Johnny Carino's — Restaurant in El Paso

I think I should begin with what was good about my visit. First off our appetizer (the calamari) was amazing and probably the best I've had from a restaurant, and not to mention the fresh bread and Olive oil. The whole menu was very attractive and honestly I wanted to try everything (perhaps it was just my hunger thinking for me at the time.) Our server was attentive and was good at recommending additions to our meals, but that was probably what should've raised a flag about the food. My family and I ordered Johnny's combo, fettuccine alfredo, and some sort of pasta nachos. The food came out and looked great, the lasagna and chicken parm from Johnny's combo were great as well as the pasta nachos, but that's sadly where the good ended. Both pasta dishes were terribly bland and lacking. The alfredo sauce in my dish was thin and bland, along with my dad's spaghetti being bitter and lacking (still much better than Olive Gardens though, not that that's saying much.) I unfortunately had to send the pasta back in order to have it removed from the bill, sadly my dad was greedy and took the liberty of eatting the shrimp on my plate. They (Understandably) charged us for that, but there were no other problems in getting it removed from the bill aside from that. I must say though that $6 for six pieces of shrimp seems way too steep in my opinion. Overall I was very disappointed with the quality to price ratio. If I'm paying $60 for a meal, I feel like quality and hot food isn't really too much to ask for. Maybe it's my fault for playing it too safe with my meal choice, but a good sauce isn't hard to make. My waiter mentioned that he recommended adding green chile for a reason, but I shouldn't have to pay extra just to make my food taste good. I really wanted to love my food, but I just couldn't force myself to eat something so dull. It's sad to say, but I don't think I've ever left a restaurant feeling so unsatisfied. I'll give them 6/10 overall. The service was good, and honestly I'd like to return one day to see if I can find something that might...

I hate to give a bad review on this place because the food is great but the service sucks!!! We came over a month ago and had to wait because the host told us they were short staffed. No problem on that visit overall. But yesterday we came back and was escorted straight in to a table so our hopes were up for a good experience. WRONG!!! worst experience ever....we waited 25 minutes to get our order taken AND an hour after to get our meal. It wasn't our waiters fault. He was trying his best but they kept giving him more and more tables to him and he was overwhelmed. I watched an older bald man ( obviously the manager) scolding him BUT no one never helped him. I turned around and realized he constantly had most of the tables. There were other waiters there and two hosts that were doing nothing that could have helped this poor waiter. It was like they were punishing him YET wether customer were affected. This manager needs to go back and get some management skills and learn about TEAMWORK. He never came to the tables and greeted customers except one table he knew and was flirting with the woman about her beauty otherwise just stayed at the kitchen counter looking angry. Very unprofessional. The waiter kept a good attitude so we over tipped him. He tried his best. The fault lies with...

Decided to celebrate my birthday lunch here as I have never been here before. BIG mistake. This will be the first and last time we visit. As soon as we arrived the environment seemed hostile. The girl who sat us ended up being our server we were a party of 17 but the restaurant was pretty empty. She kept reminding us they “closed at 4pm”. We arrived at 12:30pm. When we were trying to let her know the checks would be separated before ordering she said she could only separate it for 4 checks. If it were more she couldn’t do it. She seemed to be very agitated taking our drink and food order. We would ask for an extra set of utensils or an extra straw she would say “ugh damn” roll her eyes. When my party would say thank you for something she wouldn’t acknowledge them. The food came out cold (not her fault). She was slamming the dishes on our tables while she was picking them up. When asked for boxes she explained they only had small boxes so “it would be a mess”, miraculously she found 8 bigger boxes. Needless to say were out by 2:50 as to not upset the waitress anymore since they closed at 4pm. This has to be the worst service I have ever received at any restaurant. I understand we were a big party but this is our first time going to a restaurant with a big party and receiving such...