Carrabba’s Italian Grill

Unsafe parking lot, I’ve gotten a flat their. Service is poor and the food is bland for the price they ask.

My brother used to work for you and spend Thanksgiving with you Josh maybe you don’t remember it was a long time ago? But he always spoke of how great the dinner was and I love your restaurant and have ever sent keep it up!

Except for the wine, meal tastings this location has severely slipped in meal quality. Mother’s day I ordered the shrimp meal they had advertised, didn’t finish it, left the majority of the plate, wait staff didn’t even ask if there was a problem. We went last night, 05÷14÷16, service was awful, the pork tenderloin was tough, under seasoned. Lobster ravioli, didn’t taste fresh and pasta overcooked. Top it off spouse got sick. Your meals should be the same quality as the special events you host.

Sitting outside in the heat with my 7 month old baby, extremely upset. We called and made reservations and when I arrived I was told they don’t accept reservations only call ahead seating. The dude I spoke to on the phone did not tell me this. Of course he didn’t because I would just have called and made reservations somewhere else.
Happy Mother’s Day to me, love Carrabas.
It also would have helped if the girl at the hostess stand would have said she was sorry or acted sympathetic, but instead was rude and rushing me. Not appreciated. Not at all. Trying to sit in the heat with a 7 month old baby is a horrible way to spend any day, let alone Mother’s Day. Thanks for nothing Carrabas. Really.

First of all I want to say this has always been my favorite Carrabba’s to go to for a very long time, but after this past visit I will never go back. My boyfriend and I went this past Monday night. Usually when you walk in the lighting is low and nice and relaxing but it was bright as day in there, especially at the bar where we like to sit. Very odd and felt uninviting. There was only one couple at the table around the bar and one guy at the bar. We sat down and the bartender was outside the bar talking but she looked over as we sat and gave us dirty looks like she wasn’t happy we were there. About ten minutes later she decided to come greet us and clean the mess that sat in front of us but acted mad the whole time doing it. She never gave us water or silverware nothing.. She asked if we wanted a drink then made our drinks and sat them down and walked off. After awhile longer she asked if we wanted menus… She came took our orders and still no water no silverware and didn’t come back. We got our salads still no silverware. I was about to get them myself but my bf said lets wait and see how long it takes her to notice we don’t have silverware. We watched her socialize and walk around the bar never looking at us at all. We sat 20 minutes still nothing, until I got mad and went and got silverware myself from another table. Also, water would have been nice but she never came around to ask until the food came out and I caught her for a brief moment. Her focus was walking around socializing… instead of giving any kind of service. A matter of fact looking around that is all anyone working in there was doing… socializing…walking around doing nothing. I had the steak with a side of pasta and my bf had the pasta with shrimp. Both were more than disappointing. Ive never had a bad food experience at Carrabbas until this trip. The steak tasted like cardboard and the pasta was dry with hardly any sauce and the sauce had no flavor, looked like something from a fast food Italian place. And my bf’s pasta looked the same, hardly any sauce, very small portion, very few shrimp and no flavor. The whole experience was a nightmare. My bf is a GM for a well known restaurant in town and I am a bartender for a well known seafood restaurant in town. We know about customer service and about quality food. That is what makes this even worse for us… If I gave that kind of service to people I would never make any money. That bartender cared more about standing outside the bar talking than taking care of customers let alone her terrible attitude. I’m at the bar right in front of your face I shouldn’t have to beg for water or silverware. very sad. Let alone we saw the manager right there by all the servers and the bartender that were doing nothing but socializing, she did nothing and she looked like she just crawled out of bed. Her shirt was half untucked and her hair bedhead. I just found out this location was sold to a corporation bad move because it ruined everything I loved about Carrabbas… this has turned into a sad cheap Italian place. we will never go back, we didn’t even finish eating the crap we were served we paid and left. Which in turn ticked me off because its my only night off work and our only night to have dinner together but none of it was enjoyable.

If you liked the original Carrabba’s, you will hate this place. Carrabba’s sold its name to a chain and kept control over its Kirby and Voss locations. This is a chain restaurant, and everything is worse: ambience, food, wait staff, and the patrons. Spend a few more dollars and enjoy the quality at the original two locations.

We arrived at 6:55 pm on a Saturday night and we knew there would be a wait. The hostess greeted us, handed us our beeper, and we took a seat outside. She said the wait would be 15 minutes. We sat patiently, but noticed the time going by. We went to ask and they said they messed up. Those that were arriving after us were all getting seated before us. We waited over 35 minutes.
It’s highly irritating when you’re hungry. Do better next time, Carrabbas.

pretty nice dinner, we came here with the free entrée promo so got a pretty good deal
we got…
1. 9oz sirloin steak with gorgonzola + side salad + cavatappi amatriciana $ 17.79 — meat was alright but kinda chewy towards the end, the sauce was a good bonus
2. chianti chicken + spicy chicken soup $ 15.99 — the soup was really good and hearty and spicy in the black pepper sense, definitely lots of chicken and veggies in the soup (do recommend!), chianti sauce was very tart and added a nice touch to the meat, chicken was tender and flavorful
tasty food with a pretty big menu and decent portions, service was just ok

If you’re going to come here, hold on tight to any possessions of value to you because despite appearances, it is NOT SAFE. Several cars (yes, SEVERAL) have been broken into in the back parking lot.
I came here for dinner on a Saturday night with my family, just after landing in Houston for winter break. Halfway through our meal, the manager came to alert us that our car had been broken into, with a back window smashed in. (I find it slightly odd that she knew it was our car… how does one figure these things out?) We rushed outside to assess the damage, and indeed the window had been smashed in with a heavy object wrapped in a trash bag; the weapon was still lying there in the car, and shards of broken glass were everywhere. A bag with my precious MacBook Air in it had been stolen, but thankfully nothing else. The broken window plus a new computer came out to at least $ 1200 in damages.
So you might be thinking, this is just an unlucky event and doesn’t really reflect badly on the restaurant itself. Well here’s the real kicker: the policeman who came to investigate our break-​in told us that similar incidents had happened multiple times at the same location. We tried to check the security camera for the lot, but the camera didn’t even cover the part of the lot that our car was in! The back lot, (which admittedly should be avoided, but what are you going to do when every other spot is full?) was badly lit, and there was no real camera coverage. The only thing in the way of security was a flimsy caution sign that was barely noticeable (which, by the way, also serves to protect the restaurant from being liable for any damages). Furthermore, the management was pretty uncooperative and unsympathetic when we voiced these complaints to them. I mean, if break-​ins are happening multiple times in your parking lot, then perhaps you should take some responsibility and beef up the security.
As this is a Unilocal review, I’ll say briefly that the food and service were in line with other Carrabba’s locations. Obviously, though, I won’t be coming back. This is extra upsetting because Carrabba’s used to be one of my favorite chains, but now I’ll only associate it with unpleasant memories. Please, if you’re thinking of coming here, be extra alert and cautious! At least be smart and bring your possessions inside the restaurant.

Great service, great food, new menu. It was a bit loud, but service and food made up.
Recommend.

Food was great as always. But our waiter must have been new. We were never asked about wine, we asked him. Never got tea or water refills more than once without asking. As he picked up the checks I mentioned he missed an opportunity to make more money. He asked how, and I said you never offered us coffee or dessert. He looked confused and walked away???

Wonderful service, wonderful food. It was a bit crowded but we were seated within 10 minutes. I’ve only gone once but plan on returning in the near future.
~jean

Didnt like the pizza to greasy and salty. Told the bar waitress and was told maybe try something different next time. Oh well!

Pretty decent pasta and seafood. It’s a lot better than Olive Garden. Staff and restaurant are clean and fast. It is a little pricey but you do get a decent amount of food and the quality is good. Fettuccine chicken and shrimp is what I normally get. Chicken Marsala is really good. I shall return!

It was me and my Bestfriend’s second time here. Our first time we went during our lunch break and got chicken soup & house salads.
This time we went for dinner. The hostess was welcoming. It took almost 10 minutes for our waiter to greet us. Which didn’t really upset us because we were still checking out the menu. When our waiter arrived he seemed to be in a rush which was kind of annoying because he wouldn’t let you finish your sentence when asking about something.
We both ordered a cup of the chicken soup as our stater. The «cup» is pretty large compared to other places. Although my soup wasn’t too hot in temperature I still enjoyed it.
For dinner my friend got the chicken Bryan with meat and Marinara spaghetti and I got the crab cake appetizer as my meal. A few minutes after we got our meal a woman who appeared to be a kitchen manager came to check on us. My friends food was cold. She offered to get it heated up & when she brought it back they also tossed her pasta In more sauce.
The chicken had an amazing taste and texture.
The crab cakes were delicious and and came with a sauce which really complemented the taste of the crab meat.
I’m giving this place 3 stars because our waiter was our only issue. He took too long to get anything we needed (refills) and never checked on our table only the manager did. Overall I would recommend trying this place.

This is for take out only. I needed a basic Italian salad to take to a potluck dinner party and I was short on time, so I thought — why not let the experts do it for me. WRONG! The salad was fresh, but 10.50 for a container of romaine lettuce with a few carrots shavings and a few olives? I don’t think so. And I got two! So I spent over 21.00 for two basic boring salads. My boyfriend almost made us go elsewhere to get something else he was so embarrassed. But I said, «Oh hell no — we are eating every last bit of this 21.00 lettuce!!» Needless to say I was overwhelmingly unimpressed by it.
The staff was super friendly and nice however.

A typical chain Italian restaurant, no flairs or fireworks. For lunch, the table shared the calamari. While the calamari met the bar of «fried-so-obviously-it-won’t-suck», I thought the best part was actually the spicy, warm, thick marinara sauce served in a generous bowl to accompany the casually crunchy squid rings. Swiping the fresh table bread through that marinara was the Italian equivalent of chips and salsa at the Dominator of Dips: El Tiempo. High Praise.
30.
My minestrone soup was to be expected — slightly gummy and lacking a pop of lemony acid or side croûton crunch to jazz it up. Even a grind of pepper or Parmesan would have added more dimension to the dowdy offering.
The rest of the experience was middling at best. Service… Happened. Mostly. For a group of 8 that ordered the «soup to nuts» experience, I might have expected a manager visit or an extra water refill or two. They can sure churn out tables though: definitely a good spot to bring a group for lunch that needs to make it back to the office by 1 – 1:

I came here for a work party and the staff was very accommodating. They were as sweet as can be, especially for a group of 29 people. I ordered the sirloin Marsala with pasta and chicken noodle soup as my side. The soup was delicious! I thought it was going to be the plain Jane traditional chicken noodle soup but this definitely had more flavor. On the other hand, my steak was absolutely horrible not alone the pasta. I ordered a rare steak and it didn’t surprise me for them to over cook it since there was such a large party. My steak was probably medium to medium rare. I was incredibly disappointed because medium rare is pushing it but medium? It was too cooked for my liking. Then I resorted to the Alfredo pasta, which was absolutely dry and tasteless. I had to use the Marsala sauce to make it less dry. My friend next to me also ordered steak but medium rare and her steak was pretty much over well done. I was so disappointed that my main entrée didn’t live up to my expectations.
We also ordered dessert which actually was amazing! The chocolate brownie (I forgot the fancy name) and the tiramasu. The chocolate brownie is a MUST! It was perfect in regards of the consistency and it not being too sweet. The tiramasu on the other hand was alright, but had a little too much whipped cream and not enough tiramasu.

We just left chilis down the street because of service, came back here after just eating here a week ago. killer ambience and fresh consistent food in spite of it being 10 o’clock at night! ! within 5 minutes had our drinks bread and ordered. Will definitely be back ;)

I really wanted to like the «franchise» version of Carrabbas with being spoiled by the original ones, but sadly I was beyond disappointed. Sadly when we walked in it felt like I was at a Olive Garden or Marconi grill. Front area was dirty and bathrooms were gross!
As we sat down we had asked for a «drink» menu. The waitress informed us that there’s no drink menu but whatever you want the bartender can make for you. Okay?!? So we went ahead and ordered a Martini and Bellini. It was ok, but I wished there was an actual menu for us to give us an idea what we would like to drink. Food was horrible. Presentation looks like they just threw the food onto the plate. Took them about 7 minutes to refill my water and the waitress failed to ask us if we wanted another drink.
At the end of our meal she didn’t even offer us dessert but we was so ready to leave due to the expectation of the food and service. When we had received our check, our drinks were at happy hour prices. Wished we would have known we would have ordered another drink! They had a special on Wednesdays half bottle wines, wished we would have known that also!
Clearly we have been spoiled by the original Carrabbas! I left feeling like I would never want to come here again. Horrible service and food.