Carbonara Trattoria

Great dinner and fabulous atmosphere! We are gluten free bc of celiac disease and they were so accommodating. From wine selection to pasta selection, terrific service and the food was amazing. Definitely recommend and can’t wait to go back!

5 Stars — Filet Mignon with Portobello Mushrooms in a wine reduction sauce. Cooked to perfection! 5 Stars– Crab Cakes, the crispy exterior held lumps of juicy crabmeat. Friendly, attentive service. Dim lighting & comfortable atmosphere for lively conversation. Locals love it, as we ran into friends there. I’ll be back!

Amazing Italian food. I must say the service at the bar was as entertaining as it was delicious. Their cocktails were spot on as well! I had a couple Bulleit manhattans then had a couple more. Thanks guys I’ll be back real soon.

Classy place with great ambiance! The food was outstanding! Great wine selection and the server was very personable. Parking could be an issue but we found a space out front right away with no meter!

Good food, although the pasta was a little too oily. Very cute friendly waitress is always helpful.

My boss took me to Carbonara on what had to be the most busiest night of the year. We sat at the bar and had an awesome time while the wait staff worked together to make sure everyone had the best experience. The dishes were yummy and beautifully presented but on this night, it was the ambience and staff that made the night memorable.

we love the service and the food is outstanding. I got the Lamb Shank which was delicious, that our server Nicole recommended. They have a great wine selection too. Nicole is very accomodating and friendly!

I really wanted to like this place. They recently remodeled the inside. It looks beautiful. I will start off saying that the service is great. The wait staff is on their A-​game the two times I’ve been here. My Aunt and Uncle love this place. I think the positive team is what makes their experience so pleasant. When I go to a restaurant I’m mainly going for the awesome food. I love to cook, and want to be a chef in the near future. So when I go to eat out, I like to go to a restaurant where the chefs can cook better than me. At Carbonara’s, this was definitely not the case.
The cesar salad was a joke. They put two anchovies crossing each other right on the top of the salad. There were 6 people at our table, and I was the only one that wanted to eat them. This seemed like a thing that would have been done in the 70’s or 80’s. Come on, please fix your Caesar salad. There were hard boiled eggs in it. The dressing was not that great. Take a lesson from Chef David Pratt from the Brick San Clemente.
I ordered the Veal Marsala. It was overcooked like crazy. I know as a good cook that veal should be more on the medium side. I was so upset that a good piece of veal was ruined by the way the chef cooked it. They used a sweet Marsala. There are two types of Marsala wine. Dry and sweet. In my opinion they should have used both. Then the dish was heavily peppered in attempt to balance the dish. There was no balance at all. To top it off they put a Karma Orchid on the dish. I am not a fan of this at all. If the restaurant was Hawaiian, I would be more open minded to it. I think it is a waste at this restaurant.
The only good thing at dinner was the wine. I ordered the «Seven Oaks» Cabernet Sauvignon which was suggested by Mark the waiter. It was a great wine with a nice woodsy smoky flavor that was well rounded.
I have to say that I would rather go to other Italian places in San Clemente, like Sonny’s for great lasagna and the brick for when I’m in the mood for pizza and excellent Caesar salad.

Had dinner here for the first time on Saturday ¹⁰⁄₁₀ it was Fabulous! Our waitress Christina was very knowledgeable about the menu & wine. We had the Pasta Fagioli soup, amazing! I ate the Filet my husband Ed had the Veal Parmesan everything was really good. Definitely recommend for dinner.
April B.

My wife and I recently moved to San Clemente. We are trying restaurants to see which ones we would enjoy meals at. Carbonara diffently will not be one of them. The dinner we had the other evening was not good at all. Starting with the Ceasar Salad. The dressing must of come from a bottle and did not come with tha anchovies it advertised. My wife had the Spaghetti Maranara. The pasta was starchy and undercooked. The atmosphere was more of a bar feeling than nice dining. I do realize that they are under new management and remodeling. They should close their doors and wait till they are really serious about serving really good food.
The Simidiner

Hired carbonara to cater my daughter’s wedding at the Casa Romantica in San Clemente. Our guests raved about the filet mignon and Parmesan encrusted lemon chicken. I can only imagine how difficult it is to serve 100 people at once. Carri and her team did an outstanding job. Our meals were hot and cooked to perfection. Service was excellent. All in all, a wonderful evening.

Spent my birthday there. Absolutely fabulous appetizers, dinner and dessert, and all Gluten Free. Excellent service. Definitely will return.

Christina was our server and she can work at any Five-​star hotel restaurant! Love Carbonara, but you must ask for her. Good food, good bar, great dinner! We’ll go back again!

Food is simply delicious. The pasta was perfect great selection of wine. Very nice for a special night out.

Amazinnnnnngservice was great, food was fantastic, cute little place and will be back as much as possible. Momma Mia, it’s great Italian food!

I love, love, love Italian food (and I even married an Italian guy), so I was very excited to try this place. It’s cute inside – fairly small, bar area tucked in the back. The menu is really expansive. I appreciated that they had so many vegetarian options. There were at least four different pastas I wanted to try. I settled on the taglioline caprini and wasn’t disappointed. The serving size was perfect – not too much, not too little. Granted, I also made short order of the bread basket, devoured a salad (Insalata Cavolo Verde – good), and had two pieces of the caprese we got for the table (also good).
For the month of June, the restaurant has no corkage fee on up to 2 bottles of wine. We took advantage of that. The service was professional and friendly. It wasn’t busy, but we came on a Monday. They do take reservations (you have to call). I can’t wait to come back. Next up: The gnocchi. Or the farfalle tutto sole. Or the tortellini con porcini. So many options!

After bringing 20+ family members to this establishment, I will never bring my business there again. The food was great, location was great, the drinks were well priced, but after an additional $ 100+ dollar charge on my debit card that I was unaware of and DID NOT AUTHORIZE… There’s still a salty taste in my mouth. Will have to deal with my bank now for fraudulent charges. I appreciated their service although an additional charge without consent of that amount is unacceptable.

Wow… after passing by this restaurant on several occasions, we decided to try it and see… We should have stopped here earlier. Very relaxing, comfortable environment, and the food and service were outstanding…
They have olive oil and balsamic on the table and when the waitress brought fresh bread, she included fresh parmesan and red pepper flakes… Well I could have made the meal just on the bread, parmesan, olive oil and pepper flakes… all fresh as can be!
My colleague ordered the house salad and the Spagetti Carbonara and I had the «new» Tonys salad and the Taglioline Caprine… The house salad was a house salad… nothing special but all fresh ingredients. The «New» Tony’s salad was great… Fresh roma tomatoes, roasted red peppers and arugula… very very good!
The main dishes were equally outstanding, the Carbonara — very original, creamy and very flavorful. The Caprine was also great again with fresh tomatoes, sundried tomatoes and goat cheese… all in all, we found another go to place in San Clemente!

Cute little intimate spot near the beach with decent prices and really good food! $ 16 pasta dishes, $ 5 salads, and $ 26 bottles of wine with a great location. Cant go wrong in my book. The spaghetti carbonara was super good with lots of big pieces of pancetta!

My gal pal and I went to Carbonara’s for our annual Christmas dinner to kick off the holiday season.
The «new» Tony salad was exceptional especially with the suggestion from our server Christina to add the mozzarella balls to it. Delicious. Along with that was her equally enjoyed suggestion of the Malbec wine from Argentina. My gal pal ordered the sea bass dinner special and I had the lasagna which were both exceptional.
Desserts were equally satisfying. A special shout out to our server Christina who was friendly prompt and attentive which certainly added to the wonderful experience we shared with her at Carbonara.