Carrabba's Italian Grill — Restaurant in Stephens City

Have come here numerous times, usually sit at the bar and have a glass or two of wine and share appetizer and entree. Have enjoyed it in the past as the food and service have usually been good. This time, everything just seemed have dropped in quality.

Came here on a Thursday, nobody at the bar. Took a while for the person working behind the bar to finally come to us, and when she did, noticed right away a very flat personality, no smile, no usual bar banter, nothing. While she did do the absolute basics of taking our order and serving drinks, it just seemed she was either very distracted by something or she just did not want to be there…zero personality.

We ordered the large ribeye to share, an extra side salad, and for the two sides that’s come with the meal, broccoli and garlic mashed potatoes. The food quality has also gone downhill, steak was ok, not great, the broccoli was very mushy, had the impression it was frozen and overcooked. The salads were good, as was the garlic mashed potatoes.

A big turn off was after a while we noticed a nasty sour bar mop smell, typical of places that don’t really clean the floor but just swipe the same old mop around a few times each night. Would have moved but by that time other patrons had come in so we just quickly finished and left.

Disappointed in the atmosphere and food (and turned off by the bar smell), may come back down the road to see if there is a difference, then decide if we will go there again.

Would I recommend…not necessarily based on our recent experience.

Would I recommend…not necessarily. If it smells bad and if the bartender has no interest in you being there, go somewhere else.

Update: Received a response from the business, as you can see it is the basic “boilerplate” response that some business put out to make it appear as if they are actively engaged. Like a knee-jerk reaction, it tries to give the impression that something is being done, but does not actually do anything nor address any issue. Perhaps that is why the bartender was so disengaged…maybe just a reflection of how she is treated by the business. Dropped my review by a star based on their obvious lack...

We often frequent this restaurant every 6 to 8 weeks and I really hate to say anything as any place can have a one off bad night, but there were several problems that probably need to be addressed in order to continue to be a successful restaurant.

Last night, the restaurant seemed to be 75% full or less and quite a bit of staff but none seemed to actually care about the needs of our table. (Perhaps pay your staff so they appreciate their jobs idk)

But once our last friend arrived she had to wait 20 minutes just to put in her drink order. And another 15 mins to get it. Passing staff all had the totally ingore the tables look. Another friend spilled her drink and we all had to use napkins to help clean up. No staff came to help with that, so we ended up just taking the flatware wrapped napkins off another table. My partner ordered a large Caesar said but with no chicken and to use ranch instead of Caesar. When the other lady delivering food brought everyone else's food, she said she was just waiting on the chicken for my partners salad. We confirmed again that she can't have chicken or Caesar and just wanted the ranch.

Finally her salad was delivered and it had Caesar which my partner can not have and immediately she had to go out to our car and pull herself together. I explained to the waitress that I needed my bill and a box to get her home quickly. She continued to take her time and came back with the bill at long last but no box. I left cash to cover my meal and her drink as she had left it off plus a couple of dollars to tip. She again returned but without a box and had added the drink, (apparently she thought my tip was too low) I added some extra cash on because she was holding the box hostage which would cause me to loose most of my already over priced meal. And instead decided to write a review. She got her tip but...

I wish I could leave a raving review on our visit here tonight. Carrabba's has been a staple for us and many of our friends for a very long time, until tonight. Having recently moved out of state, coming home for the holiday's, my husband and I planned a dinner with another couple (that we knew we would love) only to be super disappointed. Yes, it was busy but it usually always is. I am not discounting the fact that we were 4 people among many but the service was less than subpar. Our server told us "I've was gone for 2 months so I need to remember what's on the menu". We waited about 20 min just for drinks, I had to go to the bar myself to get lemons for my tea, after asking twice for them. The other couple had mixed drinks, to which we had to flag down our waiter to get other drinks. The food was not prepared correctly, whether is was fault of the kitchen or waiter, I'm not sure. My husbands carrots were literally frozen in his salad. We ordered caprese for an appetizer, there was maybe 4 or 5 drops of balsamic on this and the tomatoes were absolutely horrible. The couple we were with didn't get their food the way they asked for it to be prepared, my husbands food was cold, so much that the cheese on his chicken was solidified. We needed to go boxes since most of the food wasn't eaten but they only had tiny little take out boxes to which we had to cram our stuff in 4 different containers. Glasses or plates were being dropped and broken throughout our dinner, it sounded like a restaurant that had just opened rather than one that's well established. I really wanted dessert but after the travesty that we encountered at dinner, I decided on a chocolate bar that I bought from a gas station. Do...