Spaghetteria Pasta-bar — Restaurant in Utrecht

My friend and I are visiting Utrecht from Berlin and we walked by Spagheterria one day which looked absolutely beautiful and busy. We decided to make a reservation online for dinner after seeing all the amazing reviews online. When we arrived for dinner to check in there were 3 free tables outside, but the host sat us inside. Why? I don't know because there was no one waiting to be sat anyways. We asked if we made the wrong reservation and he said no but that its a full house tonight and he could not sit us outside...I don't get the logic there? There were table free inside and outside. We could have been sat outside. The inside of the place was beautiful. But we had to sit in a small little section basically right next to the person next to us. During corona times? How unsafe is that? My friend and I ordered 2 glasses of wine each, an appetizer and 2 entrees. Dinner was great until we found a hair in my friends pasta.....we told the waiter and all he said was "sorry. I'll bring a surprise" He did not even take the plate away from her. It's common sense, right?! What was she supposed to do? Keep eating it? At the end there was no "surprise" and she still had to pay for her entree even when she didn't eat it. Very disappointed because this restaurant had such great reviews, but from the second we got there to the second we left, it was a...

We were passing that restaurant many times before and it was always packed. We thought there needs to be a reason behind it so decided to try. On arrival we happily noticed, that restaurant is only half full. That gave us hope that our food will arrive quickly, as we were very hungry. Waiter came to collect our order almost immediately - good sign! And than we started waiting. And waiting. And then my husband went to buy something in a nearby store, and came back and food still wasn’t there. We were sitting right by the bar where cooks are leaving dishes for waiters for pick up, and all the nice smells were killing us! I started to look at our waiter significantly, than despite my husband rebuke, I started to look intently at all the waiters! Mind, that its been 45 minutes we have been waiting and people who come long after us were already eating! After another 5 minutes our waiter approach and asked: “Are you waiting for something?” “No buddy!!! We just came here to make and order and look at other people eating!!!”. I didn’t say it, but I wanted to! It was a waiter that took our order!!! My husband who is a good and patient person (unlike me!) also lost his patience and said: “No, not anymore”. And we left hungry and angry and...

Yes, It's ok. I think most pasta chain places can never really be good. It's just not how it should be done. Vapiano, for example, is somewhat tasty but it feels like eating inside of a vending machine. Spaghetteria is not a vending machine, considering it took about 1-1.5 hours to get the food, which is too much. When it arrived it wasn't something that felt it would take this long time to make. On the other hand, a ragu should be cooked for long time, so, it was almost as if they were making it a la minute... ;) Overall, It was a bit too much fat in the food for my taste, which felt like a compensation to hide something. And at least we could have gotten some bread while waiting - it's a very easy trick to seem like a genuine Italian place. Instead, here the bread comes pre-cut in fixed sizes. I hate that. I guess the most genuine part was the kids serving food. They ran around like excited and disoriented Italian kids on a beach promenade around a vespa. Fast, happy and they probably know their job, they just need some work on their timing and presence. It is absolutely not the worst, it's tasty, but far from the best. If it would have been 5-10 Euro cheaper, it would be more accurate and I would...