Our last evening in Canton, MI brought us to Carrabba’s Italian Grill, conveniently located in our hotel parking lot (I do so love it when I don’t have to strain myself too much after a meal!) and while it is true that Carrabba’s is indeed a chain (and Chez tends to shun chains), it is also appropriate to note that Chez has done reviews of chains before… so the precedent does exist. On to the review!
We begin with what must be the most outstanding attribute of this particular establishment… namely the service. From the time we entered into this enterprise we were warmly welcome, made to feel at home and treated like an amalgamation of royalty and family. From our entrance and greeting by our hostess to our ‘adoption’ by the bartender (whom we later found out was the proprietor – Kim Janes, who mixes a mighty fine Dirty Martini, mind you) the ‘anticipation’ bar was set very high for the evening.
As already mentioned, Sheb once again chose the aforementioned martini, I went for the Vodka Tonic with lime and my daughter went for the Watermelon Martini. Sheb loved hers (I had no worries there), I found mine quite refreshing but Jenni thought that hers was a bit too sweet and way too ‘watermellon-esque’. Well, such is to be expected with frou-frou drinks. Stick to the old standards, is what I say.
Our dining started with the simple and the sublime. Carrabba's (well at least this Carrabba’s) has an excellent bread and oil herb dip. The bread, served warm, is a slightly dense white bread with a hard (but thin) crust. It a word, delicious! The herb mix with the oil was a great combination and while it was on the slightly salty side, the two complimented each other quite well.
Our appetizer course was the Antipasti Plate, composed of breaded and fried Calamari, Bruschette and Fried Mozzarella with Marinara. I found the calamari to be done quite well, with neither the excessive ‘breadiness’ nor the rubbery texture that I have been accustomed to. Great job on this one! The Fried Mozzarella was acceptable but I thought the marinara to be a bit bland… and as for the bruschette, well this one gets a big ‘thumbs down’, for it was far too oily for my tastes.
My dining partners then delved into the land of salads (a house salad for Sheb and a Caesar for Jenni) but I went forth and sampled the Tomato Basil Soup. The soup had a good tomato-tang, as I was expecting but what it didn’t have was that ‘basil punch’… in fact, I failed to note any basil at all, save a few flakes floating in the sea of red. In all, good… but not GREAT!
Main courses for us were composed of Spaghetti with Meat Sauce (Sheb), Lobster Ravioli (Jenni) and Baked Manicotti with a side of Italian Sausage (Chez). Sheb greatly enjoyed her dish and the rich, robust flavor of the dish was offset by the al dente of the pasta. If there were a negative (and I am not saying there was) it would be the lack of artistry in the presentation of the dish. Jenni’s choice of the Lobster Ravioli had both flavor as well as the aforementioned ‘missing artistry’ and was a joy to behold, both for the palette as well as the eye. You can’t go wrong with a creamy white wine sauce. The Baked Manicotti with Italian Sausage (my choice) was also flavorful but it too was missing a certain flair that would have garnered it more presentation-points on Iron Chef America. Suffice it to say that in the taste portion of this competition it scored very high and there were no left-overs.
As the dessert cart made its way to our table we asked ourselves, “Do we really need more?”
Well, as you might have guessed, the answer was in the affirmative!
For Jenni it was all about the Limóncello Bread Pudding; a baked Brioche bread pudding, topped with vanilla ice cream and drizzled with a Limóncello liqueur sauce. Jenni found it a bit too lemony and a bit too ‘boozy’ for her tastes. I can respect that point of view since Limóncello is an aperitif that one must tread softly with, since the line betwixed too much and not enough is a very thin one indeed and one should always err on the side of caution. In this case, the chef erred in the opposite direction and a lower rating was the result.
For Sheb and myself, we went with ‘the old standard’, Tiramisú. Having it presented to us freshly prepared and ‘homemade’ rather than recently thawed and store-bought was a most pleasant experience and the addition of dark rum rather than Marasla was an interesting albeit non-traditional presentation. Rather than the coffee/cocoa dusting, as is also traditional, Carrabba’s garnishes this dish with shavings of milk chocolate… which I at first scoffed at, but then came to enjoy.
The two criticisms of this dish (small ones that they are) would be that I did indeed miss that coffee-flavor and I wish it could have found its way into the dish more prominently. As for the chocolate… call me an elitist but I think that a very dark chocolate (70% cocoa) shaving rather than milk chocolate would have better served the dish.
In closing, the evening at Carrabba’s was a pleasing dining experience, made all the better by the personal touches provided by the staff. Our server (Emily) was engaging, interesting and personable, with a gift for conversation and an abundantly cheerful attitude. Emily, you are hereby forgiven for forgetting my lime!
So, would Chez go back? Most certainly!
As the dessert cart made its way to our table we asked ourselves, “Do we really need more?”Well, as you might have guessed, the answer was in the affirmative!
For Jenni it was all about the Limóncello Bread Pudding; a baked Brioche bread pudding, topped with vanilla ice cream and drizzled with a Limóncello liqueur sauce. Jenni found it a bit too lemony and a bit too ‘boozy’ for her tastes. I can respect that point of view since Limóncello is an aperitif that one must tread softly with, since the line betwixed too much and not enough is a very thin one indeed and one should always err on the side of caution. In this case, the chef erred in the opposite direction and a lower rating was the result.
For Sheb and myself, we went with ‘the old standard’, Tiramisú. Having it presented to us freshly prepared and ‘homemade’ rather than recently thawed and store-bought was a most pleasant experience and the addition of dark rum rather than Marasla was an interesting albeit non-traditional presentation. Rather than the coffee/cocoa dusting, as is also traditional, Carrabba’s garnishes this dish with shavings of milk chocolate… which I at first scoffed at, but then came to enjoy.The two criticisms of this dish (small ones that they are) would be that I did indeed miss that coffee-flavor and I wish it could have found its way into the dish more prominently. As for the chocolate… call me an elitist but I think that a very dark chocolate (70% cocoa) shaving rather than milk chocolate would have better served the dish.
In closing, the evening at Carrabba’s was a pleasing dining experience, made all the better by the personal touches provided by the staff. Our server (Emily) was engaging, interesting and personable, with a gift for conversation and an abundantly cheerful attitude. Emily, you are hereby forgiven for forgetting my lime!So, would Chez go back? Most certainly!
- Chez
