Carrabba’s Italian Grill

It’s my favorite day at Carrabas, Amore Mondays! About to have my Shrimp & Scallop Spideno. I remembered while eating the calamari appetizer, how dried it had been previously and was again. I hope I remember to ask for less frying time the next visit. Lentil soup is airways on point. Perfect spice and plenty of meat but not overpowering with lentils. Service is always great and Dana was very informative of the dishes and new menu selections.

Fresh food made every day
Best muscles in the biz with a delicious white wine garlic and butter sauce that I swear I could drink straight it’s so yummy
The sausage n lentil soup is just the right mixture of spicy and savory.
The chicken trio is not on the menu but always available and is 3 dishes in one
Everything was delicious

I’ve been to a few Carrabbas with mixed results. This one in PAsedena was on the negative end.
Went with two work friends on a Wednesday night around 7:30 PM and had to wait 20 minutes — place was packed. Good news is my favorite liquors are at the bar including Bombay Sapphire, Hendricks gin, Belvedere Vodka and even some dessert liquors like Tia Maria coffee liquor. Also Italian beer like Peroni or my favorite Moretti Rossi beer. Also, if u like dirty martinis with blue cheese olives, they will make that as well. That’s the good news.
Food was disappointing all around, generally everything was overcooked and extremely salty. Not good when your order includes lots of seafood like the Johnny Rocco salad with shrimp and scallops (and too much oil) and the Calamari appetizer, that means your proteins are not tender, even gummy. Also the Mozzarella Cheese that came with the Capri appetizer looked wrong: all runny and mealy on the inside .
Also there seems to have been a long lag between apps and entrée. As if we needed to fill up on bread and appetizers before the main course
So I like the alcohol selection, but the food was botched all around with overcooked highly over salted food.
The End.

We are locals, purchasing property in the area over a year ago and decided to try carabba’s tonight. Although we could not remember why we have not eaten at the chain in a long time, tonight had refreshed our memory or pergaps time induced amnesia. Upon entry we were not greeted and had to introduce ourselves to the greeter who was more intent on tecology which seats guests than being personable. After a long wait where guests who arrived after us were seated before us, we were seated in a noisy cramped area. It took over 10 minutes to be greeted by our waitstaff. The tables were too close together, it was very loud and chaotic. The food was overpriced not impressive, and served immediately which meant it was already cooked. Overall a lousy expensive expierience and waste of an evening. We will not eat there again and will choose a local family run equally priced meal which is calm and friendly. PS I tried to contact the resturant via the Web based feedback, was kicked out the app 3 times, and submit this as a result.

We eat here at least once a week and not every trip is perfect but the proprietor/​management are very diligent to rectify any issues. I recommend the steak marsala any day of the week! And the pasta weesie, now called fettuccine weesie is delicious! They have many great dishes and they are consistent in quality and flavor with other carrabbas locations we have dined at.

Baked ravioli was excellent. Service was prompt and attentive. Would come back again.

I actually was accidentally at the original opening night friends and family back in like 2004 or 2005 and had seen first hand how the original owner gradually allowed the quality and quantity of the food go downhill. It got so bad, that one time we had to practically beg for our bread and herbs and was told their new policy was not to give u bread and herbs unless requested. K, Say What???
Thankfully it has been sold twice since then and each new owner is improving the reputation and quality of this establishment.
The current owner (Ryan) really seems to care. We have caught him helping out everywhere from flipping some pans to creating desserts.
I have been to the busiest Carrabbas in the country many times in Sarasota Fl and Ryan is doing a nice job of bringing Pasadena’s up to par.
My favorite is of course the to die for Chicken Noodle soup. Anything Marsala and the Shrimp Diavalo are must haves.

Got seated quickly, then waited 25 minutes until server got around to talking/​serving us. Arnold Palmer and «homemade» lemonade were pink lemonade soda. «House» salad was terrible. Chicken soup was good as well as pasta and seafood. Server habitually gave us wrong drinks. Tipped 20% because I felt sorry for the staff.

I like the Tara Misu they serve here… It’s good. The Pasta Weezy was done perfectly, no complaints.

This is my favorite restaurant. Steamed mussels and fresh bread is the reason we dine here so frequently. All of the servers here are genuinely kind and do an awesome job. The Johnny is my favorite dish. Steak and chicken combo for 21. Bucks is a bargain. Food portions are large. I always have lunch leftovers for next day. The John Cole is an icecream dessert with caramelized pecans, to die for. Tiramisu is made with lady fingers and fresh homemade whipping cream. Love this place

The messed up my pasta. It was clumpy. How do you mess up pasta at an Italian place? The tic tag pasta was so overpriced and had barely anything in it. Rip off.

It was okay nothing to write home about.
The waitress that we had, kept saying «I am sorry I cannot hear you, I listen to heavy metal music alot» Just really shocked me from a service standpoint.
Just overall okay, there are plenty other restaurants I would recommend that your not waiting 45 minutes to be seated.

Many years ago the wife and I had a terrible experience at a Carrabba’s in Virginia which soured me on the franchise as a whole. It was at a location in Virginia, and I experienced some of the worst service I have ever had, plus all of our food tasted salty, as if the chefs were either salt-​crazy or literally sweating in the food. While it may seem unfair to judge a whole franchise based off one experience — and I would somewhat agree — consistency amongst franchises is perhaps the most important control factor to a successful franchise. If I don’t get a good meal at the first Carrabba’s I go to, why should I expect better from another location?
Flash forward to present day. I am visiting my friend who lives in «The Dena» and we went over options for dinner. He mentioned Carraba’s. Anxious to wash the bad taste of a poor Italian lunch experience the prior week, and open to giving Carrabba’s a second chance, I agreed. And I was glad that I did.
My friend, like me, is very conscious of respecting the service industry and not imposing ourselves if it is too late to closing time. We arrived at about 9:20PM and asked when they closed. (We both knew they closed at 10PM) The greeter simply replied dude, were open, no problems, come in, sit, eat. We felt very welcome and unrushed, and our server also went to great lengths to make us feel welcome.
I was also very pleased with the food. My friend ordered calamari as an appetizer and I snagged a couple of pieces. They were breaded nicely and perfectly cooked. I ordered the proscuitto-​wrapped pork tenderloin medallions and was served three nicely portioned medallions with a nice sauce that they call a port-​fig sauce. I went with fettuccine alfredo as my side. It was a $ 2 upcharge, but so worth it.
Carrabba’s is, in a sense, the anti-​Olive Garden … but in a good way. While Olive Garden is bright and vibrant, Carrabba’s is more warm and intimate. Olive Garden tries to faithfully create Northern Italian cuisine, while Carrabba’s does their own takes on homestyle Italian-​American cuisine. There’s definitely room in the universe of big chain Italian restaurants for them both. I’m glad I finally gave Carrabba’s a second chance.

Noise level — approaches a 4 out 5 so hard to carry on a conversation as place gets busy
Food not exciting — very salty, nice portions ³⁄₅
Service — our party of 7 was left waiting for long periods ²⁄₅
House. Wines — white and red were blends and lean sweet. — I prefer Romano’s — house wines more flavor.
Overall — okay place — but not a place to run back.

I’ve always been a fan of Carrabba’s. I like the atmosphere along with the great food. Good staff and and good food.

Really like going here with friends and family the food is great I usually get the herb salmon with garlic mash potatoes they the veggie of the day. Also they have a wonderful customer service and great waiters.

I suppose I dislike the corporate-​fueled mega chain’s, such as Carrabba’s, but then then again as I traveled to Pasadena I thought, «where do I expect to to find a risotto in the dena?» Queue in Carrabba’s!
Ordering a head for pick-​up is quick and easy, plus if you’re really lazy you won’t need to ever leave your car to get your meal. Everything was quick and ready when I picked up my meal. After making the trek home I opened my dish to one of the most disgusting risottos I have ever ate /​laid eyes upon. A deep blood red orange colored mess which resembled more closely to vomit than a meal. I tried eating through the dense dish, but threw it half away — sadly. The tomato basil soup was good…
2 stars, for the worst risotto I have ever ate!

I’ve never eaten in the restaurant part but have sat at the bar many times. The drinks are consistently spot on, especially their martinis. Big plus is that they have Titos vodka available. The bartenders are personable and great at what they do here.
In addition to fantastic service and great drinks, the food is delicious… although they definitely try to bring something different to standard Italian fare. I am not always a fan but I applaud their creativity (for example, there isn’t a bruschetta that is simply fresh Tomatoes on French bread. Their version is roasted tomatoes, cooked down into a spread. Very tasty BUT lacks the crisp freshness of standard bruschetta which is what I look for personally). The pomodoro sauce and goat cheese– amazing creamy goat cheese medallions on delicious slightly sweet tomato sauce with crispy but still chewy baguette pieces. Gorgeous. The ravioli tasty and the ability to mix sauces is very customer friendly.
I am not one that typically goes for chain restaurants but this Carrabas does a great job of serving up authentic friendliness without any corniness.

The restaurant is clean and the bathroom has those cool knobs that disinfect automatically so you don’t have to be afraid of touching it.
Now onto the food. They are pretty good but definitely overpriced for Italian. Even with a coupon it is pricey to eat here. I would come for special occasions but my son didn’t really eat anything but the free bread appetizer.
Staff is attentive and accommodating!

Excellent atmosphere, attentive wait staff, great wine listings. The Chicken Caesar salad is awesome, too! You can’t go wrong with lunch or dinner at Carrabba’s.

This place was amazzzinggggg! To start off, the waiter was friendly and knew her stuff. I ordered a sangria pitcher, which seemed too small to be true but as the waiter said, gave me a great buzz! For appetizer, we had crab cakes and w/​e sauce it was in was awesome. For dinner, I had lasagna, which I also thought was to small to be true but was VERY filling. All-​in-​all the restuarant had an authentic italian taste, feel and portion sizes that were just right. No complaints. I will be back!