Carrabba's Italian Grill — Restaurant in Overland Park

We went here for the first time for a date night, excited to try a highly rated new-to-us restaurant.

However, at every turn we experienced disappointment and felt like an afterthought. We happened to be making a video and so we have timestamps of the evening.

635: We were seated almost immediately, but that's where the speed stopped.

645- our waitress barely greeted us. She told us her name and asked if we wanted anything to drink. We already knew what we wanted to eat at this point but she immediately started to walk away the moment we finished speaking, I felt rude but called her back as I realized she was leaving to politely ask for an appetizer. Figured she was just tired /busy and left it at that.

650- someone else brought us water. Minutes later she showed up with water too. We laughed and said it was ok and smiled at her patiently. She set down our bread and had to go find oil.

Around this time, I was curious where our drinks were. I got up to to go through bathroom. When I went to the bathroom, I noticed one of the two bartenders was chatting up someone at the bar while the other did the everything by himself. When I got back out of the bathroom, same exact scenario. This is where my patience waned severely.

7pm - someone else brought us our appetizer. We asked her to please check on our drinks. A few minutes later, our waitress said they were working on them still.

710 - salads arrived. Not bad !

715 - literally 30 minutes later one of our two drinks arrived. A few minutes later the 2nd one came. Honestly these drinks tasted amazing and were the best part of our evening even though it took us forever to get them.

I do however, have to say I wondered about the singular ice cube in my martini, and I wished the chocolate wasn't on the glass, the stem, AND the base. Felt very messy.... For taking 30 minutes I would have appreciated some closer attention to details.

7:20 - food arrived, brought by someone else. And wow. Wow were we disappointed. My gf got lobster stuffed shells and she said they were "ok" and I'd have to agree. "Okay" is the best way to describe these. It looked like a lobster paste, and it's hard to actually taste the lobster. It tasted, generically speaking, like "sea". If I didn't know better I'd think it was frozen in the back and reheated. A $22 dollar plate? I was shocked. Mine was better, I had the mezzaluna and it's definitely closer to value at just over 10$

730 - we saw our waitress again and ordered the cannoli cake and 2 Baileys with coffee. Which is of course-- literally just black coffee and a shot of baileys. Easy peasy. Surely it wouldn't take as long.

740 - someone else brought us the cake.

7:50 - finally ! The Bailey's and coffee arrived. Again, what's with the excessively long wait here ??

We finally left just after 8pm for over $113.00, prior to tip. The food was ok but the service was so abysmal I cannot believe we spent so much money for such scattered service.

Unfortunately we will not be back and will have to let others know about our...

When my pastrami loving parents' local deli turned out to be closed, they settled on Carrabba's because it was just across the street. It was a quiet night, and my parents like to eat early. The restaurant was half empty but the hostess would not seat us. The main waiter had two semi-large tables and the second waiter was new, had small three tables going and felt like that was enough for now. We asked if it might be possible to sit at one of the booths in the bar, but even though the bar was nearly empty, the bartender didn't feel like coming out from behind the bar to wait a table. Having already been to two restaurants, I did not want to have to get back into the car with my parents, so I negotiated a booth in exchange for waiting for one of the large parties to take off before receiving interaction with the main waiter. I am not easily annoyed, but I hit my breaking point when, after we were seated, the hostess busied herself with bussing tables right by us, but could not be bothered to bring us waters while we waited.

Eventually the friendly waiter made his way over to us, and the experience became more normal. I ordered a tomato and mozzarella caprese as a meal. My mom ordered spaghetti with meat sauce and my dad ordered linguine bolognese. My caprese, an enormous pile of cherry tomatoes surrounding an entire ball of mozzarella with an inadequate bit of balsamic and a few cut up basil leaves, was delivered with my parents' salads so that by the time their meals came I had nothing to eat. I ordered a glass of Chianti to enjoy while they ate. It was musty and off - in keeping with the rest of our experience - so I drank it anyway. The spaghetti and linguine were set down side by side on the table. It was impossible to determine which dish was which. My folks each took the bowl closest to them and dug in. My dad complained because his had hardly any meat in it. My mom traded dishes with him, which seem to satisfy him, and the rest of the meal was an eventful. I will never go back there again. It was a truly...

My wife and I came here for our anniversary and we really enjoyed it; everything from the food and service to the atmosphere was really nice.

First, the atmosphere feels like a Tuscan restaurant. There's a perfect balance of low and soft natural light ambience. They do have a bar with televisions, so if you are looking for a more intimate restaurant without distractions, you may need to sit away from the bar. Also, one observation for bigger people is that their booths are quite snug and the tables are fixed. So, if you're a big person, you'll want a table instead of a booth.

The food was served and prepared well. To begin with we had olive oil and bread. Then we had their sausage lentil soup, which was savory and robust, but not too heavy. I ordered the Shrimp and Fillet Fettuccine, which was creamy and savory. My wife ordered the Lobster Ravioli, which was creamy and cheesy, with a light seafood flavor. Her glass of featured Pinot wine was light and sweet. And we ended the meal with the tiramisu, which was actually some of the best we've ever had! I always choke when I inhale the chocolate dust that comes on most tiramisu, but this had chocolate shavings instead, and was deliciously layered!

Overall the meal cost about $90 plus tip. I think the price is a little steep considering I didn't even have a glass of wine. We have been to upscale Italian restaurants downtown that cost less. So, I would've given them five stars for their genre of restaurant, but their prices are too high, which knocked them down. However, if that's not your concern, and you're looking for a cozy, laid-back Italian restaurant with great tasting food and friendly service, you will definitely enjoy...