Mirko Pasta is a small regional chain that serves budget priced Italian food. We finally made our way up to the Buford, GA location to try out their gluten-free offerings. There is no gluten-free menu, but they offer gluten-free penne pasta and all of their sauces are gluten-free as well.
We arrived at the restaurant for an early dinner as we always try to do when visiting a new place. Until you try a place out, there is no way to know what level of gluten-free service they offer. Ordering during peak hours somewhere you’ve never been before is not the best idea so I avoid doing it when possible.
Our server was knowledgeable about the gluten-free options on the menu, but did have to double check the dressings for me. Since there is no gluten-free menu, I had to ask all the usual questions and mention that my pasta had to be cooked in clean water. Making assumptions about what the staff members know about gluten-free service is one of the best ways to get sick when dining out.
We ordered two half salads – the Caesar (sans croutons) and the baby spinach. The Caesar salad was very good though the dressing wasn’t stellar. The cheese on the salad was some of the best I’ve had in Atlanta. I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of the almost buttery tasting Parmesan cheese. The spinach salad was absolutely incredible. The quality of the goat cheese was stellar and the golden raisins were a surprising, yet wonderful, addition to the salad. My husband and I agreed that the walnut honey balsamic vinaigrette on the spinach salad was simply divine!
For my entrée, I ordered the gluten-free pasta with carbonara sauce. When the dish was served I knew I’d have left overs because it was a very generous portion. The cream sauce with egg and pancetta was very good and was in fact, the first gluten-free version of the sauce I’ve had. I’m not sure I’d order it again because other sauces look worth trying, but the dish overall was quite tasty.
My only complaint was that some of the pasta was stuck together and as you can imagine, it was not cooked thoroughly. I usually mention that I want the pasta to be very done because very few gluten-free pastas can be prepared al dente. There is done or not done – no in-between. I didn’t mention this to our helpful server, but I will on future visits. The Heartland Pasta the restaurant uses needs to be stirred when cooking or it sticks pretty badly like some of what I was served did. Please note that that brand of pasta is made in a shared facility that processes wheat.
I ended up eating over half my meal (pushing the not cooked enough pasta pieces aside) and took the rest home to enjoy later. Most of the time when you get gluten-free pasta out that is not quite cooked through, heating it in the microwave helps it finish cooking. If you are heating pasta with a cream sauce, heat it up slowly (in twenty second increments, stirring between them) in order to keep the cream for breaking.
We didn’t ask about dessert at Mirko Pasta, but only one item looked like it might be gluten-free. It wasn’t something that appealed to me and I usually don’t care about dessert when eating a heavy meal like pasta anyway. When our bill arrived, my husband almost turned white and quickly summoned the server back to the table. He asked why it said ‘whole wheat penne’ on the check with no mention of gluten-free anything. We were assured that the pasta I’d had was gluten-free though I knew from the taste that it was.
We had two half salads and two entrees and our bill (with tax) was only $24. My pasta was only $7.98 which is less than any other place in or around Atlanta that offers gluten-free pasta. There was no upcharge for the gluten-free pasta. Considering that Wal-Mart sells Heartland gluten-free pasta for $1.99, this is somewhat understandable. Every other place here charges extra for gluten-free pasta with upcharges ranging from $1.50-$4 per dish.
Below is a listing of all Mirko Pasta locations which are all in GA. The restaurant offers a great value and at least in Buford, GA, the staff currently seems to know what they are doing when it comes to serving gluten-free customers. As always, things can change at any venue so we all have to be advocates for ourselves when dining out. The directions and phone numbers of each location can be found here. It’s advisable to call the location near you to make sure they have gluten-free pasta as there is no gluten-free information on the company’s website.
- Athens
- East Athens
- Buford
- Macon
- Monroe
- Peachtree City
- Watkinsville
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