The Old Spaghetti Factory

It's been a long time since I've been to The Old Spaghetti Factory -- long enough that I really didn't remember anything about that. Wouldn't have gone except there was a group meet there, so keep in mind this review is based on large-party auto-gratuity service.

Their mains come "It's All Included", meaning theoretically you get:

• Italian Sourdough Bread with Whipped Garlic and Plain Butter. This is not garlic bread. This is bread you cut yourself, and soft butter supposedly with garlic mixed in.
• We were in a group so they brought a few plates of this and sprinkled it about the long table. I specifically asked for it later in the evening when the bread had run out and never saw it. Maybe it was brought to the table elsewhere but it's a long table and as I specifically asked for it, I really did expect that it would land closer to me if not brought right to me.
• Soup OR salad
• Small bowl of Minestrone Soup, or upgrade to Clam Chowder or French Onion Soup for $2.50. Quantity is maybe a cup and a half at best.
• Crisp Green Salad, or upgrade to Small Caesar or Spinach Salad for $2.00
• Spumoni Ice Cream
• Choices were vanilla or "spumoni".
• "Spumoni" was an ice cream mix. On the night I was there, it was pistachio and chocolate. If you wiki'ed it -- no there's no candied anything. Quantity is just around 1 scoop.
• Hot Tea or Coffee
• Nope. I didn't get that nor was I offered it.

Clam Chowder soup upgrade (+$2.50 with order of main)

• Hard to find any clams amid the carrots and potatoes. When I did find something chewy I actually wasn't sure if it weren't bacon.
• Soup had good bacon flavour though and thankfully wasn't thin.

Spaghetti with Browned Butter and Mizithra Cheese ($13.95)

• One of my pet peeves is when a restaurant writes up something as being way more special and interesting than it really is. Here, it's "signature Mizithra" that is "deliciously salty".
• Nothing special here. You could do better with plain ricotta cheese over lightly buttered spaghetti.
• Absolutely do not order this.
• Gets cold fast, probably because there's no sauce to help keep it hot.
• You could try to rescue it with the garlic butter from your bread -- if you got any.

"Spumoni" ice cream from "It's All Included"



Service was bizarre. They didn't try to take everyone's order, which was okay because people dropped in to the table during the first half hour of the reservation time. However, people who came later to the group table were asked about drinks and main first.
When I asked for my bill the auto-gratuity was mentioned and I was asked if it were okay. Huh? Do I get a chance to refuse it and add my own gratuity amount?
I don't really mind auto-gratuity -- as long as everyone at the table actually got reasonably personalized service since the auto-gratuity amount is on par with personal table service gratuity. But when you get less than what you paid for and less service -- it feels like a restaurant scam.