I love eating out - good food with no dishes to clean up. Last night we headed up to Henrietta and decided to check out Carrabbas. It has been there a couple of years now so it was time to see if it had potential to be a new favorite.
We usually try to arrive for supper at Henrietta restaurants before the rush so we can be seated in a reasonable amount of time. Pulled in about 5:45, walked in and was seated immediately. But in a short time we notices all the tables were full and the waiting area was filling up. So the timing worked for us.
We ordered fresh brewed teas and mozzarella sticks. Safe orders in a new place. The teas were perfect - just right on ice and flavor. With the teas they brought a basket of still warm bread and pours olive oil over fresh herbs. Jan loved to dip the bread in the oil, I just loved the bread, which was soft in the center while the crust was both chewy and crunchy. The mozzarella sticks came quickly and were obvious not the standard sticks usually seen in restaurants. They were thicker, had a nice mixture of italian spices in the breading. It was the marinara sauce that made this appetizer as it was obviously freshly made and we both thought is was divine. We would definate order them again.
Our entrees came with salads, I had ordered the house salad and Jan ordered a ceasar salad. The house salad was lettuce, two greek olives and carrot "coins" dressed with a heavy hand of creamy parmesan dressing (I prefer a lighter portion of dressing, so will order it on the side next time). Jan reports that the cearsar salad was perfect. Both salads were huge and we ate about half so we would have room for our entrees.
I ordered the shrimp mushroom alfredo dish and Jan ordered a chicken and spinach cannaloni. The cannaloni arrived with a surpise tomato based sauce but Jan reports that the dish was good but a little light on the chicken. Over all she rated the dish high. My entree was over-powered by the garlic that was added to it. The pasta and alfredo sauce tasted more home-made than pre-prepared and were both good but after a few bites the large, abundant, coarse chopped, uncooked garlic overwhelmed the taste and eventually became too much for me to continue. The six pieces of sauted shrimp were excellant, as was the mushrooms but eventually the garlic prevented me from eating most of the mushrooms and the pasta.
Overall the meal was good and we would go back. I would not order the alfredo again unless they would promise to make it using a very light and delicate hand with the garlic. I am not big on after dinner mints, but I picked one up as we headed out the door and was glad I was with a friend instead of a date.
