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Sbarro at Market! Market!

There’s something about Sbarro that excited me as a grade schooler; back then, I looked forward to weekends when my dad would either take everyone out to one of four places: Shakey’s, Bacolod Chicken House, Sbarro, or El Pollo Loco. Any one of the said restaurants would have made my day, because I loved each for different reasons.

Spaghetti with meatballs.

And because I felt like there was some rekindling of flames necessary between me and this particular restaurant, I decided to have lunch at the nearest branch (Market! Market!). I couldn’t remember how their basic spaghetti tasted, so it was like a brand new experience for me ordering that again after so many years (the last few visits to Sbarro had been all pizza, nothing more).

As I expected, it wasn’t bad. Not bad, but not great either. I had mine with tomato sauce instead of meat sauce, and I opted for the basic garlic bread, which was average. And that about sums up the whole experience. It was pretty average. Thes sauce, the noodles, the bread, the presentation, and even the place itself: average.

Huge meatball, yo.

The meatballs (two of them), at least, I could say was a bit above average. Nothing too special, just a bit tastier than usual (in a good way).

Pizza.

I think Sbarro charged me just about as fair as they could charge for my meal (the spaghetti costed me 186 pesos for a whole plate). Despite the average experience, I still felt that I got my money’s worth there, given that it’s a fast food joint and all. Sbarro still has a special place in my list of places to eat, but then again, that’s more for the pizza rather than the pasta. By that, I don’t mean to ask you to stay away from their pasta. It’s just that their pizza’s that damned good.

For all this, I’m giving Sbarro’s Spaghetti with Meatballs a 7 out of 10 rating.

(The Spaghetti Journal is a two-week long hunt for the best good old spaghetti recipe at the Fort Bonifacio area and Eastwood City, where the author works and lives, respectively.)