Carrabba's Italian Grill — Restaurant in Lakeland

Oh, how the mighty have fallen! Carrabba’s has been my family’s go to place for celebrations for 20+ years. We have so many good memories of excellent and charismatic service, delicious hot food, cozy and warm ambience, and large portions. Part of the fun has always been eating your leftovers for breakfast the next morning. But every time we have visited Carrabba’s in the past 2 years it has gotten increasingly worse. The ambience has become more like a diner than a relaxing dining experience. The service is mediocre and sometimes terrible - they used to have the best servers in town no matter which Carrabba’s we visited, across the country. The consistency and quality was so comforting. The portion sizes have become ridiculously small for what they cost. The Alfredo sauce has changed from something that tasted rich and thick and homemade to a watery, flavorless sauce. The bread is different. The Chicken Bryan portions are more expensive for a third of the amount of chicken. The broccoli tastes frozen, not fresh, and is soggy. I could go on and on. It’s so disappointing.

This last time we went for my birthday and it was the last straw. We took advantage of call-ahead seating, only to arrive and sit there for another 40 minutes before being seated. The front of the house was not organized. Then, our server obviously did not want to be there. We tried to rally and make the best of it. Two of our party ordered soup as their first course - it came out cold. Two of the entrees came out cold and were sent back to be microwaved. There was no call-back for dessert. The sampler platter that two of us ordered, that costs $25-$30 was a much smaller plate of food than it used to be, and the fettuccini Alfredo on it was cold. We spent $180 on our meal, and it was not even worth half this. I am disappointed. One of my young adult kids had tears in their eyes when this all went down because it was so different from how it used to be.

I have many good memories of this restaurant. It truly was such a fixture for us. My father in law used to take us all out for Italian every year on Christmas Eve after church back when he was still alive and the kids were little and we were broke. That is a cherished memory and what I will remember. But Carrabba’s, you’re fired. We will not be returning, and will find a new Italian restaurant for our family celebrations. It seems that decisions have been made company-wide that are trickling down into a discouraging experience for long-time, loyal patrons. Enough is enough.

I do sincerely hope you...

We visit here often every two or three months and we had an experience where there was some issues with the temperature of some of our food on a previous visit. I wrote the management team an email and received reply back quickly. They asked me to reschedule a visit so they can make it right. The management team was professional, considerate and on point with the reply in the email. We rescheduled another luncheon they had staff members Dax and Laura attend our luncheon and they were very attentive to our party. The food was fabulous and we're really grateful that we gave them another chance. We love Carrabba's and it was just a one-off (on previous luncheon) where we were the first reservation of the day on our visit (one of many).

The management team here is beyond amazing and the wait staff is very professional. I'd like to highlight that we had Dax and Laura and I want to highlight both Dax and Laura as the two that were assisting our party. I think it was 10 to 12 people and they worked in unison. Everything arrived hot and on time. It was delicious as we know Carrabba's to be. I'm hoping that the management team will reach out to Dax and Laura and let them know how grateful we were for them and/or present them with some kind of token or award for their professional attention to our party.

On a side note, it was my birthday. They were kind enough to offer me a dessert and sang Happy Birthday to me. I took my dessert to go, but I was surprised and appreciative that they brought me a dessert for my birthday that I could take home.

The other thing we love about Carrabba's is it that they have a buy one take home option for things that are of equal or less value with a couple of exclusions, for the upscale steaks and things, but other than that almost everything on the menu you can buy one for lunch and take one home for later of a different item and that's one thing we also love so much about Carrabba's. Have them clarify before you order.

Again we thank the wait staff team the management team that asked us to come back and give them another chance. We appreciate the opportunity to continue to enjoy our one of our favorite Italian restaurants Carrabba's and again please send our thanks and appreciation to Dax and to Laura who waited on us. I recommend you ask for them for fabulous service 😉

Very...

So, I have only been to Carrabbas once and that was many years ago when they first opened. I wasn't impressed then and I am still not impressed. The salad came before the appetizer. The hubs and I had the house salad which came with a creamy parmesan dressing. The salad arrived almost dry. A fair portion of the romaine lettuce was the bottom near the stem. You know - the really white hard pieces? There were no onions or tomatoes. I found 2 olives and a tiny slice of a pepper. 2 minutes later our appetizer came out which was 10.00 for 4 small mushrooms stuffed with sausage. The mushrooms were in a pretty tasty sauce but you couldn't really get any sauce on your bite because there were no spoons given to to us to use. We also had no salt and pepper and were not offered any. We had to ask. Main dish comes out as we are in the middle of our NOW salad and appetizer. Someone who was not our waitress drops it off at the table and walks away without saying a word. The hubs and I both had the rigatoni with sausage. His looked good and had grated cheese and scallions on the top. Mine looked as if someone stuck their hand in it and stirred it around. I sent it back. The waitress was surprised at the way the meal came to the table. She returned about 5 minutes later with a much more appealing meal. So now for the meal itself. If half a sausage was used in the dish I would be surprised. What sausage was there had a good flavor. We counted 3 small pieces of sun dried tomatoes. The rest was pasta. A bowl of pasta. And did I mention the cold glass given to me with my Italian bottled water had fingerprints all over it and was dirty? I ignored that and drank my water straight from the bottle but it should have been my first sign. 48 dollars later we left bloated from the pasta and completely reminded of hamburger helper. I am giving 2 stars because the waitress...