Carrabba’s Italian Grill

Looks like they have closed this location. Already removed from their website and they took down the big sign earlier this week.

gone. finished. kaput. done. out ‘o business. fini. eighty-​sixed. closed.

This Carrabbas has a warm and inviting atmosphere. They specialize in Italian food. They include white bread with olive oil and herb sauce with your meal.
The service is phenomenal. Waiters are so friendly, cheerful, and attentive. Our waiter today was all that and made us laugh despite the restaurant being really busy. Amazing.
Negatives are the parking lot in this shopping center have mostly compact-​car-​sized parking spots and the menu is quite expensive. The cheapest plate is $ 8. A Coke is $ 2.50. The food is apparently tasty because my coworkers seem to love this restaurant.
Wednesday lunch may require a very short wait of a few minutes.

I’ll sum it up in a nutshell here but to get the complete picture, here’s my blog post about Carrabba’s:
Okay for those lazy to click on that link, here we go:
this is the best Italian food I’ve had in Austin, so far. Here are some things I liked about them:
1) Open kitchen.
2) Everything made from scratch (which kind of goes hand-​in-​hand with the open kitchen). Everything fresh.
3) The best seasoned olive oil.
4) The food is ambrosial.
We ordered a Chicken Bryan and a Lobster Ravioli. Both of them came with a soup and we went for their Tomato-​Basil and Minestrone, of which the former was much better. The chicken in the Chicken Bryan was perfectly grilled and the dollop of goat cheese was absolutely melt-​in-​the-​mouth. The show-​stealer however was the Lobster Ravioli. Perfectly cooked and seasoned, with a perfectly thick, rich white wine cream sauce. So good!
5) Comfortable setting. Good service (although I did feel at times that our server was tired).
We had the food with some white wine (don’t ask me which and all; white is all I know) and finished with Sogno di Cioccolata. Perfect, I say. :)

I’ve been coming to Carrabbas for as long as I can remember. This time was because we had a gift card. There’s always good food and service, and this time was no different.
Ordered: Calamari, Mussels (Cozze in Bianco), Parmesan Crusted Chicken.
Pros: The service was excellent as always. I don’t think my water was half empty the whole night. The calamari was great as always. My girlfriend really enjoyed the mussels. I can’t say anything bad about the parmesan crusted chicken, but it didn’t stand out either.
Cons: There was some guy with a really weird and distracting laugh sitting near us. I spent maybe 10 minutes laughing at his laugh.
Everything was great other than crazy laughing guy, as expected from Carrabbas. We’ll definitely be back soon.

I got what I wanted so I can’t complain.
Tasty food, affordable prices, decent selection, no reservations, and a parking lot.
Carrabba’s has an affordable menu, wide variety, friendly staff, parking lot and no reservations were needed. My waitress was friendly, she made a few suggestions, kept the warm bread coming and my glass was never empty! The manager even stopped by twice to make sure things were A-​OK.
I don’t remember the names of the dishes but both dishes were flavorful, and I loved that we could substitute the noodles for whole grain noodles at no extra charge.
No a huge fan of chains, but I would go back if I was near one craving Italian food.

We had a gift card to use and that’s really the only reason we came here.
We had beer, margarita, chicken salad, butternut squash ravioli, cannoli’s and bread.
The rocks margarita was big, too sweet and not very potent. I would have rather had quality in a smaller portion. Everything else was great. We got the cannoli to go and was pleased that it was made fresh — nice and crunchy shell. Service was spot on.
I think we would consider going back to try their lasagna or something more traditional. Let’s face it — Austin is short on Italian places and this joint is near our house.

I’ve had some really tasty meals at this Carrabba’s. A year or so ago I dined here for lunch having a huge pork chop with a fig reduction and failed to Unilocal about it. Little Rooster and I were in search of a good meal and shady parking yesterday so I decided to see if I could get a repeat performance of the good stuff.
We started out with the mozzarella sticks. Not the usual frozen food service variety; the crust was delicate and the marinara laced with fresh herbs was darn tasty. This wasn’t my first choice in the app category as they have steamed mussels; but I was trying to find something the kiddo would eat. The crusty bread with the EVOO and spices proved tasty bites as well.
I had the Chicken Bryan which paired oven roasted chicken breast, goat cheese, sun dried tomatoes, and lemon butter sauce. I savored every bite especially paired with the side of sauteed spinach with onion and garlic slices. A simple yet elegant taste and I liked that the chef who was in charge of the wood fired grill came over personally to see if the dish was cooked correctly.
Little Rooster ate more bread than cheese sticks so I opted for the scoop of vanilla ice cream for his dessert. Service was awesome; the food exceeding expectations in most cases. Damian Mandola seems to have the golden touch when it comes to all things Italian. Carrabba’s is no exception.

Enjoyed a nice Monday night date here… No wait time, friendly staff.
I ended up having the sausage and lentil soup along with the Mezzaluna. The soup was delicious and the entrée was alright, not the best but still tasty.
Their lemoncillo (?) bread pudding is reeeeaaaallly good.

I like this restaurant, but accidentally sometimes forget about it!
I came here not too long ago to get great service and an even better dish.
I always play it safe with these types of restaurants by ordering something that would appear to be a no-​brainer.
So I got the alfredo. It was great. Everything I have tried here in the past has been very tasty.
I just need to get back here more often…

This review is a little biased because this was where I took my girlfriend on our first date. So that definitely qualifies it for 5 stars just in it of itself, but that’s not the only reason.
I’m not a huge fan of chain restaurants, but I have always enjoyed Carrabba’s. The meal…
Appetizer and Salad:
Their crab cakes with roasted red pepper sauce are terrific. They have big pieces of lump crab meat rather than indistinguishable bits that are in most crab cakes. The sourdough bread has a nice crust on the outside and is good and soft in the middle. I think they could quite possibly have the best caesar dressing around. I’ve made the mistake of ordering house salad in the past which I wasn’t a fan of. It has carrot lettuce and celery and dressing… not my thing.
Entrees: I had chicken marsala which was cooked perfectly and the sauce was great. The garlic red potato mashed potatoes are a bit heavy on the garlic for my liking and I love garlic. The broccoli can be hit or miss. Sometimes fresh and tasty, sometimes old and crunchy.
The girlfriend had the salmon with a lemon caper sauce on the side, because she’s a bit on the picky side. She enjoyed the salmon, but wasn’t down with the sauce. I thought it was pretty good though. She enjoyed the same sides I did.
Overall, I’ve never had a disappointing meal and it’s a the place to go when my super picky hard to please family comes into town. I’m a fan of Carrabba’s for it’s reliable food and of course the sentimental connection.

I began to realize that everything tastes, looks, feels, sounds better when you were younger.
I remember the first time I had Carrabba’s when it opened in a small town Kalamazoo, MI, my friends and I couldn’t get enough of it and decided to rank that place higher than OIive Garden on our best franchised Italian restaurants list.
I went to the Austin Carrabba’s last night and it all felt different now. Why? Why?
Why was the server so hyper? Why were the herb dip and pork roast so salty? Why was my Chianti so blant. At the end, I have to say goodbye to Carrabba’s and drop it from my list to go for Italian fix.

So as a hard core procrastinator, I postponed making NYE dinner plans with the boyfriend till the night before. We thought we were going to go find some fancy schmancy place to chow down (the bf is a foodie of sorts.) At last, I brought up the idea of Carrabba’s…
Let me just tell you about the lovelyness that was dinner last night.
1. No wait. Nice table. Friendly people.
2. MAD props to our waiter Joe C. In the midst of NYE craziness he was totally friendly, recommended some seriously awesome dishes (and was spot on for all of them) and made the dining experience very pleasurable.
3.The food was fantastic. ordinarily I would have been a bit shocked at the price tags but after looking at «expensive» dinners offered elsewhere, I felt like it was a steal.
The Good
My steak. Filet Fiorentina with Bryan sauce.
lemme break it down for you.
A damn good steak. lemon butter sauce, goat cheese, sundried tomatoes, basil. Are you salivating yet? I was moaning almost the whole meal. And for 23 bucks I got the steak, the salad (meh), pasta with marinara and mashed potatoes. i saved half of it and ate it the day after. Good sized portions.
The bf got some tomato soup that I thought was fantastic. We split an appetizer with goat cheese and marinara, and for dessert had one of there mini desserts with fruit. Light but sweet.
Only negative– my salad. Italian Vinaigrette Dressing was not that great, expected more.
All in all a really wonderful time, a fantastic waiter, and some good food made for a really pleasurable evening… even if we were at a (ahem) chain restaurant.

I’ve officially banned Carrabba’s from my list of restaurants. My friends and I went there after a football game to go eat. There was a long wait which we’re fine with since there would’ve been a long wait at most restaurants. We waited 40mins to get a table and then we had the rudest waitress ever. It was some middle-​aged lady who barely smiled, took forever with our drinks, and orders. She completely ignored our table and treated us horribly. When it was time for our checks, I thought something was wrong with mine and I asked her (politely) if that was the right amount. Instead of being polite about the situation, she brought out the manager just to inform me that I had mixed up the prices of two different dishes. It was a simple question that she could have answered without making a scene.
To make matters worse, one of my friends found out a few days later when she was looking at her credit card transactions online that she had been overcharged. We all checked our accounts and two of my other friends had also been overcharged. After calling Carrabba’s, we found out that somehow our waitress mixed up our tickets with the people from another table, which led to my friends to being charged $ 30 more than what they should have been charged. To Carrabba’s credit, we found out the waitress was fired because she’s had a few other incidents like this one but the damage has been done.

I adore Carrabba’s! They have a fabulous Happy Hour and wonderful food.
My favorite is the lobster ravioli.
We get either the chocolate martini or a carrabbalini or white sangria. LOVELY
many awesome appetizers are half price during HH if you sit AT the bar.
Give them a try! HH is from 4 — 7.

I thought Carraba’s was okay. My parents came in from Houston and were just so set on going. I chose this location because I could find it on a map. My parents were happy with the Chicken Marsala which was good but, not anything to drive across town for. My food was good. I felt like this place was a more expensive Olive Garden or Macaroni Grill and to be honest I expected more.

Being a fan of the original Carrabba’s in Houston. After moving here I couldn’t wait to try the Austin Carraba’s.
Much to my surprise I wasn’t disappointed. I ordered my favorite off the menu (not on the menu) Fried Calamari & Shrimp with a side of garlic bread. The Calamari was heaven and the shrimp were sweet. (a real seafood lover will understand sweet shrimp).
The service and atmosphere is true Italian. A touch of Italy in Texas.

really nice place for good food, once oyu got used to the over enthusiastic staff (which I guess is a bit of an american habbit I start figuring)
the food actually really tastes italian, they have a good choice of dishes and we never waited longer than 10 minutes so far, even on thursday or friday nights…
Once you know how to get there it is vey likely you’ll return!

Excellent place to get a meal. Despite the fact that this is a chain, this location seems to be a bit better then many others. Order the clams in butter sauce for an appetizer… it’s a great compliment to the bread and olive oil, plus you can use extra bread to round up the remaining butter sauce. Then, I recommend the Chicken Trio, which is off the menu but features 3 chicken breasts cooked three different ways (Marsala with mushrooms, Bryan with sun dried tomatoes and cream cheese, and a third type I’m forgetting). It’s enough food for two people and will make you good and lazy for the rest of the night.
Highly recommended, considering it’s a chain.

It can be a challenge to review chains or franchised businesses because you run the risk of spending time critiquing a place that is generally married to formula and expectation. When you walk into a McDonald’s, you get a McDonald’s. When you run into Walgreen’s on the corner, you’re running into every Walgreen’s on every corner in the U.S.
Of course there are exceptions to this, Carrabba’s Italian Grill on N IH-​35 is one of them. Austin isn’t know for its vast selection of Italian excellence, which gives a relatively well-​known chain like Carrabba’s a leg up. This location on IH-​35 just north and east of Highland Mall is quite good and I would confidently recommend it to those craving a big Italian meal. The restaurant can be hard to find… I would suggest checking out the map at
.
Anyway, the food’s great and the place is never crowded. Austinites are afraid of chains, so head here for almost guaranteed immediate seating. The friendly staff begins by encouraging cocktails and bringing warm bread and oil. Their dipping oil is fabulous. On a recent visit to Treehouse Grill in South Austin, I was really hoping they would top Carrabba’s bread-​and-​oil presentation. Treehouse didn’t even come close. Johnny and Damian (the Carrabba’s) use a peppery mix of spices in an extra virgin oil. The bread is always warm and fresh.
They serve up a delicious menu which has never disappointed. Like all Italian food, it’s a tad overpriced. But as long as you try not to think about the same pasta boiling in your kitchen, you’ll be okay. Try the Rigatoni Martino ($ 12.99). Rigatoni, sauteed mushrooms, sun dried tomatoes and ricotta salata cheese in a tomato cream sauce. Along with their pasta specialties, they’ve got wood-​fired pizza, antipasti, and entrees from the grill, the sea, and the soup bowl. As an added (and suprising) bonus, they have a gluten-​free menu.
Carrabba’s is not the Italian dream, but in this town, it holds its own. Moderate prices. Good location (although difficult to find). Not crowded.
Scrumptious.