Carrabba's Italian Grill — Restaurant in Washington Township

Unfortunately this place has really gone downhill ever since it was renovated. Seems all the prices went up since then which would be fine as long as the quality of food stayed the same or got better, and the portions didn't get smaller; however quality has seriously went down and portions have gotten much smaller, so for a much higher price that's not going to keep customers coming back. My boyfriend and I used to LOVE the steak and pork chop marsala and come 1-2x a month for it. However ever since the changes, we've come maybe a few times a year, but after the last 2 visits we won't be back. We kept coming back in hopes of getting the delicious meals that kept us coming back originally but we've now realized it's just getting worse and we never get the meals we used to love. I've emailed twice in the last 2 years explaining the issues and have never heard back once. Both of our last visits we had to send back our meals as they were well done when we ordered rare. The few times before we should've sent them back to be recooked as well but didn't because we work in the industry and hate to have to complain or send something back, but the last two times they were so overdone we couldn't force ourselves to eat it. Not only has the price of the meat went up, but now we also have to pay extra for marsala it used to just be one price for steak marsala ( about $16) or pork chop marsala (about $18-$19) now it's over $25 each and the sizes are smaller and they put maybe a tablespoon of marsala sauce and 3-4 mushrooms, I'm paying an extra $6-$8 for that, and the extra side of sauce we always have to ask for because they give so little and when we ask for a BIG side they bring us a tiny dish that fits 2 tablespoons worth... when we say please give us a small bowl to share we don't care if we're charged extra we like it to dip and every time they just bring the tiny one and we always have to ask again. They don't keep olive oil on the table anymore for the bread, they don't grate fresh cheese for you anymore they just have a bowl of parmesan cheese with a spoon they ask how much you want, if it's not freshly grated anymore why not just leave a shaker of it on the tables? It's like they don't want to leave anything on the tables to be used to save money.. the croutons used to be fresh and homemade now they are so hard you feel like you'll break your teeth or the fork trying to eat it. The dressing doesn't taste the same anymore either. Now the marsala sauce tastes completely different too.. what are the increases in prices paying for then if all these changes seem to be things done to save on cost? The main reason we went here was because we loved the taste of their lombardo marsala, we couldn't get it anywhere else .. but now it tastes like regular salty thin marsala.. so every thing that kept us coming back...

Hubby ordered Filet & Shrimp Pasta Toscana and I ordered Veal Piccata. We also took advantage of the $10(+) Take Home Entree special. (Hubby home same as ordered which was actually $18 when we got the bill, and I took home Shrimp & Scallop Linguine Ala Vodka for $10.)

Obviously, hubby liked his enough to order as the Take Home meal. He especially liked how the steak, shrimp & mushrooms tasted grilled.

I didn’t love the Veal Piccata, though I love Piccata in general. This seemed too salty (rather sour, which is what usually hits me with the capers). I think they also chose the wrong size for plating- my plate looked half empty with only veggies and the veal. I think it would’ve been better served in one of their shallow bowls - they’re less long so it would’ve have appeared as a more full “plate.”

As we finished dishes or got new drinking glasses, I was surprised that the servers didn’t generally take away the dirties. Only once was a dirty, empty dish taken away before the bill was picked up with my card. We had two dishes with seasoning/oil, three empty drink glasses, a bag of bread for taking home, two empty meal dishes, two leftovers containers, and two full drink glasses on the table when she took my card. I thought “Surely Jessica will take the dirty dishes with my card.” Nope! We were left to sit there with a table full of dirty dishes. Jessica was very helpful and cheerful but she didn’t linger long enough for me to have time to realize we still had so much on the table each time she left. (Our dirty drink glasses were there most of our time.)

I understand the efficiency of having the staff just clean up the table after the guests are gone, when they can come over with the bucket. But I’d hope they also consider the customer experience of being surrounded by empty,...

DO NOT EAT HERE IF YOU ARE GLUTEN FREE

My wife and I dined into this establishment this week. Our waitress was a new hire and definitely lacked proper training. We had told her my wife, who is pregnant, has celiac disease and everything she would be ordering needed to be free of gluten. Fast forward to when our entrees arrived. She had ordered the shrimp penne vodka with gluten free pasta. The dish came out, she double checked with the waitress that it was gluten free and began eating. She took a total of three bites and said it tasted off. The waitress came back and we told her and she told her to stop eating immediately. She returned the dish back to the kitchen and they verified that it was normal pasta and not gluten free. The manager (TONY) was informed at this time that they had served allergen contaminated food to a guest. Turns out, our waitress was never trained on how to utilize the pos system and enter in gluten free pasta. She thought she only had to tell the cooks in the kitchen about the allergy and they would take care of it. During all of this mess, the manager (TONY) never ONCE came over to our table to apologize for any of this. She seemingly cared more about yelling at the kitchen staff and barking orders then making sure the guests they potentially poisoned were okay and taken care of. It is a total embarrassment to this entire franchise to lack this much customer service/care in a restaurant. Furthermore, I contacted the company immediately through the contact us section of their website and haven’t heard back so maybe the entire company just ignores unhappy customers and the manager was just doing what she was taught. Will never eat here again, total joke...