I know, I know. It’s a chain and we don’t like chains but any place that starts you off with a rustic Italian loaf and herbed olive oil can’t be all bad. Like a lot of big chains, Carraba’s gets by with B food coupled with A service and good pricing. Amore Mondays have a limited three course menu starting at 12.99. And B food isn’t bad food. It’s good enough for the price and there’s a lot of it and because of the way they are set up they try to get it to you as fast and hot as they possibly can. The small salt and pepper fried calamari I started with was actually very good.
The Caesar salad was nothing to write home about, but then it rarely is. Once when I was down in Orange Beach staying at the Perdido Beach Resort I had a Caesar at the high end restaurant there called Voyager and they served it with deep fried anchovies as croutons which was as delicious as it was innovative but that is a rare occurrence and no one can really make the salad at the table with raw eggs so almost every Caesar is going to be a B salad.
I went with the Weezie for the main course which is a real fettuccine Alfredo with plump shrimp and a few mushrooms and green onions. Filling, tasty, the shrimp were cooked just right. All it really lacked was that bit of jazz or inspiration that would raise it up that one notch. Not complaining. Chains are there to give you a consistently good, not great product with pro service and a good clean environment. Sometimes when you are out running errands or hiding from traffic or your schedule is just whacked out for some unforeseen reason it’s not a bad thing to come in out of the rain and catch lunch or dinner at a chain.
