Carrabba's Italian Grill — Restaurant in Roanoke

I’ll begin by saying I’ll follow up with an email to Mike the proprietor tomorrow. Mike, who wasn’t on shift at all on one of the busiest nights in the service industry, will find out about this then, since he didn’t bother to be there for his team.

I wish I could give zero stars. Table of 5, not in a hurry, just wanted a good dining experience at my Daddy’s request. I did request a high top, my parents are elderly and one is injured so booths or getting down to a table would be hard, but we’d settle for a table if we had to.

Walked in, told 25 minute wait. 45 minutes later I walked to the hostess stand, saying I hoped the high top we requested was going to be ours. Nope. The woman who came in later than us and without reservations walked up again and fussed louder than me and got it. Staff lied to my face, told me she was ahead of us in line, but I was there when she arrived and heard it all. She just fussed earlier and louder.

Waited patiently again, stayed outside with parents who I told to stay cool and seated in their car. Finally saw another gentleman who was there well after us walk up to question the hostesses. Asked to speak to a manager after being told it would be an additional 45 minutes on top of the original 25 he was quoted. He had waited 30 minutes already for a 2 top. Hostess just walked off with no response. 5-7 minutes later Shelly, Service Manager, walked up and was snippy and downright lacked empathy told us they were over 4 short in the kitchen and had wait staff covering it and were doing the best they could. Other gentleman asked why he wasn’t apprised of that when they arrived so he could make other choices 35 minutes before. No response from Shelly.

Finally seated over an hour later. Over 12 other patrons realized what was going on when they heard 3 upset customers and just left.

Ancia (I probably butchered the spelling and I’m sorry) was a WONDERFUL waitress and did the absolute best she could have. Even apologized for the wait on the ticket. She went above and beyond. Some of our food arrived so cold (cooked but cold) we had to ask for it to be microwaved. She offered to have it fresh made but we knew it was cooked and just wanted it heated. Didn’t have the ability to wait all over again.

Chef staff needs to be taught how to cook the lobster ravioli. I’ve seen it ordered 4 times at the table I’ve been at, once when I ordered it. It’s. Just. Not. Being. Cooked. Enough. It’s hard, not tough, not chewy. It’s undercooked.

Josh, at the bar, was also the absolute best. He took care of us at the bar while we waited and again once seated when we ordered a mixed drink or wine for the table. He and our waitress were the only high notes.

Won’t ‘keep giving it a try’ since change in management. Will recommend anyone who asks to meet us here...

I want to preface this by saying that my server, Lissy was fantastic and that I was never unkind or short-tempered. I have no doubt she would attest to that. Nothing else about this experience was positive.

I went to this Carrabba's after work because I was starving and craving eggplant parmesan. They brought chicken parm by mistake. No big deal. I got Lissy's attention, let her know that I'm a vegetarian, and she took it back to get eggplant for me.

She brought the eggplant, I thanked her and began eating. Part way through, I saw a black hair sticking out from underneath the eggplant medallions. I lifted up the eggplant and discovered that there were THREE short, black hairs sitting on the plate and a longer hair cooked into the eggplant and hanging out of it.

I do not believe for a second that this was not an intentional act of retaliation for sending back the chicken. I asked Lissy about it and she said it wasn't, that the "girl" has long hair and that it was tied back. I could see one hair escaping, but not three pieces sitting on the plate under my food and one cooked into it. Furthermore, a friend I told about this immediately said that when she worked in a restaurant after college, any time something was sent back for any reason, the kitchen staff would do something gross to it. It was so bad that to this day, if she sends something back she won't accept a replacement; she just requests it be taken off the bill.

Lissy told me that her manager wanted to give me a card to eat free next time. What's even weirder is that the manager never came to speak to me or to apologize. He/She made Lissy deal with the entire thing.

Despite all of this, I was still nice. I didn't want to ruin the experience for the party of 6 next to me so I took my plate to the bar to talk to my server there. I requested to be charged for the salad so I could still leave a tip. I was charged one penny to allow for a tip and I left 30% based on what I thought the bill would have been.

I did not deserve what the kitchen staff gave me today and they do not deserve to still be working there this...

I would like to start by saying that I would like to say a few kind words about a server from Carrabba's. My husband and I visited this restaurant on 2/13/24, our server was Tymon. This young man way extremely friendly as well as determined to make his patron's experience pleasant. Tymon confidently started with asking our drink order, the followed up by asking if we would like start with appetizers, my husband and I had visited this restaurant before and had ordered wings as appetizers, but we noticed that the menu didn't display wings as an option, Tymon then mentioned that he was new and that it was possibly an old option, he then stated that he would check with the chef. Tymon was correct and the option was an older one, I then order my main course, and added a Chicken Caesar salad as my side, Tymon mentioned that the chicken would be extra, so I opted for the Caesar salad instead. When finishing up our meal, Tymon, came up to our table and asked how everything was, my husband and I both were pleased with the meal and the service, so we said it was all good, Tymon than asked our option on his service and asked for use to be honest, which I respect, so I mentioned that he did wonderful and to work on memorizing things and I also told him that his manners and approach was great. While being our check, Tymon brought us a sample size of soup with our leftover bread to take home. When getting home I tried the soup, it was delicious, I never order soup usually, but this young man sending us home with a sample will most definitely have me ording that when in the future. I would like to end by saying it was so freshing seeing someone work hard and care about their service that they give, we need more young...