pop-we Dinner Club Reviews Carrabba's Italian Grill

Looking for a little piece of Sicily? This month population-we™ Dinner Club foodie Kris picked Carrabba’s Italian Grill. Carrabba’s was founded in Houston, later acquired by Outback Steakhouse in 1995. There are currently more than 200 Carrabba locations nationwide. In the U.S., you can find a location near you or check out their menu at http://www.carrabbas.com/our-menu/.

Shrubs greet you at Carrabba's.

We went to the Omaha, NE location, 14520 West Maple Road. When you arrive at the location the front roof of the building is covered with shrubs and other greenery. We recently had a snowfall, so on this night, the shrubs looked like a holiday card. You walk inside there is a bar area to the left, which is lit with holiday lights; off to the right is the dim lit restaurant area decorated in a Tuscan style. Along the west wall is an open kitchen in which you can sit and watch the chef and cooks prepare each dish in Carrabba’s signature exhibition-style kitchen.

This night we had 11 in our party, they pushed two tables together but it was a little cramped for the number of people. This was the best they could do; since, Carrabba’s gets extremely busy especially on the weekends.

Worth noting, they have the best bread and olive oil spice appetizer. Free with every meal, it includes Carrabba’s herb mixture, olive oil and warm bread served at each table. The popularity of this dip could not go unnoticed when we uncovered our herb mixture was almost gone. For my main meal, I decided to have the Chicken Marsala with garlic mashed potatoes. The dish was very good; the chicken was tender, the marsala sauce with mushrooms was excellent. Other foodies commented: “Very good, great menu and the desert was good sized,” and another said, “the sirloin was great.”

After compiling the surveys from the other foodies the pop-we Dinner Club gives Carrabba’s Italian Grill: 4.03 star average on a scale of 1-5.

Atmosphere/Decor – 4.18

Cleanliness – 4.09

Wait Staff – 4.27

Menu – 4.09

Food Presentation – 4.27

Food Portions – 4.18

Food Taste – 4.45

Cost (was the cost worth meal?) – 3.73

Noise Level – 3

Overall Experience – 4

Fellow population-we™ readers, if you've been to the Carrabba’s Italian Grill leave us a comment and tell us what you thought?

Want to do this yourself? To review how to start your own dinner club, visit our January post about doing just that. Remember it is a template; tweak it to fit you and your friends’ tastes. pop-we Dinner Club: good food…good friends…good times.

-population-we™ blog post by Brian Brown
© 2011 population-we, LLC 
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