The Old Spaghetti Factory — Restaurant in San Diego

This place is like Halloween— and not in a good way. Beware the witch at the front desk!

I’ve been to the location and Fullerton and loved it. Decided to come to this location to celebrate our anniversary. Boy, was that a mistake. This is the worst service I have ever received in a restaurant.

When I got here, I was told there was a wait, maybe 25 minutes. No problem. Put my name and number down and went for a short walk up the street. Less than five minutes later, I get a text to come back for my table, so I head back. I was no more than three blocks up from the restaurant, but somehow they gave my table away because I didn’t get there fast enough, and didn’t respond to the text. No one had EVER said to text back, and I’ve never been to a restaurant with a text list like this.

The old bat at the front desk was insanely rude and belittling. I was told it would be another 20 minutes, and she flat out told me it was my fault for not texting back. When I pointed out that the young staff that had helped me originally never mentioned that was something I should do, she basically said tough luck (and of course the staff started saying it to the other customers in the lobby after that).

Finally got a table. Server was busy, didn’t care about our two-top. Several times she stood on the other side of some tables and called to us to ask if we needed anything, and we had to call back to ask for refills. Couldn’t just walk over and ask.

While eating, my husband and I decided we were going out the side door on our way out, because I didn’t want to be anywhere near the old hag at the front desk. Meanwhile, she started coming around to clean up after a big party that was just starting to leave. When part of this party went to leave through the side door, she YELLED at them that they couldn’t use that door, despite roughly 10-12 people using it just prior to them. I looked at my husband and told him I’m using that door no matter what, because she was beginning to seem very unstable, and I wanted nothing to do with that.

Overall, poor service, poor customer interaction skills. Food was okay, but not necessarily good, and certainly not worth the headache. Will never be back to this one. Fullerton’s location is much better, and worth the drive compared to this. Avoid this location like your sanity depends on it, because it...

Owner is paying for a great location, has a lot of competition in the area, and fighting lower quality ingredients, smaller portions, and rising prices; yet on a beautiful day we were told we'd have to sit inside, risking us walking out....why?..the waitress basically didn't want to cover the extra distance, and shes guaranteed % mandatory tip, so why walk to a far table???....so management needs to address the fact there location is too big per the wait staff they are willing to employ, and/or the work ethic of the staff is lazy....so brought up to manager and I got a rehearsed apology as if this is the first time this has happened, when it's one of 2 things..he prioritizes staff comfortability and babysitting over customer service and then takes the hit for them, or the waiting staff has 0 respect for his guidelines and ignore him...compensated/bribed w a piece of cheesecake, but seems throwing money/excuses at an ongoing problem is a new style business model growing in liberal cities we wont be frequenting for the simple condescending experience, as it says our business isnt appreciated, and displays a "your here for u$, were not here for you" attutude.....between that, and the fact the quantity of ravioli and the taste were equivalent to what I buy at Safeway for 9.99, I don't think well be returning...the crab wasn't caught in the last 2 weeks..I believe the ravioli is brought in frozen in a bag.....just moved across the street and would've eaten here once a week, 50 times a year, but seems I'm headed elsewhere for Italian food....actually did me a favor, as its gonna take half a year to all these eateries downtown, so its nice to start the elimination process and narrow it down..i think there so used to tourists and one time visits, customer retention isn't considered... UPDATE:....owners "response" was recycled A.I generated trash apology, so this corner "restaurant" is now where we will use the bathroom and piss on the toilet seats w no regard....thanks for a great...

This is an Update review, On 4/01/25 around 5.00 pm we visited This location, Unfortunately our visit was not enjoyable for the following facts, They had on one male waiter for the entire upper floor to take care of all the customer on a super busy day while the padres game just finished across the street. The waiter was running all over the floor like speedy gonzales trying to serve all the tables on the upper floor, while the newby manager Ari was just standing doing nothing, didn't even bother to help the poor waiter, our main course was brought to our table when in fact salads suppose to be serve first and then the main course, and only one bread was served when there were three plates serve for three people, also not a single time we were asked if we needed a refill, i actually had to get up and speak to the newby manager and suggested she should be helping the poor waiter, all she can say she was new and it was her first day as a manager, then after my conversation with the newby, after 10 minutes Madison the other manager with experience she approach our table and sked if everything was alright, and i said no. and explain her the situation and also the lack of how to manage the business knowing there was a padre game and most likely at every game that location will be extremely busy and they should schedule more employees to handle the high volume of customer coming in to do business, Madison actually did a 75% discount on our total tab for the inconvenience, which in my mind it should be a no charge since none of enjoy our meals. I end up tipping the waiter for the extraordinary effort to serve every single table. but as for management they need major improvment. Update 5/5/25 Today's service was much better . But the bread was cold as...