Carrabba's Italian Grill

Recommends

Contributor

Joined 10 years ago

An open kitchen churns out wood-fired pizzas and fresh-made pastas at this casual Sicilian-American chain.. In Short
Decorated with family photos of founders Damian Mandola and Johnny Carrabba, the open dining rooms pack groups of friends and extended families into four- and six-person tables and booths; smaller parties or couples can grab stools at the open kitchen's adjoining bar to watch chefs make dinner. The traditional southern Italian menu offers grill specialties like steak Marsala and fire-roasted chicken breast with sun-dried tomatoes; pasta dishes include fettuccine Alfredo and garlic-sauteed shrimp with linguine.

Doesn't Recommend

culinartartist

Joined 7 years ago

Worst Italian Chain Restaurant. Our family saw a Carrabba's ad on tv and the dishes looked sooo good that we made a call and asked for a table for 5 for Saturday night. They tell you they do not take reservations, but will accomodate you if you call ahead when you are 15 minutes away. We did as directed & were stuck with a 20 minute wait. So much for that ! When we finally got our seats we ordered the mussels and some other apps. While we waited we had olive oil to dip breads into. The olive oil was old and stale and did not have the worderful flavor that extra virgin oil should have. The mussels, when they finally arrived were not very fresh and had a distinct off flavor which I identified as grill grease fumes. They must have been too close to the grill station. I give that dish a D minus. My entra was the rosemary chicken with a pasta side. This dish was a disaster too. This restaurant clearly does not care what the kitchen sends out or even has a minimum of quality control. The chicken breast was very dry & over cooked, but worse it was coated in beef grease flavor from their grill. I imagine that the grill everything on the same grill & do not bother to clean it. The penne pasta was cooked to the point of mushiness so who ever was running the pasta station obviously did not care about what they sent out. When we finally finished this disasterous meal we told the perky and happy server that it was not her fault, but the meal was really really of poor quality. She sent over the manager Anthony, who offered nothing but mumbled apologies and that he was only here for one more week. He did not offer to remove any item or charge. We paid the bill and vowed never to set foot in this establishment again!

Doesn't Recommend

Primekid

Joined 9 years ago

First Impressions are the most important. First upon entry to the restaurant, the seating hosts ignored my party for a few minutes.

Then after seating this restaurant committed the biggest faux pas in my dining book. A restaurant, business establishment, should always have all items on the menu available once they open their doors to the public, barring some unforeseen mishap. This is just Restaurant business 101. This restaurant did not. Neither my guest nor me were able to order even the first two items of our choice due to unavailability. The waiter proceeded to rationalize with explanations that were blatantly untrue. I did not appreciate it.