johnny carino's

i've been a returning customer of johnny carino's for the past 4 years. in addition to be a returning customer, i've also highly recommended johnny carino's to family, friends as well as celebrated many birthdays there; however, today at 12:00pm, 09/13/2016, i've received one of the worst managerial handled situations i've ever had not only at johnny carino's but also within corpus christi area. the individual, who stated he was kitchenmanagerdid not resolve the issue and chose to make it worse by remaining condescending during the entire conversation. it's very conducive for a business to train their staff well and understand how lunch specials works before any customer makes an order. i placed an order for the 2 for 1 special, which was gladly received by the waiter. while waiting for the food, the waiter came back and told me i'm not permitted to order the 2 for 1 special and take the second plate to go. it would have been fine being told this at first instead of minutes before my primary plate was being placed on the table. furthermore, if he would have provided me with the second plate to go and utilized this as an attempt to train his staff then it would have been handled as it should have been. however, due to his lacking in both managerial relations as well as customer relations, the customer is the one who loses? managers are the forefront of any business and in most cases managers seek to make a situation better than worse as he had chosen. for this, i've chosen to give johnny carinos 1 star and will publish this on facebook as well contact the chain.

-larry medrano

food and serve was very poor.  only 4 tables being waited on it was 2:30 pm. there was a door greeter, several waiters andmanagerroamed around.  however all four groups were seated in the same area with the same waitress.    it took food over 18 minutes to be served and then had no flavor.  waitress never refilled our drinks.  oh yea - we had to ask for bread.  then she asked if we wanted cheese and we said yes it took over 9 minutes to return and her reasoning was she was so busy.  while she walked back and forth giving customer their ck, and then refilling drinks and also providing to go boxes.  meanwhile we are waiting for cheese.  location is poorlymanagerand cooks need training on how to season italian foods.

not a good lunch day. we went back as we have had good food there in the past. lunch for me today was not good. just a heads up on ordering eggplant parmesan. my hubby had a skillet lunch which he said was wonderful. i got my eggplant dish and when i cut into it there was no eggplant in it. it was deep fried crust . i called the waitress over and she was very nice and called themanagerover. he looked at me and said i will get you another one. i said it was ok as i just wasn't hungry anymore as i had eaten half of it trying to find the eggplant. the waitress came over later and told her higher upmanagerwhat had happened. they took my lunch off the bill, which is what have been done in the first place. we just had to laugh after it was all over. we will go back as the waitress was so nice and she just didn't think the firstmanagerdid the right thing. wish there were more staff like her. she saved the day and we left happy.

service. food is good. one problem: they always want to seat you at the worst table whether crowded or not. they get angry when you ask to move. even had the generalmanagerargue with me on a sunday evening when there was no crowd.

this makes for an unpleasant experience.

i am convinced that there is a reason you don't try steaks from places that don't specialize in steaks. outside the sirloin there are now 2 steak options on the menu. i decided to try one of the new summer flavor items, the tuscan ribeye was medium on the outside as i like & well done full of fat throughout. now the seasoning was awesome in flavor. i opted for the combo skillitini instead of trying another steak


-----13 may, 2013-----

skillitini. jonny carino's skillitini combo is really good. you get a sizzling cast iron skillet of pasta with the choice of either chicken or sausage. i chose to get both. the only thing i didn’t care too much for was the big chunky slices of bell pepper and onion. i had to chop them down a bit. the cast iron skillet kept my pasta really hot. this visit was really good. the bartender was very nice


-----04 apr, 2013-----

3rd visit, not a charm, but horrible experience. i decide to use one of my gift certificates at johnnie carrino’s. to avoid problems i call my order in ordering chicken italian nachos i wait 15 minutes like the guy says whom took my order. no one came out to curbside. it’s now 22minutes passed and i had to be back to work shortly. i get out of my car, in which there is supposed to be someone at the door to deliver call in orders via curbside. the door is locked! i get back in my car and drive around to the front entrance and asked for a manger. i first ask her, how long does it take for a mini chicken italian nacho, she has me follow her to the curbside location, in which no one is attending too. themanagerthen said there is no order in the system for nachos and asked me how long ago did i order my nacho’s. i tell her by now it’s been almost 30 minutes. she apologizes and says they can make it really quick and for me to save my gift certificate.

but before that she says she has to verify that i actually called the right location and would need to see my phone. for one i found that offensive because really she was trying to imply that i was trying to get free food. i do not lie about my food and wouldn’t to get free food. i love food and don’t mind paying for food. in all actuality your establishment messed up horribly yet again. i tell the manger the reason why i stopped to get something to eat, was to use the gift certificates that were given to me because my order was screwed the last time i was in the visit. the time before that the food was cold. it was so cold in temperature that i had amanagerplace her hand directly on my pasta meal. her face was priceless because the food wasn’t even slightly warm. she offered to make me something else but i had 15 minutes to get back to work and i had a better chance stopping by mcdonalds to get some hot fast food.

but this is my third visit, surely jonnies can’t be this bad in food and service. back to themanagertoday april 4, 2013 asking me to verify, by going back to my car to get my phone to prove to her i actually did call. here is the thing if i would have been the same nationality or an elderly women, there is no way in hell thismanagerwould have asked me to show proof that i called in my order. if that were the case i could have just dialed the number and hung up, that didn’t prove anything. this is why i am offended. why not go find out which one of your staff members forgot to enter my order. as my battery had no bars on it, i prayed it would stay on to prove my point. i first let her see that before i called it in i got the phone number off urbanspoon.com where i am a prime top food blogger for oklahoma city. # 1 in 7 of the 9 categories. she then changes her reason for verifying to make sure i called the order into the right location and gave me this b.s. story of how people always get the southside and memorial numbers crossed. blank stare.... blink blink ...... lady please don’t try to fix your assumption of you thinking i was trying to get free food. i show her the time i called including the time, now showing 35 minutes since i called in my order. i get my free food didn’t even check it was, just trying to get my behind back to work.

i get to work and i have italian sausage and chicken nachos..... uhmm i don’t like italian meat sausage, i ordered chicken. the funny thing is they guy on the phone suggested combination and i remember saying no i want chicken. so why in the hell did my nachos have italian sausage. i don’t even eat italian sausage on pizza. ijs what if i didn’t eat pork. smh. i still have three gift certificates to johnnie carrino’s and i will not be back to use them, but i plan to give away.


-----13 mar, 2013-----

looked & sounded amazing! it.... chicken bowtie festival however the pasta was cold.the lunch menu didn't say this dish had bacon or tomatoes. i guess those ingredients meant festival. ijs what if i didn't eat pork, & surprise
bacon. that's something people should be aware of. jeez


-----31 jan, 2013-----

great management customer service. on january 11th amanagerwas supposed to be sending me some gift certificates for messing up my to go order. she said i would get them in a day or two. i had so forgot about them until on january 24, 2013, i had passed johnny carino's, so i called to talk to anothermanagerto inform them that i still had not received them. i talked to storemanagerdianne whom wrote an apology letter for the delay and to always give feedback to the restaurant because this was not their standard of service.

i did receive my gift certificate in the mail within a couple of days. so i will be going back soon.


-----11 jan, 2013-----

stale chips!. i go in to johnny carinos for their delicious italian chicken nachos with alfredo sauce peppers, black olives and tomatoes. my mouth was ready only to find the alfredo sauce was luke warm & my chips were stale as hell. highly upset! i call and talk with themanagerto inform her of this. themanageroffers for me to come back and they remake the order. she say's " i dont thing your chips were stale, but maybe not fried long enough because we cook our chips fresh daily". well regardless fact remains is that they were stale. i was on my lunch break very hungy so i ordered the large order, but was unable to eat due to the stale chips. two things i dont like people messing with my money and my food. in the end themanageragreed to send me some gift cards. i guess i will give them another try another day.

bad service and food was cold. we waited almost 20 mins after being seated to be greeted by our waitress and that was after we went and told the hostess. meal arrived in about 10 mins after ordering. the food was warm on the outside but cold on the insude. only ate about 1/3 of my meal before deciding it wasn't worth it. themanagerwas very apologetic and even took $20 off our meal, but i really doubt we'll back in a while. this was on sunday eve about 8:00 pm.