The Old Spaghetti Factory — Restaurant in Louisville

We had a terrible experience here. We made a reservation at 6:00 on a Saturday night. I figured it would be busy, but I thought that a reservation would mean that we’d be fine. I was wrong. We arrived to an extremely crowded restaurant lobby and had to wait to check in. Someone else waiting told us that they were running 45 minutes behind on reservations. We asked the host how long our wait we would be and she said “I don’t know.” I don’t blame her because I know she was frazzled and doing her best, but the management should do something to keep this from happening. At the very least, there should be a limit on reservations and/or more staff. There were so many people waiting that we were spilling into the restaurant and accidentally in the staff’s way.

We were seated at 6:30, so I was still a little hopeful, but then it took 30 minutes for us to order and get a drink. Even then, we had to flag down our server. Again, I do not blame our server and will not list their name because they were overwhelmed and doing their best. However, management had our server spread way too thin and covering too many tables, while I noticed a woman manager sitting at the bar and talking, instead of helping. Our poor server was so stressed that you could see it in their eyes and they were having trouble processing what we were saying.

We rushed our order, could not ask any questions about the menu, and were stressed our entire visit about making it to an event at 8:00. We had to scarf down the food and didn’t have time to eat the dessert that was included. We asked if we could get a different dessert to-go comped, since we didn’t have time to eat, but our server didn’t understand and charged us for the to-go desserts. We, again, had to wave down people to even receive the desserts.

This restaurant is clearly understaffed and poorly managed for this type of crowd on a Saturday night. Folks need to be turned away without a reservation, less reservations need to be able to be made if they can’t accommodate this type of crowd, and they need to be better staffed and take better care of their staff. I saw so many people working so hard and stretched beyond their limits.

This was a very unpleasant dining experience and I will...

I called ahead of time at 2:41 to see if we needed a reservation and she asked “right now” I said “yes” she said you can walk on in. After we parked we arrived around 2:47 (literally 6 mins after I called). When I walked in she said do you have a reservation and I said no and then she looked over at the guy (who was our waiter) and he shook his head no at her, which I found odd. We were seated ordered drinks and then shortly after when we ordered our meal and we did the three course meal. I ordered the house salad with ranch my husband ordered the Caesar salad and I then asked him if I could switch mine to the Caesar salad and he acknowledged me. We waited a few and our entrees came out, I was confused because we never did get our bread nor our salads. After waiting for a few when our waiter came back I asked him about our Caesar salads and he looked very confused which also made me confused. After a few he brought out our salads. We ate our meal and was never offered a refill we had to request it and when he came and checked on us towards the end he asked if we wanted to go boxes and I then reminded him that we were suppose to get dessert as well cause we did the three course meal. Overall, poor service. I used to think highly of this place and was excited to bring my husband here for his first time. We still tipped 20%. If we were being judge because of our age and/or appearance cause for 33 and 36 we do look young, also we just came from a spa and didn’t have time to change out of our casual clothes (however, I looked into it and there is no dress code for this place) before heading to our next destination. I understand reservations are probably preferred which is why I called ahead of time to make sure it was okay to walk in and I even looked into the dress code before coming in as well. Experience should have been better...

So I attended a brunch that had reservations for 24 at 1pm on a Sunday. So they knew the party was coming. 1st they stated they would be ready a few minutes beyond reservation time. OK. finally sat our party at 1:15. It took another 30 minutes for the waitress to even get a drink order. Which means 45 minutes and still not even water served. Then took our drink and food orders all at once... 15 minutes or so later comes out with appetizers and drinks. A few minutes that boom the salad. We'll I ordered thousand island and could taste the vinegarette over the salad. NO BREAD STILL AT THIS POINT. Ask for bread for the tables. FOR 24 PEOPLE 2 TABLES ONLY 2 LOAFS THAT MAY FEED 4 PEOPLE GIVEN. Additional BREAD requested again!!! MAYBE A TOTAL OF 4 MORE LOAFS. Finally food arrives. I ordered meat sauce with a side of mushrooms. 1st no meat in the sauce, 2nd spaghetti was LUKE WARM my partner ordered lasagna and his was also LUKE WARM AT BEST. Refills were few and far between especially after nothing for 45 minutes. One guy asked for water with lemon of course no lemon!!! And was never given one when reminded. I've been in the service industry and would never expect to pay the prices they charge for not even mitocore food and service. I CAN HONESTLY SAY ONLY POSITIVE WAS THE ATMOSPHERE AND DECOR AND COMPANY AT THE EVENT!!!!

PLEASE RETRAIN SERVERS ABOUT GREETING AND SETUP FOR A LARGER PARTY!!! YOU KNOW AT LEAST A GLASS OF WATER BEFORE 30 MINUTES AND DRINKS SERVED BEFORE APPETIZERS OR SALADS NOT AT THE SAME TIME!!! GO BACK TO BASICS!!!!! WATER FOR ALL IF ITS GONNA BE A MINUTE BEFORE REGULAR DRINK ORDERS COME OUT!!! IF WATER IS SERVED BRING A SAUCER OF LEMONS. NOT SERVERS FAULT...