It was a rainy Bank Holiday Monday, and the sort of day you don’t want to venture too far outdoors. Thanks to BritMums we had a voucher to try out the new La Famiglia offering at Prezzo. We headed to the Banstead branch to give it a go.
La Famiglia is a giant bowl of pasta which you share. Imagine it, a bowl in the middle of the table and some quality family time. There are four different varieties to choose from, with alternatives available. We drove to Prezzo in Banstead to give it a try – after all, who wants to cook on a Bank Holiday Monday?
We settled at our table – it was light and airy and a nice place to sit. Lots of natural light thanks to the roof. Prezzo was full but not too busy and our server came over a lot to check everything was okay. H had a kids menu which had plenty of activities to keep her amused.
The La Famiglia meal involves sharing a large bowl of pasta. The choices are Penne Arrabiata, Spaghetti Bolognese, Spaghetti Carbonara or Penne Alla Rusticana. I’m vegetarian, so the Penne Arrabiata was our choice. H and Shaun cursed me for not eating meat anyway as all the options looked pretty good.
We ordered starters, two garlic breads. They were quite small – though with two it meant we had two slices each. They tasted good and quickly disappeared. In future we’ll go for the Large Garlic Pizza bread as that looked bigger and didn’t cost that much more.
For drinks we ordered two Diet Cokes and a bottle of Fanta and had water after that.
We spent about two hours in Prezzo. We had a long wait between courses which was fine as we were in no hurry, so it was nice to talk to each other while waiting. H enjoyed doing all the puzzles on both sides of her kids menu too.
When the La Famiglia meal arrived it was hu-ge!
Unfortunately the Penne Arrabiata was too spicy for H. Our server brought some cream to mix in and cool it down. Unfortunately it was still too spicy so H was given a fresh batch of pasta with some sweet tomato sauce. That went well and she devoured it in minutes! They were quick at bringing it over which we were grateful for. It can be ordered with a different sauce – indeed, the dishes can be customised for various dietary needs.
The La Famiglia bowl of pasta has enough for four people. We had waited over half an hour after the garlic bread starter, so were pretty hungry. We also ordered a side salad to go with it as the pasta sauce didn’t contain any vegetables. The cucumber was handy when H got grumpy about the spiciness!
I found the pasta to be a good amount, and because we had waited so long it went quickly as we were hungry.
We waited for another half an hour and our server took our dessert order – two scoops of ice cream. I went for two scoops of chocolate and sea salt gelato. Shaun had one of blood orange sorbet and a chocolate and sea salt gelato, and H had two of chocolate ice cream. Ice Cream is always a winner, and this was no different – we scoffed the lot.
Even though we spent a long time in Prezzo (two hours and ten minutes), it was a pleasant place to be. There was enough space between us and the people around us, so we didn’t feel cramped. H enjoyed sharing the pasta with us and did do so well, she really tried to eat the pasta. We enjoyed sitting around the table with the food in the middle rather than our own individual dishes. I enjoyed serving the food as we don’t get to do that at home.
This post is an entry for the BritMums #PrezzoLaFamiglia Challenge, sponsored by Prezzo. We were provided with a voucher which entitled us to drinks, a garlic bread starter, the La Famiglia pasta dish plus ice cream. We paid for the extras ourselves.