Carrabba's Italian Grill — Restaurant in Bowie

This used to be one of my favorite restaurants to visit whenever I came to Bowie, MD because the customer service and the food was great.

It started off bad when the host told me that even though I was on the wait list, I had to wait 30 minutes to be seated. Then, he changed his mind and told me that they were cleaning a table to seat me and my family. I am not sure why it took at least 15 minutes to clear and a clean a table.

Our waiter messed up on our order numerous times and we felt forgotten about and slightly rushed at times. The waiter read our order back to us twice to make sure that it was correct.

We never received our appetizer, our drinks were low and not refilled for long periods of time nor did he stop by the table to see if we required refills. The waiter seemed like he was trying to avoid coming to the table.

Another time the waitee messed up our order was when he told my husband that the Johnny Trio with the 10 Ounce Sirloin came with a side, so my husband ordered the truffle fries. The waiter neglected to come back to the table to let my husband know that he (the waiter) made a mistake when he asked what side did my husband wanted with his meal. He substituted the raviolis with the fries. When the food arrived, my husband was confused about his order when he noticed that the raviolis weren't on his plate, and notified the waiter of the error. The waiter told my husband at that he substituted the raviolis for the truffle fries, and that he apologizes for not committing about the substitution.

The waiter rushed over with our bills without asking if we would like to order anything else such as dessert. My aunt and I wanted to order the $10 take home meal offer, and the waiter again provided the wrong information. He informed my aunt and I that we would have to order the same meal, when in fact the menu stated that you could take home a meal equal or lesser value. We also wanted to order dessert to go. We both ordered the Sogno Di Cioccolata "Chocolate Dream". The waiter once again found another way to screw up our order. He tried to pass off a Tiramisu as the Sogno Di Cioccolata "Chocolate Dream" in my take home bag, and didn't communicate with me that they had ran out of the dessert before he charged my card. The entire time, the waiter tried to blame all of his mistakes on the kitchen staff. I was so highly disappointed in the service we received and the fact that they always run out of popular items on their menu. Every time I have visited this location, they always seem to run out of the Sogno Di Cioccolata "Chocolate Dream" way before closing, which is 11 pm.

My Filet & Shrimp Toscana was extremely over peppered. My aunt had the same meal, and hers barely had any pepper in it at all.

The waiter adjusted our receipts to make up for the multiple mistakes, but I don't think that I will be revisiting this location again. There were too many mistakes made and the fact that they run out of a popular dessert all of the time way before 8 pm.

Our empty dishes/plates remained on our table the entire time as other food was brought...

I have been ordering from the Bowie Carrabba's for many years now; in fact, it is my most frequented non-fast food restaurant. It is disheartening to see that my experience ordering from here has gotten worse over the past few years. I dined in once and did takeout/delivery every other time. I will never do another takeout/delivery order again. If you want to go here, I recommend dining in to ensure a better experience.

What do I like about Carrabba's? The food. Hands-down, they have great food, the cooks do a good job, and a unique flame grilled flavor that I love. However, I must say that the bread has gone downhill. A few years ago, I was delighted when my Carrabba's takeout order came with a whole loaf of delicious, warm, and soft bread. My most recent order came with 4-5 slices of hard, tasteless bread that seemed like it had been sitting under a heat lamp for hours.

What do I not like about the Bowie Carrabba's? The service, specifically the service for takeout. Not only does takeout service consistently do a bad job, the service has been on a downward trend over the past couple years. To put it simply - the wait times for pickup orders are too long, and they get the orders wrong often. Let me elaborate.

Pickup order wait times - When the food app says "Ready" then you expect your food to be ready, right? Well, at Carrabba's in Bowie, that is not the case! Every single time I have done a pickup order, I arrive when the app says it is ready, and I still have to wait 10 or more minutes to get my order. According to the greeter, they are "collecting all the takeout orders before bringing them up front," whatever that means. If the app says "Ready" then the food should be at the front of the restaurant and ready! This past time, I talked to a man next to me who had been waiting 5 minutes longer than me - it took me 10 minutes to get my order so that man had been waiting at least 15 minutes. It is obvious that they need to rethink how the operations behind takeout orders are done here at the Bowie Carrabba's. The current way does not work.

Speaking of the greeters at Carrabba's, it seems to be a trend here that they don't have anyone at the front of the restaurant. On my last three visits (including yesterday), there was a line of people accumulating at the front while no one was staffing the front table. There should always be someone at the front to greet people coming in. On multiple occasions, I have waited 5 minutes before someone came to the front.

Orders are wrong - My last two takeout orders have had issues. Once, my wife's pasta didn't have chicken on it. This past time, there were multiple issues. They completely forgot the Fettuccini Alfredo side and a side salad for my wife's dish, and the bread was completely stale and hard. The quality control here has gotten worse since my first order years ago.

While Carrabba's does have good food, these repeatedly bad experiences here have left a bitter taste in my mouth. I will never do takeout here again. If you do find yourself craving the food that is made here, I recommend...

Please do not go here if you want good customer service. My friend and I went here on August 9th, 2024, and the hostess had a nasty attitude. She walked us to a dirty table on the left side of the restaurant. She brushed cheese off the table, which fell on the seat, and then sat us down at the table. , When my friend and I sat down, we saw the food still on the table, so we asked a server who was beside us if we could change our seats, and he was very helpful and told us we could move to a different table or to the bar When we stood up, the hostess came back saying she was going to clean the table. Question is why would u seat people at a dirty table. After 10 minutes ( not a busy day) we noticed we never got complimentary bread or water. Therefore we asked the hostess who with a attitude says its coming out. The bread came out an additional 10 minutes later and was not fresh at all. 15 minutes after that we get a female server who placed the order for our appetizer and drink. I asked for a mocktail and my friend a raspberry lemonade. His drink came out first while mine came out 15 minutes later after the appetizer. As we are eating the appetizer we notice we been sitting there for 25 minutes and everyone who came after us has gotten there entrée. Considering we were talking we didn’t notice that we never seen our server again. 25 minutes turned to 30. Then a male server ( i think, he was not wearing the server attire but took our order) was very unprofessional he said “ yall ready to eat”. We are like yes, he proceeds to say “ what yall want”. At this moment we regret not leaving when we walked through the door. I placed my order he turns to my friend who was completely over it and says what u want bro so he places his order and we are in disbelief. Another 15 minutes or so the food comes out which looked nice however was mediocre we had to ask the person who gave us our food if they can give us boxes for we did not want to be there anymore. Our original server in a rush ask if we ok and we are like sure ( already getting our things together). We pack our boxes and the next person we see so happens to be the manager so we ask for our check and i tell him how our server was never to be found and how the customer service is not up to par. He offered a 10$ discount which was ok i guess. However I will never be going to this establishment again. By the way the mocktail was terrible, i asked for mojito style and they did not have mint and as a professional mixologist who does private events for well known people. I do not think the bartender is Certified the drink was thick and syrupy and made in the wrong order. PLEASE RUN FROM THIS PLACE, Maybe take out would of...