The Old Spaghetti Factory — Restaurant in Fullerton

I came twice in one week, first time round it was AMAZING service, great food, all in all 5 stars. 3 days later, came back again after telling my friends how great it was, and it was absolutely the worst service I've ever had in my life. We waited over 40 minutes to be seated. And then, once we were seated, all 7 of us at a table meant for only 4 people) we waited 20 more minutes to be greeted by ANYBODY at all. Once we were greeted the waitress did get our drinks in a timely manner and come back to take our order, but after 40 more minutes of waiting after ordering, I had to ask the bus boy where our food was, because I hadn't even seen our server pass by. He said our server was probably in another section and only had our table over here. But he went to go find her and she came out just to simply say it would be out soon. A different 2 people brought our food out, and we had everything except for the one gluten free kids meal belonging to my friends autistic 4 yr old, who was already upset about having to wait as long as we had, and I once again had to ask the same bus boy if he could find out where it was, we sat and didn't eat because how unfair would it be for us to eat and him to sit with nothing? and she came running out saying it was still being made, (which we believe it was forgotten and being rushed because it's literally just noodles and a scoop of meat sauce on top.) After our meals, which we asked passing servers (again not ours) for refills, she finally came to take out dessert orders, which I asked if she could also bring out 7 spoons since not only did we not have enough silverware to begin with, the bus boy had come and cleared out table at our request because there was literally no room for us to even eat, so I asked for 7 spoons. Not only did she not bring the spoons, she didnt even bring our desserts, it was once again another person. We ended up eating our ice creams the old fashioned way, and 20 minutes later (yes I'm not kidding my Google maps says we were there for a total of 3 hours and 11 minutes!), she finally brought the check 20 minutes AFTER we'd resorted to licking and/or drinking our ice cream, and dropped off the check, saying "thank you guys so much" no apology not once, no explanation for anything, not an ounce of courtesy. This is the absolutely first time in my life I have not left a tip, and I've been a server for the past 14 years, and I am CURRENTLY a server. It's the fact that if she'd been more personable or worked an apology in there somewhere or explained she's actually serving another section or that the kitchen forgot our gluten free kids meal, those things would have been forgiven. But she wasn't at all understanding, and I know what it's like to work in an extremely understaffed restaurant and being oversat. I still give my guests 110% and that's why I make money and I'm assuming she doesn't. It was the worst service I've ever had, and I won't be back again because of it. I believe my accompanying party will also be leaving a review from their point of view as well, because we still talk about it although it was 2 weeks ago. Word of mouth travels far. Bad for business. Don't oversit your servers, and don't give the subpar ones more than they can handle efficiently. And a manager should be walking around checking on table because more than 5 times we literally were just looking around for some sort of employee to help us. Thank God for that bus boy. He was the only attentive person there. Don't know his name but he had long...

DO NOT COME HERE IF YOU HAVE DIETARY RESTRICTIONS

I came here because I saw they had a gluten friendly options on their menu. I have an egg and gluten allergy so I asked for the menu specifically for that. The waitress then brought bread to our table and I was a bit shocked so I asked if it was gluten free and she said she was pretty sure the bread was gluten free but she wasn’t sure if the butter was 🤯 she was not aware of what gluten was.

I wanted to make sure about the bread so she asked the kitchen manager and he said the bread was gluten free… I was shocked because he’s the kitchen manager and also isn’t educated about gluten. I knew the bread was not gluten free because it is the bread they serve every table.

Then I asked to speak to the floor manager and he said the bread is not gluten free and I asked if the creamy pesto dressing contained egg he said no, but I researched it myself and one of the ingredients is mayo so it def had egg! He didn’t even take the bread back but the waitress did swap the salad dressing for balsamic after I asked.

At this point I should have left but decided that there most likely wouldn’t be any harm in ordering the gluten free pasta on their gluten free menu. Well I was wrong. I got severely sick that night I believe they cooked and strained the pasta in the same pot / strainer as the regular pasta and I believe they served it with the regular sausage not the gluten free sausage. Not to mention it took 50 mins to get our dish and people who arrived after us were already done with their meals.

I get that 99% of this restaurant is pasta bread and dairy but If you’re going to offer gluten friendly options and state that there is ZERO wheat/egg in certain dishes on your nutrition chart then your staff need to abide by stricter cooking and training… the kitchen manager and the wait staff also need to be more educated about allergens in general and cross contamination...

I was in town for a couple of nights and had the pleasure of going here for dinner. Lovely atmosphere with friendly and attentive wait staff. It was a Sunday evening, so it wasn't terribly busy. There was only about a 20 minute wait or so, and it went faster than that.

The menu is straightforward and easy to navigate. Each meal comes with salad and dessert treat (either a scoop of spumoni or vanilla ice cream) with the largest decision being what kind of pasta and sauces you want. There are a few things outside of just spaghetti to get, like fettuccine, lasagna, etc. but the simplicity of the menu is a strength and it all fits on one page. This isn't the Cheesecake Factory.

I had the salad with balsamic vinaigrette, spaghetti with meat sauce, and some spumoni. Each is served separately as courses with a small loaf of freshly warmed bread to share at the table. It was delightful. Coupled with a Black Manhattan (one of a number of classic cocktails they offer), and it was simply a well thought out meal that satisfied, not stuffed.

The portions of food seemed to be intentionally aiming to be "just enough," as opposed to a massive plate full of food you have to pack up with you for later. The salads and soups were enough to whet the appetites, there was a very manageable amount of pasta for the main course (no one felt the need to save some for later) and the single (generous) scoop does a lot to polish the meal off nicely.

A wonderful experience all around. Next time I'm in town, I'll certainly be...