All of the restaurants I’ve reviewed so far for this blog have been local, but one of our favorite places to eat is part of a chain. I won’t review chain restaurants very often, but this is a really good deal for families, so I’m making an exception.

Carino’s Italian Grill on Cantrell in West Little Rock offers their family-sized meals at the price of an individual portion on Monday nights. This means we can all eat the skilletini or the bowtie festival for $10 or $11 instead of $20 or $22. They also offer salads with the meal for 99 cents each.

If you have teenagers or “tweens” (as we do), you can use this deal to dine at a fairly nice, kid-friendly restaurant without spending a fortune on adult-sized (or big kid-sized) meals for your kids.

Carino’s is family-friendly (highchairs and booster seats are available), and the manager at this location offered to take the kids to the grill to show them how the chef “fires” up the stove-top with a mini pyrotechnic display (he keeps it safe and quick, but the kids love to watch the fire flame up).

The menu is mostly northern Italian-inspired, with a mixture of cream-based sauces (like the bowtie festival) and tomato-based sauces (like the spicy skilletini). The bread is fresh but not spectacular, although I do like the roasted garlic that comes with the olive oil for dipping.