The Old Spaghetti Factory — Restaurant in Duarte

The Old Spaghetti Factory is one of these places that has been around since the dawn of time…I remember it fondly as a younger person when it felt exciting and like a big deal to come to. As I’ve gotten older and my food tastes have refined I’ve come to understand it’s a kind of nice place with mostly good-enough food based more around it’s them than actually being a great restaurant.

We head there every now and then because every now and then you need a plate of spaghetti. It’s always crowded and on this particular occasion, we also had to wait a while for a server, after waiting a while to be seated. She did thank us for our patience but then still made us feel like she was in a hurry as she was taking our order.

We sat at a booth which wasn’t particularly comfortable as the seats were fairly far from the table and wouldn’t move. So if you’re a taller person you’re probably fine, but otherwise, if you want to be comfortable, you should probably request to be seated at a table with chairs.

The food did come quick after ordering, though the wine I ordered came after the salad so I didn’t really have chance to enjoy it before the food came along (which was my preference [and, err not that it was that good to begin with…it was a Cabernet served in a white wine glass {get snooty with me wine people ;)} and it never mellowed out leaving me to think it either really wasn’t good wine, or was from the day before])

We were disappointed that the apple sauce that came as a side-option with our kids meal was sweetened with sugar. Apples are already sweet and, if you want a healthy side, you’re not really getting it with applesauce that sugar has been added to. They had broccoli, but we had to pay an extra dollar to get that as the side for this meal.

The side-salads my wife and I got were basic iceberg lettuce situations. Iceberg is kind of the unhealthy, undeservingly popular cousin of the lettuce family…it was fresh for what it was and we both liked the pesto cream dressing.

The serve bread in uncut sourdough loaves. It’s kind of fun and familial to cut it yourself and the bread was tasty (especially with butter on it.)

My wife had the gluten free pasta option with marinara and mizritha cheese. The pasta was perfectly cooked (which is hard to do with gluten free) fusilli pasta. Since it was the spaghetti factory, we generally think their gluten free option should also be spaghetti (though again the fusilli was cooked perfectly) and she wanted more marinara sauce than was given. She thought it was a bit too cheesy. (Though that also could be a development of a more refined taste since the last time we were there and the Mizritha not living up to her memory of it.)

I had the same dish with regular spaghetti and also would have liked more marina. It all tasted good and the pasta was perfectly cooked.

The spumoni they brought at the end was okay…maybe a little weird…the texture was a bit off and the best way I can describe it is what I imagine astronaut ice cream would be like. It was weirdly almost warm but not melted.

If I want fine dining Italian I’m not going to head here…but occasionally I just want a basic plate of spaghetti, and I guess, the feeling I’m getting a good deal with salad, bread and dessert...

This place stands out and catches your eyes when driving on the 210 fwy, and for LA natives and long time residents it brings back memories of their former popular Hollywood location, with that said, we decided to stop by for a late lunch, keep in mind that when it comes to commercial chain restaurants I don't go in with high expectations, when we walked in there was no hostess, we were seated by a server, I requested for a window seat and apparently there was none "available", the venue itself it's architecturally beautiful, there's a big section with a classic bar and plenty of window seating that was not being used, we immediately got the sense that they were short staffed, we ordered from the dinner menu as we were told it was bigger portions and we were both hungry, my party ordered the baked lasagna and I ordered the Manager's Favorite with the Mizithra brown butter sauce and for the 2nd option I chose the mushroom and Marsala wine sauce (special order), bread service was a great starter, a freshly baked sourdough loaf with a side of butter, I asked for balsamic and EVOO to go with it, we both got soups, Minestrone and Clam Chowder both were good, then the plates came around, as far as presentation the lasagna didn't disappoint but my plate fell flat, my plate came with an additional side of the mushroom Marsala wine sauce wich was cold, which was the same issue with my plate the sauce was not even warm, the spaghetti on the bottom was also cold and dry, our server was very busy, so I flagged another server and I told her the issue with my plate, she immediately took it back to get refired, our server stopped by and I shared with her the issue with my plate, she apologized but didn't follow up afterwards, my plate came back out too soon after and it was still not hot, and it looked worse than the 1st time it came out, the Marsala sauce and the Mizithra were both lukewarm at best, at this point I decided this was as good as it was going to get and it was obvious that the kitchen were not going to rectify their poor execution, after dessert I asked my server if they practice feedback to management as I explained what happened with my plate, she apologized again and asked me if I wanted to speak to a manager, I turned down her offer as I realized she was not going to take any initiative herself to maybe try to improve the whole experience. As I stated at the beginning of my review my expectations were not high but when your main seller is hot pasta dishes all around and you can't even deliver that, it was very disappointing, I don't see myself...

Was seated in a raiser area that was quiet! It was right at 1130am on Sunday! Service was a four! The waiter forgot items twice & had to make extra trips! Food was good & we had 4 different orders! My daughter got the chicken marsala which is her favorite on the menu and loved it! My son got the chicken parmesan and he thought it was good, My grandson Got the spicy spaghetti combo with chicken, meatballs and sausage all cut up with the spaghetti and he liked it portions were good size and we had to take home three doggy bags! I put the old spaghetti Factory just behind Olive garden because Olive garden has that delicious big family style salad! All in all it was a very pleasant meal and I would return even if I went by myself to try something else on the menu! By the way I had the meat lovers spaghetti with sausage and meatballs. I thought the sausage was bland and I asked for a side of the spicy spaghetti sauce and put that on top of my meat sauce and it was very good I took half of my spaghetti home with the meatballs because I was stuffed from eating the sausage! My ratings are based on an average family going out to dinner at an average restaurant. I would put Olive garden at 4.5 as compared to the Old Spaghetti Factory at a four. I think ratings are all dependent on your mood and your appetite and the type of person that you are I don't eat a lot of meat but I do like Outback for the ribs and black Angus for their prime rib. Sometime in the near future I'm going to try the North woods inn which I haven't been to in over 30 years! My parents used to take me there when I was a kid and a teenager and I love the sawdust on the floor and the free peanuts! Maybe they don't have peanuts anymore because of people having nut allergies which is crazy because everybody I grew up with ate peanut butter and jelly sandwiches it's cool for lunch or had bologna sandwiches so how could all this new generation have all these peanut allergies? Maybe their mom ate peanut butter while they were being breastfed? Who knows but I sure miss the nuts on the...