Thank you to Papa Gino's Inc. for providing a complimentary product sample for us to base this review upon and for providing a free product coupon for our contest prize. All opinions expressed are my own.
I make no secret of the fact that our family is a busy one. There are evenings when my husband is running late coming home from work and I am buried in deadlines or I am with my children at taekwondo class past six o'clock. Those are the nights when my husband and I settle for what we thought was the quickest and easiest option . . . having him go to a drive-thru on his way home. Well, it turns out that there is a better option that is equally as quick and easy, but allows us to serve our family a real family dinner.
Papa Gino's has been offering pasta for quite some time, but did you know that they offer Pasta Family Meals? These meals come with enough pasta of your choice, salad, and breadsticks to feed the whole family. Pasta Family Meals come in a small size, which feeds 4 to 6 people, and a large size, which serves 8 to 12 people.
My favorite way to order from Papa Gino's is online. I can place my order, tell them when my husband will be arriving to pick it up or ask for the food to be delivered, and I can either pay for it online or have my husband pay when he picks up the order.
For the Pasta Family Meals, you can choose one of the 11 types of pasta dishes, a garden or Caesar salad, and one of several kinds of salad dressings. You can even add chicken to your salad for just a few dollars extra. The meal also comes with Papa Gino's Cheese Breadsticks. The restaurant provided more than enough salad dressing, serving utensils, and even offered to provide plates and cutlery. Since we were eating at home, we just used our own dishes and utensils.
We opted for the penne and meatballs. My husband was in awe of how much pasta and meatballs there were. I felt the same way when I saw the salad.
I am unsure whether the meal comes with Parmesan cheese. It was not offered to us and my husband did not ask for it since he knew we had some at home. If grated Parmesan is not included, then I would say that is the one thing that is missing from the Pasta Family Meals. We must remember to ask next time.
Out of everything, our children were most excited about the cheese breadsticks and the enormous amount of croutons included with the meal.
The Caesar Salad already had shredded cheese on it, so all we had to do was add the croutons and salad dressing.
Our family of five stuffed ourselves and we still had about a fifth of the pasta and meatballs left and just slightly less than half the salad. The ten breadsticks didn't stand a chance. Our children were so stuffed that they did not even ask for dessert.
While we were cleaning up after dinner, my husband and I agreed that this meal was a very good value. The Small Pasta Family Meal costs $29.99. For the five of us, we spend almost that much going through a fast food drive-thru. We definitely spend more than that with just about any other kind of takeout. Next time, we want to try the new Sweet Sausage & Roasted Red Pepper Pasta!
Papa Gino's would like you to try a Pasta Family Meal for yourself with your own family and has made available the printable Papa Gino's $5 off a Pasta Family Meal coupon below. This coupon is valid through 6/30/13.
TO PRINT: Make sure your computer's printer is on and ready to print. Click on the coupon to enlarge. Then right-click on the image and select print. Use your browser's back arrow to return to this page.
Good luck in the drawing!
