The Old Spaghetti Factory

The Old Spaghetti Factory in San Marcos
While the building itself may be old, it looks like a lot of what they used is.
Love the design, dacor, and atmosphere.
Add the great food, service, and value and you have a wonderful restaurant.

This use to be our favorite place to eat. After waiting 20 min. for a table we were finally seated. (This is during a slow time) After seated a waiter came by for our drink order. Took 20 more minutes to get the drinks. No longer beverages included with meal and the prices have increased. Service was slow and my dinner was served cold. Never could find the waiter to let him know, so left disappointed

Let me start off by saying a big THANK YOU to the staff at OSF for making our graduation celebration a memorable one. From beginning to end, everyone I spoke with in planning our evening were very helpful and responded promptly to all my questions along the way. Our servers for the evening were spectacular! I wish I could remember your names, but they took exceptional care of us and our guests. We had a large party of around 25 and they handled it without a hitch. Again, thank you for a great evening.

Old Spaghetti Factory is an oldie and a goodie, classic Italian Restaurant.~ I’ve came to this location a few times for special occasions and the location in downtown SD, and as usual this restaurant is very accommodating with nice service and good eats. I’d recommend this spot for a special dinner or to satisfy spaghetti cravings.
–friendly service from all staff
–convenient location in San Marcos right by the 78 freeway
-*scrumptious spaghetti finished in rich meat sauce*. so amazing with that sauce along with Italian sausage and Sicilian meatballs!
–creamy white clam sauce. it was delectable and awesome with the spaghetti
–FRESH and tasty salad
–sweet and awesome spumoni ice cream ;))
–small game room for kids
–cute antique décor
–great ambiance
–4 STARS!

I grew up on the spaghetti factory in Jack London Square. It was so amazing to me that there’s in old train cab inside. I didn’t realize it was in multiple locations until I was older.
The San Marcos location is the closet to me so it is the location I frequent often. Its got the classic feel of other locations inside and the shopping center its in doesn’t get overly crowded.
The food quality seems to be not as amazing as it used to be or maybe I’ve just had some bad experiences lately. I like the fettuccine alfredo, the garlic and butter pasta, and the fact that your main dish includes bread, salad or soup, and spumoni ice cream for dessert. You really cant beat all that you get for the prices.

Quality food and friendly service is what I look for when I’m dining out. The Old Spaghetti Factory in San Marcos fits that bill. We have never been disappointed and have enjoyed many of the entrees on the menu over the years.

Service was good chicken was good but sauce was kinda bland could use something to spice it up a bit.

Love this place! The Gorgonzola dip is SOOO soo tasty! You must try it! Make sure you sit at the bar and have Brooks make you drink. He’s the coolest, makes a great drink, and is one of the friendliest bartenders in San Marcos! Go try it!

Ugh. There isn’t much I can say after leaving this place, except that this is the worst OSF I have ever visited. The gorgonzola appetizer featured cold sausage and cheese sauce that was so rich it nearly killed my appetite altogether. Asking for ice water was akin to seeking canonization.
I ordered The Premier. I thought something was wrong with the lasagne after the first bite, so I moved on to the Chicken «Marsala.» Big mistake. If the lasagne was Spahetti-O’s, the chicken was puppy chow with canned mushrooms. I ate 60% of the lasagne and three bites of the chicken (I was giving the chef benefit of the doubt over my taste buds. My taste buds won). My husband ordered the Salt with Garlic Mizithra and Salty Bacon. His heart and I thank him for eating only a small bit of what was placed before him. Even the berry sangria wasn’t strong enough to dull the pain.
Why two stars? 1– house pesto salad dressing that can’t be beat. 2– spumoni.
Save your money and eat at McDonald’s. I can’t believe I wrote that.

This place is a-​ok. The parking lot has plenty of parking and the location is right off the freeway.
I stopped by during lunch with a group of 9 people and we were seated within a reasonable amount of time. I ordered the unlimited soup and salad and spumoni ice cream and thought the food was decent. Nothing really stood out with me except for the spumoni ice cream (which i love).
I highly recommend you get the spumoni because I think this is the only restaurant that actually has spumoni as an ice cream flavor!
The service was good and I think I would come back with a group but not on my own.

The Old Spaghetti Factory reminds me of what fancy dining used to be like when I was little. I remember celebrating a few occasions at The Old Spaghetti Factory and places like it. They’ve made a few changes like an updated menu and gluten free spaghetti. My go to order is always an Italian raspberry soda and their browned butter and mizithra cheese spaghetti. It hits the spot every time. Whats rad about The Old Spaghetti Factory is that they sell their mizithra blend in containers. So, you can now dabble in making your own spaghetti at home with whatever flair you want.

We came here on a whim for 02.14.16 dinner since we had already celebrated the night prior. It was my first time here and the ambiance is very nice. The wait was only 10mins (for dinner at 615pm) and I liked how this place is transitioning into using text/​phone call as to notify when your table is ready. The bar was next door and my fiancé and i decided to get a drink as we waited for our table. I really liked the bar atmosphere; kinda get that old Italian/​western feel. Our table was ready right as we were about to pay for our drinks. The bartender was kind enough to walk our drinks to our table.
Thus far service was great; attentive, especially on a special day. We were sat in the main dining area within the San Diego trolley which i thought was cool that they made that into a dining area inside the trolley.
Started off with the Olive Tapenade
–spread made of ripe olives, capers, garlic, olive oil, lemon juice served with toasted rustic bread. (very savory, a nice starter if you like olive/​capers)
Main Entrees
Gourmet Jumbo Crab Ravioli
–very delicious with a good portion of jumbo ravioli. wished they put more pesto sauce
–tried the Caesar salad
White Clam Sauce with fettuccine
–my fiancé tried this out. was different, sauce was good but not creamy more pasty and clumpy. not enough clams and fettuccine was kinda over-​cooked.
–minestrone soup (was one of the best i’ve tried, hearty with a good savory base)
Ordered a side of the fresh broccoli with mizithra cheese
— a must order and try. goes really good with any pasta dish.
Overall:
a very good first time experience during V-​Day 2016. plenty of parking. outdoor seating with heated lamps. TV located only in bar. the pricing and portion really compliment each other with their famous 3 course meal with any pasta. had no issues with service (friendly and attentive). will definitely come back to try other pasta dishes.

Husband went out of town, so brought the kids back. Firstly, I’m not sure what happened last time that we were charged $ 7.95 each for our 3 course meals, but this time was very different. Special maybe, but my server tonight didn’t think so. However, that’s not the cause for the decreased rating.
The rating change is about the overall feeling I get from the staff in general along with an issue about cleanliness.
Our server tonight, Melanie, was great. She was very nice and had the perfect amount of attention and checking on us.
The others, were not as good. The people who were cleaning the table right next to us were discussing off color topics in front of my kids. I’m no prude, but come on and have a little common courtesy to not add guests who include children into your love life. We don’t want to hear it. To top it off, whatever they were wiping the table with smelled like pee. My son commented that all of a sudden it smelled like a public bathroom. Need I say more?
The hosts at the front upon entering ignored us again but finally one looked up and asked how many. No salutation, just how many. She sat us in a booth, as requested and then was pleasant enough.
We were given a dull knife that slid off the bread twice nearly slicing a finger open. But it was too dull to do that even. The next knife was better but in waiting for it, I tried catching the eye of a couple different people that walked by and while they saw me, they did not acknowledge my hail.
The food for me tonight was tasteless (clam sauce spaghetti again, which is normally flavorful), and there was a stray piece of chicken in my food? The iced tea was going bad. The vanilla ice cream was cheap. I’m guessing that’s why their spumoni tastes funky, it’s not good quality.
The only thing good about my food tonight was my salad, which was way too heavy on the dressing BUT NOT FROZEN like last time. And the bread. The bread was as good as ever.
Upon leaving, the hostess was busy talking to the same two male servers she was talking to when we came in, and did not say anything to us then either.
This time dinner was $ 50 including tip. Last time was just over half that with a tip.
After tonight, as much as it pains me, I’m disinclined to drive 45 minutes in fast moving but heavy traffic to eat here again.

I’ve been here twice now and the food is just average. The customer service has always been great. The servers and the hostess are very friendly. The atmosphere is old Victorian. Once you walk in there is a old style bar on the left with seating to drinks. Towards the back in the restaurant seating area there is cable car in the center of the room that you eat in.
Food wasn’t bad but nothing special. We had the lobster ravioli and their new garlic shrimp pasta dish. Both dishes were really dry. Not sure if my noodles were over cooked but most of it was clumped together in a ball. It did have large pieces of shrimp and it had a good strong garlic butter flavor. It was a little on the oily side. Lobster ravioli was good but it really needed more sauce. Your entrée comes with a side salad or soup. We upgraded our salad for an extra $ 1.50 to a Caesar salad. That gave us romaine lettuce instead of iceberg, croutons, Parmesan cheese and tossed in Caesar dressing. The best thing we had was the Italian soda in the keepsake glass cup.
It’s a nice place with great customer service but the food doesn’t wow me enough want to come back for more.

Average. The food is good. They offer a three course meal (salad-​main dish-​dessert). The waitress was very nice and was able to sit down right away. No waiting.

Old spaghetti factory is my go to place for pasta! I am absolutely in LOVE with the Gourmet Jumbo Crab ravioli!
It’s a 3 course meal! They start us off with yummy sour dough bread, your choice of salad or soup (I always get the salad with Caesar dressing), your main course then dessert!
Our waiter Nick was very helpful. It’s pretty busy right now and he apologized for the wait.
The décor inside is so cool! They have a trolley like booth in the middle of the restaurant, dim lights, chandeliers, and pictures along the walls.
I’ve been coming here for the past 8 years.& I will always come back for the crab ravioli! ⁵⁄₅

It’s so plain. I got the clam sauce lunch special and I didn’t even finish it… Their sourdough bread is ok… It’s just bread, there is nothing special. No balsamic, oil, or seasoned oil price to dip. Just sourdough bread and butter. I don’t eat butter… So. Just bread.
Regular meals (excluding lunch specials) are around 14 – 15 a plate. I’ve been to Italian restaurants that have quality by hand made pasta and ravioli that I don’t mind paying 25+ a plate. Here it doesn’t taste fresh, it tasted like it was boiled. Usually I don’t mind eating at chain restaurants, some of them are my go-to’s but here the quality isn’t good. I wouldn’t go here a second time.
The décor is… Not my taste. Circular, velvet sofas. Lol … No thanks.

I love this place. They have a great gluten free menu and the food is great. I’m also dairy free and haven’t had any problems with accommodations. I’ve been here in small and large party groups and the service has always been great.

It’s just alright. Being a foodie, Old Spaghetti Factory is quite low on the list as their menu is nothing exciting. They serve basic pasta or you can say it’s comfort food for some since everything looks familiar and you probably know what you’re going to get before you walk in. However, even for the basic stuff like spaghetti and meatballs, you can still make it nice and delicious! The taste was a bit bland and ordinary. Honestly it’s a waste of money and time if this is what eating out is. You can easily make better spaghetti and meatballs from Ragu sauce and frozen meatballs.
Food aside, I like the décor though! The train car in the middle of the dining area adds uniqueness to the restaurant. To your left there is a bar area where you can hang out and wait to be seated. It’s nothing lively or bustling like an actual bar, but it’s good to have a place to hang out while you’re waiting on a busy day.
Service was friendly and bathroom was clean.
There is a private dining room in the back of the restaurant behind the restrooms and could be a good venue for meetings and parties. However, given the mediocre food, I never imagine hosting a party here.
It’s a good place to dine if you don’t even feel like making pasta from a glass jar of sauce…

My favorite memory of the Old Spaghetti factory is my son sitting in his high chair, surrounded by spaghetti as far as he could fling it. We paid the bill, which wasn’t too high, and left the mess for the staff to clean up! That fond memory actually occurred in the downtown location of this restaurant chain years ago. But this review is for a recent visit to the San Marcos location of the Old Spaghetti factory.
See my recent photos of our visit to the San Marcos location. How does the food look to you? Neither gourmet nor homemade… but edible. Yep it tasted like it looks. The spaghetti with Mizithra cheese and butter was my favorite of the 3 pastas that I tasted. The clam sauce was bland and tasteless, with the texture of a thickener added to a cheap creamy sauce. The meat sauce was ok, but also bland. My plate of pasta with 3 sauces was $ 11.50, and it’s overpriced considering the quality of the food.
The uninspiring salad speaks for itself in the photo. The dressing was the best part of the salad. (Dinners come with salad and bread.)
My recent visit to the Old Spaghetti factory in San Marcos didn’t inspire me to bring my grandkids in for a visit. I’m giving them 2 stars for the food, and I added a star just for the fond nostalgic memories.
This is a popular chain, so be prepared to wait for mediocre food.