Spaghetti Works — Restaurant in Omaha

Updated after contacting the Owner Comment: I sent an email as requested and was ghosted. The comment is just to make them look good.

Original Review: I am exceptionally sparing with bad reviews. But after a Month of anger and frustration I need to warn others of the experience I had at this Spaghetti works.

If you want Fancy food, this is not the place you go to. this is the place you go to when you want to sit at a sticky table and be served "noodles with sauce and topping" that take quite more than what seems reasonable to arrive. The red sauces all taste similar. as if they have a base Red sauce that they simply add Pepper flakes or meat to before it's brought to your table. Nothing tastes fresh. not even the salad bar.

Now, the prices are not awful. and the place is a family establishment. there is not all bad here for this Omaha chain. I bet you that some of the items that are more particular to make, such as lasagna, are quite nice. But I was not allowed to have such an experience on the night of February 12th 2021.

I had placed an order through Grubhub for delivery at 7pm CST. As Doordash seems to edge out the competition in Omaha for delivery services, I wasn't surprised that there was a struggle with the order finding a delivery person. Hungry for my meal, I messaged the delivery service to change the order to pickup. The GrubHub rep said that they called the restaurant, reached a person, and the food is ready for pickup. I drove there. Arrived and slipped on their icy, unsalted walkway. I distinctly remember at this point a car driving away from their employee lot as I pulled myself up and looked for blood. Whatever. as long as I got my food.

Alas. Their doors were closed tight. my clock said 8:45. Their hours said open till 9. I was able to get a full refund from Grubhub -- But I cannot encourage anyone to support a restaurant that purposely answers a delivery service for pickup, then closes the restaurant early before their customers can even get their food.

However, there's little else italian in Omaha that is attached to a delivery service with decent hours. So let me help you with a little secret.

Buy a Box of pasta, a jar of sauce. and skip this local establishment that has lost the love for quality.

but you already knew...

Won't be back anytime soon, and here's why not only are we not coming back, but we certainly won't recommend it to anyone else.

For decades this was a favorite of mine. I was sad when my husband and I went gluten-free earlier this year, as it meant places like Spaghetti Works would forever be just a memory for us. But then I was so very pleased when I learned they now have a gluten-free section of their menu!

We made it known to our waitress that we would be ordering from the gluten-free section of the menu. Fifteen minutes later she brought our rice pasta with pesto cream sauce...and a big ol' basket of BREAD!!! My husband immediately asked if it was gluten-free bread, and expecting that it was or she wouldn't have brought it, she stated that it was NOT gluten-free. No apologies, she further stated that she didn't know if we would want it since some people only order gluten-free out of preference. EXCUSE ME??? Preference? No...with the majority of people who limit their menu choices on purpose in favor of the limited gluten-free options, it's not a mere preference. It is the ardent avoidance of something that will cause us great pain and distress. Thank goodness my husband asked about the bread instead of assuming the waitress wouldn't have brought us something that we clearly were avoiding and that everyone these days in the food industry should know can cause major health issues if ingested.

Frankly, I am appalled, alarmed, disappointed, and HIGHLY offended that this happened! If the wait staff doesn't care about our health, what reason do we have to believe anyone else on staff does? Why, for instance, would we now assume the kitchen is clean or that the food is not beyond its safe storage date? And why on earth would we...

I have gone to this noodle and sauce shop for many years. I have never liked their spaghetti, with the exception of pesto. The pesto is very good as is the garlic bread and salad bar, even though the salad bar salad has diminished in quality over the years. I went to this place recently, and I was very disappointed with the management. I asked if I could get the $6.99 plate of spaghetti, which comes with one trip to the salad bar and one piece of garlic bread, and add pesto on the side. The hostess said that would be fine and the price is $1.50 for the extra sauce. About 10 minutes into waiting my mom saw the manager shaking her head no to our waitress; they were talking to each other across the room. Our waitress came over and let us know that we could not choose that option to add pesto for $1.50, even though I was just told I could. I had to order the bottomless plate of pesto instead and spend $1.00 more than my original price goal. With the diminishing quality over the years and then this lunacy combined, I will never go back. They can quibble over nickels and dimes all they want, but not with me anymore. This is the only "Italian", ahem, restaurant that I have ever heard of that has stayed open for decades while most of their sauces suck horribly. Pesto is the only one that is good enough to eat, the rest tastes like they have vinegar and sugar dumped into them. You guys won't be open much longer, and you have brought it on yourselves. ...