The Old Spaghetti Factory — Restaurant in Portland

It’s in the sauce - a blood-topped sorbet I had to wait a little while to write this review because, otherwise, it would have been much worse. My girlfriend and I recently went to The Old Spaghetti Factory restaurant. We were sat by the receptionist at a table upstairs near the bar. We waited for over ten minutes for someone to even show up to take our order, and then we had to wait another couple of minutes while Eric went to find a menu for us to look at. He asked us for our drink orders, so I ordered coffee, and my girlfriend just wanted water. My coffee took at least 15 minutes to show up. After a total of twenty minutes had gone by, Eric came back and asked us what we would like to order. I asked about the special I had seen on a sign at the entrance to the restaurant, and right in the middle of my question, he immediately turned and walked away without a word. A couple of minutes later, he returned with the special’s menu. We ordered the Meatball Monday special for two and the spinach and artichoke dip appetizer. Another 10 minutes and our meatballs showed up, but still no appetizer. The food was just okay. It was warm, not hot, and had an interesting flavor but not in a great way. By this time, the water glass and coffee had run dry, never to be refilled again. We finished the meal and still had no appetizer. Finally, I went looking for Eric to ask about the missing appetizer. He at first blamed it on the kitchen and then eventually took ownership of the oversight. We then asked for two sorbet ice creams for dessert. Eric came back to the table eventually with both sorbets. Holding an ice cream in each hand, he put them on the table. That’s when my girlfriend and I immediately noticed a bright red liquid on his pinky finger that strongly resembled blood running down toward my bowl of ice cream. I asked, "Are you bleeding?" to which he very quickly replied, "No, it is raspberry puree." We were very unsure if we should believe him, by the defensive way he gave the answer. We could not bring ourselves to eat anything else while we were trying to figure out if what we had seen was blood or not. He returned to the table twice, once to bring our appetizer in a bag to take home and again to bring our bill. Both times the hand in question was out of sight, once in his pocket and once behind his back. All the while, our ice creams were melting. We were about to actually believe his story and eat the ice cream because who would really do something like that, and that’s when I saw him delivering drinks to some ladies at another table with a Band-Aid on the finger that was in question! Filled with immediate disgust and concern for our health, my girlfriend and I immediately got up and went to the bathroom, leaving the possibly contaminated ice creams and appetizer on the table, to wash our hands with a great deal of soap. I don’t know about anyone else, but I don’t enjoy the idea of going to a restaurant to order up some blood-borne illness. He could have easily just said, "Oh, I didn’t notice that. Let me take care of that and get you some new food," but he chose to conceal what had happened. Needless to say, I will not be returning anytime soon, and I think there should be some kind of health and food-handling retraining if this is the...

TLDR: I came here with a party of ten. Only 2 of those ten actually liked the food. It was downright terrible, and not because the cook was off their game that night.

Long version: People come here for the atmosphere, which is truly beautiful, especially in the Tiffany room. People also come here for the "low price" and this is something I don't understand, because a spaghetti marinara plate is $22 here and it's $14 at olive garden. They rave because it comes with a salad and a scoop of ice cream, but what if I don't want a salad (which wasn't very good) or any ice cream? That's a crazy price when all I want is some pasta.

The tapenade was rather good and the bread was tasty enough.

I also ordered a very strong and tasty drink. Also, the ice cream and sherbert are pretty good.

So if there are redeeming qualities, why would I give this place one star?

They get one star because this is the worst spaghetti I've ever eaten anywhere in my life. It was cooked within an inch of its life. The marinara sauce was mediocre at best but the meat sauce was actually inedible. It tasted like meatloaf soup, and there was almost no actual meat in it.

My boyfriend told me the meatballs in his dish reminded him of a time in his childhood when his favorite diner changed cooks, the new cook wrecked the texture of his favorite meatball dish and he never ordered them again.

The server was kind enough to let us taste some wine before ordering. Three of us tried it and hated it. Everyone else refused to try it after that.

One person at our table ordered a pesto dressing and was deeply disappointed when she was served a bunch of cream on her salad and quietly ate it anyway. Another person referred to the pesto as 'a pinch of pesto in some ranch'.

But what about the two people who loved it?? They both suffer from an extreme aversion to new flavors and textures, along the lines of people with ARFID. one of them ordered the chicken marsala and ordered 2 extra sides of marsala sauce. They also loved the pesto sauce and ordered a pint of it to go. The other just ate plain noodles. And they got exactly what they came for and we're very happy.

I've given as factual an account as I can of my fairly abysmal experience dining at the Old Spaghetti Factory. You've been warned. If you have even remotely typical tastebuds, or like real flavor in your food (or God forbid if you're expecting Italian food) you're probably gonna...

This is the best Old Spaghetti Factory on the West Coast. I've dined in several OSFs in California, Oregon, and Washington, but this one is by far the top of them all.

The building's architecture is mid century modern with beautiful glossy blue Mediterranean tiles, the foyer is climate controlled with a heater and has well maintained wood paneling, glass doors, and brass hardware. They have a beautiful Churchill chandelier above the lobby. They have well apholstered furniture to accommodate waiting patrons, and plenty of framed pictures dispursed throughout the restaurant describing snapshots of the company's history.

They have a beautiful stained glass wall behind the receptionist's counter that separates the lobby from the dining room. They have an antique train car on the Northside of the dining room where patrons can request to be seated, thus providing an elevated view of the dining floor. Up the staircase, you will find a balcony that leads to the bar, overflow seating with dining tables, small TVs, and a full Men's and Women's Restrooms.

They have several large group tables, booths, and smaller dining tables along the South waterfront with gorgeous views of the Willamette River. Occasionally, you'll see a cruise ship, pleasure craft, and kayakers meandering across the scene. There is a reserved section adjacent to the second floor bar which provides an exquisite elevated view of the South waterfront and the residential condominiums along the river. Unfortunately, this section is only open during overwhelming holiday weekends, and is only available by reservation only.

The Italian food is excellent irregardless which item you choose, and is standardized across their various branches. I've ordered practically every item on their menu, and I've never been disappointed due to the quality of their food. On the rare occasion I've experienced unsatisfactory service, both the wait staff work to correct the problem, and usually inform the supervisor where the management staff comes to ensure the problem was resolved to my satisfaction. I can't recommend this OSF enough, and suggest this as an excellent venue for banquets, graduations, family reunions,...