Gigi’s Pasta and Pizza

Posted on Oct 27 in Dine In, Take Outby Akbar-BarPrint

Everybody loves Italian food. Me, you, your mother, your mother’s mother (well maybe not her), but the point is clear: Italian food is good stuff. With that said, one day after Jumu’ah we went to a nice little Halal Italian American restaurant in Massapequa, Long Island, NY called “Gigi’s Pasta and Pizza”.

The place looks like any ordinary fast food/ sit down restaurant from the outside. The good thing about Gigi’s is that if you want to sit down and eat, they have a section for that and it looks good too. There’s paintings of Italian scenery and and there are fake plant vines to help give off a feel of Italy in the restaurant.

Now to the food. As soon as we sat down we were greeted by the waiter and a complementary plate of garlic knots with marinara sauce. The garlic flavor was strong, but not too overpowering. It really tasted homemade and not processed. The marinara sauce was sweet and warm which complemented the knots perfectly. Once you eat the knots, your expectations of the food will sky rocket.

We ordered and tasted buffalo chicken wings with blue cheese salad dressing (Is that even Italian?), cheese steak sandwich (again: Italian?) and a meatball parmigiana sandwich (Finally!).

Without a doubt the best dish were the chicken wings. The wings by themselves were really tangy and the blue cheese helped enhance the flavor of it all. It was so good we ordered it twice!

The meatball parmigiana and the cheese steak sandwiches were very simple, with the parmigiana having meatball, tomato sauce, and mozzarella cheese, and the cheese steak having different chopped vegetables with mozzarella cheese. Even though these sandwiches were the usual fare, they were unique in size: The sandwiches were humongous at 18 inches long for just $7.50-$10.00 (Up yours Subway!). They tasted exactly like they should. No complaints at all. Really good sandwiches, especially the cheese steak.

Other than the sandwiches, they also have some flavorful pasta dishes. We had the Chicken Milanese which is breaded chicken with lemon butter sauce that came with our choice of pasta, it was very flavorful and delicious as well. The Chicken Parmigiana is good as any other Italian restaurant, but I recommend getting it on a sandwich rather than the pasta because its cheaper and when bread soaks up the sauce and the mozzarella cheese pulls with each bite of the sandwich, its just amazing to say the least.

Overall, if you’re a fan of Italian and American food, you should definitely check this place out. Great food, Great service, and with a little bit of imagination, you might actually think you’re in Italy (or not).

Pictures

Recommendations

• Buffalo Chicken Wings & Jalapeno Poppers
• The18 (eighteen!) inch Meatball sandwiches
• Chicken Milanese or Chicken Parm

Rating

• Food: 4.5 - Very good food, not just Italian, but American food as well. Flavorful food, extensive menu and all sorts of options
• Value: 4.0 – While the food was very good, the prices were just OK. Not great, not bad, but definitely worth the money. If 2 people get an appetizer and a large sandwich, it will run about $18, so make sure you order what you can eat!!
• Service: 4.5 – Fast turnaround when ordering. Complimentary garlic knots. Friendly staff, what’s there not to like?
• Lota-Pani: 4.5 -Very clean restaurant. No signs of any anomalies.
• Decor: 4.0 – The place looks good inside and out for a take out/ sit down restaurant. The separate section for eating in makes you think you aren’t at a fast food place at all.

Overall

Halal Rating

• Verified Fully Halal
• Ham on menu is Turkey Ham
• Vodka sauce has no alcohol

Location

4308 Merrick Road, Massapequa, NY 11758-6019

Contact

Phone: (516) 799-7060

4 Comments

• Omar Malik says:

  October 29, 2009 at 7:20 am

  Good review bro. Makes me want some Italian really bad. Some pointers though, maybe you could talk about some…negative points, keeps the review balanced. Over all though, good job and you’re taking me here next time I’m in town haha.
• Akbar-Bar says:

  October 29, 2009 at 1:44 pm

  Hey buddy! Thanks for the pointers man, but why complain when their isn’t anything to complain about!
  The only issue would be the distance to the place, since its a bit far for me & the other location in East Meadow isn’t as nice for dinning in as this!
• Samina says:

  September 16, 2010 at 4:20 pm

  does anyone know the website of this resturant…or does it have one?
• ShanMasala says:

  September 22, 2010 at 11:10 am

  no they dont

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