The Old Spaghetti Factory

I was so disappointed. It wasn’t very busy when we got there and our waitress took forever to get us our drinks and bread. She then proceeded to give terrible service. She kept reaching her arm right in front of my face which is so rude! Then when we finally got the food half of it was terrible. Chicken Marsala sauce was disgusting and the chicken Parmesan was burnt and black. Never again!

Our waitress was Awesome! The food OMG! Absolutely delicious! I will definitely be back for their spicy spaghetti.

I’m a lost for words, I was confused on their theme, not Italian, a little 1920’s. Looked more like a Chinese opium house inside. Food was nothing amazing, the price was good for the gas lamp area. Sorry, this time only

As usual, delicious Italian food with hearty portions and dessert included. Our service was excellent and when the manager had to climb into the window next to us to pull a shade down, he offered us a free appetizer to make up for disrupting our dinner. We’ve visited this exact location several times over the past 16 years when visiting CA and it’s always a pleasure!

Racist imo here is what happen when I went today, the server was Greyson and I was at table ⁴⁰⁰⁄₁. I went there to check it out before I bring my kids, just to check and see how crowded it might be, if they have high chairs, aquariums a fireplace and stuff my grandkids might like they are 2&4 y/​o and live out of
make a long story short I ordered and paid then while waiting the waiter said go have a look around and so I did. The place was nice I found a table that would be nice for my kids for a less busy day. Then the manager came a kicked me out claiming people were concerned I was going to steal from their table. I showed him the receipt for my dinner and the receipt from the bar and explained why I looked around the restaurant and pointed out that my belongings was at a table on the first floor but we were on the 3^rd floor. When the waiter backed me up, he just said well you can just take your food and get out and refunded me cash for a beer and voided the credit card transaction. The waiter was so apologetic I can tell she did not know this dude was that bold of a racist. There’s plenty more places in my city to eat. This guy need to get a different job maybe subway. I almost said yeah just give it to me to go since you charged my card.already. But I said fuck that and fuck this place don’t eat there

Worse service ever. First we knew we had a hour wait to be seated, which is fine. But they didn’t tell us that it would take over an hour and a half to get our food. Our waiter Brody was the worst. Took forever to take our order, the had us server our selves our salad and drinks by passing it down the table. I asked for lemons for my water, he brought me one… yes one slice of lemon. Then he went on break. I will never be back to this location again.

Rounding up my review to 3 after the General Manager reached out to me personally to address my latest experience at their restaurant. The fact that they were pro-​active in wanting to know more about that night and seeing what they can do to improve deserves another star. Thank you OSF for listening to my feedback. I really hope my feedback helps improve your customer service for future banquets.

We came on a Saturday late afternoon, the place was not too crowded waited about five minutes for a table. Service was great from the beginning to the end, waitress checked on us and refilled our drinks in a timely fashion. Our meal consisted of cheese garlic bread, fettuccini, chicken Parmesan, lasagna, bread, salad, and Spumoni ice cream. The salad and bread that comes with the meal was the only thing we were not that thrilled about, everything else was very good. The pasta and the sauces were fresh, chicken parm was fried lightly very good taste. I would suggest the cheese garlic bread appetizers, they were excellent. Tried the Spumoni ice cream which was Italian Neapolitan, chocolate, cherry, and pistachio ice cream, delicious. The strawberry lemonade wasn’t the best, next time I will try one of their Italian sodas.

This review is for to go orders.
This location sucks for walk-​in to go orders. Staff is under trained and inefficient. They will always ask you what you would like to order but they forgot we have never seen a menu or they never even ask if we would like to see a menu. Very bad service at this location.

If I could give negative stars, I would.
My boyfriend and I were in the area because we were attending a conference at the convention center. We were somewhat pressed on time… we had a little bit over an hour for lunch before we had to head back to the convention center (right across the street) for a meeting with a client.
When we came in, we were told it would be a 15 minute wait (not bad considering it was the lunch rush)…it ended up being more like 20, but that was perfectly fine. We figured we still had a good 45 min to eat and still be able to make it back in time for our meeting.
We were sat and during our wait, had already decided on our orders, so we were ready to go.
(Let me preface this next part by saying that my boyfriend and I were servers many years ago, so we know how long it should take for you to greet a table, get drinks, food, etc.)
We sat at our table for 15 minutes before our server even greeted us, which was a quick «I’ll be right with you folks»…another 10 minutes later and he finally comes over to us to take our order (we’ve now been seated for 25 minutes and are just ordering). We told him we were all set to order, and that we were in somewhat of a rush, so whatever food comes out first, just bring it out (i ordered a panini, my boyfriend ordered the meat sauce pasta with a soup… both from the lunch menu).
20 minutes later and everything is brought out at the same time. My sandwich was so burnt… I don’t even know how it left the kitchen. My boyfriend ended up giving me his pasta while he just ate his soup. When our server finally came back to check on us, I told him the sandwich was too burnt (which he replied «yeah, that’s pretty bad» when he looked at it), if he could just take it off the check and also get us the check because we really needed to leave. He asked if we wanted to wait and see if he could get the kitchen to remake a new one, we responded, no, we really need to go and just wanted the check. He said ok, took the sandwich and left.
At this point, we are anxiously waiting our check so we can leave because we are now late for our meeting. We keep searching for our server, and have no idea where he went. He shows up 20 minutes later with the check AND the sandwich in a to-​go box, saying proudly «i was able to get the kitchen to remake the sandwich for you!» …Thanks, but we’re now late for our meeting AND WE DIDN’T EVEN WANT A NEW SANDWICH!!! But I’m trying to just let it go and think to myself, maybe he felt bad that I never got my food and he wanted to give us a comped sandwich… NOPE! We were charged for the sandwich we told him we didn’t want, but he had put in anyways.
My boyfriend quickly pays and we leave. I’m seething angry and debate telling my boyfriend to go to the meeting without me so that I can go back and complain to a manager… but he told me to just let it go and to RUN so we can meet up with our client. Because we had a meeting and were attending the conference, it wasn’t like I could eat the sandwich afterwards. We were busy the entire time the conference was going on until about 6:30PM. So 6 hours of carrying around a cold, soggy sandwich that I couldn’t even eat afterwards (which is why I specifically said I didn’t want a sandwich remade, cause its a hot sandwich)
Never in all the times I’d been out eating, nor in all the years I spent serving tables had I ever tried to charge a table and have been charged for an item I asked to be taken off the check due to a kitchen error. This was the absolute WORST service I’d ever received and you can believe I will NEVER come back. It’s been about a month since this visit and I’m still debating about e-​mailing the corporate office to tell them about it. My boyfriend is the only reason I haven’t yet.
Note to all the servers here, and all servers any where: If your customers specifically tell you they don’t want something, you better have a damn good reason for still charging them for it.

I really like this place. I love the fact you can have a course entrée for under $ 15 for most of the plates. I love it!
Well today I returned from my first time and everything was going perfect until half way through my meal I found hair under the cheese of my Chicken Parmigiana

The old spaghetti factory has been a pasta staple in the Gas Lamp district of San Diego for at least a couple decades. The ambiance is very nice. Adorned with warm wood accents throughout, giving it an old world charm that’s very inviting.
When I first went to the Spaghetti factory many years ago, I loved it. Throughout the years my pallet has definitely changed. I’ve been fortunate enough to have had excellent and amazing pasta dishes in authentic Italian restaurants. The pasta here doesn’t exactly fall into that category. Don’t get me wrong. It was good enough I suppose. Yes, some dishes are better than others, but when I order pasta with white clams sauce, it would be nice to actually see the clams. The taste was decent but the clams were seriously lacking.
On the other hand, Katrina our waitress was fantastic. Her great service had nothing to do with the food itself. Thank you Katrina for a pleasant experience. After all, it was Mother’s Day and we had a party of 8.
Needless to say, I probably won’t be running back. Especially with all the great selections to choose from in the Gas Lamp

Great experience and great food. We had about a 15 minute wait on a Friday night. Staff was very friendly. We ordered a Garlic Mizithra and Chicken Marsala with Mizirtha Cheese pasta dishes. Every entrée you get a soup or salad and ice cream at the end. You also get a small loaf of bread. Ask for the house salad dressing, it was Pesto Ranch and is so good. We ended the meal with Spumoni ice cream and the bill was cheap for Italian food. We will definitely be back.

Definitely one of the better restaurants in the chain. Came here on a Wednesday night at 6, and my party of 7 was seated pretty quickly!
Setting: Very large and very dark. There’s also a lot of small, separate areas to dine. I didn’t even want to use the restroom because I didn’t think I would be able to find my way back!
Service: Awesome! We were checked on several times throughout the night and received whatever we asked for quickly.
Food: One of my favorite things about this restaurant is the 3-​course meal (technically, 4). First you get house bread (use the garlic butter!), then soup/​salad, then the entrée, and then spumoni/​vanilla ice cream (choose spumoni!). And honestly, you can’t go wrong with Italian food. There’s a wide variety of pasta dishes and they’re all very good! My favorite is the spaghetti was white clam sauce.
However, they ran out of juice bars for the kid’s desert, which was a pretty big disappointment for my little cousins.
Aside from that, come here for a delicious and fun time!

I don’t get why this place doesnt have 5 stars! For $ 12 you can get a whole delicious bowl of spaghetti, a salad, and an ice cream! That is a way better price than fast food! Not to mention full waiter service, nice décor and pleasant candlelight. AND its a legit restaurant meal! I love this place and I will always come back here to have regular spaghetti for a good price!

I remember when this place changed to Dussini’s. Then OSF returned and it all became a hybrid of both, where Dussini’s was upstairs from OSF. I never stepped foot into any part of it that is/​was Dussini’s. Currently, the part of Dussini’s is a bit of a lingering reminder that the original attempt to become Dussini’s wasn’t a good one. But oh well, OSF is back, and I’m ready to chow down.
This location both is and isn’t consistent with its other location in San Marcos. I’m glad I don’t have to drive all the way to San Marcos just for OSF.
The food is good for what I pay, which happens to be much more affordable. I always end up getting The Premier, which is the lasagna and chicken marsala. Prices have steadily went up, but still not bad. I paid $ 15.25 for that, and it came with salad or soup, and spimoni ice cream at the end.
Gonna call out my good buddy Eddie P. of 9÷9÷2009 this time. 6 ½ years later, OSF has come a long way, and what you ended up paying for was definitely not representative of their normal offers. They’ve made many attempts to enhance the place, but they’re basically going with what works, which is to not surrender to the whole current downtown vibe. Although I am unaware of their eventual fate, I will still enjoy this place despite its shortcomings, whatever they may be, depending on the person.
Currently, their service is good. Not perfect, but not even close to a disaster.
Parking: Although there are parking structures in the area, I believe the best bet is street parking. Unless it’s a Sunday, meters are enforced until 8pm (not to be confused with the usual 6pm for meters in other areas in San Diego). We happened to park near a transient about a block away, closer to La Jolla Strip Club, and he told us he never sees parking enforcement during that last hour from 7−8pm. It’s up to you to figure out if he’s telling the truth. I personally believed him, and yet I didn’t want to take any chances. 25 cents for 12 minutes, and they take dimes and nickels as well.

One star because our entire team (we were here for a corporate dinner) got food poisoning after eating meat from there. I was the only one who didn’t get sick (prob because I did not eat the meat).
Not kid friendly, by the way. Not recommended for families.
Here’s the deal: food is decent, but it’s cheap ($ 10 – 15 an entrée including soup or salad and ice cream). The atmosphere is quaint and it’s pretty cool. The bathroom is on the third floor so it’s pretty inconvenient. Staff is all so nice! We had a party of 9 and the waitress (Kelsi) was super attentive and made sure we always had beverages. We came on a Friday night at 6:30 and the wait wasn’t very long! Overall good experience. Not a lot of options for vegetarians!

We came here after a long day of partaking in adult beverage consumption and after the Padres game.
We arrived and were told it would be 10 – 15 minutes; within 10 minutes we were seated. Approximately 5 minutes later Steve introduced himself and told us to give him a moment and he’d be right with us. True to his word he came back got our drink orders and gave us a few minutes to get our minds made up.
One of my friends ordered the managers special half meat/​half mizithra, another ordered the chicken parmigiana and the last two of us ordered the meat lovers special. The bread and salads/​soup can quickly and tasted fresh like usual. Shortly after finishing the main courses arrived and we all dug in. We were all in agreement that the food tasted good and had a nice presentation. We finished our meal with the spunoni ice cream which is always great.
Service was great food was fantastic and the atmosphere was jovial. Steve was great too.
I highly recommend a visit to the ol’ factory!

Spaghetti Factory food is ok. The reaon to come is for the three course dinner with every meal that is inexpensive.
When one of my friends recommended coming, I agreed as it had been awhile since the last time I came. The restaurant is pretty big and has about three floirs. The top being Dussini, where you can order drinks.
When we came around 630 pm, there was no wait and our party of 3 was immediately sat. I ordered the garlic mizithra for my entrée snd salad to start. Drinks used to be included in the price, but iced teas are now $ 1 extra.
A loaf of sourdough bread came out first after we ordered. The salad was ok. Croutons are pretty small and sparse.
The garlic mizithra comes with mizithra cheese, browned butter, bacon, mushroom, and garlic. I do like the mizithra cheese, but I felt as if the browned butter was a bit much as my dish was overly soaked in it.
Dinner ends with spumoni.
Overall food quality is ok. Price was $ 14 for the garlic mizithra and tea (prices have increased recently, but still not bad). Service was good.

It was Friday night and we walked out of the Comic-​con and into a sea of geeks (I say that in a good way) and flow out into the gaslamp. It was pretty packed everywhere and anywhere you looked. Having two hungry little ones in tow, we needed to find something quickly. About a block up from the convention center was the Old Spaghetti Factory. A big hit with anyone with an appetite as their meals are all served with soup or salad and dessert.
As we approached the front of the restaurant, there were people lined up along the sidewalk in either direction of the front door. I was immediately depressed thinking the wait was to be well over an hour. My daughter sat in one of the big cushy chairs in the lobby as my wife and I spoke to the hostess. While I was awaiting our turn, my wife told me a man had forced my daughter from her chair saying «he was sitting there». I asked my wife if he had any of his belongings there and she said no. What a jerk! Nice of you to bully a nine year old! Anyway, when we spoke to the hostess, sure enough, the wait was closer to 90 minutes. So we put our name down and asked about the bar area. The bar was actually upstairs and offered the same dinner menu as the restaurant. So we decided to take a chance we could sit sooner at the bar than wait for a table in the actual restaurant.
Well, it worked out. As soon as we arrived upstairs, I noticed a couple tables getting their desserts. I asked the server if there were any tables that were about ready to leave and she said it was all first come first served to grab tables in the bar area. So I hovered near a couple tables that had their desserts without being overbearing. Soon enough one of the tables finished up and left. I sauntered over to put my Comic-​con swag down on a chair. At the same time another person came over to ask if I was finished. I replied, no, just sitting down for dinner. I think he had the same idea, just a couple seconds late!
Anyway, a busser came over to clear the remaining dishes and quickly wiped off the table for us. We sat down and were able to order soon after as our server came over and checked on us. All the while, more and more visitors from the Con were coming in seeking available tables.
We ordered a couple different pasta dishes including buttered pasta with browned butter and mizithra cheese for the kids. My wife ordered the potpurri, a plate of spaghetti with four different sauces including clam sauce, meat sauce, marinara and mizithra cheese. Great option for those who just can’t decide and all are delicious. I got the chicken breast and fettuccine which is served with an alfredo sauce and broccoli. Hadn’t had it before, but was a good choice. The chicken was well seasoned and cut up into small chunks. All came with salads and ice cream. Love that concept!
The food was good as usual, however, service seemed a bit slow. The only time we saw our server was when she took our food and drink orders. She looked a bit harried and possibly had too many tables on this busy night. However, the busser and food runners were great.
The Old Spaghetti Factory is a great family option any time!
Keep on Unilocal’n!

Probably I won’t find any restaurant like this. SPECTACULAR is the word that define this place.
I got a great dinner here that include either minestrone soup (which I loved) or a salad included in the price of your pasta; dessert is also included (great Gelato).
I would love if you have many other types of pasta beyond spaghetti and fetuccini.
Guys, I got that is a familiar place but Not Wi-​Fi?!
I have to wait for Unilocal this place until I entered to my hotel room. Need to change that.
Awesome interior design, but please whatch out with the restrooms. More cleaning needed.
Love the bar design.
Great place to have dinner.
I definitely will come back.

I gave it 4 stars because the bathroom is not very well maintained, the food is spectacular and great prices! no WiFi but have good attention! recommend for a nice dinner Italian style