Carrabba's Italian Grill — Restaurant in San Antonio

I never write reviews but I just had the worst dining experience of my life. I’m a bartender so I have a lot of respect for the industry and the people in it, but this was insane. It took us 17 minutes to even get acknowledged. Our server, I believe his name was Gregory, walked past us multiple times and couldn’t even give us an “ I’ll be right with you” so we were not off to a good start. Finally he came by, I ordered their new espresso martini. Apparently it wasn’t supposed to be released until Tuesday, but he said I could still order one. I told him I only want it if it comes with cream, if not that’s perfectly fine, I’ll just get something else instead. He said of course we can do it with cream, when it came out about 15 minutes later, it was black. I tried to wave him down for about 10 minutes after that, and when I finally got him, I asked for a shot of Baileys. Again, I’m a bartender, I make at least 10 espresso martinis a day, so I’m aware what should be in it. He comes back instead with half and half. He said we have Baileys but you shouldn’t pay for it so here’s this instead, and walked away. I tried to make it work, but it was so terrible, I just couldn’t. I took one sip and backed out after that. It took another 15 minutes to get his attention to ask for something else. I asked for the capri cooler. That was going to be my other option if they couldn’t do the espresso martini with cream. He comes back 10 minutes later with some sort of watermelon basil drink. He said they were out of the capri cooler so just brought me this instead. He also said he would give my fiancé one for free for the trouble. Before I could tell him that I hate watermelon and basil, he walked away again. He comes back 5 minutes later with another one for my fiancé. He first off doesn’t drink, and is also underage. We just leave both drinks untouched. We had already gotten all of our food at this time, and I was honestly so done. We asked for a Togo box and the check. He checked out all of his other tables, got them everything they needed and came back 15 minutes later to ask if we needed anything. We repeated ourselves and he finally brought us the check. I gave him a loyalty number at the beginning, because we signed up to get a free calamari, but that was still on the ticket, so was the espresso martini I told him I couldn’t drink, and the watermelon drink I didn’t even take a sip of. I was very livid at this point. Before I could ask him to fix the check, he came up and asked if we wanted a Togo cup for our 2 untouched watermelon drinks. For those unaware, that is a hugeeee no. I know the offense for a server/ bartender that does that is typically immediate termination, revocation of your tabc license and possibly jail time. I’m not sure of the offense for the customer that takes the drink, but he acted like he was going to do us this big favor. After I said no, he walked away before I could talk to him about the check. Luckily I had cash so I paid that way. I gave him enough to cover everything except for the calamari, which is honestly more than I should’ve given him anyways. Again, I’m not one to complain, I’m young so oftentimes we don’t get the best service, but this was out of line. Everytime I go out to eat, my fiancé and I always plan to tip well, because I do understand the struggle. I’m not sure if he thought I was too poor to tip him, or he’s just genuinely bad at his job. But this was hands down the worst dining experience I’ve ever had by miles. Good luck if you...

Sadly, after frequenting my favorite restaurant for over 20 years, today was my last visit.

Over the years, I've seen the restaurant remodeled into a much less cozy, less intimate space - a large, wide open room with more visibility to other parties than an Olive Garden. However, the food was still good and they were still a scratch kitchen, so you could make special requests without any issues.

This allowed me to finely tune what I liked to order and even though I would often visit this restaurant weekly, I still wanted to go there for every birthday I had.

After moving across the city, it's a 30 minute drive for me to reach this place, but I still tried to go once a month or so.

Unfortunately, as of today, it looks like they are no longer a scratch kitchen. I tried to place an order for a latte (which I've ordered many times in the past), and the waitress (a new employee, I guess?) said they didn't serve them. She then confirmed with the bartender that they only serve espresso (a latte is literally an espresso with more milk). So, trying to be a non-problematic customer, I simply asked for the espresso with some milk (figured I'd just make my own). She brought the espresso with 3 pre-packaged creamers and when I asked for milk again, she pointed to the creamers. Not wanting to make her feel stupid, I left it at that.

Secondly, though it's not on the menu, they have served tomato-basil soup for years. When I ordered it today, she said they no longer served it. I replied that I knew that it wasn't on the menu, but they always make it for me.

She had the manager (who knows me and is a great guy) come let me know that they do, indeed, no longer serve it.

Basically, I guess they are no longer the special, scratch kitchen they were for decades.

The food is still good, as long as you like franchise Italian food, and the service is acceptable, but there's no longer anything special or exceptional about this restaurant.

If you just want standard Italian food, sure, it will do the job as well as an Olive Garden.

However, if you want to take someone someplace special, this is no longer the...

June 2025 Revisited, Carrabba's today, with a medium-sized group of about 8 of us. The staff seated us in the main dining area. I will note the space was tight for staff to move around, but they managed well. The table did have ample room for our group. Our servers, Belle and Trey (training under Bell) took REAL good care of us.

I ordered the Fettucine Carrabba's, it's a signature dish of theirs, and it was tasty and very filling. I ended up taking some home. I had this with a Peroni beer.

Others in the party shared Ceasars salads with grilled chicken, Chicken Marsala, Tuscan-Grilled Filet (I wished I got a picture of this before they began eating because the presentation was fantastic). Drinks raned from my Peroni, to a pitcher of their Blackberry Sangria, to a bottle of wine, and a frozen margarita. Again, no complaints on the drinks or food from our group.

For dessert, someone in the party ordered the Cannoli Cake For Two. I did manage to get a picture of the cake before it was devoured.

Overall, very nice night. Thank you Trey for taking real good care of us, and Belle for overseeing him. Just know for the most part, Trey handled our table all by himself.

I hope if you visit that your experience is as good or better than mine.

May 2024 I stopped in with a co-worker in order to get some lunch. The week of July 1st. We ordered off the lunch trio menu. I ordered the Fettuccine Alfredo along with a glass of ice tea. Luckily, the place was not too crowded. Our server was very attentive and courteous, and our food came in a reasonable amount of time. Mine also came with a small salad which, I ate before the main entrée.

The food was very tasty. I plan on revisiting Carrabba's for another lunch dining experience at a later date.

I hope your experience is as good as mine and that you enjoy your time...