Carrabba's Italian Grill — Restaurant in Florida

How the mighty have fallen. Carrabba's was always the "Go To" for a quality, lower cost Italian fare. Slightly less expensive than Brio and significantly less expensive than Donatello, Carrabba's was always a budget friendly spot to have a great meal, and generally great service. While I believe the food at Donatello and Brio to have always been superior, I think Carrabba's has historically succeeded at their price point. We've been dining at this location since they opened, and have been pleased 99% of the time. So, I've scaled my review up for those good times. Because this most recent visit was a 0 OUT OF 5.

Fast forward to a few weeks ago, and most everything went wrong:

The lasagna was excellent, but the portions have noticeably shrunk, while the price has increased.

The chicken parmesan was fairly well presented, but the chicken was inconsistent (likely a meat quality issue).

My wife and Father both ordered a new special (Filet and Shrimp Pasta Toscana). Obviously ordering steak at a low budget Italian joint is a risk. And that risk surely didn't pay off. Kitchen staff couldn't save these filets. Even cooked to a perfect medium rare, the meat quality was abysmal. Chewier, and more sinewy than the worst sirloins offered at a low rent steakhouse. I've sampled better sirloin at Texas Roadhouse (mind you this was supposed to be a filet).

The service was somehow worse than the food: Server was careless, and obviously this wasn't her first career choice. I had the inkling this was out of necessity. She didn't have the knowledge of a career server.

Ordered drinks, brought out all but 1 drink. Fine. Server failed to notice the discrepancy. We order food, and then remind her of the missing drink. Salads arrive with haste by the backup, before the missing drink even arrives. Salads were passable.

Drink was brought by the backup. Everyone else had finished their first round drink.

Dinner arrives, in a rushed fashion, brought by backup. No offer for a second round of drinks, or water refills. Still haven't seen our server since the original drink miscommunication.

Server shows up finally to ask us how everything was. Those of us with what passed for edible food had finished our meals. The two who ordered the Filet and Shrimp pasta were left hungry and bored, and we were all left thirsty.

They comped the terrible pastas, which still left 2 members of our party starving. But, it was far too late in the meal to want to order 2 more questionable entrees.

They sent one member of our party home with a dessert of some sort, which ended up...

It's been a while since we've been to a Carrabba's. It was before the pandemic. I remember it being a good experience, and everything we ordered was executed well. Unfortunately, this last visit left a lot to be desired. I don't know if it's because they are short staffed, or what. We did ask if we could be seated at a booth by the window. They were only seating people in a section of booths by the bar. It was an early bird visit with only 2 other booths/tables occupied, and none of them were seated by the window. There was only one server at the time.

We always look forward to the complimentary bread with the herb seasoned olive oil. We were immediately turned off by the clumps of spices in the small dish. There was no amount of oil (or stirring of the oil) that could dissolve these clumps. The bread was served cold. It was covered in a paper napkin like it had been sitting out for a while. We didn't finish what was in the basket. We usually ask for more. Not this time.

We had the Zucchini Fritte, which we have ordered many times before. It's usually amazing! This time, it was full of oil. We couldn't eat it.

My husband didn't enjoy the Chicken Marsala. It wasn't executed well on the grill. The ingredients didn't taste fresh. The same could be said about my vegetable side dishes. They were swimming in what I think was olive oil. It had a nice garlic taste, but that's it. The Tuscan Grilled Ribeye had good flavor, and it was cooked perfectly. However, I wouldn't pay for it again with the poorly executed veggie sides.

Our server was very good. We didn't say anything about the zucchini until she asked if everything is okay. She offered to have the appetizer remade. We declined, but I think she ended up taking it off the bill without us even asking.

I wasn't going to update my review, but thought it would be best to provide some feedback. Our visit was in June of this year. That's how long it took for me to decide whether to post it or not. Hopefully the quality of the food will one day be like it was before...

We went here for my son’s 7th birthday. He has celiac and because of that is extra picky. We put our name in, were told about a 25 minute wait, it ended up only being around 10 minutes. All of the food was fabulous and the service was great but there were two pieces of the experience that really stood out to me.

Firstly, I had ordered pasta with steak medium-rare. When everyone else’s food was brought out, it was explained to me that my steak was overcooked and they were remedying that before bringing out my meal. I appreciated that for two reasons, that they didn’t let everyone else’s food just waste away under lamps and dry out but also that they identified and fixed my steak without me having to say anything at all.

Secondly, my son had ordered the kids pasta with red sauce. It came out fine but he was complaining a bit about the spice. To his credit he was trying to eat it anyway. A couple of bites in, what I assume was the kitchen manager came out to ask how my steak was. It was at that time we ended up just asking him if we could swap out the pasta for macaroni. He was so kind and didn’t hesitate. I genuinely appreciated that he wasn’t bothered by the request. Not only did my son eat all of that macaroni, they brought him a second plate of macaroni and he ate all of that too!

I’m so appreciative of the staff and especially that kitchen manager for making the meal so seamless for my son’s birthday. There aren’t a lot of places you can go with a little that has something like celiac and trust that everything will go right. This was such a positive experience. This kitchen crew is amazing! Thank you...