Bonjour friendly folks and welcome back to school. If you’re suffering from post-break depression and crave something a little different, I suggest you try a unique pizza and pasta restaurant.

Located at 120 Hayward (near the tattoo guys), The Pizza Kitchens showcases a brightly colored mural and several circus animals. Don’t worry, they’re not real.

The Pizza Kitchens specializes in cappuccino, espresso, latte and mocha.

I’m not much into all that trendy coffee-shop kinda of stuff, so I asked our tie-dyed t-shirt wearing waiter if there was anything good to drink.

He quickly suggested the Paradise Boysenberry soda (with free refills) for $1.50. I must be getting more cautious in my old age, because I made my friend taste it first. It passed his test, so the fruit-punch-like drink was good enough for me.

OK— every other week or so I’ll get an e-mail from the co-owner of The Pizza Kitchens, right? He sends out weekly specials and coupons over the internet to his VIP customers.

Now, even though I’ve been a part of this preferred customers club for nearly a year now, I must admit that I’ve never taken advantage of any of the specials.

This week was no exception; I opted to look over a menu before ordering. Quoting from the lasagna factory section, “You are about to taste the most incredible lasagna ever! Go ahead TELL YOUR FRIENDS!”

That being said, I had some seriously high expectations for my dinner. I ordered the Roasted Garlic Chicken Lasagna with sweet red onions, chopped parsley and garlic basil butter.

The Pizza Kitchens serves 13 different types of lasagna dishes for $7.25. Each one is served with fresh, hot foccacia bread and a mixed leaf salad.

Both appetizers were served right away. The foccacia bread was good, but very different. There was definitely something kinda funny in there. My friend blamed the huge oregano chunks.

I didn’t have enough time to adequately enjoy my salad because my lasagna was brought out five minutes later.

Yeah — about that. The portion was so huge that I knew just by looking that I would need a doggie-bag.

Actually, it wasn’t like the lasagna I was expecting. There were no real layers and it was served in a pot-pie crock. Other than the giant onions that I picked out, the chicken lasagna was delicious.

Just like I predicted, I only ate about half of the lasagna before getting pleasantly plump.

That’s when I remembered that we had already ordered dessert. Yep — there was no stopping it now; it had already been ordered and was on its way.

The Hot Apple Pie Pizza consisted of delicious apples and cinnamon baked on a pizza crust with melted cheddar cheese.

The vanilla ice cream was especially yummy because it was cold. The Hot Apple Pie Pizza was good, but unfortunately we were way too full to enjoy it.

In hindsight, I should have printed off my VIP e-mail coupon. It advertised the Hot Apple Pie Pizza for a mere $2.50 instead of the $4.50 we paid.

Lasagna not your thing? Don’t worry, The Pizza Kitchen also offers calzones, fresh pasta, sandwiches and their famous crock pizzas.

I would encourage you to try The Pizza Kitchens for yourself. But be advised, go at lunch because the prices get jacked way up for dinner.

To learn more about The Pizza Kitchens and their weekly specials, visit the web at: www.pastapastapasta.com.

3 1/2 stars out of five

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Kim Zangger is a senior in advertising from Mt. Vernon.