Respect The Pasta Challenge One: Respect the Cook

As you may remember, we have been asked by ASK Italian to take part in their Respect The Pasta blogger challenges which we are incredibly excited about!

Challenge One is called 'Respect the Cook' and was a very nice challenge to ease us into it as it involved treating ourselves to a meal at our local ASK Italian. As our meal coincided with Mothers Day it really made it a special occasion.

We visited ASK Italian in Tunbridge Wells. I hadn't been there for years and my previous experience had been unremarkable, but I was in for a nice surprise.

The first thing that struck me was the decor had all been updated. It had a funky fresh feel with a retro twist. I was very happy when we were led to a circular table as I think that circular tables really have the advantage when eating out as it makes for easier conversation with all your companions. I made a mental note that there were a fair few circular tables so it would be a great place to visit with friends too.

The menu has been updated since we last visited too. It was pretty tough choosing as so many of the options sounded amazing.

Daddy struggles to choose from all the enticing options

Service was super with very warm smiles and nothing was too much trouble. The Respect The Pasta theme carried all through the restaurant with the signage, the menus and even the uniform.

The children had their own menu to choose from which also doubled up for colouring and activities, with a picture to colour and a wordsearch on it.

We chose a selection of starters to share which included Garlic bread with mozarella which impressively arrived looking the size of a large pizza. A pizza cutter was provided so we could slice it up as we wished. We also chose Sicilian Arancini. Arancini are little risotto balls (literally meaning 'little oranges' in italian because of how they look) and as we'd recently picked some up at the supermarket and loved them, they caught our eye on the menu. And they didn't disappoint!

The Stuzzichini was a small platter of Italian goodies. It included pecorino cheese (which I love!), some salami, noceralla olives (another of our favourites as they are really fresh tasting bright green olives and we get very excited whenever we find these in store or at a restaurant), and some warm crostini dipped in tomato sauce.

For our main course, Daddy made an excellent choice that I was totally envious of. He chose the Tagliatelle con Funghi Misti from the 'Pasta Fresca' part of the menu. The fresh egg pasta was truly superb and a perfect combination with the selection of mushrooms it contained in it.

I chose the Penne al Pollo dela Casa in the 'from the oven' section of the pasta menu. This is one of my favourite dishes and I regularly choose it when eating out. The last time I had it (not at ASK Italian, I hasten to add) I had been sorely disappointed but I am delighted to say that ASK Italian have got this dish nailed to perfection.

With great quality chicken, perfectly baked pasta, and just the right amount of sauce and cheese on the dish it was fantastic. It even came with a little side salad.

Penne al Pollo dela Casa

The children chose the Spaghetti Carbonara from the Kids Menu which they thoroughly enjoyed.

Portion sizes for all the dishes were generous and we all felt full after eating our main course. But we have a little family saying which goes like this 'there is always room for dessert!'. So J had a gelati and D had the Strawberry Meringue Stack, which were included in the price of their kids menu, and mum and dad shared the Chocolate Sharing Board - yum!

The boys have recently really got into card games and carry a pack of cards with them everywhere - so this is our way of saying that our meal was Ace!

If you want to see the menus for yourself, you can find them on the ASK Italian website here.

And as the message from ASK Italian is all about Respecting the Pasta, D wore his smart jacket for his Pasta meal at ASK Italian to show his respect for the pasta, so we thought we'd let him have the final word:

Disclosure: We received a voucher to pay for our meal at ASK Italian. All opinions are our own. Stay tuned to see how we get on with our other challenges over the coming weeks!