Carrabba's Italian Grill — Restaurant in Columbus

Worst run restaurant I've ever been to in my life

We called ahead while on the road because we have a family of 6 with 3 kids 4 & under. We called 25-30 minutes before arriving. They told us there was no wait with plenty of room.

We get there and they act like they didn't even know we were coming. Literally, the hostess asked if a 4 top table would be ok before she reminded herself there was 6 of us and that we would not fit... The restaurant was almost empty. It was only 345p. She tells us we need to wait 10-15 minutes so she could clean a table then would text us when ready.

We weighed our options outside and decided to wait instead of going somewhere else. 20 minutes later my wife had to walk in and see they're still not ready. The hostess then rushes us finally to a table incredibly apologetic letting us know she was still new. We just wanted to eat but accepted her apology

The straw was our waitress. Taking 5-10 minutes to get to our table. Doesn't introduce herself. Asks what we want to drink, then immediately begins walking away. I had to stop her to ask for an appetizer

Comes back with the drinks and no straws.

Grabs and drops off straws then walks away again before we can order

We already knew what we wanted. With the kids we like to figure it out quick and order fast to eat sooner

Our waitress stood in plain view at the cook station talking to her co-workers waiting for our appetizer. I made eye contact more than once with her (literally had to turn all the way around in my chair and stare until she looked at us, couldn't be more obvious to do it) because we were ready to order

She continued to stand there waiting and talking for nearly ten minutes... Not once did she ask what we wanted to eat from the moment we sat down. Not for an app when we got drinks (remember I had to stop her), not after she dropped our drinks off. Not after she dropped off the straws. Not even for 10 minutes after dropping off the straws while she waited on our app did she think we may want to order

She didn't even have any other tables. All the tables around us were empty. And for the half hour we were there we never saw her go to another table

And that was it

I asked for the manager and let him know why we were leaving. We had sat there for nearly 30 minutes total, she not ONCE asked what we wanted to eat

Let that sink in

We went to a restaurant. Spent nearly a half hour at a table. And we were never asked if we may want something to eat...

Not sure how any restaurant can...

I arrived at the Polaris Carrabba’s location at 5:30 pm Eastern Standard Time on the night of March 21st, 2025. I was greeted instantly with a warm welcome from the hostess, who immediately seated me afterward. From there I was greeted by my server, a young man named Pierce who immediately handed me a menu, showing me all the specials for the day, and told me his favorite options and what he recommends for me to order. I happen to be a strict vegetarian and I made that known to Pierce right away. He showed no hesitation and immediately sat down next to me and went over all the vegetarian options that were available on the menu. He knew the entire menu like the back of his hand and helped me find the dish best tailored for me. It only got better from there. Pierce would frequently check in on me, asking if I had enough bread or enough to drink, you could tell he truly loved his job of pleasuring the customer, and boy was I certainly pleasured. Everything about my experience was phenomenal, but it couldn’t have been made possible if it wasn’t for Pierce. Even when I overheard him interacting with other tables you can tell that he’s a real professional in the food service/ hospitality industry. During this time especially, a Friday night during dinner time, he was always accommodating to not only myself but to the tables around me. I even ended up conversing with the table next to me about Pierce how wonderful of a young man he was, and how we are so thrilled by his services. I don’t think this location could afford to stay open without him, that’s how valuable he is towards the customers and the restaurant itself, he’s the backbone of the business, and the ideal server prototype that holds all the Carrabba’s values dearly in his heart. To wrap up my meal, he overheard the conversation I had with my family about my birthday plans following supper. He didn’t say anything, he acted like he heard nothing, but brought out a huge free piece of cake for me to enjoy. As I blew the candle on my cake out my birthday wish was for this moment to never end. Thank you Pierce and thank you to the...

To summarize:

1. ordered take-out for lunch
2. went to pick up lunch. Bag lunch was in fell on the floor, Bag had split and containers all hit the floor.
3. Person I assume was expeditor indicated nothing popped open so they didn't need to remake--put it in another bag and hands it to host to give to me. I'm watching this all happen. Server asked me if I want to have it remade. I am shocked, tell them I'll take it after popping the lid on my meal fully closed because it wasn't fully sealed (likely to cause yet ANOTHER mess if I hadn't checked had it fallen on the way home)--- that was my mistake for accepting their failure to save them time and money.

All I ended up out of this experience was walking out, calling back while I'm in my car, and telling them to re-fire my order while I go take care of another errand in area. I'm really angry at this point. I literally have paid this restaurant voluntarily to provide me with a meal and they place additional conditions on collecting it that I didn't agree to in advance.

I return. I hand them back their meal. I get a new one with an apology from the manager. I'm so angry about this, I no longer want to eat the food because I'm now wondering, if they were cool doing this to me to my face, what else are they comfortable with doing to paying customers behind their back?

Never place a paying customer or your host/wait staff in this situation expecting them to hand over food that's been dropped on the floor- I don't care if the containers didn't open or not--that's nasty and disrespectful.

My choice of inconvenience was to stay and wait for them to refire or come back and let them refire. Either way, the experience was wholly unacceptable for the inconvenience and lost of trust.

The second star was for the host who was put in this situation through no fault of his own. He did care and did ask if I wanted my order remade then and there, but the situation he was in was unfair to him and to me as the expeditor stated to him it didn't need to be re-made. The expeditor was...