Date night is always fun, but can be a challenge to find somewhere to eat when nobody is quite sure what they’re in the mood for. Such was the case the other night as my boyfriend and I asked each other “whatchu wanna eat?” and replied “I dunno, whatchu wanna eat?”
We finally decided we were in the mood for some Italian food and settled on giving Carrabba’s Italian Grill a try and headed to the location at 4821 Capital Blvd in Raleigh. As is to be expected on a Saturday night at any restaurant, there was an hour long wait. We were starving and decided to give the bar a try. We lucked out and found two seats immediately and got great personal attention from the two bartenders working that night.
He tried a glass of red wine and I opted for a blackberry sangria in a quartino (about a glass and a half). We were served fresh bread with olive oil and a mix of herbs and we also ordered the bacon and caramelized onion flat-bread appetizer. It came out pretty quickly which we appreciated. The flavor, however, wasn’t that great and we probably would not order this particular appetizer again.
For dinner, we ordered pasta Carrabba (fettuccini Alfredo with grilled chicken, mushrooms and peas) and the Manicotti (red sauce with a requested side of Alfredo sauce to add in). For our sides, we ordered a side salad and a soup (Italian Wedding soup). The food was absolutely delicious.
I’m a huge fan of sangria and I have to say that the blackberry sangria here is probably the absolute best sangria I’ve had in the Raleigh area.
In all, our experience here was really great. Our food was served quickly and was hot and fresh and tasted great. Like I said, we’d skip the particular flat-bread that we ordered the first time but would be open to trying another flavor in the future.
We enjoyed the ‘personal’ service at the bar and appreciated how quick the staff was to take our order, bring us our food, and keep our drinks refilled. The bar did get a little busy as the night went on but for us, it was a far better experience than we think we may have had on the busy dining floor.
We can’t wait to go back to Carrabba’s and I am hearing that there’s a drink special on Wednesdays for $10 off a pitcher of sangria. I’m in!
