Carmello's of Old Town Manassas

My husband and I came here for our 1 year wedding anniversary, Despite being short staffed as soon as we walked in and there was no hostess on a Saturday night, the servers did their best to get us seated and tend to our needs. Our server, Teamir made sure that our anniversary did not go unnoticed with complimentary beverages to toast the occasion. Teamir was polite, professional and efficient, making sure if there were any issues regarding orders or delays he was in constant communication and quite attentive. There is limited parking for this restaurant, which is to be expected in Old Town Manassas, but nothing extremely far and unreasonable. Our next trip to Camelo's we will be asking for Teamir, his serving was phenomenal, certainly suggest requesting this amazing you man !!!!

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 5

yummers

We hosted a rehearsal dinner for about 40 people in the wine room. The food is absolutely amazing, the atmosphere is intimate and beautiful. Even a month later, we still getting compliments about Carmelo’s ans a venue and food . Our family has made it our special occasion restaurant. Highly suggest it for any occasion.

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 5

Ordered the chicken marsala.... Served as a whole chicken breast (not pounded) altho the breast was tender and moist... The marsala sauce was very thin and did not have much flavor. The appetizer plate was enjoyable for the most part. The tiramasu was outstanding.

Atmosphere: 4

Food: 4

Service: 4

It was decent.

Atmosphere: 3

Food: 3

Service: 4

Disappointing. Food was actually decent but they were completely unprepared for Mother’s Day dinner. Very understaffed

Mother's day Menu changed Mid April. Had made reservations in March, no phone call about the change was made. Made reservations for 10 am, they changed it to 1030 without notification. Not worth the money.
I ordered all American breakfast, it said it came with 3 eggs, bacon, sausage, ham and potatoes. I got 2 eggs, e small potatoes cut in half, and 1 piece if toast for $32. It cost my family of 4 $100 dollars and we all had the same thing.

Atmosphere: 1

Food: 1

Service: 2

Biggest Mothers' Day disappointment in years. It started when I inquired whether or not Carmellos was having a Mothers' Day buffet brunch this year. When I was told they were, I quickly made a reservation for 10 a.m. because we have attended their brunch in the past and it was fabulous. When we arrived at 10, we were told by the manager they didn't open until 10:30, but we were welcome to sit in the waiting area instead of outside. Things continued to go south when we were told they were not serving a buffet brunch this year. Instead, they were offering a limited Mothers' Day menu. I told him that I was told in my initial phone call there would be a buffet, he explained that he had changed the website in mid-April. Despite everyone being disappointed, and being too late to find an alternate place for our Mothers' Day, we agreed to be seated. The nightmare continued when our meals were delivered. The All American breakfast, which was ordered by six of the eight people at the table, contained overcooked ham, limp bacon and, in one case, two eggs instead of the advertised three. The sausage gravy and biscuits featured a watery gravy and hard biscuits. To be fair, the person who ordered the vegetable platter said it was quite tasty. And I must also commend our server. The poor young man tried his best to be upbeat, but he faced a tough and disappointed crowd. Bottom line is I will be hard-pressed to patronize Carmellos again -- even if they bring back that buffet.

Atmosphere: 2

Food: 1

Service: 5

The food is excellent, but they were very busy the night my wife and I went which resulted in us receiving poor service.

The person at the front seemed overwhelmed and offered no greeting when we arrived. We had no dedicated server, so when someone did come by to take our orders it was rushed, and no one really came by to see if we needed anything during our meal. This was my first time visiting so I was pretty disappointed.

I realize it was due to them being so busy, but there are also a lot of nice restaurants that provide attentive service even during busy periods.

The food didn’t disappoint, but I don’t believe I’ll be visiting again anytime soon.

Atmosphere: 2

Food: 5

Service: 3

Attempted to dine in for a pre-Mother's Day dinner with My Wife. We had a reservation and was seated with no menus. After waiting 15 minutes, someone finally came to us and asked us if we've been helped. Our waitress brought waters and menus and were told the specials. We finally got our order taken the Sat for another 25 minutes with no drinks, no bread, nothing. Our waitress was nowhere to be found. I saw her working several other tables and we notice people sat after us with bread, drinks, and appetizers!! After being in our seat for almost 40 minutes, I flagged someone down to get the waitress to come back. Our waitress stated that the delay was waiting on a new bottle of Chianti, but had no excuse for why we didn't have bread or anything. I saw the owner was there so I said just please send us the owner and we're going to cancel our meals. Our waitress was polite and apologize, but only could say she was just slammed busy and that they were overbooked. I understand this, but this is not what I expected for fine dining. I've had better service at small Mom & pop restaurants elsewhere. I didn't expect this from Carmelo's. The owner was gracious, but I told her that we weren't gonna spend over $200 For mealto be treated this way. Sadly, This was a surprise dinner for My Wife and I was excited after making the reservation a week prior. I was not expecting this from our local fine dining restaurant. Disappointing.

Atmosphere: 3

Service: 1

My husband and I were celebrating our birthday month with a dinner at the highly rated Carmello's. We had reservations for 5:15 pm. People were pleasant. It was busy, but okay. I'm just sad to say the seafood in my paella was not fresh tasting. The rice and sauce was fine...seafood a big no! My husband had duck. He said it was good.
We had doggie bags that we actually left at the restaurant. I was not sad. I really did not want to try to eat a very expensive dish simply because it was expensive.

Atmosphere: 4

Food: 3

Service: 5

We sat at our table for 40 minutes without anyone taking our dinner order, no bread service and barely any interaction from our waiter. We ended up walking out.

Atmosphere: 1

Food: 1

Service: 1

I'm just getting around to writing this review on my wedding rehearsal dinner from early October 2025. I'm still hearing about what a disaster it was from my guests! At the very least, the GM was kind enough to apologize for our rotten experience.

My parents decided to take the initiative to plan the rehearsal dinner for our October 2025 wedding. They read many reviews and landed on Carmello's for this task. What a mistake! My poor parents :( Shelling out a lot of money for a horrid experience.

The tasting we did about a month in advance was perfectly fine. Food was good, GM was friendly, no complaints. Our rehearsal dinner took place on the first Friday in October 2025. Despite us being NoVA residents, we were not familiar with the fact that it was First Friday (major partying on the streets with booze, loud music, marijuana, etc) since we don't live in Manassas. The manager didn't even bother to give us a heads up about that. That was the first offense. Second offense was that there were only one or two servers for the entire event which consisted of ~40 guests. No dedicated staff whatsoever. It took FOREVER to get any food or beverages because the wait staff seemed more concerned about serving the other dining room full of intoxicated First Friday patrons. My parents had to get up and take orders from our guests to give to the kitchen. Nothing changed despite the fact that they bugged the manager five times about it. That should've signaled a change but it certainly didn't.

The night continued on and by the time the event was supposed to be over, we hadn't even received the main course! Our wedding officiant met us at the restaurant to rehearse since our wedding venue was unavailable the afternoon/night before. The original plan was that my husband and I, along with our wedding party, would rehearse with the officiant after the rehearsal dinner was over and our guests left, leaving enough time to get it all done. Jesus, that did not happen at all and we were forced to rehearse with the officiant in front of our guests who were attending our wedding the next day! SO EMBARRASSING. It gave me a ton of anxiety, which is NOT needed the night before your own wedding that you spent a year planning all by yourself.

The food was subpar and not nearly as good as the tasting. Very disappointing. My wedding coordinator attended the rehearsal dinner to ensure the night went smoothly, and she could tell something was wrong from the beginning. There wasn't much she could do to put out this dumpster fire. The atmosphere sucked. The manager assured us they could move the booths out of the dining room we selected; instead, the booths were just pushed against the wall and it looked really bad. We didn't get to leave until about two hours after the event was supposed to end.

I would never recommend this restaurant to anyone who wants to hold an event such as a rehearsal dinner, nor would my wedding coordinator.

Go to any other restaurant and you'll have a better experience. It was so bad that my mom cried and apologized profusely to me for a screwed up rehearsal dinner even though it wasn't her fault.

The silver lining here is that the wedding seemed even more amazing than it already was in comparison to the rehearsal dinner. For shame, Carmello's! We're never going back to this restaurant for another meal. I truly hope something is learned from this review so it never happens to anyone else.

Atmosphere: 2

Food: 2

Service: 1

They need new cooks and staff training. Neither the food nor the service reflect the price point.

Atmosphere: 3

Food: 1

Service: 2

We had a great experience here, and a big part of that was our server, Zach. He was attentive, friendly, and had a great sense of timing without ever making us feel rushed. He checked in just enough, made great recommendations, and genuinely seemed to care that we had a good experience. The food was excellent, but Zach’s service really made the night stand out. We’ll definitely be back!

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 5