On our way out of town via the Bob Hope Airport in Burbank, we were in need of a convenient place for a bite to eat. Across the street from the airport, we found the Daily Grill, an mid-level restaurant chain for American food that can found throughout California and a little beyond. As we needed to catch a flight, there was little time to dilly dally and I quickly scanned the menu and found their Penne Pasta with Chicken.
At $16.95, it was slightly pricier than my ordinary pasta expenditure, but they certainly didn’t hold back on portion size. The bowl of pasta rivaled that of C & O in size and I quickly forgot the price and instead concentrated on the sad fact that I wouldn’t be able to take the leftovers with me. Yes, I already knew I had no chance of demolishing this massive bowl of pasta.
I attempted to make dents in the pasta, but to no avail. Once I knew there was little I could do to tackle this beast, I concentrated on the taste. It was totally devoid of vegetables, which made me happy, and the pesto sauce was quite delicious. The grilled chicken was a great addition and not just some protein afterthought to make my people happy. There were also pine nuts sprinkled throughout the pasta, which were like little morsels of joy that just soaked up the delicious pesto sauce. My least favorite part of the dish was the penne itself. Although not bad penne by any means, it tasted like something I could have easily bought in a store and boiled myself. Perhaps it was made in-house, but to my taste buds it may as well have been store bought.
For a quickie meal, the Daily Grill treated us well, but it felt like that had leaned slightly towards quantity over quality. As though offering a gigantor bowl of pasta would make up for the just-decent noodles. Instead of bowling me over in size, it would have been nice to have some better penne and just enough food to fill me up. Yet as I said before, this was a quickie meal without much time to think and without an option of bringing home left overs, so the Daily Grill deserves the benefit of the doubt.
