Carrabba’s Italian Grill

Pretty nice place. While they don’t have much vegetarian choices on the menu but I appreciate that they make custom pasts (quite large size bowl) with select vegetables. Added to that the service is always prompt and courteous. Prices are reasonable for sir in restaurant. For me to rate them 5 star they need to have a lot more vegetarian and healthier options. But it is fairly solid Italian place to visit.

Thank you so much to Eric and this Carrabba’s team for making my parents 47^th anniversary special. They drive in from Angier and love your restaurant. They truly appreciate the special attention and service on their special day.

I am disgustingly disappointed and completely appalled with Carrabba’s take-​out portions. Not worth the money at ALL. I ordered the $ 20 Combination with lasagna and chicken parmesan with the $ 2 side of fettuccini alfredo. I have never seen a more stingy restaurant in my life. The side of fettucini came in a styrofoam cup similar to the size of the tiny cups of ice-​cream you get as a treat when you’re 6 years old. I should have just gone to Olive Garden. If I had known that i was going to pay over $ 20 for a measly appetizer just to have to go out and get more food, I would have just ordered a pizza. Such a rip off. BTW, this is my first Unilocal review ever. It was THAT bad that I decided to pull out my computer and talk about it.

First of all, Andrew P was our waiter and he was wonderful! Super friendly and informative. We sat at the bar because we didn’t want to wait for a table tho the wait wasnt too long.
My dish was Cavatappi Martino. It was corkscrew-​shaped pasta with a slightly creamy tomato sauce, chicken, mushrooms and sundries tomatoes. I added broccoli and the dish was delicious. It had shaved ricotta salata cheese on top. My meal came with a salad which was good and fresh tho I could have done without the thick parmesan dressing. I had it on the side tho so I was fine.
Hubby ordered Linguini Positano Chix which was a linguini version of the Picchi Pacchui they used to have. It’s super garlicky but I love that. Hubby got the chicken soup with his which had a nice mild heat to it and was tasty.
It’s not a super fancy place but was very delicious and we will be back. Our lunch with a beer and a tea (no appetizers or desserts) was a little over $ 50 including tip.

Save yourself time & $ go to Olive Garden!
I was so disappointed because all the commercials made it seem better than OG.
Everything here tastes the same no matter what you order. Smaller portions but costs more!

We have eaten here for years and it use to be one of our favorites. Ate there tonight with family to celebrate birthdays and were very disappointed. Chicken Parm was dry and tasted frozen, asparagus not cooked, steak over cooked/​dry. Had to get dressing for Ceasar salad as it was so dry. It seems to have changed management. Waitress was very good and appreciated her attentiveness but quality of the food was severely lacking! Disappointed.

My wife and I went there on Sunday at just after noon. We let the hostess know that it was our first time. When we our server Marsha came to the table, she had been told that it was our first visit and she took the time to thoroughly explain the menu. I appreciated that she didn’t speak too fast for me to understand.
We ordered our food and within 5 minutes we had our soup and salad and bread. The soup my wife ordered was excellent but a little too spicy for my wife. Marsha brought out some parmesan cheese which she grated into the soup which helped with the spiciness.
Just as we were finishing up our soup and salad, our entrees were brought out. I had the chicken marsala and my wife had a seafood dish of shrimp and scallops. Both dishes tasted great and we were highly satisfied with the food and the service.

Excellent service and Outstanding and Expertly prepared meals! My husband raved about the perfect taste & texture of the Chicken Marsala. I enjoyed the Shrimp & Scallop Spiedino. The sauce had an exotic taste to it.
We loved our Sunday Lunch today. A special thanks to our waitress, Marsha for her help and advice today. We Will Be Back!

Make a reservation if you definitely want to be seated; they can get pretty busy on nights & weekends.
Carry out available but I haven’t tried it.
For a chain, this is as good as it gets IMO. I’d rate it higher if the foods were locally sourced.
Very good food, great service, and this is one of my fave locations.

Excellent food and excellent service. The last 2 times we have come we were served by Karrie B. She is one of the nicest, most professional and sweetest waitress ever! My nieces love her. She treats children with respect and courtesy. She makes them feel welcomed. As for the food, highly recommend it.

I really want to give it a higher rating as the food is pretty good. The past 2 times I have been here, the service has been pretty bad. The first time I was with a different party and we decided to walk out as we had been sitting for 20 minutes with no waiter coming to acknowledge is. I must say the manager made it right though. The second time (with a different party) our server was very friendly but it did take a pretty long time for things. We had to wait almost 15 minutes for our bread but after that things started to pick up. I remember that their service used to be AMAZING, not really sure what happened. I will probably go back, but it isn’t a #1 choice.

We frequent Olive Garden. Went here for a change. I was told it’s more expensive but if it is not by much. The food was superior. I had the grilled salmon. We were a group of 6 and everyone was pleased with their food. The service was also good.

What does it say about an establishment when you have to hunt down someone to serve you and then it still takes 5 minutes for them to acknowledge your there? There are more staff here then people eating, you’d think they would be bored and looking for something to do.

I had dinner here this week. It was not what I expected, & not in a good way. The first turn off was the smell when I walked in the door. I actually walked in & contemplated walking out after already getting a waiter to seat us. The dishes on the menu made it hard to make a selection because lots of plates used alcohol or pork products. I try to go for a more kosher meal when dining out. We started with the tomatoes caprese. It was refreshing and quite a decent size for the two of us. I also had a side Cesar salad that was a good size & a minestrone soup. The soup was bland and the Cesar had a little too much dressing which is something I would never say if you only knew how I take ranch on anything…
For the main meal I ordered a salmon dish that came with green beans. It was the saddest salmon & side of green beans you’ve ever seen for $ 17. I was thankful the vinaigrette sauce came on the side because it would’ve ruined entire meal. The order of conchiglie-​al-​formaggi was miserable. It sounded comparable to a Mac-​n-​cheese/​Alfredo combo & I was super excited about it. Before I even put my fork to it it smelled like gym socks. The four cheeses gave a very distinct flavor that made it hard to swallow. I had about 4 bites-​2 before adding pepper & 2 after– before calling it quits. We thought we could at least leave the restaurant with a nice flavor in our mouth and tried for dessert. The mini serving of Cannoli was hard & bland. I always had great thoughts about carrabbas but no more.

The TLDR version: This restaurant would score higher in areas like charm, service, and ambiance, but we both felt that it was too expensive for the average quality of food we had.
My family and I have tried to eat here twice before since moving to Apex in January 2015, but it has been mobbed both times with close to an hour wait (not ideal when you have two young kids with you). We assumed that was a sign that this place was going to be awesome. Tonight (Sunday) we finally managed to find a parking spot and get in for dinner.
The service was very friendly and everyone we met was really helpful and welcoming. The server was excellent and refilled our drinks several times (something I always look, for having a past in food service myself). The ambiance was nice and cozy with fun decorations on the walls and it seemed pretty clean. So far, so good.
Then the menu came and we were a bit underwhelmed. Perhaps we are used to more options having lived in San Francisco and Seattle previously, but it all looked like generic Italian food. Nothing really stood out to me as something new that I really wanted to eat. I recall a lot more variety on menus from Pasta Pomodoro and Olive Garden…
For the kids we got the Mac & Cheese (basically fettuccine alfredo) and the cheese ravioli. My wife, being a lover of eggplant decided to try the Pollo Sorrento («Wood-​grilled and topped with sautéed eggplant, prosciutto, fontina cheese and our port wine fig sauce” — $ 15.99) and I went with Cavatappi Formaggi & Chicken («Corkscrew pasta tossed in our Alfredo sauce with mozzarella, fontina, romano, parmesan and goat cheese” — $ 15.49 basically fettuccine alfredo with chicken, but I did get it without the goat cheese).
The table bread was nice, warm, and freshly baked. The oil and herbs for dipping was super yummy and a big hit. We had to take it away from the kids to stop them from filling up on too much bread! The wife had a house salad which she said was very good and I had a spicy lentil and sausage soup, which was ok; nothing to write home about and kind of thin.
The main courses arrived very promptly, which was awesome (as those of you with kids or company who get hangry will understand). Both of the kids’ dishes were tasty and the kids loved them. I tried them both and they were great. Then I looked at my wife’s plate and my bowl of pasta. My cheesy pasta looked like my son’s mac & cheese but bigger and with chicken. Having just tried my son’s I was excited for mine, however mine didn’t taste the same. His tasted cheesy and buttery the way alfredo should, but mine tasted a lot more like cream, not so much cheese or butter flavor. This confused me as mine had four different kinds of cheeses in it plus the extra cheese the server added to the top. My chicken was good, but it seemed like a pretty small amount to justify the $ 15.49 price tag. I was also expecting a bit more sauce and a bit more pasta for that price. The wife’s Pollo Sorrento in her words was, «just salty and not very interesting.» The eggplant, prosciutto, and cheese topping was there (I think) but just barely. We were imagining slices of eggplant and bacon and cheese on top, but instead it all looked like tiny bits (1cm by 1cm) of onion, basically indistinguishable. Grilled chicken with a thin purple sauce and tiny bits of «something» on top. Needless to say, we were both a bit dissapointed with our mains. They weren’t bad, but at those prices we hoping for much better. Meh is the perfect description (hence the two star rating).
We then decided to try some desserts. I got the Chocolate Dream («A rich fudge brownie with chocolate mousse, fresh whipped cream and our chocolate sauce” — $ 7.99) and the wife got the Panna Cotta («Madagascar vanilla bean custard with fresh raspberries.” — $ 6.49». Perhaps it was our expectations that killed us again, but mine was a cold square of something that looked like it had been cut out of a premade much larger cake/​pie and her’s came in a cute little glass jar. While mine tasted chocolately and was ok, I was definitely hoping for more of a freshly baked brownie with a dollop of light fluffy mouse, whipped cream and sauce drizzled over it, not a solid premade dense ice-​cream cake like dessert. The wife said that her’s tasted fine but the cute little cup held at most ¼ of a cup of custard. After spending close to $ 16 for two desserts, we were hoping for something that was freshly made, not simply removed from a walk-​in cooler.
Maybe we ordered all the wrong things. We don’t know, but we’d be hesitant to try it again due to the steep price tag. Aside from the food, the experience was excellent. However, since it’s a restaurant I have to rate it based on why we went there; the food.

Our party of 4 got seated at about 7:30pm on a Sunday night (last night) — they close at 9pm. We ordered drinks and 2 appetizers to share. So far so good. Drinks and bread arrive and we order our entrees and salads. Two appetizers arrive (Calamari — very good; Mussels –fair) and all is still OK. Mid-​way thru appetizers, the salads arrive. Mid-​way thru salads, entrees arrived. We felt so rushed, I could barely recall what my food tasted like! My wife could however — she ordered their new Shrimp Risotto — which was in-​edible since it was so spicy (not mentioned on menu!). It will be quite a while before we return to this restaurant!

We have been dining at Carrabbas since it opened its doors in Apex. We usually dine there at about once a month on average. Last night we went in and could not even get acknowledged by our server. After waiting at least 15 minutes we left and still had not been addressed. We fully understand that sometimes servers get backed up. But when you are walking by us continually at least speak and tell us you know we are waiting. When we left we said to someone by door we could not get waited on. They did not even say wait let me get you a manager. I guess since it was 8:30 everyone was just focused on closing up shop.

We drove over an hour to get to this Carrabba’s as we were meeting friends for lunch and we needed a restaurant that could cater to our many food sensitivities and a little one with Celiac Disease. Sarah waited on our table, which was a party of nine (six children ages 8 – 14 and three adults). Sarah was so accommodating. She didn’t bat an eye at any of our seemingly odd requests. Two of us could not have gluten, one of us could not have pepper or paprika, another one could only have salt and pepper. The list went on and on. Not once did Sarah make us feel as if we were a burden to her. She served us with a smile. Our food came out as ordered and was delicious.

Always a great meal and a great night out. Had a problem with my order, but the manager took care of it and went beyond.

I wasn’t sure if I’d like Carrabba’s the first time I ate there, but it has become one of my favorite places to eat!
I highly recommend the Spiedino Di Mare– it’s shrimp and sea scallops coated with Italian breadcrumbs, grilled and then topped with lemon butter sauce. Talk about delicious! I always get mine with the garlic mashed potatoes.
I can also say that their menu has a small/​large choice for many of the pasta dishes, which is really nice since the portions tend to run large. My husband is a HUGE chicken marsala snob and enjoys theirs. It’s not the best that he’s ever had, but it’s one that he does enjoy!
At a recent visit our server was a little flustered after being given numerous tables all at the same time. Instead of letting us wait and wait and suffer, he really worked hard to get us what we ordered and refill our drinks. At one point he even said, «You come here for me to wait on you, not for you to wait on me!!» Well said! :D