Carrabba's Italian Grill — Restaurant in Murfreesboro

I had high hopes for this place, per the reviews and menu. Generally at this price point you get a higher quality food, right?

I really do want to leave positive feedback, but so much about this experience was not good. SOME good, which for the management I will be sure to include below.

THE NEGATIVE: FOOD: We were a party of 10. Everyone ordered something different. Including Steak, Shrimp/Scallop scampi, Veal marsala, appetizers (zucchini + calamari) and various alcoholic beverages. I had the veal. with a side of broccoli. The caesar salad that came out was over dressed and the greens were wilty. The parm used was clearly from a bag. The veal was chewy, tasted previously frozen and the mushroom sauce was just - bad. Overly salty and too much sauce. This was a disappointing dish overall. The broccoli was the recommended side when I asked the server. It tasted microwaved, like something from a bag at home you make for weeknight dinner for the kids.

Mashed potatoes: someone at our table ordered double helping of them as the side with his steak, and ate 2 bites and left the rest. He said they were awful.

SCAMPI: Pasta was overcooked, mushy not al dente. Shrimp was overcooked.

Lobster Ravioli: He said he couldn't taste the lobster. He did not finish the plate, which is a small ish helping to begin with.

These are a few examples of the many I could provide of how bad the food is here. Everything in general tastes overly salted, overcooked and tastes like it was sent in from corporate in a bag and reheated in the microwave.

THE SERVICE: I asked the host for a large print menu, she didnt seem to know what was going on and told me to ask the server. I asked the server and was told to ask the host. Large print menus would be helpful, especially given the dark lighting of this place.

Our server Brett did his best. He was sweet natured and did try to accommodate our needs as best he could, given his section size and our table being kind of slow and needy lol. He said multiple times however, "I'm really busy so I'll get to that in a little bit," or "I've got to run and do this thing but I'll try to clear your table of dirty dishes as I pass each time." For the price point of this place, they need server assistants to clear tables ASAP. We shouldn't sit around a table full of dirty dishes for half an hour.

Service team was not knowledgeable of the restaurant offerings. I requested Fernet and espresso martini. Neither one is offered here, which is quite disappointing considering this being "Italian."

Don't order the Limoncello. It tasted like rubbing alcohol with lemon and sugar. UGH.

The POSITIVE: The service: Brett was great. He accommodated bringing out a birthday cake + tiny plates with candles per my request, despite being super busy. Even brought to go boxes for the cake afterward. I did tip him generously to show my gratitude :) I've been in the industry - I get it haha.

The wine was good! We got chianti - can't go wrong with a good Chianti. The Sangria was a table favorite as well.

Was glad the table was available as I'd called ahead to let them know about our large party on a Saturday evening. Thank you for that.

Overall, we won't be back, and I don't understand the positive reviews esp about the food. ick....

Good evening. I just dined in your Murfreesboro location this evening. Let me begin by saying this email is being written as a fan of your restaurant chain. Now that being said I have a numerous amount on complaints/issues I’d like to address. Let start from when we walked in, 7pm on a Monday. Restaurant may have had 30 people in it, dirty tables everywhere, and a server station for polishing and rolling silverware at the first two tables behind the host stand. Not a huge deal other than we had to wait 5 minutes for a table when there were clearly plenty available. I should mention that I’m a chef(17 years) and my wife is a server(15 years) so we understand the business. Now onto out service and server. Both were the slowest I’ve ever experienced in a restaurant. Drinks Tsing 20+ minutes after ordering. Dropping our app and waiting another 25 minutes to come talk to us about entrees. It was so lacking. I was drinking gin and tonic and if your sever was on her game she could have sold me st least two more because of how long food was taking. Now I’m not familiar with yalls systems, so I’m not sure if our sever was just taking her Time ringing food or if the kitchen was just lacking. Again with 30 people or less in the whole place, nothing should talk 20 minutes.

Now to the food. The app was good, nothing bad to say. When our salad/soup came is when things with the food turned south. My soup was cool enough where I could stick my pinky in it without having to remove it. My wife’s salad was sooo over dressed she was shaking off dressing at each bite. The entrees arrived about 15-20 minutes after we had finished our soup/salad course. My wife’s pasta was bland, next to no salt. While she changed a sauce that normally came with the dish, it still completely lacked in flavor. My chicken Parmesan was just “off” I couldn’t tell exactly what it was but it had a very different flavor. I opted to add fett Alfredo to my dish. 100% it had been made, sat to long in the window, then thrown into the microwave to heat back up. I know this for two reasons, one Being the curdled cream and dry pasta, the other would be visibly watching the cook nuke it. Again I’m a chef so we were watching the kitchen, because it was so dead in the restaurant. NO MANAGER EVER CAME BY. Our sever asked us one time, after 1 bite of our entrees how the food was. We told her “ehh” and she said “well y’all enjoy”. The manger was a long curly haired man who seemed more interested being friends with the severs than managing this restaurant. Everything all night long took 10x longer than it should. For example, my wife ordered another glass of wine when the entrees hit the table, she received her glass when we were done eating.

So after all that, my wife needs to use the restroom. So she goes, low and behold, no soap to wash her hands when she finished.

This was the last straw. We were going to get dessert, but we opted for the check, which took forever, and we paid our $106 bill plus tip and left.

I would appreciate a FULL refund of my card, and someone to contact me about my experience. Hopefully this will invoke some positive change for your...

My wife and I have been to Carrabba's several times and in multiple locations over the years. While we've had good experiences at all of them, we've found that we really like the one in Murfreesboro, TN the best. We're not sure if they've changed their menu since we first tried them years ago, or if it's the location or the staff or the food that we ordered, but this is now our new favorite Italian restaurant after our two most recent visits.

The atmosphere is pleansant and the decor is warm and tasteful and feels slightly upscale yet comfortable / casual. The restaurant was busy and had a lot of people, but we only waited about 15 minutes for a table. Even though the restaurant was close to full, there wasn't much noticeable noise and it was easy to carry on a conversation. I gave it 4 stars for the great atmosphere. This isn't a ding - I just like to leave room for a 5th star for when something is truly exceptional.

The wait staff was friendly, efficient and timely with the delivery of food, drinks and the check. Again, 4 stars for excellent service without noticing anything exceptional.

The highlight of our visits was the food. My wife had the Chicken Tuscany with garlic mashed potatoes as the side. I ordered the classic trio of Chicken Parmigiana, Lasagna and Fettuccine Alfredo. That was accompanied by a basket of very fresh and tasty bread with the usual olive oil and cracked pepper on a plate. My wife also had soup and I had a Caesar salad. At the end, we shared a huge slice of some excellent, light & fluffy strawberry cheesecake. Every bite was perfect on both visits. The food totally deserves 5 stars. We're both looking forward to going back.

8/31/2025 Update: My wife and I came back to Carrabba's for our anniversary dinner. It looked like business was slow, the restaurant wasn't even half full. We ordered our usual dinners.

The first problem was that the bread that they served us was stale and hard. We asked for a replacement and they brought out some fresh, warm bread.

We both ordered the Italian salad this time. I ususally order a Caesar's salad but wanted to try something different. The salads were almost entirely lettuce, with very little of the other ingredients (tomatoes, onions, black olives, yellow peppers) mixed in. I was not impressed.

My wife ordered a dinner that came with garlic mashed potatoes. She loves to put pepper on things and likes garlic, but the potatoes they served her had too much of both, and she did not finish them.

Lastly, when the bill came, we were used to the price being in the $55-$65 range for what we ordered. This time it was $75 for dinner for two with just soft drinks and a single slice of cheesecake for dessert.

Basically, food quality was down and the price was up. Not a good combination. I reduced the overall rating from 5 stars previously to 3 stars. I deducted one star for the food quality and one star for the...