A place where white people go.
Old Spaghetti Factory
Their blurb: “Fresh Food, Refreshing Prices”
Address: 53 Water St, Vancouver
Phone: (604) 684-1288
HOURS 11am-10pm, except on weekends.
Booths? Yes
When I dined: Weekday lunch
Noisy? Only when it’s busy.
Candies with your bill? No
Lives up to it’s name? There was spaghetti and it did taste like it came from a factory but I hope it wasn’t old.
I’ve been here many times, mostly in the distant past killing time between sound check and hitting the stage with my Lovecraft band. More recently I’ve come for lunch. Previously I was seated in the old timey train caboose that they have, which is kind of fun but whenever the server boards the car everything jiggles a bit. The host never asks whether or not I want to sit in a booth, which is unfortunate, because I always want a booth, and on my most recent visit she sat me in a dark corner next to the the server station.
I asked the server what was the tastiest thing on the menu. She told me the ribs (NOT the spaghetti!). I could have gotten fries or spaghetti as my side and I normally prefer fries but since it was the Old SPAGHETTI Factory I thought I should try them out for this review. It came very quickly. The salad here is nothing special, even the blue cheese dressing couldn’t make it exciting. The spaghetti, which as I said I’m never a huge fan of, was fine, nothing special. it needs cheese and there wasn’t any at my table. They should do that thing where they bring a block of parmesan and grate it right at your table like other restaurants do.
The servers here are generally attentive and courteous.
Biggest Rave: You get a fair amount for your money. Most meals come with free bread with 2 kinds of butter, coffee/tea, and best of all, a bowl of ice cream – I always choose spumoni because it is clearly superior to the other option vanilla.
Biggest Rant: They played the worst song in the world “Big Yellow Taxi (Pave Paradise, Put Up A Parking Lot).” Apart from that the music was straight up pop and about 20% too loud.
Enjoyed this review? Check out all my Vancouver restaurant reviews at http://www.thickets.net/toren/category/resto-rants/