The Old Spaghetti Factory — Restaurant in Roseville

My family had an unusually bad experience Saturday night.

We were seated upstairs in a booth which shared its back rest with the only other occupied booth. Along side the two booths was a large family. Not sure why the only three parties dining upstairs were crowded together like that? There was plenty of empty seating available upstairs.

The back supports on both sides of the booth were very wobbly. My wife quietly mentioned that she could feel every movement that the woman in the neighboring booth would make. Surprisingly that same woman got up from her booth, faced my wife and complained that my wife was moving around too much. I calmly told her that the booths are just like that and that my wife was also having the same experience. The woman sat back down, looking disgruntled. My wife spent the rest of her time leaning forward, trying not to disturb anyone. The restaurant needs to fix their booths.

The server was consistently aloof. She seemed either inexperienced or indifferent about serving us. I had to ask for the complimentary bread since she seemed to have forgotten about it altogether. I started out being pretty friendly, despite our server seeming disengaged, but as the evening played out I began losing my patience as our order was taking quite a while. The server eventually came back to the table and informed us that the kitchen lost our ticket. Other groups came and went as we waited patiently. There was a small army of other servers bustling about us as they were receiving a large party. Meanwhile, I could see our own server across the room, trying to look busy at a service station, possibly preparing place settings or doing some similar filler task. As we continued to wait for our food, I eventually caught her looking back at me, and then she proceeded to go about her prep work. None of the other staff thought to check in on us amidst their preparations. We felt pretty ignored. I very nearly walked out, but didn't want to skip out on paying for our appetizer. I also didn't want to sour the evening for my family any further.

When our food eventually arrived, our server apologized and asked if she could get us anything else. I asked for water. She left and didn't come back.

Later, as we were wrapping up our meals, I had to stop our server and ask for the kids' ice cream and the check. I asked her to hurry. It was then that she said in a seemingly annoyed tone, "well, I was going to offer you a free dessert." NOW we're concerned about customer satisfaction?! I said no and that we we wanted to leave. She really wasn't reading the situation at all. She brought our check and the ice cream in to-go cups (not what I was asking for but whatever at this point) and then tried to disappear immediately. I wasn't in the mood to wait another 20 minutes for here to pick up my credit card so I stopped her and gave her my card before she could run off again.

I paid, left no tip, and left feeling aggravated about an experience that was supposed to be a nice family night out, something which we can afford less and less these days. For decent service I always leave 20%. For mediocre service, 15%. Even for bad service I'm usually sympathetic and leave 10%, which some would disagree with, but I sympathize with food service workers, even when I'm not particularly satisfied. I spent some time in that industry myself. It's an unforgiving job, but I can't rationalize leaving any tip if I'm that frustrated.

What is typically a 45 minute experience instead took 90 minutes. Our server neglected us and was tone deaf about the situation. Had she tried to be just slightly more personable or communicate a little better, I think we would have been more understanding. She could have offered to comp the appetizer. Hell, a smile would have been nice. For her sake I hope that girl gets it together because I don't think she's going to last long at this rate.

We're not coming back here anytime soon. It's a shame because it's a long time family favorite. We may try our luck with the Rancho Cordova location in the...

"The Old Spaghetti Factory" aka 'OSF' has been one of those consistently decent and super affordable Italian restaurants. Not over the top amazing but still a great family restaurant that offers comfort classics and a complete dinner with salad, bread, and dessert that won't burn a hole in your wallet. Located directly on Sunrise Ave. just north of Cirby Way in Roseville, this remains the one and only OSF in Placer County. I came here for dinner during the evening of Saturday 11/20/2021 at around 6:00pm.

During the busy dinner hours and weekends, the parking situation can get very challenging. There is a parking lot that extends towards the rear of the business but pay close attention as there are neighboring businesses open during the week that may ticket your vehicle. Fortunately I found a parking spot when someone was leaving. Once inside, there can also be quite a bit of a wait; however that too moves rapidly as their staff is fairly organized even during the busiest of times.

Once seated, things actually moved fairly quickly. My party and I were given menus; at least OSF is still doing physical menus rather than looking on a phone. We all wanted iced waters and as for my drink of choice, I decided on a carafe of their "Chianti" Tuscany, Italy wine. As far my meal of choice, I settled with an OSF favorite of mine, the "Pot Pourri". This was their 3-pasta sampler that included Mizithra cheese & browned butter, meat, and clam/marinara sauces. And of course every meal includes an appetizer that includes warm fresh bread & butter and a house salad.

The bread & butter arrives within 3 minutes. I was a bit disappointed that the bread wasn't 'warm' which made spreading the cold butter a bit more difficult. The salad was good though as it was cold, crispy, and had enough dressing to make it taste good. As far as my Pot Pourri sampler, this was good as all 3 samples had a lot of flavor while not being overbearingly salty. I've ordered this almost every single time I have been to OSF so I already knew what to expect.

Our server was very attentive even though it was as busy as could be on a Saturday evening. After finishing our meals, we all decided on their Spumoni ice cream which has always been my personal favorite. Overall, this place is big, it is loud, and if you could get past the noise, you should be good to go. It is definitely kid-friendly whole offering a ton of gluten-free options. Again, to get a complete Italian dinner with bread, salad, entree, and dessert for under $20 is a great deal. The service, experience, and price is 5-stars while the food for me is just 3-stars. That rounds the Roseville "Old Spaghetti Factory" out to four...

My husband and I and our 4yOld son came here last night for Dinner. It's been over a year I think since we've been back. When I walked in I told them 3 please. 2 Adults 1 child. We were seated quickly and didn't have to wait which was nice because they did look busy. It was a nice Surprise cause I wanted to sit in the trolly for my son and that's exactly where we got to sit and I didn't even ask. I was like Yayyy this is where I wanted to sit. I never have to look at the menu because I always get the same thing that I've been getting for years!!! Chicken Parm without the red sauce and No Red sauce spaghetti either. I get it with Mizithra and brown butter spaghetti. I don't care for Red pasta it doesn't taste good to me. I love either fettuccine or buttered noodles. I did look at the menu for fun to see if anything was new and did notice that their prices went up! We had a very nice Waiter named Adam. He did such a good job explaining New appetizers on the menu and came back fast with our bread salad and drinks. Before our food was out he'd keep coming back to check to see if our salad and bread was good and to let my husband and I know our food would be out shortly. He was also taking care of the couple seated across from us and he was always checking on them too. Our food came out and it was soooo Hot! I was happy because I'm that person who loves when their food and plate is on Fire!!! Like I want to burn my mouth when I go take a bite. I wish I would've taken a picture but I was soooo hungry I quickly thanked GOD for my food and then started stuffing my face lol. My husband got fettuccine Alfredo and it looked really creamy and Delish. My little one shared with his Dad and tore it up. We had such a nice dinner/ time last night and the food hit the spot. Shout out to Adam for taking such good care of us and making sure we had everything we needed and that our food tasted great. Thank you...