Johnny Carino’s

I didn’t check the Unilocal reviews before my visit, which was probably a mistake. I ordered the Chicken Penne Gargonzola. The chicken was a little overdone, but not too bad. The pasta was mushy, very very over done. It was seriously as bad as microwaved macaroni and cheese. It didn’t taste bad, but it certainly didn’t taste good, the taste was just meh, and the texture was nasty.
The waitress wouldn’t stop calling me honey, even after I asked her to stop. I hate that. Even went to «honey bun» once. Ugh.
I got the potato soup, which was ok, still not good.
Overall very bad experience.

Came in and the restaurant not busy. They had only 3 – 4 tables with customers. They told us it was going to be 30 – 35 minutes to be seated because they only had 3 waitstaff. Really? Who has only 3 waitstaff at 6 pm?

If I could give no stars, I would. I came here after a long road trip with my wife, to have her birthday meal. We love Carino’s.
First off the waitress argued with my wife about what a salad dressing was called (my wife was right, no apology), then she served us a hot-​ish skillet of Skilletini (a dish that is supposed to be hot and sizzling), then she gave me a dirty plate and the awesome part was she disappeared so I had to eat out of my bread plate, and the chicken tasted like old shoes learher.
I will never eat here again, you should follow suit!

If your idea of authentic Italia is cheese from a can dumped on a pile of some sort of noodle like product you’ll love Johnny Carino’s!
If your idea of marinara sauce is something that has similar consistency to Heinz ketchup, you’ll love Johnny Carino’s!
Tired of tea? Well there’s plenty of brown water at Johnny Carino’s!
Ok I’m done.

Worst Carinos ever. Service is as good as can be, but you can tell the staff knows their food sucks. The food is bad, like you couldnt force yourself to eat it bad. Like a forzen entrée is ten times better bad.

I hate having to write a bad review but, this was terrible compared to other Johnny Carino’s in other states.
Cons:
Dry, burnt chicken over bland pasta. I sent my food back and didn’t order anything else.
My husband didn’t eat his pasta and neither did my daughter.
The place seems to be ran by teenagers or very young adults who are more interested in hanging out (the cooks, some of the wait staff) than running a restaurant.
Pros:
Some waiters/​waitresses were actually just trying to do there job professionally. They seemed annoyed/​embarrassed by their obnoxious co-​workers.
Calamari was decent.

. This restaurant pretty much sucks don’t know about the food but the service is really bad I came in by myself I sit down for exactly 6 minutes 5 servers walk past me never ask me for or I’ll be right with you I walked out in with the Chuck E Cheese plus it was not busy maybe do you think I didn’t have any money cuz I don’t t shirt shorts and flip flops

Slooooooooo www… Carinos needs to takes its name off this place. the food wasn’t too bad. Service is way slow. bar was slow. place was barely half full for a Saturday night… should tell you something. brought us the wrong wine. waited 15 min for a desert to go !!!
Can’t believe I’m giving it 2 stars
last time as usual.

I’ve visited Carino’s across the country and it’s a chain I go back to time and again because it’s dependable. I read some of the previous reviews and was a bit worried, but when we drove by and the parking lot was full, we decided to give it a try. It was a Wednesday night about 6:30pm. Just myself and a co-​worker. We were seated immediately and had our drink order taken within a couple of minutes. She took our order when she brought our drinks and I started the timer. The food took about 20 minutes to be delivered, which wasn’t bad, considering it was a pretty full restaurant. As expected, the food was good, Carino’s food. I had a pizza and my co-​worker had the lazagna. A great dining experience, which is sometimes hard to find in Midland. Not sure if a management change has happened or what, but based on this experience, we’ll be back to Carino’s the next time we are in Midland.

Went in to get some take out at the bar & it seemed the bartender was more concerned about the game then he was his guests. When we were ready to order we said excuse me we are ready to place our order & he then proceeded to take take it from half way down the bar & when we asked for tea while we waited he not only got it wrong, which was one sweet & one non sweet it took him ten minutes to get it & that was after we had asked again. Food was decent but because he refused to write down the order cuz he had it he forgot one of our salads & got the sauce wrong. Once he gave us our food finally after almost an hour it took us another five minutes just to get our receipt because he was to preoccupied socializing. Finally get home to celebrate my friends birthday & not only had he not given us one of our salads but he got the sauce wrong on my friends food who had ordered marinara because she is lactose intolerant. Horrible place & never again will I visit this establishment !!

Bonus points for being seated without a wait on a Saturday night; anything less than 45 mins in Midland these days is a miracle. Took a while to get waited on, but our server, Jalen, kicked ass. Didn’t order anything special, just the Eggplant Parmesan and the fettucini alfredo. Served hot and fresh in large portions. Bread was nice & slightly chewey. Better than Olive Garden, but not Carraba’s.
Food = 3 – 3.5 stars. Service = 4 stars. Not having to wait = 10 stars.

I should have trusted my intuition. If Carino’s is almost empty on Saturday night at 7:30 P.M. there has to be a reason. Indifferent waitress blamed the service on an extremely busy bartender (wait… didn’t I already say Carino’s was empty?) cold food and the managers were standing outside smoking cigarettes when we left. Ohh… and it was still empty when we left. Doubt we will be back. After all there is a Sonic around the corner and a Wendy’s across the loop.
Keep moving folks! There has to be a better chain restaurant close by.

Food is good… love there calamari… and there spicy shrimp and chicken… and there homemade pizzas…

When we walked in we were immediately sat, which was convenient. It then took our waiter 10 minutes to greet us and take our drink orders. We already had our appetizers and entrees selected when he returned with our drinks. We sat there for 35 minutes waiting on appetizers, which never came. We walked out after a 45 minute dining experience with no food served. The manager constantly looked flustered, the restaurant was half empty and there were empty plates on every table showing no signs of pre busing. Don’t waste your time, there are 5 restaurants in the same parking lot that will show a sense of urgency and give you the dining experience you need.

The service was crap, the mushrooms in my pasta were not cooked and tasted as if they were not washed (dirt) the whole dish was bland and tasted gross.

Well it smelled great. But we got up and left after sitting at out table for 10 minutes without anyone greeting us. At least 3 servers walked by us

We love Carinos. I’m not sure why this place gets knocked so much. The service is not very good but the food is excellent. We’ve had multiple dishes and they are all delicious. The bread is great and addicting.

Saturday evening visit — busy but not overwhelmed. Excellent food, very good service.
Food was hot & served quickly. Waiter was attentive. We had a group of 5 with separate checks and coupons — no sighing or rolling of the eyes. Great service and no errors on meals or checks. (unusual for our group)

My fiancé and I went to Carino’s and it was terrible. I can tell the waitress (i think her name is Jennifer) felt that she had better things to do than to wait on us. The food was bland. It doesnt take a rocket scientist to know that if you put salt in the water before boiling pasta that it will add flavor!
I ordered Shrimp Scampi. Again, flavorless. I added salt mulitple times to my dish, which i never usually do. My fiancé ordered spicy chicken and shrimp. He said it wasn’t spicy at all. I ordered a glass of wine, and when asked if I wanted another glass, when I said no thank you, the waitress scowled at me.
We wont be back…

After trying to pick up curbside to go here on two different trips I have realized that this Carino’s is so busy all of the time that they could give a crap about their to-​go customers. This time I placed my order, arrived 20 minutes later, then waited for 30 more minutes before I finally gave up and just went inside. Then I had to wait inside because it still wasn’t ready. Maybe if you eat inside the service is better, but I have given up on the curbside to go at this location.