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Old Spaghetti Factory
Rating Details »
Neighborhood: Downtown
727 N 1st St
St Louis, MO 63102
(314) 621-0276
727 N 1st St
St Louis, MO 63102
(314) 621-0276
- Nearest Transit:
-
Arch - Laclede's Landing (MetroLink)
- Good for Groups:
- Yes
- Accepts Credit Cards:
- Yes
- Attire:
- Casual
- Price Range:
-
$$
- Good for Kids:
- Yes
- Takes Reservations:
- Yes
- Delivery:
- No
- Take-out:
- Yes
- Waiter Service:
- Yes
- Wheelchair Accessible:
- No
- Outdoor Seating:
- No
- Alcohol:
- Full Bar
17 reviews for Old Spaghetti Factory
Food is good, not special, but good.
Great value (under $10 for an entire meal including drink?).
I am keeping it at three stars however as I thought it was a St. Louis restaurant, it ruins my memories of a childhood when I thought it was special we had this cool place in STL.
Location is beautiful though, what was this a church?
We were craving some Italian while keeping it downtown, so we ended walking down to the Landing to hit OSF for the first time.
Decor - Very nice. Historic building, lots of dark wood, low key lighting. I think they managed what other chain places wish they could.
Started off with the tapenade. A bit oily, but still quite tasty. When i saw it was being served with flatbread, I expected pita, but instead had matza-esque flatbread. Nice touch.
Salads - dropped the extra $1.25 for the Caesar. It was decent and had more flavor than others have said, but you'd be kidding yourself if you thought it was handmade.
Entrees - I went with the meatloaf and my wife hit the lasagna. Both met expectations. And thank goodness, no Provel! As part of the meatloaf entree, I had a side of the spaghetti with mizithra and browned butter. It was interesting -- extremely sweet. Imagine butterscotch or toffee spaghetti. That might be a bit too dramatic, but it is sweet.
Dessert - hey, free ice cream, you can't beat it.
Wine - dropped $20 for a bottle of Mondavi cab. That retails at around $8-10, so the markup wasn't anything too horrible, especially compared to more upscale places.
Service - we were promptly seated and our server was attentive but not overbearing. We were taking our time making decisions and he recognized that and did not rush us.
One thing to note - the entire place is non-smoking.
If we could give 1/2 stars, I'd probably bump this up to 3 1/2.
good 'chain' Italian food. comparable to an olive garden, but with more character- and who doesnt love that kind of food??
the interior is beautiful- and great location. the menu is simple (pasta pasta) but food is a solid good. plus with every entree you get bread, salad, drink, and dessert! (my boyfriend was ecstatic with all the 'free extras')
This is a great place. I remember coming here with my parents when I was little and being enthralled by all the brick. It really is a lovely setting. I have been back many times and absolutely love how you can order whole wheat noodles. Can you do this other places? If so, I'm unaware. The mizithra cheese and brown butter is amazing and their house ranch is great too. Fun atmosphere & great for big groups since there is a lot of space. Some of their cocktails are good too!
Cool location, absolutely forgettable food, and some of the worst service I've ever had. At least the manager had the sense to give us some gift certificates because even she knew it was awful. Should be a fun place to take the kids, we must have really caught them on an off day.
I love places that serve yummy warm bread and butter to fill up on before getting even more carbs in your meal!
Meatloaf was excellent - as was the browned-butter drenched gluten-free pasta on the side. Salad was small, but flavorful.
Cheese Bread (more carbs!) was a good starter, too.
Spumoni ice cream was a nice finish!
Very cool, dark, old-timey space. In a renovated warehouse district building. Pretty cool joint!
Another trip to St. Louis, another review of a St. Louis restaurant. I've got to admit this travel thing has gotten old, and quick. Not that St. Louis has bad food, because it doesn't.
Anyways, being rather tired for a LATE flight into town the night prior I decided to keep things close to my hote. Seeing as I always stay at the Gateway Arch Hampton, restaurants in the Landing are quite close. Old Spaghetti Factory is one of the few places at this point I have not been to down there.
At first I didn't realize that this is a chain, but then I remember a long time ago I had been to the one in Columbus OH. As usual when I am in St. Louis I sat at the bar, alone; which, normally I would say that is a big indicator of a restaurant, but it always seems that these places are slow when I am in town. I ordered the lasagna which came with a house salad and bread. The salad honestly was your typical Dole straight out of a bag lettuce mix and there was NO flavor to the dressing. When I get caesar dressing on my salad I want that signature tang that caesar dressing should have; this dressing was boring and muted, no tang, no garlic, nothing. On the menu, it said the lasagna was baked, and always fresh. I got the feeling that this stuff was something similar to the Stouffer's lasagna you can buy in the grocery store. The ricotta was dry, and much like the salad there really wasn't a whole lot of flavor to it. The only real saving grace to my whole meal was the two pints of Schlafly Heffeweisen I had. For a town that gets lot's of attention because of Anheiuser (yuck) it amazes me that you don't hear much/anything about this beer elsewhere, they brew some AMAZING beer, so much so a buddy of mine from back home keeps asking me to bring a case back with me each time I'm down here.
I'm half tempted to give this place a two, but the bartender who served me last night was very nice, and friendly so I'll give it a three. That being said I don't imagine myself making a return trip to any Spaghetti Factory.
We took a group of more than 20 teenagers here for an 8:30 p.m. reservation. We arrived piecemeal after 9 p.m. and we were treated like royalty. The food is predictable and generous, but it was the service that impressed me. And the reasonable prices!
Not one of our Los Angeles born-and-bred teens had eaten at an Old Spaghetti Factory before - and I'm not sure many would go back. But the server saved the day by providing speedy meals for our horde.
Mmmmmm!! I really wish we had an OSF in San Antonio! I miss their Italian style meatloaf and their awesome lasagna! I loved smelling the bread as soon as I'd walk in...
And then after stuffing my face full of their wonderful food, a walk by the river always topped off the evening.
I hate to say it but I am really dissapointed with this place. I used to be a big fan. They used to have amazing fettuccine alfredo. Now it tasts prepackaged and uneventful. So the last time I went I ordered something different. I got the chicken marsala. SO disappointing. It was the saddest little chicken marsala I ever did see.
The good points of this place is location, atmosphere, and the bread and butter. You can't beat Lacledes Landing for a location. Its an amazing place to just walk thru. As for atmosphere, I love the trolley car in the middle of the restaraunt and the booths made out of beds, the awesome staircase. Its a grand place to eat in. The bread is a hearty loaf that comes on a carving board with oh so yummy garlic butter. It was the highlight of my meal.
We did call ahead so our wait time wasn't even five minutes on a saturday night. The food arrived quickly and our waitress was decent. Go once and form your own opinions.
After eating at the Old Spaghtti Factory in California, I wanted to try this one when we were in St Louis and it did not disappoint.
I had the Browned Butter and Mizithra Cheese Spaghetti like I had in California and it was great. The building is not as unique as the one in Duarte but it is still very very pleasant. Try it and you will not be disappointed.
So, it's a chain with all the authenticity of Applebee's... but they handle large parties well and the place (in the basement of a historic building on Laclede's Landing) is interesting. The food is both consistent and predictable.
So, 4 stars in context. By no means should couples or tourists in small groups consider this an endorsement over any of the numerous more original places within walking distance.
My dad and my sister are borderline obsessed with Old Spaghetti Factory restaurants. There, I said it. Me, i merely think they're good, cheap food. Seriously, though, he'll seek them out in any town he's in, and she used to drive 8 hours from Montana to get dinner at one. I mean, it's good spaghetti and all, but whoa, dude. And last week when we were wandering St. Louis, my dad was appalled at the thought that it might have closed, ranting at the injustice of it all after it didn't show up on a map. His relief that it was still open was equally palpable.
But don't let my bewilderment at that sell this place short. It's really good food, in some neat old-warehouse type locations (especially this one in St. Louis), with decent portions, salad, bread, and dessert all-inclusive at a pretty low price, particularly for downtown locations. These places are especially good for kids, too; if you're taking them out to a ball game or the science museum or something, this is an ideal way to get those mouths fed.
It all began when I discovered our reservation for 10 had been given away. We were running 15 minutes late so I called ahead, but apparently when I spoke to the manager upon arriving, this call never occurred. After this, I was determined to go elsewhere, but my best friend who loves Italian and was visiting home from Vegas, had her heart set on this childhood favorite. So I caved...I'm such a sucker.
The manager did scrounge up a table for us pretty quickly (maybe it was the laser looks we were giving him), and we were introduced to the best part of the restaurant: our waiter. This guy was so cheerful and animated he immediately brightened everyone's mood, despite the murky-looking water and completely lackluster food.
The interior of the restaurant is gorgeous, with high, beamed ceilings and a plush lounge. But the best part, the waiter, stood on a chair to sing me happy birthday and got the whole restaurant involved. No, it wasn't my birthday. Not that we faked it or anything, but for some reason he asked us who had the most recent one, which happened to be me. Guess he felt like giving out free desserts. Anyway, this normally would have made my cheeks burn (which it did a little), but it was all in good fun and we ended up experiencing a pretty good end to a pretty crappy beginning.
one of those family kid friendly places -- almost a prerequisite.
commercialized dishes, nothing extraordinary.
cool interior, liked the antiques.
Great hidden treasure in downtown St. Louis. Great family resturant or for a night on the town. Fresh, well cooked food. Fabulous Pasta and bread.
I just had the most unpleasant downtown St. Louis lunch experience I can remember having. Our adventure began by making reservations by phone, and being informed of when they could seat us.
After arriving on time for our reservation, we had to wait another 15 minutes. It was another 15 minutes before we even got to *place* our order, and a full 45 more minutes - an hour at the table - until our food even got there. When it did, one of the orders was wrong, and most of the rest of the food was cold. Meanwhile, the whole table was drinking only water, and our dinky little glasses got refilled once in that entire wait.
After sitting at the table for an hour and a half, we finally got our checks - they were nice enough to split it and spare us any automatic gratuity, which is why they held onto that second star. That, and our server was really rather polite. But we were there for a total of two and a half hours at lunch, for crying out loud.
It's obvious that the only reason so much went wrong is because they were understaffed. But being understaffed isn't an excuse for cold food and an immense wait on a Friday lunch.
