Carrabba's Italian Grill — Restaurant in Ocala

This was our first visit to this restaurant. It was for an early dinner and about an hour before happy hour ended. It was visually aged and appeared unclean and unkempt from the initial stop in the parking lot to the entry way and throughout the area we were exposed to in the bar/booth area. The restaurant was moderately busy. Four booths and all of the high tops as well as all but 2 seats at the bar were available. We were seated at a booth near the corner booth of the bar area between two full booths. Almost immediately upon entry to the restaurant and bar area we noticed an exceptional amount of ambient music noise. We thought it was being played on a restaurant sound system and was their bar "atmosphere". Once we were seated however we discovered that it and an overwhelming electro ic gaming noise was actually coming from the corner booth where a woman was seated with her two children under the age of 10. She was oblivious to the noise as she was herself engrossed in a video chat on her phone while the children were being "electronically babysat". We ordered our drinks and looked around to see if anyone else was being disturbed by the excessive noise and two way video conversation. As our bread and first round of drinks arrived, we had been searching for another booth. All had by now been filled except one next to the server station and at the corner of the bar where all of the staff passed nonstop. I couldn't stand it any longer. As the drinks were set down by the runner, we asked to change seats. He couldn't locate our server so we simply picked up our items and moved to the less desirable, but slightly less noisy table. We had planned on enjoying a full meal but at this point we simply ordered appetizers, another round of drinks and were going to leave. One of the 3 items we ordered from the happy hour menu was a bruschetta caprese plate. What showed up with the runner was an amazing looking huge caprese salad. It wasn't what was ordered and would have said nothing, eaten it, and paid for it except it was loaded with raw onions that neither my wife or I can consume. We ate our other appetizers and eventually our server came back by. We ordered more drinks and asked if the Bruschetta Caprese appetizer was coming. She looked confused, but without even pausing she stated that she thought we ordered the Caprese Salad from the dinner menu. I reminded her that we had not even received one and that is why we ordered a Bruschetta Caprese from the Happy Hour menu she provided us when she seated us. She took it and disappeared. 5 minutes later she returned and asked if we still wanted the Caprese Bruschetta. We were over it and just asked for the check. She brought it and we attempted to use a partial payment with a $20 Flemings gift card (same company). She couldn't get it to work. She spent another 10 min trying to get her manager to come to her station and enter it. The manager could not figure it out. 15 minutes later after we had waited quite some time without the. Communicating with us, the manager finally returned and intimated that the card had no balance as if it had been used. I said, no and told her she could view it on our member rewards account. She found it and concurred, then asked if she could just take $20 off our bill since she still couldn't get the card to run. Sure, whatever works for you we said. Anyway. Bread starter was great. Calamari was so so, the meatball sliders were actually quite good. We disliked the atmosphere, ambiance 2/10, server knowledge and attention to detail she would rate a 5/10. Runner was a hustler and actually did more work for us than the server 9/10. Observations of the manager rate a 5/10 Other than that. We rate cleanliness and aesthetics a 4/10. Seating small children (even with parents) in the bar area should be carefully considered by host and manager. Likely will...

The only reason I am giving 2 stars is because of Jordan and Lupe. I run a small, local 501(c)3 organization in Ocala. My partner and I arranged MONTHS ago to have a silent auction at Carrabba's. The manager Callie (she is no longer there) helped us with this as she is a huge supporter of the organization. Well right after she left I called the restaurant and verified we had the room reserved. I was informed that the manager booked a party before ours and we now couldn't have the room until 5. Please understand we had been promoting this auction for months with a time frame of 4-9. I was then told they would take care of it and we could come set up any time after 1. I got there at 245. The other party was still in the room. No one fixed anything. I asked to speak to the manager. Amber came out told me she was the co-owner and I never went through her and that's how it was done. She was rude, condescending and just out right nasty! We then could not start setting up until 330. While setting up Amber came in to see how long we would be and asked if we would be out by 630 because she booked another party to use the room at 630. I told her no we had the room til 9. She again became rude shaking her head at me in a very disrespectful way. Jordan came back and told us not to worry we were good til 9. The party however arrived at 615 and they were not happy. They stood in the room for almost a half hour waiting for us to leave I believe or get other seating. Amber then sent Jordan home around 7. We requested to have a server so we could order dinner. We made this request 3 times. Finally Lupe stepped in to get someone. We were told we could hang up flyers. We did. They were removed twice. Lupe got a flyer so she understood what we did and tried to get people to stop but other than that no one helped us. Amber never once stopped by to see if we needed anything or how it was going. I have never had this happen anywhere else. Staff always "steers" people. The manager always checks in. The place was packed! We only auctioned off 3 out of 30 baskets in 4 hours!Amber should not be managing a restaurant. She is rude and her customer service skills are basically non existent! It was a horrible experience. We provide services to this area for free. This was a fundraiser to help us continue to do that in the community Amber works in!! Again the 2 stars are for Jordan and Lupe not Carrabba's or Amber, the "co-owner". If she is truly an owner she...

We honestly should have left as soon as we walked in. Restaurant was pretty empty but that’s typical for a Monday night probably, but there was just a very off putting atmosphere. We were seated and tried to order one of the newest drinks on the menu, we were told they most likely didn’t have it, no biggie…then we were told they found all the items needed to make it, which was absolutely fine. Bringing the drink to our table was a different story….there was a big struggle in getting the drink right and one of the employees, who was possibly the manager was passing by, picked the drink up from our table, held it up to look underneath it and asked “what is floating in this?”. Then just set it back down. It was the cherry for the drink….this was a little awkward for us however, we tried to laugh it off and continue with our dinner.

We tried to order a new appetizer but they did not have it, again no biggie, we understand shipments get delayed or stuff just doesn’t come in, so we skipped having one. Ordered our main courses and was first told they didn’t have one of them but then they said they did. When our orders came to the table, there was at LEAST a pound of mashed potatoes on my boyfriend’s plate with his short rib, which we again laughed off and were totally fine with. However, the short rib was DRYYYYYY and so fatty, he took about 3 bites and he was done, the potatoes weren’t even mashed all the way either. My pasta side dish was so overcooked and my veggies were so soft they disintegrated basically as I tried to eat them. Steak was overdone and was a really weird cut. We are not ones to send food back, because welllllll, have you seen Waiting? We just did not want to be “those people”.

We were going to skip dessert but there was a new bread pudding one we kinda wanted to try, so we thought maybe this would save our meal….it really didn’t. It was made wrong and came out with very hard bread pieces and the ice cream was freezer burned and so hard, we tried to let it sit on the cast iron to melt some.

All in all, this experience was dreadful and we probably won’t be back again. I’ve never had a bas experience at any other location of Carrabba’s but this by far...