Sunday, June 14, 2015

Figo Pasta - Hammond Drive in Sandy Springs

Figo Pasta is located at 1140 Hammond Dr, Atlanta GA 30328 in the same shopping complex Uncle Julio's anchors, across from Sanford Brown College. This is a small, Italian restaurant where you order the pasta, sauce, meat and accompaniment at the counter and it's soon delivered to your table. I call this area Sandy Springs but I guess in reality it's the no-man's-land between Sandy Springs and Perimeter Mall.



I've had the food here on several occasions - I think the food is in general good but not exceptional - I do think the portions generous and the food very inexpensive. I can see this as a great restaurant for the lunch crowd - it;s a bit noisy for dinner. If you haven't been, it's basically a chain-restaurant version of Pasta Da Pulcinella - the concept is that you order at the counter by picking your pasta/sauce combination,  salad/antipasti, and drink, with each course delivered as they become ready. I went with the arugula salad (large was big enough to split) for $5, a whole-wheat fettuccine  with "Pollo sauce" - basically a spicy red sauce with pieces of chicken.






I believe the pasta was supposed to be fresh, however it didn't quite have that freshly made texture so it's questionable (may have been the gluten or the whole-wheat mix but it's hard to tell). The sauce was right on the money and at about $8 for the dish you can't go wrong (the price varies depending on the choice of pasta - $4 for the long stuff and $5 for ravioli). You may ask yourself how I know about pasta - I've cooked a lot of it in the various restaurants I've worked, however I REALLY learned about pasta working at Mi Spia (Park Place, now long gone - now that was an exceptional Italian restaurant). I'm rather fond of the lasagna here if they have it - not bad at all!






The restaurant has daily specials - they appear to be variations of the menu with perhaps a scratched sauce. The bread looked to be a lightly seasoned (salt) focaccia cut into strips and served in a basket with olive oil (on the table). When you order you're given a large peppermill, brightly painted to help identify you for the server/food runners. Figo also serves a limited selection of beers and wines - try the Peroni to enhance the mood (my preference is Moretti but I didn't see any in the cooler so I assumed they were out).



For dessert I've tried the tiramisu and the key lime pie. The tiramisu was the winner her - rich, appropriately espresso infused and very good. I wish someone could make a Key Lime pie like Indigo but I digress - this one was a bit tart and gritty (it'll satisfy but only just).

Service amounts to the person at the counter (super friendly) and a server to both run food and talk you into dessert - no complaints there.

-- John

(shorter review previously posted on Yelp in 2010)

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