Carrabba's Italian Grill — Restaurant in Texas

We were looking for a place to eat that could accommodate a party of 30 for a friend's birthday. After calling a few places, Carrabba's told us they could and we reserved the backroom. The next evening guests start arriving, but one of the Carraba's employees had seated a 20 person walk-in party in the back. The story of how they were seated changed throughout the night; "They had the reservation before", "The hostess didn't find the reservation", etc. We spoke to several people before the reservation to verify that things were ready and were told they were. The waiters stated that they were unprepared and "This was so last minute".

From the reservation perspective, they dropped the ball and couldn't figure out how to pass responsibility.

Onto the food...

Since guests were on the way already, we were stuck and our 6:30 reservation turned into waiting for others to clear the dining area and were finally seated around 7:30. We sporadically received drinks over the next 30 minutes and food started trickling in over the next 45 minutes. Any Italian restaurant worth something should be able to produce a decent Chicken Parmesan, but this particular location is still trying to figure out exactly what that is. When you order it, and you really shouldn't, you must make sure to specify pasta when asked about your sides because it does not actually come with pasta. The chicken is beaten into a 1/4" slab of meat, cooked until all the moisture is driven out, and badly seasoned breading. They gave me a side of half cooked pasta with canned spaghetti sauce to make up for "pasta is a side".

Unfortunately, the guy who has never touched a stove cooked more than my food! We had an entire table of people sending food back and the train back to the kitchen grew longer and longer. Steaks that were meant to be medium rare were coming in well beyond done, chicken was way overcooked, etc or we were at the other end of the spectrum with food that was barely cooked.

To top the night off, their POS systems went down and we were effectively held hostage waiting for them to come back online.

We payed fine dining prices for food that could barely compete with fast food quality.

"But there were 30 people!" -- Yes, and they had plenty of notice while assuring us the day before that everything would be ready along with those same assurances when we spoke to them prior...

My concern is both food and service.

We have enjoyed this location for over 10-years and visit it twice a year, my wife's birthday, 2/9, and our anniversary, 7/12.

Sunday, 7/12, was our anniversary and being in our 70's, we are not comfortable with dine-in yet, so we decided to order take-out.

I arrived around 5:45 pm, parked and walked into the restaurant to make our take-out order. I went to the main desk and asked where to go to make a take-out order. The young lady asked where I parked and I said in the parking lot. She pulled a take-out menu and started writing a phone number on it, then handed it to me stating that I had to park in one of the designated curb-side pickup and order my take-out over the phone. I was stunned. I had a question if the order would come with complimentary bread and dip. She had to go ask a lady in another room where take-outs are organized, the lady said yes. Why couldn’t I just make my order with her?

So I went back out to my truck and moved to a curbside take-out parking space and made our order – grilled chicken Caesar salad, tiramisu for desert and extra bread and dip. I asked her to repeat back the order, this seemed to bother her but she did it. I was told by the lady taking the order that it would be ready in about 20-minutes, that seemed fair for what I was ordering.

I watched a number of people pull up and pick up their orders over the next 30-minutes and wondered where my order was so I called again. The person I talked to had no idea, said they were short-handed and said she would have to check. I thought she would put me on hold but she hung up. After 5 minutes, a person showed up with my order, but had forgotten the extra bread and dip though it was written it down on the order. So I got to wait another 5-minutes.

When I got home, I discovered that the lid on the container holding the desert was loose spilling the desert into the bag, basically ruining it with just a little left.

On the menu, the picture of the salad is presented with the generous cuts of grilled chicken, looks really tasty. What we got were the tiny slivers of grilled chicken in a small cup, nothing even resembling the picture, what a rip-off.

We had wasted $29.10 including tip on our special anniversary dinner.

Thanks for ruining...

I hate to make this review but I feel it is necessary for better business practices later... On Monday 10/13/2025 between 5 pm and again around 630pm I was sent to this location to pick up deliveries for customers. There are instructions in the delivery apps that let you know as the delivering agent what to do once you arrive at the restaurant/location for pick up. I'm sure someone somewhere was paid big bucks to come up with these "rules" so that the dining in experience and the pick up of "to-go" orders would both be seamless and as pleasant as possible. So, I did as the screenshot shows. Well, there are no longer any spots facing Valleywood Dr. so I found where the spots were now located which wasn't really a hassle. Just pointing out the discrepancies in the instructions. So I called the # on the sign. Whoever answered the phone couldn't hear me. But they sounded exasperated already. So I went "inside" to the to-go area. No one there. No one at the hostess podium. Back outside. Call again. No answer. Back in. No one around. When the young lady working the to-go area returned one could tell she was not having a good day. She kept telling me "I'll be with you in a sec" even though I was patiently waiting for my turn and never spoke to her. She then walked past me three times before finally asking me what I needed. It was almost as if she couldn't do more than one thing at a time. When coming back the second time for a second pick up people were standing or sitting in the to-go area and she was bringing orders up. She had no name tag. But it was clear on her face she did not want to be there and she couldn't be bothered to reply to a courteous "I hope you have a good night" when I was leaving. It's obvious something wasn't going her way and she had the other customers waiting in the to-go area looking uncomfortable as well. I know we all have lives that affect us even while at work but sometimes if you leave it at the door your day could go a lot better. So anyway, thanks. What is the correct way to...