Carrabba's
 

One of our favorites in TV has always been Carrabba's. Since 2005 both the food and service there have been consistently good. Our only disappointment came this past Tuesday. We had a Carrabba's coupon for a free calamari appetizer which we gave the server initially. When we got the bill I noticed a charge for the calamari and called it to the attention of our server. Her response was somewhat cryptic, "I took the calamari off but I didn't print the check." Twenty seconds later she comes back with the adjusted check. My first thought, well it's an honest mistake but her comment didn't make any sense to us and didn't appear sincere. I suspect she had already printed both bills but decided to give us the higher one. Where there's a discount involved, I believe it's their standard practice to give you both the original and the adjusted bill so you can see the discount and of course base the tip on the original bill amount. My guess, she was going to turn in the lesser bill with her receipts for the night. Am I overanalyzing this incident or is this a scam by a server to pad the bill for herself? If she had said, "I'm sorry, I forgot about your coupon," it would have made more sense. An accountant once commented to me that "many employees will find some creative way to steal from a business. You just hope it's not too much!" No, I did not call the manger over. If it's a pattern, I'm sure someone else here on TOTV will share a similar story.

About a year ago we had a coupon for Carraba's and went for our anniversary. My spouse saw that the server (a guy) hadn't taken the amount off from our bill and went to "adjust" it. He'd put it on our credit card for payment....and always checks our accounts online. When he did that the original amount was charged on the card so he called Carraba's and got an adjustment. Mmmmm....now it sounds like something "hinky" could be going on. Didn't give it much thought until seeing the post here! NOW what does one do???? (other than not go back there?)

Went to one here in NY last year, both my wife and I got real sick late that nite, called the next day and asked what they intend to do about it.

They said if we paid by credit card we would work out a dinner, but if you paid by cash without any proof we were there they couldn't do anything.

Never again

If you suspect food poisoning, call the Health Department!

???

How could you prove it wasn't a virus you picked up somewhere else? I would think it was a fluke.

All these deep dark conspiracies and retaliations for what I would not think twice about.

WHAT is wrong with me?

If you've ever had food poisioning, you'd remember the experience. It's nothing like a virus. And if you both experienced it with 6-12 hours of your last meal, and the only recent meal together was the night before...

I seriously doubt Carrabba's management would offer a discount coupon and then conspire to beat the customer. Both honest (and dishonest) mistakes happen every day. It's a really good person who believes that all mistakes were honest ones.

Jimbo,

I have had mild food poisoning from a McDonald's, a Red Lobster, and a Ruby Tuesday. Not pleasant, of course, but the call the restaurant and say "what are you going to do about it"? I believe if you had gone to a hospital and gotten abolute written proof you had food poisoning, the restaurant and city/county health department would be notified by the hospital or even by you.

Did you honestly think that a restaurant would offer you comped meals because you told them you got food poisoning from them? Secondly, why would you want another meal - free or not - from a restaurant that gave you food poisoning?

At restaurants, you always take a chance on food poisoning because you do not know the kitchen conditions nor the bathroom habits of the kitchen staff. With the hundreds of times I have had restaurant or fast food meals, I consider the very few times I have had mild food poisoning to be par for the course. Just a normal risk of living.

My wife and I went to a local place in the TV area and both of us had a reaction to the food. We just crossed it off of our places to eat list.

What local place was it???

Maybe what she was meaning was that she'd done something, outside of their computer system (perhaps manually - writing it down on her order pad or something) to note that she should take the calamari off.......but another person was the one who actually printed the ticket/check out from the system.

Just a thought!

Bill :)

My original comment here was more casual conversation than an indictment of the server. Of course it could have been an honest oversight and in light of the fact that others have not reported similar incidents, has convinced me that it was. But until you get feedback (or lack there of) you don't know. Someone mentioned in another thread that we tend to be jaded from our life experience. That people from either coast tend to think and behave differently than people from mid-America. Having said that, let's let this thread die.

George

gryyoung: Your spot on. There is a difference between the stomach flu and food poisioning. Getting proof from medical people is sound advice because the restaurant won't admit fault so you will need proof. Unless you can find other people who also were sick.

We had a retirement party for a worker some years back. At least half of the people some 150 who attended got sick. the culprit was something in the soup. We were all insurance people so the restaurant owner about had a heart attack. No one filed a claim....why because we deal with this situation all the time and understand the deciding factor is the restaturant's reputation. in this case the restaturant had an impeccable record and one bad night vis a vis a poorly run restaturant.

If I posted it, I would get tons of responses about how good the place is with an offsetting ton of postings about how bad it was so I did not post the name.

I will PM it to you.

Z