Fat Friday - Old Spaghetti Factory

It has been several years since I had been to the Old Spaghetti Factory. I went with school mates one night after work and met there for drinks, and prior to that, I had dinner there and thought the meal was pretty good. So this week, that is where we headed out.

Sometimes, dear readers, not every Fat Friday can be a success, and today I share with you one of our more dismal meals. The picture above of the sign outdoors might have served as a warning for how the rest of our meal might go. I was optimistic that I had remembered the food to be equivalent to that of East Side Mario's, for example, but I think I might have been remembering incorrectly. It could also be that we are now spoiled with having tasted some really great pasta meals in the past, and that might have also spoiled our meal a bit.

Matt had never been to the OSF before, and I think he was kind of intrigued by the decor, especially when they sat us in an old railway car with the base of old sewing machines as tables (it was a pretty tight squeeze, however...). Other decorative items included a phone booth, and a carousel with horses. I think it would be a great place to bring your kids for a unique experience, but don't head there if you're looking for top quality food.

For our dinner, Matt ordered the spicy sausage penne, and I went for the traditional spicy meat sauce over spaghetti. Before hand, we received fresh bread with garlic butter and a house salad, but neither were anything special to write home about. On the plus side, however, I thought the portion size of our mains were perfect! We didn't leave feeling overly full, or at least we wouldn't have, if we didn't also indulge in the ice cream that was also included in our meal. But who can really turn down ice cream at the end of a meal? Not us!

But there was some highlights of the meal. The first: the giant glass of raspberry lemonade we ordered with our meals. We have recently switched from ice tea to lemonade when we go out to eat (when we aren't ordering beer...), and this raspberry one was a great twist! Plus, you can tell from the size of it that it lasted the entire meal! The lemonade, I find, is great to cut across the saltiness that some meals have, and the raspberry is just darn refreshing! And the second highlight? The above mentioned bowl of ice cream served  with a cup of hot tea. While I stuck with plain old vanilla, Matt ordered the spumoni - chocolate, vanilla, and pistachio. Both were very good!

So, while our meal might not have been that outstanding, it was still a lovely night. The weather is turning - I can see spring in sight! So a walk outdoors was the perfect way to finish the night.  And hopefully next Fat Friday will be a little better. I think there's a new burger place that we want to check out.