Queer Quisine - The Old Spaghetti Factory

Hi again everyone! This week's review will be on The Old Spaghetti Factory, in Phoenix. Unfortunately that's the *only* Spaghetti Factory in Arizona so anyone craving it will need to take a drive. Ah well.

I hadn't been to a Spaghetti Factory since I lived in Hawaii over 5 years ago so I was kind of excited when I heard that's where my dinner date and I would be going one Saturday night. The first thing I noticed that it was only open until 10pm on Saturdays, which I thought was a little strange for a restaurant located in downtown Phoenix, but I guess it works for them. Just don't plan on fulfilling your late-night munchies there. We got there around 8:45pm and by the time we left a little before 10pm they were already locking the doors.

The decor, for those of you who have never been to The Spaghetti Factory, is a little different from your typical, average Italian restaurant. It was a little brighter and a little less "Italian" than other pasta joints. Decorations ranged from old movie posters, hanging pots with plants, and... a trolley. Yes, I said a trolley. Like the kind you find in San Fransisco. But it seems to work. There's seating inside it if you ever had a dream of eating pasta in a trolley. Seating in the rest of the restaurant is ample with the choice of booths or tables with high-backed chairs, either with or without arms. We ended up in a booth.

Our server seemed a little over-eager as he kept coming back every 30 seconds to find out if we knew what we wanted. But that could have been due to the time so I don't know if can really blame him. Maybe if we had gotten there earlier he wouldn't have been so.... anxious.

On to the food!

We started with the garlic cheese bread, I had minestrone and my dinner date had a salad with the creamy pesto ranch dressing. I would definitely recommend an order of the bread. A good sized loaf cut in half, covered in garlic and lots of cheese. For those of you who like to dip your bread, it comes with a bowl of the house marinara. My minestrone was decent, nothing all that special but edible. One of Faye's favourite things to have there is salad with the pesto dressing, so based on her thoughts I'm going to go ahead and highly recommend it. (I don't eat salad or dressing, so I have to rely on her opinion on that one.) She ordered a glass of Chianti that there were no complaints about.

The menu has a pretty decent collection of vegetarian meals. In fact, both of our meals were meatless this time. I had the Spaghetti with Browned Butter and Mizithra Cheese and Faye had the Spinach and Cheese Ravioli. The ravioli was good, but not as hot (temperature-wise) as I would have liked. But the pasta was stuffed to the point of bursting with spinach and cheese. My spaghetti was an old favourite, my "usual" at the Spaghetti Factory in Hawaii so I was happy to be able to have it again. The Mizithra is not for those who dislike stronger cheeses. It's not your mild cheddar, and has a bit more bite than parmesean. With luck, the pasta and the browned butter will be hot enough to melt the cheese a bit while you stir it up, otherwise you end up with bits of hard, flaky cheese all over the place. Mine wasn't. Hot, that is. It was by no means cold, but it was warm and wasn't doing a great job at melting the cheese. However the flavours were there (and so were the calories!) and I was happy. The portions aren't huge, but they aren't small either. For most people they'd be just about right, if not a bit much. We both had leftovers and no real room for dessert.

But even without room for sweets there is one added bonus to ordering an entree at The Spaghetti Factory: it comes with either a scoop of spumoni or sherbert at the end of the meal. It's a great way to cleanse the pallate and lighten the load in your stomach. I'm not a big fan of spumoni so I opted for the sherbert. It's just your standard rainbow sherbert, but it was a nice way to close out the night.

A note about the women's restrooms though. If you can, avoid the first stall on your right as you walk in. I don't know who did the measuring, but they missed about 6" so directly next to the wall, as soon as you walk in, there is a 6" gap between the stall door and the wall, and the way the toilet is placed anyone walking in would be able to see EVERYTHING.

All in all it was a good meal. Not an excellent meal, but definitely a good one. If you're looking for good pasta and an interesting, casual atmosphere with reasonable prices then The Old Spaghetti Factory should go on your list......

And did I mention it was haunted? What?! I didn't? Well, shame on me. Maybe I was saving the best for last. But yes, The Old Spaghetti Factory is considered to be one of the most haunted buildings in Phoenix. Thumps, thuds, screams and the like are very often heard from above and in the bathroom. We didn't hear or see anything but maybe you'll be luckier.

The Old Spaghetti Factory
Food: 7/10
Atmosphere: 8/10 (I have to give extra points for the hauntings!)

Bon Appetite!