Carrabba's Italian Grill in Plano, Texas

My husband loves Italian food! In fact, he wants it every Monday night. This has usually meant going to a small family place when we lived in a small town or going to the Olive Garden or Johnny Carino's in the city. An employee of my husband told him that there was this great place called Carrabba's Italian Grill near our home, so we thought we would try it out. First, this is not a family friendly restaurant. We had some horrified looks from couples when we walked in with a 3 year old and an infant, but our kids are very well behaved (in public). I understand lighting for a certain ambiance, but this place was just dark. I could barely see my food and under the lighting, or lack of, my chicken looked raw. We were seated almost immediately and then the waiting began. We waited almost ten minutes for our waiter to get our drink order and then another five minutes for our drinks. If this had been a weekend or peak dining hour, I would have understood, but we tend to eat at the beginning of the week before the dinner rush hours. Next, we looked over the menu. Typical Italian menu with a few signature dishes. Being allergic to bell pepper and having a slight reaction to tomatoes does put me at a disadvantage, but I'm used to that and don't hold it against the restaurant. I asked the waiter several questions about the food and what it was prepared with and he gave me a bit of an attitude. I explained my allergies and he said "oh, ok" and was nicer. Should it make a difference whether I despise bell peppers or whether they will bring about my untimely demise? Ok, a little dramatic. So, in the end, I was left with only a few options and ordered the chicken marsala with no soup or salad (I hate iceburg lettuce).
The food came after about 40 minutes, which the waiter said was because it was messed up and had to go back, a fact that would have been nice to know when it happened. So, he placed the food in front of me, and it was still wrong. He took mine back and I got it back when my husband was almost done with his meal (chicken fettucini alfredo). The portions were much smaller than what we are used to, but I know they were more in line with what our portions should look like, but I was HUNGRY! I don't know how the French do it. The food was pretty good.....well, it was decent. My mashed potatoes were about 45% large potato bits and as I wrote earlier, the lighting made me question the chicken. In the end, I don't think it's really fair to judge a place on one bad experience unless you get food poisoning or something because often it's whatever chef or waiter happens to be working that day. I wish that wasn't the case and there was more consistency. That being said though, we will not be returning to Carrabba's any time soon. It was $10-$15 per entree which is in line with most Italian, but with smaller portions and less options for a picky eater.