The Old Spaghetti Factory

Reviews 3

RA

Rami Safar

My granddaughter wanted Italian food for her 14th birthday dinner. Below is a description of our experience. OMG!!!! This was absolutely the worst! From being unable to make a reservation on the kludgy OSF website to calling the location to make reservations and being told that they take reservations then being told that they do not take call ahead seating requests. I called 4 hours prior to expected arrival. Having been in the restaurant business to me that is a reservation, Call ahead seating is under two hours prior to expected arrival. The restaurant was very busy when we arrived. We were seated quickly at a table near the entrance (read high traffic area) and left sitting there without menus water or as much as a how do you do. After about 7 minutes a gentleman stopped by our table and informed us that Alex (our waiter) was terribly busy and he would be taking our drink order. He disappeared and somewhere between 5 and 10 minutes later a young lady dressed in very casual street clothing brought the sodas my granddaughters ordered. She was somewhere between 14 and 16 or could have been older and just looked that young but was not appropriately dressed to be serving in a full service restaurant. The 4 year old was delighted to get her soda in a kiddie cup not so much the almost 58" 14 year old. The drinks for the two adults at the table were nowhere to be seen. She apologized and disappeared presumably to get the Ice Tea we had both ordered. Within a minute or two of the arrival of the kids drinks and before our Ice Tea was delivered Alex arrived at our table and introduced himself. Alex, obviously stressed with his workload, asked what drinks we had ordered. We told him and requested an adult drink for the 14 year old. He told us he would be right back with our drinks. Immediately after Alex disappeared the young lady came back with our Ice Tea. By the time Alex returned with our drinks the girls had finished their drinks and were ready for refills. Fortunately Alex was on the ball, obviously an experienced waiter with what it takes to go far, he had anticipated our needs and had a refill for the 4 year old and the aforementioned adult glass of soda for the 14 year old along with two Ice Teas and a warm loaf of bread. As soon as Alex set up the service tray a large party came through and the manager chastised Alex in front of customers for blocking the isle with the service tray. There was truly nowhere else for the tray to be placed. Alex dutifully folded up the tray and allowed the party to proceed to their table. At this point Alex took our order and disappeared to place it. Salads arrived in a reasonable time though there was some confusion on the part of the inappropriately dressed young lady serving us (she never introduced herself and had no name tag) as to who had ordered which dressing. We requested another loaf of bread as we had devoured the first. We had barely started our salads when my soup arrived followed almost immediately by our main courses. It was obvious that if the restaurant management had not clued the kitchen or the wait staff in on the concept of meal pacing. My granddaughter ordered lasagna, she said it tasted good but it wasn’t hot, in fact only the middle of the generous portion was even close to warm. I’m not sure if this was because it was not heated to a proper temperature or if it had been sitting while we ate our salads. My dinner on the other hand I am sure wasn’t heated to a proper temperature and had cooled some while we ate our salads because the middle of both of the generously large meatballs was refrigerator cold, the sausage was tepid and the sauce on the pasta was room temperature. The flavor of my dish was very good but the temperature was not even close to proper temperature. The one positive thing I can say is that the Chicken dish my son ordered was at a proper temperature when he began eating it and he said it tasted very good.. There were other minor issues but this post is already way too long so I’ll just say it was THE WORST!

AL

Alyson Miller

Not one to complain, but so disappointed in my experience last night I feel like it warrants a review in hopes of making the restaurant better. Ive been to many Old Spaghetti Factorys before- primarily down in Southern California- and this was my only negative experience. We went here in hopes of a lovely night out since my boyfriend just returned from overseas and was craving some fettuccine Alfredo as his first meal:) (who wouldnt?!). Ordered a bottle of wine- which took a while to come out because they could not find the bottles... No big deal at the time... But when the wine finally came out, the girl who opened the wine set it down on the table to uncork it, uncorked it with a struggle, dropped the cork on the table and walked away. Needless to say my boyfriend and I stared at each other stunned- never have we EVER experienced someone not pour our first glasses. Ive worked as a restaurant manager before and this is Serving 101. But again, no biggie... We didnt complain or let it ruin our evening... And let it go at the time. Salads... I ordered a Caesar and my boyfriend ordered Blue cheese dressing. The dressings tasted very much the same- not like Caesar or blue cheese- but more like a tangy house. The blue cheese had crumbles in it... But besides that you wouldve never known what it was. It was a mayonnaise-based vinegraitte. Also the dressing on both drowned the lettuce and made the iceberg lettuce soggy and inedible. Entree... My boyfriend ordered the chicken fettuccine Alfredo. It was the most bland thing Ive ever tasted. Even drowning it in Parmesan, salt and pepper didnt mask the blandness of the white sauce- tasted like flour and water. I felt so bad- this was supposed to be his big night out and it was such a disappointment. One positive- I ordered the Italian sausage with meat sauce- though presentation was lacking, it tasted good and I gobbled it up. Dessert... We were in the middle of our desserts with full glasses of wine when our server dropped the check. This kind of made our eyes roll and was the final straw of evening. We felt like we were being pushed out and decided to not even finish the wine and leave. Overall- extremely disappointed. Not worth the money. Hopefully you guys train your servers better- or at least teach them basics in serving etiquette. Let me know if you need my help. Final course

A

A Private User

come and visit the Old Spaghetti Factory off of Hazel. My guest and I were there for 1 hour and heard "Happy Birthday" at least four times. That, however, is not my biggest concern and complaint regarding this place. The food was mediocre - very weak minestrone (would not recommend) and the garlic mizithra was just okay. The cheese was a nice touch, and paired well with the mushrooms, but the bacon did not complement the other ingredients (though it was good bacon). The WORST thing about this place, I found, was the SERVICE. Our waiter, Stephen, was nice enough to check in with us multiple times regarding our meal, wondering why we hadnt been served yet, but we waited well over 30 minutes for our two simple entrees while others who had come after us were already served. I ordered an Italian soda with my meal and was offered no water, and by the time my meal FINALLY arrived, I asked if I could have a complimentary refill regarding the circumstances, and they wanted to charge me more for a refill, so I finally got a glass of water. This is no way to run a business, when you make people sit and wait for their food for such a long time, and refuse to give them any concessions regarding the poor service given. I would NOT recommend this location to others, and would suggest trying a different location in the greater Sacramento area, as this location was not that busy when my guest and I ate, and they were still UNABLE to handle the few people they had, and were unable to ensure that their patrons received their food in a timely and fair manner. Nobody likes watching people who came after them eating their food while they are forced to sit and wait.