Italian family style restaurants always remind me when I brought my family who came from France for our wedding to Tony Di Napoli for a welcome dinner. We not only had fun with my family singing what I would just call classic French celebratory songs (I will not give more details but you can guess that there was some good ambiance in the restaurant), but the food was delicious (if you go, get the meatballs). So, I was looking forward to going to Carmine in Times Square. We were 7 people and had to wait just a bit for a table, the big restaurant being packed. Packed and loud, very loud, to the point that dessert was not even an option for me: I just wanted to get out! And it was not the only issue: we were a bit pushed to order more food than what we needed, our waiter, who by the way did not check on us after we were served, telling us that the eggplant parm we ordered was small, more like a side, that was not true at all. At least you can bring food home, but I do not like this kind of dishonest method. The eggplant parmesan was just ok, and I preferred the chicken marsala, or the appetizers we had previously: fried zucchini that is always a decadent way to eat that vegetable, or the spiedini all romana that is a roasted Italian loaf that is toasted and covered with melted mozzarella cheese in a capers, anchovies, basil and white wine reduction. At least we had good company, but I admit that Tony Di Napoli remains my favorite for Italian family style in Times Square.