The Old Spaghetti Factory - Toronto

FIRST POST YAY! Nothing celebratory though, just a causal meal with friends.

Date of visit: Sunday, 27 October 2013



After a visit to the Distillery District - of which I had an image of being a more photogenic LKF but in reality looked more like Main Street in Disneyland - we walked to the Old Spaghetti Factory in St. Lawrence upon the recommendation of a friend in our group.

Hadn't eaten anything since 10 a.m. that day, I was starving when we got there at 6 p.m. But it was still a 20-min wait before we were seated. Needless to say I was thrilled when the waitress brought us fresh warm bread with garlic butter.



We ordered three entrées - Penne Arrabiata with Sausage, Chicken Parmigiana and Seafood Linguine. Each came with soup/salad, ice-cream and tea/coffee. I had the minestrone soup, which was great but over-seasoned. To be frank, the pasta tasted rather like my home-cooked dinner (am I a good cook or...?). Though I did enjoy the baked chicken breast of the Chicken Parmigiana a lot. I also loved the texture of the Seafood Linguine. It reminded me of fresh pasta I had at Jamie Oliver's Fifteen: doughy, gummy and almost Shanghaiese noodles-like.



Rating: 3/5

Food: Slightly better than your average chain restaurant food, with a few surprises here and there. But nothing remarkable.

Environment: Famous for its various interesting antique decorations. The restaurant felt like a mix between the pre-renovated Spaghetti House (coloured-glass decorations) and a Ruby Tuesday (dark and birthday-celebrating crowds). I only learnt it was a chain restaurant when I googled it for this post, but I wasn't too surprised when I found out.

Service: It was a gigantic restaurant during dinner time, so it was understandable for the staff to be inattentive. There were no spoons to eat our ice-cream with - I used a knife! Our server, Lizzie, gave us a smile (albeit fake) whenever she walked past our table, but she managed to skip seeing us eating our ice-cream with forks and knives.

Price: Roughly CAD$23 pp post-tax and tips. Good value considering the location and the portion size.


The Old Spaghetti Factory
54 The Esplanade
Toronto, ON
M5E 1A6
Canada

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