Johnny Carino's — Restaurant in Waxahachie

Waxahachie store on evening of 12.28.2020. As we were seated, we noticed the table had an area that was not clean (it was very obvious). The 1st time the waiter came, we asked if the table could be wiped off, pointing out the dirty area. Waiter returned, sprayed and wiped it off, but only the dirty area. Waiter could have gone the extra mile and wiped off the whole table, but didn't. That showed us, maybe didn't have a good understanding or a consideration the whole table may not have been properly cleaned. If the whole table had been wiped off in front of us, we would not have had an uneasy feeling. Waiter seemed very unsure of self how to wait a table and give a stunning dinner experience, for both of us. Waiter may want to review the proper method for handling dishes, i.e., don't touch any part of a dish or glass that food could potentially contact. Waiter returned to take our order. Waiter was asked if the family dishes were still on special for Monday. Waiter replied saying no. Restating our question, waiter said let me ask my manager. Returning, waiter said yes the family dishes were on special. When checking how we are doing, and there are used, empty dishes at the end of the table, my gosh, take them with you. We are done with them. We don't need them. The food had great taste and our entre was temperature hot. The dining area was pleasantly filled with Sinatra and Sammy Davis Jr melodies (and others too). We were still able to have a comfortable conversation w/o having to yell at each other or strain to hear each other. Let's polish the table waiting skills.

My review was quite a bit less than favorable. It was NOT enjoyable. Downgrading to 2 stars.

Waxahachie store 02/13/2022: We were in a scheduled party of about 38. Waitress was everything, and more than l scheduled this party. GM was in the office, yet he never came out to check on our party. The food was brought out in a hap-hazard way, w/ kids' plates being brought out last! I and several others in the party have recent restaurant experience and know that's not the best way to serve dinners. There were other staff standing around, doing nothing, as many in the party took note. No one helped our waitress. She took all the orders, filled our drinks, carried our plates, served us, filled drinks again, coordinated separate bills, and took the payments. THERE WAS NO HELP FROM THE GM @ ANYTIME! The party began @ 4pm and the vast majority of payments took extremely long. The kids were way past tired, some traveling back to Houston & near Greenville, Tx that same night. One customer, happens to be the person who setup the party w/ Carino's, had a coupon that ended up being a big issue. A man came out to speak with this customer and was saying that he couldn't refund the ticket, becuz he didn't know how to work the machine. Again, it was very, very late and his daughter needed to already be in bed, as she was into throwing a fit. At that time, this customer didn't care either way, so he went ahead and said just leave it & paid the full amount. My wife and I were the last to pay and the last to leave. As we walked out, the waitress came saying there was 1 kids dinner not paid. We handed her $10 and said keep the change. The whole time at the party was made worse by: No GM support No team support Lack of planning for correct staffing levels, in dining room and in the kitchen.

If it were possible, I'd downgrade all the way...

Revised review. Original review available below for comparison.

After contacting the GM, my group was convinced to come back and give them another try. We didn't try them near closing time this go, since we were free and hungry much earlier than usual. Upon arrival, I didn't announce who I was, just the size of my party, speaking to the same gentleman that we spoke to last time. We were given a non specific timeframe for seating. After pushing for why we couldn't be seated in one of the open tables, we were told it was due to Covid seating capacity, and they needed to wait for a party to leave. This is very understandable, but it would have been nice to know from the beginning, to avoid a bit of frustration. After they had room, they happily accommodated our needs for seating, and the GM even had them hustling to get the tables set because he didn't want people waiting in the lobby when we could be seated. Barring a few little things, service went well. All our food was warm and cooked when it got to us, as well as being appropriately spaced after appetizers and salads, so we weren't rushing to finish the salads to make room for entrees on the table. I liked our waitress, she was new, but she was good, and she was trying hard to make sure we were taken care of. If this is the standard to expect, I can definitely see us coming back in the future

Original review: I wish I had more to say in this review, but I wasn't given the opportunity. When my group showed up, a high tipping, easy to please bunch, 15 minutes before they closed their doors at 9PM, we were told they can't seat us. This wasn't an issue of them being too full, as the place was fairly empty. As the manager on duty told us, it was because they shut down their kitchen 40-45 minutes before closing time. I understand that changes have been made since the Covid-19 outbreak in order to keep people safe, but I can't help but think my old GM from Texas Land and Cattle would start firing people if he found out his managers were closing down and turning away customers 15 minutes before the posted closing time. My group will not be returning, and we'll be speaking word around about...

One-star experience, two stars given for the fact that we weren’t charged for inedible food. Go to Olive Garden down the street. We came on a Saturday afternoon and there was only one table of people and a guy sitting at the bar. We walked in and no one was at the host area so we had to wait a few minutes to even get seated. Our server was decent enough. My mom ordered spaghetti with meat sauce and I got a combo plate with chicken Parmesan and baked tortellini. We had to wait a really long time for food and we were the only people there? The one occupied table already had their food so I don’t know what took so long. The bread was good, even though the server didn’t seem to give us more bread, but everything else was disappointing. Most mom’s food was super cold, like it was fixed and then just sat until I guess my food was ready? My food was hot but that’s it. Bland chicken Parmesan and spaghetti sauce tasted like Ragu. Tortellini was filled with some strange, fake-like cheese. My mom and I couldn’t even eat the food. A manager came by and asked how everything was and didn’t seem surprised when we said it wasn’t good. Just asked if there was anything she could do to make it better, which is an odd question. My only suggestion would be to get Great Value brand pasta sauce from Walmart. They are using some kind of jar brand anyway, and walmart’s 88-cent pasta sauce tastes loads better than whatever they use. The bill came about to $40 and I was pretty upset about having to pay that much for food we could barely eat. Server comped the food so I only had to pay about $12 for the drinks (margarita was over $8 on it’s own, no prices in the menu). Not to mention, the restaurant was FREEZING. There was no way it was over 60...