Carrabba's Italian Grill — Restaurant in Florida

Update: I ate dinner at the Carrabba’s located at 7620 N. Wickham Road, Melbourne, FL this past Thursday night. At first I thought it was fine—ridiculously salty, but passable. However, approximately four hours later, I experienced a pronounced case of diarrhea—something I never get. The symptoms continued throughout the night and into the next morning.

I would recommend that the management at this restaurant take the following steps to prevent this from happening to other customers: look at their chicken storage to make sure that old meat is being discarded; review the washing of vegetables to make sure that the staff is getting rid of bacteria; and make sure that employees are washing their hands after using the restroom.

It seems like Carrabba’s adds more and more salt to their meals with every passing year. It’s gotten to the point where it has become rather ridiculous. And now that they’re adding food poisoning and bacteria into things, I think it’s time to cross this place off the list.

—————————————————————————————————— The Carrabba's located at 7620 North Wickham Road, Melbourne, FL 32940 has declined over the years. The wait staff used to be one of the best in the area. They used to check on patrons frequently during the meal, offering free refills of beverages and asking if the patron needed anything. They were gregarious, always eager to please--really a top notch group. But those employees are apparently long gone. I find the current wait staff to be someone lazy and distant. They only check on you when you've nearly finished your meal.

The prices of the meals at Carrabba's have increased at a rapid rate, far exceeding the smaller rate hikes at local competitors. It's odd when you consider that most of their dinners are pasta and chicken, fairly cheap meals to prepare. Many of their meals simply are no longer worth the cost.

Presumably as part of their efforts to increase profit margins, the portion sizes have been getting smaller. It's a double insult in view of the price hikes. There is evidence of corner cutting everywhere you look. A salad that used to have 6-8 Kalamata olives now has one, and buried in the lettuce are chunks of the hard material at the core of the lettuce head. Chicken patties are sliced much more thinly now.

Finally, I noticed that they are adding large amounts of salt to the dipping oil that is served with the mini-loaf of warm Italian bread before the meal. The saltiness is very noticeable to a long time patron. I can only surmise that it's motivated by an old bartender's trick: make the snacks salty to force patrons into buying more beverages. It's one thing to do that at the bar; it's rather sleazy and unethical to do that at the dining tables.

For tourists and visitors unfamiliar with this area, I strongly recommend a hard pass on this restaurant. A far superior alternative is the Longhorn Steakhouse at the...

The good: I ordered online and payed online to pick up. It was easy to order & to pay In a very short time I received a notification that my order was ready. I was on my way as I got the notification. I was not expecting to be so FAST and ahead of time. I drove up to pick up and there was plenty of spaces (that should have been an indication) The lovely girl very cheerfully & politely asked my name and promptly came out with my order She was very pleasant and my heart goes out to her because she is the face that the people encounter. That was the best part of my experience. She was very kind.

The very bad: My drink order, I requested no ice but it was obvious it was full of ice. The lovely girl immediately apologized and went back to get the proper drink I ordered. This gave me some time to make sure that all the items I ordered where indeed correct.(if you order from them MAKE sure you got your order before you go) I was astonished. I could not believe this is what they were serving. I thought it had to be a mistake but I can see it was what I ordered but all the portions were children portions not dinner or restaurant portions. I get more fries at McDonald’s and I dont pay this price! I expect a higher quality and a greater proration when I order from a restaurant. I ordered the scallops that were Disgusting (so NOT order the scallops ) with a side of asparagus that I payed an extra fee but for what?! And the veal piccata that looked like an appetizer portion with side of truffle fries but I am not exaggerating 10 stick of fries! The soup was a half cup serving and the side of fettuccini was also very small. Ridiculously small portions VERY over priced and NOTHING is prepared to justify the price. If the portion were smaller and delicious then I would not complain but to pay as much as i did for the portions and the quality is a huge disappointment and I will NOT be returning.

The only item that was as expected was the dessert, the cannoli cake that was indeed a generous restaurant portion and tastes delicious. Everything else was barely edible. I used to enjoy this restaurant something has changed and it’s NOT the light bulbs because the “CA” in the sign was dark. Change the bulbs! This restaurant needs to act FAST to correct the situation because this is a small community and plenty of competition with much better food at much better prices and reasonable portions. At least they let us eat cake & the person attending was VERY sweet trying to...

We came in yesterday and ordered lunch. I came with my husband and 3 daughters. We had appetizers and kids meals as well as ordering our own meal. Our appetizer of Rosemary fries came out and they were excellent. They served my kids meals with the appetizer. Then we wait and wait and wait. No refills. No one’s checking on us and our food did not come out. The order was placed at 12:44 and at 2 they food had not come out. By then my just turned 5 year old has already ate and had it with the wait, she wound up on the floor under the table. So we flag the manager down. She says our food is coming right up and we ask her to box it, we need to leave, she says she’s comping multiple things off my check. 20 minutes go by before we get our boxed food. I had ordered the salmon, it had like 1 tomato cut in half in there with it. My husband ordered the chicken parm and when we got home he literally only had a piece of chicken in a box. No pasta, no sauce, just a piece of breaded chicken. The only meal that was comped was my own meal. And she gave us a coupon for a free kids meal to actually come back and spend more money, as if we would come back after this experience. We didn’t even get our complete order. The tab with tip cost $130 and we left the restaurant without ever even eating and when we got home, we found our meals to be incomplete. And the server decided to throw in a complementary dessert to make up for the troubles and she put in a cannoli and let me know that it was her favorite dessert, which is why she put it in there. And it’s Mother’s Day and I hate cannolis and nobody asked me what I liked. Nobody even kept our drinks full. We were flagging down other servers just to get a drink. All in all absolutely shitty service, all in all absolutely not what should’ve been done when it came to handling my bill! I can’t believe we spent money on that. To come home and not even have the meals that we paid for is absolutely beyond me and completely unacceptable. And when we came in, they were not slammed. There was less than a five minute wait. Honestly, we shouldn’t have had to pay for anything but our appetizers and our kids meals and my glass of wine. And honestly, that one glass of wine was the one thing that kept me from blowing my lid in that place. We will not be back and this is not the first time Carrabba‘s has burnt their bridge with us. Couple years back their bar smelled so bad. I walked in and almost vomited so there’s a history here not...