Carrabba's Italian Grill — Restaurant in Maryland

Long story short: Went here the other day, and we were 100% ignored for a good 30 minutes before we decided to have enough dignity to leave.

Long story long: We should have known things were a bit chaotic for the staff when we first arrived, as the hostess was missing from her post for about 3-5 minutes upon our arrival.

That wasn’t a terrible amount of time relative to our wait at our table, but we were hungry, and it was enough time for about three or four other parties to walk in before she returned. When the hostess finally arrived, you could tell she was a bit frazzled. I think we all could see she was a bit overwhelmed, so no one gave her a hard time. We could tell she was trying her best, except when she was putting together our menus, I noticed that she placed one of them on top of a trash can next to her station, as if it were an extra work surface. lol! Of course, that VERY menu found its way into the set she’d eventually give to us as she took us to our seats. (Yuck!) But again, we could tell she was overwhelmed, and we were hungry, so our judgment wasn’t the best as we decided to continue our visit even after that! (I’m so embarrassed to admit that.)

Anyways, immediately after we were seated, a young man flew by our table and dropped off some bread and oil (with a few specks of herbs in it). He didn’t stop to speak or anything…just dropped off the bread and kept walking in one fluid motion. After that, wait staff would similarly brush past us - no eye contact, no acknowledgement, nothing. They were all busy, but the restaurant itself wasn’t “busy”. It wasn’t packed with a long wait, and there were even a few empty tables. We surmised they must have been understaffed, so we tried to exercise some grace and decided to peruse our trash can menu. lol!

Spongbob voice THIRTY. MINUTES. LATER. We’re sitting there with no water, an empty bread basket, no food, no acknowledgment of our existence and at least one menu that had made full contact with a garbage pale! I was good and primed to “KAREN” out, but my husband didn’t want me to make a scene. So, instead, I suggested we leave immediately. As we were leaving, I tapped one of the servers and asked her if she knew who was assigned to our table. Of course, she had no clue. On the way out, I proceeded to complain to the hostess, who was a totally different person by this point. (I presume the one who was using the trash can as a work surface was done with her shift for the night?) Anyways, I told the (new) hostess that I knew it wasn’t her fault, but I needed to express how terrible the service had been so far. I honestly couldn’t tell if she was just soft spoken or being sarcastic in her response, but it sounded void of any emotion or sincerity. “Awww. Oh. No. I’m so. Sorry. To. Hear.” It was at that point that my hair style morphed into an a-symmetric bob with a deep side part with swooped bangs, and my inner Karen was wholly activated!!!! “I want to speak to a manager,” I demanded.

My poor husband was already outside at this point, but he had tried again to get me to walk out and to simply leave a review later. But NO! Someone needed to know about this terrible experience in real time!

Surprisingly, the manager came up within seconds. She was very sweet and apologetic, and she would offer us gift cards and cake for the inconvenience. We (reluctantly) accepted the gift cards, as we knew we would NEVER dine there again!

But we did use our gift cards for a takeout order the next day 🙃.

It worked out that the same manager was there to handle our takeout order, and she not only applied our gift cards to our order, she took additional money off! She is the ONLY reason I didn’t give this place one star and might consider patronizing them again. The food in our take out order was pretty good as well. So yeah, we won’t likely dine there again, but we might still...

It's in our neighborhood and we love it! We had many a meal from there to eat at home the last few years but are going out a bit more now . They had a wonderful monthly 3-4 course set menu event paired with wines for each course on a theme and we went every single month. The perfect date night! Because the event group is seated and served together we had a small but extremely competent little staff all our own who could keep up and made the evening so much fun! With a raffle at the end with something fun a lucky diner would win. Even though its a large beautiful restaurant with vintage prints and an open kitchen plan behind the bar when you were at the monthly events it was more like an intimate dinner party all together in one section with our own waitstaff and chef and a good time was always had by all. Its a good place to venture out but i hope still keep some distance . I hope they start the monthly events again soon! I m so tired of eating great food on my own not so great couch! But as always we will be going back randomly as well , just as we always have who could resist their "Cannolli Cake for 2" touch my cake and i swear i will have to cu... whoops lol what i meant to say is "i really enjoy the cake and rarely RARELY want to share. " (clutches huge cake. Gives friends, family and neighbors some serious side eye )

They do small plates which is really nice when you just want to taste a few differant things amd they are tasty little morsels indeed. And if you have a fussy eater there is always 'Bushski and meatballs " or chicken parmesan and mozeralla sticks . I dont think there is a person out there who could go there and NOT find something warm and nurturing and delicious to suite their tastes with the varied menu. So if you still eat in or order out i think its always a good time and a great place to start getting out again. Charming children are welcome there even if they arent having a great day so its very family like in that you may uncover a roaming or nibbling child or two but its a relaxing enviroment, not dinner at the Waldof , so its loud but not too loud and quiet but not to quiet. For those with mobility issues Its a bit narrow for a walker in between the tablesin some spots but the staff will sort you out with a smile on their face , i wasnt in a wheelchair 2 mins from my house ,i can make it that far ! Parking is a bit crowded but its a large lot and no one has to walk too far from the car to the door or you can drop old fogies like me off at the door and then park and join them inside ! Unusual but not weird, rustic but kinda high tech , with the firey open kitchen and all the staff activity , home like without being anything like your actual home ( or you would probably be cooking ) a crowd pleaser for the whole family ! Oh and did i mention the bread? With the herb and olive oil dip ? How could i almost forget ! BUT DONT FILL UP ON BREAD . YOU WILL WANT TO bye...

A quiet night. No wait. Friendly staff and good food. They did take all of the proper and now standard safety precautions. It's so hard to see these beautiful people, working so hard (in some cases, it being their 2nd or 3rd job that week) to make sure you have a nice meal and good time. Makes me sad wondering what will happen to them and their loved ones during these uncertain times- especially if indoor dining closes yet again on Tuesday. Not to mention, who knows when it will be open again. It's so sad to picture bills piling up and wondering if they'll have to choose between buying a present for a child/loved one, keeping the roof over their heads, keeping the lights and heat on, putting food on the table, or perhaps even having to see if they can afford a much needed prescription, etc. They should be able to do all of these. These uncertain times are so scary and I wish I had the means to help all. I still dine out, to support our local community. You can be safe, cautious, while being considerate to others by being safe and cautious (wearing your mask, keeping your distance, sanitize often- staying home if feeling ill), so our restaurant staff (or any other type of worker for that matter, who can't work remotely) can still go to work, make money, and go home safely to their loved ones too, so they can also put food on their tables and pay their bills. There is so much depression in the world right now, and it's always worse around the holidays in normal circumstances for so many. We need to take care of each other. We need some sort of normalcy. We aren't asking for large gatherings to take place- still keep that limited- in restaurants or any type of setting- even at home. Put other safety measures in place- instead of closing the doors once again -take temperatures of guests before they enter an establishment. And guests, take your temps before leaving home. Don't go if you have a fever or any other COVID 19 symptoms or have been around anyone else who tested positive or if you are waiting for results. We are all in this together and in some way or another we can be there for each other by supporting each other. Safely support our community and our local business. Be safe and have a happy holiday...