Jason P.
Yelp
Carbone's Prime shares a name with the now closed Hartford South End Italian restaurant that was many people's fav area Italian for Decades. In terms of vibe, I don't feel a connection between the two. Hartford was Old School Italian and you might see Mayor Mike eating lunch at the bar with area politicians business people, and Rocky Hill is going for a modern, upscale Italian Steak and Chop House feel. You can order high end steaks and chops, and pastas and dishes normally more associated with nice Italian Restaurants. Gabriel's in Westport would be a point of reference.
My wife and I split the homemade ricotta spread as an app. The spread itself, with very creamy ricotta, honey and pistachios, was delicious. I didn't love the seasoning of the grilled bread pieces they served with it. For me, the flavors didn't work well enough together.
I ordered a Bone in Pork Chop Milanese as my main, with a side of creamy polenta. I loved this dish. The pork chop was huge, tender, well breaded and fried and tasty. The grape tomatoes, arugula, mozzarella, balsamic squiggles and fresh parm were all on point. The grilled lemon for squeezing felt like a high end touch. This all looked great on the plate as well. My creamy polenta was well executed.
My wife was not a big fan of her eggplant parm. I tried it and thought that it was just OK. You can go a variety of ways with the eggplant when making this dish. My favorite is when the eggplant is not over-cooked, but all the ingredients start to melt into each other. Probably more of an Old School approach. Carbone's went for a more distinctly layered feel, and the eggplant texture did not work for either of us. I would call it a bit too al dente.
The atmosphere is very nice and fitting for an upscale Chop House. Our server was very kind and off the charts in terms of attentiveness. He was very concerned about the fact that we were not eating the eggplant parm and he offered to do something about it. We declined since there was nothing technically wrong with the dish, but we appreciated his willingness to address it.
Overall, I would say this was a 4 Star experience, primarily because of the eggplant. It would not be surprising if we were up to 4.5 or 5 Stars when we next visit.