Carrabba’s Italian Grill

We continue the journey to find terrific food and fabulous service on south side Indianapolis. Today our quest for an early dinner took us to Carrabba’s Southport where we enjoyed tasty food and sangria served by Shelby S (soon to be T). The house salads, Mezzaluna and Cavatappi Franco Chicken were well prepared and full of flavor. The highlight however was the service we received from Shelby who excelled in every component of making our meal experience great. The food is plentiful so Shelby packaged our leftovers (a true sign of quality service). Thank You for making our Saturday dinner so enjoyable!

One of my favorite places to load up on Carbs. It’s the best cheat date you can take yourself on. Your mouth and stomach will thank you for hours.
Question…one Carrabbas in the entire state of Indiana?!? Are you kidding me??? I’d give up 2 Applesbees, 3 Chilis, and all of the Qdobas for just one more Carrabbas…
I mean seriously folks!

The food, service, and atomsphere here are fantastic. It is a little pricier than your average chain restaurant. However, the portions are huge and they are always happy to split. We eat here for a quiet, relaxing meal several times per month.

I had pork chop and wife had the lobster ravioli. The salid were excellent and so was the coffee. My wife said it was the best ravioli she had ever had and my big chunk of meat was a carnivores delight. The wait staff was professional, attentive, and polite.

Really friendly and quick service. Food and wine were delicious. Had the salmon and it was cooked perfectly. Restaurant wasn’t very clean, the ceilings had some leaks and bathrooms weren’t great. Overall worth the experience

We were seated immediately, our server Jordan was very polite and attentive, and the food was fantastic and timely. Great experience, will definitely be back soon!

Consistently good. Not even sure how many times I’ve been here pr gotten take out. Which they offer curbside pick up. Don’t even have to get out of car.

I enjoy Carrabba’s and am glad this location is still open, as others have closed. Although pricey, the Pomegranate Martini is very, very good. Love the fresh bread served with dinner and also recommend the lobster ravioli.

Wonderful atmosphere, thoroughly enjoyed a late lunch of ravioli. Salad was perfectly served with olives on a chilled plate, awesome presentation. The red sauce is outstanding & so fresh tasting! The service was exemplary. This is the best Italian restaurant in the area!

I went to dinner at Carrabba’s one evening while traveling. I was seated in a little booth even though there were many seats open. I don’t know why restaurants do this but it is common in the industry. Come on guys, use some common sense, the little tables do not give enough rm to eat and read a newspaper.
I will start with the good. My server was a sweet person that paid attention to me, refilled my water glass and checked back a few times to see if I was alright. The bread was the was I like it, hot and crusty with a soft middle. I thought the olive oil was ok but needed better seasoning (roasted garlic perhaps). I had a glass of the economic chianti and it was very enjoyable.
Now the not so good. The calamari tasted like it was precooked and heated in the oil upon serving. This makes the texture of the squid very rubbery. The marinara was just ok. The chicken parmigiana consisted of a half a chicken breast (thin cut). This may be the reason it was so dry. The pasta was over cooked.
All in all, I would avoid the restaurant if you are looking for authentic Italian food but stop by for a glass of wine.

Ah Carrabba’s — a refreshing spin on Italian! There is tons of available parking at this location and the booth spaces are very private. Service has always been top notch with servers having a good knowledge base of the menu and can provide without being too invasive. The blackberry sangria is absolutely delicious and refreshing with chunks of fresh fruit in it. I recently tried the Wood roasted sirloin flatbread appetizer and was impressed with the flavors but wished there was more than a few chunks of steak on it. The caesar salad had anchovies in the dressing so the flavor is quite strong. I usually prefer a caesar but at this restaurant I go for the house salad with Parmesan dressing. The mezzaluna is yummy with chicken, spinach, and onion in a tomato cream sauce and also recommend their veal with roasted potatoes or the shrimp Alfredo. Good sized portions and decent prices make this a great alternative to your standard Olive Garden experience. Worth stopping in for a bite!

Nice late Sunday dinner with the Family. We got there at 8:30 and they close at 9:00 PM, so service was a little rushed.
Calamari, Mussels in white Wine Lemon Butter and shrimp diavolo appetizers where delicious. My wife thought the shrimp was a little salty. Caesar salad was good, but dressing was not quite authentic.
Excellent entrées were the SHRIMP & SCALLOP SPIEDINO, Veal Marsala and Chicken Trio.
The Banfi Classico Riserva Chianti was excellent, but I knew our waiter was in a hurry when he DUMPED the entire Quartino into my glass upon serving.
No dessert review since the kitchen was closed at when we finished at 9:40 PM. Waiter never asked about this before the kitchen closed.
Not sure why they are not open for lunch during the week!
Overall would return, but prefer Bravo!

Gotta love a $ 25 two-​year old gift card from grams and gramps that leads you to a business you wouldn’t typically choose on your own.
Here’s the quick run down:
–loved their spaghetti! No, seriously, they’re not stingy on the garlic. I like to leave Italian restaurants with a 5 mile cloud of garlic following me.
–they offer a whole wheat pasta substitute and menu items that are under 600 calories are noted with a green leaf
–they could lighten up on the Italian salad dressing — I like to taste my greens
–is that really olive oil that comes with the bread? Yikes. It tasted so «off» — the bread was great but the olive oil selection process could use some love
–excellent service and Wine Wednesdays offer deals on wine by the bottle

Had the spicy seafood Alfredo pasta, calamari, and Cesar salad. All was tasty, good food at a good price. Service was fine, drinks were kept filled. Nice place to eat Italian food. Was plenty of seats and no wait, lots of close parking.

Walked to Carraba’s from Fairfield Inn. Our waitress,
Meghann, was very attentive and even refigured our bill after we belatedly presented a $ 10.00 coupon. My husband is an amateur lasagna critic, and declared this lasagna as excellent. I had shrimp and scallops in a tomato vodka sauce. It was served hot and full of shrimp and scallops — very tasty.

It had awesome survice I tried my first salad there this place is the best I give this place 1 000 000 000 000 000 000 stars. My server was awesome He was super amazing

We went on Valentine’s Day so naturally the wait was long, but not as long as a few other places we tried. Once we were seated, our waitress was super friendly and didn’t seem overwhelmed even though they were very busy. Service was so quick. I was shocked. We had the calamari which was amazing. Our food was delicious and by bf’s steak was cooked perfectly! Overall an absolutely enjoyable experience once we sat down. The noise level wasn’t even loud even though they have an open kitchen and so many people. I will totally go back again.

Wasn’t impressed…
I had been wanting to go to Carrabba’s for a long time. When I finally went I was disappointed. It took forever to be seated on a Thursday when it wasn’t even crowded. The oil and bread was pretty good; different. I ordered spaghetti and meatballs. It tasted like the oregano had spilled in it during plating. It was just okay. I wanted tiramisu for dessert but they were out. Who runs out of dessert four hours before closing? Our waitress was great so I gave them 2 stars.

Yummy. Friendly staff. Excellent food. beautiful wines. If there is a problem they are always willing and ready to make it right.

Bread and oil/​pesto came first. It was pretty good. No bold flavors like Buca though.
The appetizer was just ok.
A little disappointing that a regular bruschetta is not on the menu anymore. We ordered a really tomato-​flavored-​sauce-​blended-​with-​melted-​cheese bruschetta. It came with 6 small slices of toasted bread. The toasted bread tasted good.
The house salad (included with my entrée price) was just lettuce and lots of carrots. It wasn’t much of a variety to eat and got boring after a few bites, however, they had balsamic dressing. So, I was a little satisfied.
The entrée came and that looked liked the star of the show! I ordered the baked ravioli land my boyfriend had lasagna. We were both pleased. The ravioli had a breaded, toasted texture which was different. It didn’t have any dry/​rubbery taste in my mouth.
Carrabbas provides a different pleasing ambience than what Olive Garden gives the customer, which is a compliment. We will be back — and it definitely tops Olive Garden and Carino’s.

Everyone was talking about how this is a chain… well, I personally love reviewing chains. Its the way that we know if there is consistent service/​etc while traveling…
I had never been to a Carrabba’s before last night. I probably never would have gone because the chain idea… and there are great chain Italian options nearby (Johnny Carino’s, Olive Garden, Bucca do Beppo’s, etc…). We got a gift card for Xmas.
The free bread they give is par. It was nothing special… you get to dip in olive oil with a couple spices… nothing to write home about.
We had the fire roasted bruschetta for our appetizer. We love bruschetta. This had such a different twist on a classic. I loved it! It looked like salsa, but had huge chunks of basil with a perfectly toasted slice of bread. Yum!
The entrée came with a soup or salad. My man got the salad and said it was good and had kalamata olives and lots of cheese. I got the minestrone soup. Again, they put a completely different twist to the soup. Its not at all what I was expecting… but it was great on a cold winter day. I could have stopped eating after the soup and been full…
Then came the entrees while I was already full. I had the tagrialini (sp?) noodles which were another new item for me. This was a delicious pillowy angel hair pasta with Picchi Pachui sauce (garlic, oil, tomato). It came with a ton of veggies.
All prices were so reasonable. $ 12 for my Donner, $ 8 for appetizer, $ 8 for a quartino of wine, $ 15 for the entrée with meat… and we have lunch today!
Total including tip for 2=$ 50

Like many, I’m not in the habit of reviewing chains, but I had a great meal at Carrabba’s this weekend!
The atmosphere is great and even on a busy Saturday night they move people with fast efficient service. I really liked the visual appeal of the dining room nad the lighting.
The free basket of bread is just ok. Most places have better bread, We had the calamari appetizer, which was great. The breading was so tasty I didn’t bother to dip in marinara.
The superstar of the night was sausage and lentil soup. This stuff was fantastic! Spicy Italian sausage, tender lentils, in a rich reduced broth with Italian seasonings. I think this is a fall seasonal item — not on the menu.
My meal was the johnny Combo — Sirloin Marsala and Chicken Bryan with garlic mashed potatoes. The steak was correctly cooked to medium with a marsala and mushroom sauce It was tender and tasty! The Chicken Bryan is a seasoned grilled chicken breast topped with fresh mozzarella, fresh basil, and sun dried tomato. Great flavor in everything and more mashed potatoes than most people would eat.
I was pleasantly surprised!

I am long overdue to review a sit down chain restaurant, and I would like to start off by saying Carrabba’s is a «decent» restaurant even though I am going to pick it apart. I am not directing this to Carrabba only, but more to all chain restaurants and I why I so despise them.
Before the food, I just want to say that Carrabba’s is a nice looking place both inside and out, and for the most part the service is average or above average.
I went in for their 3 entrees for $ 15.00. I had the Chicken Bryan, Lasagne and one other pasta dish. They start you off with bread and olive oil with a seasoning plate. I enjoy the bread and it is good for a starter. Second, you get a choice of salad. I always get the Italian salad which is just average, but is better than any of the other salad choices.
Here comes the entrée! It is on a huge plate even though over half the plate is empty space. The Chicken Bryan is my recommended dish for this place based on taste only. My big complaint is that the size of the chicken breast keeps getting smaller and smaller. If you’re a young lady watching her weight or a 7 year old kid, this might be the perfect size. The flavor is great with the goat cheese on top. On the regular menu, I believe one breast is $ 14.99 and two are $ 17.99 and this is way over priced for the portion size. The Lasagne is below average and I would avoid it. The last dish was a pasta dish with a spicy red sauce. This was bland and look terrible on the plate. The sauce was runny. I am sure every ounce on that plate was to specifications by this corporation. It looked very cookie cutter to me.
Here are the reasons I do not eat at this chain restaurant or any others more than a couple of times per year.
1. Where does your money go. First high end rent/​lease for the building. Multi million dollar advertising budget. The rest goes to Bloomin’ Brands. They pay their employees as little as possible and they put as little as possible into their food. This is all about getting you to spend as much as possible but giving you very little in return. If we ever want to have an America for everyone to live the American dream, we have to stop supporting these corporations that funnel all of our money to the wealthiest one percent.
2. There is not one person in the entire organization that cares about you as a customer. You are cattle to them. They want you to move through in a prescribe period of time, have an average check size and flip your table to the next cow (family) in line.
3. The quality of the food. Again this place is better than most chain restaurants. However, your food is product of focus groups and research. The goal is to make you happy but to give you as little as possible with no attention to quality, but at the same time charge you the maximum amount.
Why do so many people go to chain restaurants? The power of suggestion. Watching TV and the commercials that companies spend 100s of millions of dollars to get you to walk through that door. Fear of the mom and pop place. I can guarantee you that these chain restaurants are on the whole dirtier, more food sanitation issues, with cooks that are being underpaid and don’t care about their jobs versus a quality well run mom and pop place. Every time, I walk into these places and spend my hard earn money, I am feeding the cold corporate monsters that are ruining this great country. With that said, I will not eat at this place again, and I will miss the Chicken Bryan, but I have to vote with my wallet and my money needs to be spent on top notch local restaurants.
If you are bored of chain restaurants and think for yourself and are not manipulated by millions of dollars in TV commercials to make yourself believe you have to eat average to below average overpriced food at some chain restaurant, I am one of you. Let’s all keep supporting the true food scene in Indiana.

I like Carrabbas. It is hard for a franchise Italian place to make it with all of the nice little mom and pop places. Carrabbas does it by keeping it simple. The menu is a one page affair. The flip side being wine and beer. I like that. And it also allows them to make the limited number of items well… instead of a bunch of items mediocre.
I had the Johnny combo… Sirloin Marsala and Chicken Bryan. Both very flavorful and totally different. It was a good combo.
The sirlion was earthy and salty with the sauce, ham, and mushrooms. Really good.
The chicken was also very bold… with earthy sun-​dried tomatoes and tangy goat cheese… all brought together with a little herb butter.
There are some decent wines at about $ 10 and under for a glass. Not the cheapest place for wine… but not the most pricey either.
Our group of eight had great service.