Da Carmela : Kaiserstraße 23, 61169 Friedberg (Hessen)

Absolutely lovely! The food, the atmosphere, the service, everything has been amazing! As an Italian I can only extremely recommend this place. The friendliness of Carmela and the taste of the dishes make you feel like home. Absolutely affordable prices and possibly to pay with credit card.

Wonderful place

Unfortunately, well. We came here spontaneously and find it difficult to understand all the hype and the good reviews. We came in and initially stood at the counter, there was no employee in sight. After 2 minutes a woman who was sitting at the table eating asked if we had made a reservation and could we sit down. Was she an employee or an acquaintance of the owners who simply placed us? No idea! Then the boss came and brought us the cards. We order fried anchovies and 2x pasta dishes. There was bruschetta on the house - unfortunately unsalted and there were generally no spices, as you would expect from bruschetta. But well, maybe others like it better that way. The fried anchovies were delicious, and the accompanying salad also had little to no seasoning. Of course, this is also a matter of taste, but you would expect a little more spice. Then came the 2 pasta dishes. Mine was okay, the tomato sauce was a bit sour, but no reason for a complaint. Unfortunately, my friend's pasta was disastrous. It had a porcini mushroom sauce and it tasted so sour and bitter. The poor guy tried to eat it, but unfortunately I couldn't watch it any longer and politely complained about the food. It was also prepared again, which is why the well-intentioned 3 stars. On the second attempt it wasn't tastier but better than the first time. After research, we learned that porcini mushrooms only taste bitter/sour if the refrigeration/cold chain is not maintained properly. Incorrect cooling creates bitter substances. At the end there was a dessert on the house, what made from cream & pudding stock. Well meant but all in all it was a fail. Regarding the atmosphere, my friend and I had to whisper so that the other tables wouldn't hear us. Music is probably out of place here... 😕 Maybe we just had a bad day. In any case, unfortunately there will be no further visit.