In Italian, “prego” means welcome- so let Prego Pasta House valet park your car and welcome you to romantic southern Italian cooking. That’s the feeling you get when you walk into this family-owned restaurant.

Looking at the restaurant from Greenville Avenue, you would not expect a fine Italian restaurant – but that is exactly what Prego Pasta House is.

We found ourselves a little underdressed for its atmosphere wearing jeans and sweaters. The restaurant has hardwood floors, dim lights, elegant white tablecloths and the servers are dressed in white shirts with ties.

Our server, who normally worked at the bar, was a little disorganized, but her perky and warm nature got us laughing. We were surprised by the inexpensive wine list so we chose the Robert Mondavi Cabernet Sauvignon, which was only a few dollars more than what you would normally purchase at the store and a very good choice.

Prego serves big portions of familiar Italian dishes in its cozy dining room. There were larger parties who seemed to have frequented the restaurant because they knew many of the waiters, as well as smaller, more intimate parties. We visited late on a Sunday night, so it was not the usual crowd, but the restaurant felt far from empty.

The back wall was covered in by a mirror. At the other end of the large room was a bar with smaller lights outlining the mirror behind it. There were also large windows to the side that we sat along so we could look out onto Greenville.

The menu offered many different choices: pizzas, salads, veal, chicken, sandwiches, pasta and seafood. This made it hard to decide on just one thing to try.

We started with an order of calamari, which was very tender and enjoyable. It was served with two types of sauces: a cocktail sauce and a remoulade sauce.

They did not bring out bread and olive oil until we asked, but it is a must! They make a fresh blend of garlic, onion, crushed red pepper, cilantro, pepper, olive oil and vinegar to dip your fresh-made bread.

We then ordered our main dishes: sliced tomatoes and fresh mozzarella cheese with Basil, served with house dressing, which resembled a good balsamic vinaigrette, and the Prego Combination of lasagna, manicotti and ravioli, which came with a house salad to start.

The lasagna was the best of the three pastas.

Their meatballs are a knockout – juicy and richly flavored. We ordered one à la carte with our meal.

For dessert, we chose the chocolate cake with nuts, vanilla ice cream and chocolate sauce drizzled over the top. Even though we were pretty full, it still lasted about 15 seconds before all we had left were crumbs.

We were told after the meal that their square-shaped, thin-crust pizzas are a local favorite. The crust was described as slightly crispy and the topping generous. They make all of their food in house including their bread and pizza dough.

One of their more famous foods is their homemade Italian sausage. Prego says, “We’ll satisfy you with the best Italian sausage in Dallas.” They can be ordered separately to go or added to any meal on the side.

It is well-priced for such an upscale Italian restaurant. Even more reasonably priced are the lunch specials.

The Barraco family knew what it was doing when it opened this original restaurant in 1951 using family recipes and Rose Barraco’s “magic touch.” There are now three locations in North Texas with special order items, delivery, take out and catering.