Carrabba’s Italian Grill

I love this place and it is definitely a great place for the whole family to dine in. The atmosphere was great and I could even smell the wood firing before I walked into the restaurant, and I love that smell! Me and my roommate had mussels and chicken wings for appetizers. They both tasted good but so we finished the appetizers, we were already full. The pastas we got was amazing too, even though we didn’t get to finish it all, we brought it home for dinner lol.

The staff here is awesome! Out waiter Michael was amazing! Lobster ravioli is delicious! I highly recommend!

My favorite restaurant in America but this one will STILL not fix their bathrooms. There is a terrible sewage smell that has been there for over 2 years. We keep going in hopes one day it will be fixed but never happens. Also, they are unfriendly when your baby needs a high chair. They keep thinking someone will die and trip over it so they force you (disability or not) to sit in a hard wooden table and you’re not allowed in a booth.

Had an excellent meal around Christmas time. Our waiter, Scott, guided me through the menu with excellent recommendations. Scott made us feel right at home and was very attentive to our needs. Scott was very funny and personable! Our main entrees came out very quickly, and were very warm and delicious. Also — Best Caesar salad I’ve ever had! Had a great time — will return in the future!

I have never written a negative restaurant review, as I am pretty easy to please. However this Carabbas was certainly subpar from other ones we have been to. I ordered the Chicken Marsala, which I was first introduced to at the Grandville location, and the sauce here was terrible. The atmosphere/​décor was also subpar, and there was a cold draft. The only thing that I would give a high number to was the price! We will never go back to this Carabbas again!!!

Great food, incredible service from Kara! Thanks!
Highly recommend the Sicilian Chicken Soup!

Good food, good & moderately fast service. Price worth it during their a more Monday specials. Their spicy sausage (med. Hot) and lentil soup was super delicious! But probably not for those who don’t like veggies and spicy foods.

Thanks to the excellent staff there for an outstanding experience! Our waitress, Samantha, the manager, Ryan, both went out of their way to give us a great dining experience. When my dish was prepared wrong, before it was placed in front of me, they caught the error, apologized, comped us desserts and brought the replacement quickly. I highly recommend the food as well as the well trained staff!

You’ll spend the whole time wishing you were at Olive Garden. Don’t go on a Sunday. They run out of popular dishes and the Sunday staff can be a bit like the JV team. I will say the manager tried to make things right by comping apps and desserts. My chicken marsala tasted only of salt, thank god I filled up on bread during the hour it took to get my food. Having worked for eight years in kitchens at various restaurants, I can say that the guy expediting food was not only pissing off his staff, the whole restaurant could hear him bad mouthing customers, he was less than effective. I’ve been to this location when it has run like a well oiled machine, I think this was just an off night.

Well, at least I can say my expectations were never high to begin with…
We were in Lansing visiting a relative and he suggested this place and said it was REALLY good. Some of the best Italian food around.
Mind you, he’s 71, an ex-​smoker, and 100% Irish, so I wasn’t really buying it, but he wanted to go so we went. I’ve actually never been to a Carrabba’s, and I thought it can’t be worse than Olive Garden so…
The meal was kind of all over the place… but the one place I can tell you it wasn’t was anywhere near Italy.
It was pretty busy for 4pm on a Sunday, so I took this as a good sign.
We sat and ordered drinks. Waitress was nice. No complaints there.
She brought us out this super yummy, piping hot crusty bread with olive oil and spices, and I thought how awesome! Maybe this place will really stand out!
It kind of plateaued out went downhill from there.
I ordered lobster mac and cheese $ 17.99… a true weakness of mine, and anywhere I see it, I have to order it. I’m on about a 50% burn rate on this dish, but I won’t give up. BF ordered the shrimp and scallop pasta ala vodka $ 16.99, which boasted a creamy tomato vodka sauce.
My uncle ordered a 6oz sirloin and lobster ravioli combo, which, honestly, was the best deal of all at $ 13.99! Comes with Salad or soup, and Uncle’s came with side, he picked green beans.
BF and Uncle liked their soups, minestrone and the house chicken called mama something…
I had a salad with house dressing, and it was so boring I couldn’t even finish it. Seriously. Their dressing had no flavor… NONE!
I even went to the bottom to get some extra dressing, and no flavor.
The plates come out, and Uncle’s looks amazing. Steak cooked perfectly with 4 nice size raviolis…(frozen I’m sure) with beans, and he really did enjoy his meal. It looked and tasted like exactly what he asked for.
BF had some linguini with 4 shrimp, 3 tiny scallops and tomatoes and basil. This is NOT any kind of sauce, let alone vodka sauce. He didn’t even eat half.
Mine looked really good, but again, no flavor. Some white cheese sauce and some shredded canned lobster meat. The pancetta didn’t even help. I was kinda pissed to spend that kind of money of food that is so mediocre.
Nevertheless, we bit the bullet and took the leftovers home. We knew we could salvage them somehow.
We were able to doctor the leftovers and eat them anyway, but there was A LOT of doctoring going on. It was pretty much surgery.
I’m giving it the benefit of the doubt with 3 stars, cuz I did love that bread, and Uncle really liked his, and I’ll be happy to take him back again.
/​Bland!

Went on Valentine’s. 10 minute wait. YASSS! Waitress was the bombdiggity, omg she should be in standup. Had the lentil soup, and the steak Marsala, green beans, calamari, and well, let’s just say we ate good. Upon giving our compliments to the chefs we were told the restaurant brought in the «A» team given how busy they were. Good call management! It was not our first, second or even third visit but let me tell you, if I was a food critic on that night… wait, LOL I am critiquing. Ok, I can still taste the steak and it’s making me drool. Everything was cooked to perfection. My only issue was the waitstaff at the bar… one lady made me feel like she was eyeing me up as a potential kidnapping victim, I mean I had on clothes but her eye rolling made me feel like I was naked and offending her with my very presence. Maybe they were all tired and busy, I get that, just don’t look at me like «she who is beneath me».

I would prefer this restaurant over Olive Garden just based on the quality of the food and the ambiance. I really enjoyed their calamari appetizer it was very flavorful and delicious! I would say more if a date night than a family restaurant but to reach his Owen. I’m sure I will be back. I really enjoyed our waitress the service was reliable and quick!

Really good food. Highly recommend the chicken Bryan.
Atmosphere was nice, prices were fair.

This is a chain so you enter at your own risk.
The food is decent but the prices are all over the place.
I think its an olive garden with the west coast flair. Nothing about it really stands out to me, but if someone else wants to go there I don’t out up a fight.

Nice service and clean restaurant. Be careful because each cheese/​oil-​laden dish poses the threat of drowning in butter. Rich, rich food here.

Always good food. Can’t go wrong with the Pasta Weezie. So, so delicious. Great service. Ashley at the bar is lovely. I recommend.

I have been here twice and both experiences were very positive. We don’t have an OG on this side of town so I tried Carrabbas instead and learned quickly this isn’t anything like OG. This restaurant reminds me of some of the nicer Italian places in Chicago actually. I’d treat out of town guest to this place as a best of Lansing kind of thing.

Not impressed, especially with the waitstaff and front desk. I don’t need you to act pretentious with a straight face, especially when I have a toddler that is scared of you. I feel its overpriced for a chain with really little creative cooking. Most of what I’ve had was overseasoned with the same seasoning. Okay, so you have Italian seasoning to throw on everything. Does that make you a fine dining Italian restaurant? Not in my book. There are a few things on the menu I wouldn’t mind trying, but given that I haven’t enjoyed the two dishes I’ve already had I’m not in a rush to go back. It wouldn’t be a bad place to grab something small on a rare occasion if I was already in the area and craving italian, but if I was trying to impress a foodie, this is not where I would take them.

It’s a chain restaurant, but one of the few I visit. As it’s part of a chain, I confine my review to preparation and service.
First, bravo Adam. Good service, attentive & anticipatory, but never once did I feel my conversation intruded upon. When the keg had issues creating too much head on my Two Hearted, you had a supplemental glass on order before you sat the first down.
Second, thank you grill cook for restoring my faith in the ability of any restaurant with a modicum of respect to produce a medium rare steak. Best steak I’ve ever had? No, but it met my expectation for what I knew I was ordering. After a debacle I had in Denver, this was truly appreciated.
Based on service and prep, you guys earned a 5, where the highest I’d normally consider is 4.
Ordered: Flat bread pizza, lentil soup (spicy, but good), filet MR, green beans, Bells Two Hearted.

Expectations exceeded.
Sicilian chicken soup had a nice kick. Olive oil w herbs multiplied the bread’s deliciousness factor by a gazillion.
Super kid-​friendly atmosphere: not only did they have a big crayon/​coloring packet, they also brought out «kid dough» (a small chunk of pizza dough) for the toddler to mash. He was entirely entertained till food arrived.