people are eating.
You want to order the dish from the menu outside, but they're not serving that. Okay. So you pick something else. Then you wait. And wait. And wait. And wait.
Then, as you wait, you catch the three men who work there and who have been chatting it up giving you side glances and leers.
The food comes and it's good. It's not fantastic. It's pasta al dente. It's something you could have made yourself and was not worth that long wait.
The end.
You leave, disheartened but full.
Took my boyfriend here for his birthday before going to a Broadway play. A small but cute restaurant. The food was decent, not particularly memorable. ( Avocado lemon salad, chicken parmesan (wayyy too salty) pasta, and dessert). On the plus side, the service was good.
Pros: not expensive, nice atmosphere
Cons: food is so-so
Cara Mia offers quite good food for its price. We ordered their baked clams in white wine sauce as appetizer, and it was delicious! The clams were very flavorful and tasty. We then had their rigatoni pasta with chicken and pink cream sauce (i think, dun remember the exact description) and the fusilli pasta with sausage and broccoli rab as our main dish. They were both good, though I preferred the fusilli pasta. The good thing about their food was that it came out hot and fresh.
In terms of service, we were seated promptly by the hostess. Our waiter was very busy, since he was basically handling all the tables, but he was efficient and polite.
I liked the decor of the restaurant; it's small and elegant, though the restaurant was a little too noisy when it was packed. The noise level went down as a few groups left.
Overall, I think it's worth a try. Check out their website for more info: http://www.caramianyc.com/
I came here after seeing a broadway show and pleasently surprised how fast the service was. We were seated and given menus, drinks and food in the shortest period of time I've ever experienced at a restaurant.
The space itself is small and slightly crammed. I didn't exactly have space for my shopping bags, but I also didnt feel as though I was so close to everyone else that I could hear their conversations either.
The food also does come out hot and fresh - I couldn't touch my plate! But delcious regardless.
Alright Italian food. There were some bright spots like the Insalata di Funghi (with grilled portabello and shiitake) and good housemade pastas. The sauces accompanying the pastas sounded good in theory, but were missing something that would have elevated them from okay to pretty good.
I had an eggplant linguine with artichokes and crab tossed in a spicy tomato sauce. The crab flavor (and meat) got lost somewhere in the shuffle. The chokes were good, but there were too many. The tomato sauce ended up being cream-based, not terribly spicy, and a little too bland. A dash of salt livened it up a little.
BEWARE: do not go here if you want to makeout later. Most of the food is full of garlic and not minced garlic!!
I went here one random night, craving some ziti or something. I initially thought the place had potential. The decor was cute, lots of wine bottles and nice lighting, I might even describe it as romantic. That would be up until my penne marinara arrived and I accidently ate 4 garlic cloves that were hidden in my dish.
Let's just say I went home alone that night and the next day at the gym, no one would run on the treadmill next to me, I was sweating out the garlic!! Way to go Cara Mia, I could have gotten some but you RUINED IT.
A good friend of mine was absolutely in love with Cara Mia last summer, so I was looking forward to her birthday party there. I can SORT OF see why she was so into it, as it's a very cozy place with brick walls and candles and such, and the food was fairly tasty. However, it was EXPENSIVE, and I'm not really sure why. I didn't feel like I got my money's worth, and I was coerced into splitting an expensive appetizer of asparagus risotto, even though I generally despise asparagus. I was also less than enthusiastic about ordering that last bottle of wine... Perhaps the lesson here is that it is a bad idea to go out for group dinners with people who you don't really know, and who have different standards for what constitutes an affordable meal. However, I am going to commit and say that you can get way better and more exciting Italian food elsewhere, and get more for your money. In general, 9th Avenue has more exciting options.
I'm not an expert on Italian food, but I will say that the eggplant parm. is the best I've ever had in a restaurant. I can't speak for much of the rest of the menu as I always get the eggplant, but it is pretty decent food for a pretty good price. A cute place!
Hung over from adventures in Brooklyn the night before I was finally coming back to life and meeting up with a friend for lunch. He's just moved to the city a couple months ago and I'm just visiting, we met up at TKTS and started to wander. We ended up here at Cara Mia and found some nice lunch specials. The decor was nice, the table was comfy. The soup was just all right but the pasta with eggplant and mozzarella was the perfect thing to make me right with the world again. We were catching up about his life since moving and friends back home, we were there quite a long time and they took good care of us and didn't rush us at all. Nothing amazing here but no complaints either.
Found Cara Mia while walking in Hell's Kitchen and was pleasantly surprised. The food was excellent and the service was acceptable for dinner time. It is a cute place that is pleasantly decorated. Stop in and try for yourself.
