While we eat out fairly frequently, my family always tries to take advantage of Ann Arbor Restaurant Week to try a new restaurant or return to a restaurant we haven’t visited in awhile. Yesterday we visited Bigalora in Arbor Hills for lunch to take advantage of the Restaurant Week specials. The Bigalora Restaurant Week Menu offers a number of options to allow you to customize your meal.
Bigalora Restaurant Week Menu
Bigalora Restaurant Week is a slightly better deal at Dinner when they offer 2/$28 than at Lunch which is $15/person (the lunch and dinner menus are basically the same – the website lists the Funghi pizza as only available at dinner, but a friend who was there at the same time as us had it for lunch). They also offer Focaccia bread for $6 with the proceeds benefitting Food Gatherers.
Appetizers
I selected the Risotto Ball appetizer while my husband selected the Minestrone soup. I loved the Risotto Ball and so did my daughter who shared it with me. My husband enjoyed his soup. We also added the Focaccia Bread to share. The Focaccia Bread was delicious with just the right amount of seasoning on top.
Entrees
Since we were ordering the Focaccia Bread I decided to forego pizza as my entree and selected the Rigatoni Bolognese. The portion was quite generous and with the appetizer and knowing I had dessert coming, I saved about half to bring home. Someone with a larger appetite probably could have eaten the entire dish in one sitting.
My husband selected the Bacco Sausage Pizza. He enjoyed his pizza and brought half home. Again, the pizza wasn’t huge and could have been eaten in one sitting, but with dessert coming and at lunch time, he decided to save half.
Dessert
The Restaurant Week Menu offers your selection of Gelato for dessert with options of vanilla, chocolate, pistachio, and strawberry. My daughter and husband both selected vanilla while I was a bit more adventurous and opted for strawberry. We all enjoyed the gelato dessert. We each received a single scoop although the kids scoop was about twice the size of the adult scoop. The kids scoop also included a pizzelle.
Kids Menu at Bigalora
The Kids Menu at Bigalora offers a selection of items that are sure to please most kids. Kids can select from pasta (with butter, marinara, or alfredo sauce), red pizza, or white pizza. My 10 year old often skips Kids Menu in favor of more sophisticated fare, but she was happy with the Kids White Pizza. The Kids Meals include a soft drink and gelato for dessert. At $7, they are a bit on the pricey side, but it was plenty of food for my 10 year old, who brought some pizza home.
She ordered the White Pizza and really enjoyed it. My only complaint with the kids meal was that they brought her pizza with our appetizers and we were planning to share our appetizers and Focaccia Bread with her.
Dining Experience at Bigalora
Bigalora is located in Arbor Hills Shopping Center. Parking is definitely somewhat limited right in front of Bigalora, so I dropped my daughter and husband at the door to get a table while I looked for a spot. I got lucky and found a car leaving a great spot after dropping them off.
This was our second visit to Bigalora. Previously we had dined on the second floor loft overlooking the main dining room. This time, we dined in the sunroom space. In nice weather they can open the garage style doors for an al fresco dining experience. Despite the cold temperatures, and the glass enclosure, the room was a perfect temperature (not too cold from outside or too warm from the abundance of heat lamps). I enjoyed dining “outside” with the nice view of the trees especially on a sunny day.
Our service was prompt and friendly. As a big water drinker, I appreciated having a bottle of water left on the table so that I could refill my glass myself whenever I needed it.
Try Bigalora For Restaurant Week – Or Anytime
After dining at Bigalora for Restaurant Week, I definitely recommend them to Ann Arbor families. I definitely need to make sure that I keep them in our family’s dining rotation on a more regular basis.
