Prezzo La Famiglia Challenge

I love Italian food, we visited the new Prezzo in Telford recently and were disappointed with the service. When I saw that Britmums were part of the #PrezzoLaFamiglia Challenge with Prezzo restaurants I jumped at the chance to be part of it and give Prezzo, Telford another chance.

Prezzo have a novel and affordable idea for eating out with the family – that is the new La Famiglia sharing dish which Prezzo say ‘depending on how hungry you are, can serve up to 4.’ You can choose one of four flavours: 
Penne Arrabiata - Crushed chillies, parsley and garlic in a pomodoro sauce. 
Spaghetti Bolognese - Traditional slow cooked beef ragù. 
Spaghetti Carbonara - Pancetta in a carbonara sauce with crispy prosciutto and parsley. 
Penne Alla Rusticana - Seasoned chicken, pancetta, peppers and rosemary in a creamy pomodoro sauce.

When you walk past Prezzo and look inside, it is very modern and minimalist inside, very smart however I have never thought of it as a family restaurant.  It always looks quite quiet and civilised, not that children can’t be quiet and civilised (I like to be able to take Macy to nice restaurants but not all parents share the same values!) but not necessarily where I would think of as being a family restaurant.  However, we were pleasantly surprised when we were welcomed in and Macy was given some colouring crayons and a colouring sheet to keep her entertained.  We decided to go for the Spaghetti Bolognese, however asked them to swap the spaghetti for penne pasta as we thought that sharing spaghetti could get a little messy! 

We ordered two portions of large garlic pizza bread with balsamic onions and mozzarella to go with our pasta.  I do think though that aiming this at a family there isn't an awful lot of choice for toppings - spag bol is a bit ordinary, the arrabiata has chillies in it so would be too spicy for my daughter and then none of us are keen on creamy sauces!  Lol, perhaps we are too fussy but I would have liked to have seen a pesto type sauce that would be a veggie option too.

I love the idea of having food in the centre of the table and all of us dipping in and sharing.  It also takes away the nagging at the children to finish their food before they can have dessert!  Macy can sit and eat her food really well or sometimes we have to go on and on at her to eat up!  Though it is also stressful when you have someone like my hubby who seems to inhale food and you are trying to get your fair share too, however I think this encouraged Macy to eat as she didn’t want daddy eating it all.  It was a fun way of sharing food.  I don’t know about having ‘no stress picking from the menu’ as we all like fairly different things so I think it’s more stressful arguing over what we all were going to compromise on. 

We were treated to dessert which was 2 scoops of gelato, ice cream or sorbet.  I am not a big ice cream fan to be quite honest, I usually ask them to leave it off when I have a dessert.  There is a choice of chocolate and sea salt gelato; vanilla, strawberry or chocolate ice cream; melon and lime or blood orange sorbet.  I thought there might be some more exciting flavours of gelato like honeycomb or caramel.  I ended up going for the blood orange sorbet and the chocolate, Macy had the sorbet and strawberry.  The chocolate and the orange went really nicely together, I actually really enjoyed it, Macy's strawberry had lovely chunks of fruit in too.

It was an enjoyable family night and the service this time was great, the food was really tasty and we felt closer when sharing the food.  Instead of sitting and eating our own dishes I did feel like we came together more so.  I also think of my niece who can never decide what to have and suffers from serious food envy - this would be ideal for her!

This post is an entry for the #PrezzoLaFamiglia Challenge, sponsored by Prezzo. https://www.prezzorestaurants.co.uk/LaFamiglia/

I have not been paid for this post, however I received vouchers for a free meal in order to review. I have editorial control and retain full editorial integrity.