The Old Spaghetti Factory (in downtown San )

[Guest guest]

Well, good news! I called The Old Spaghetti Factory yesterday and spoke with Josh, one of the assistant managers. Yes, they do carry gluten-free pasta. You just have to remind the waiter to tell the chef to cook the pasta in a clean pot and clean water. Your dinner will take a little longer is all. To have to "remind" the chef regarding using a clean pot and clean water meant to me that the restaurant really didn't "get it" yet. They have g-f pasta on the menu, but it really means nothing unless the restaurant understands why and how we eat it!

So, I explained to Josh what celiac disease was and exactly what it was we couldn't eat. I explained to him that the restaurant's business would increase because it is not just the celiacs who would come in to eat, but all of our family and friends would accompany us also! I know for my husband and myself, when we go out to dinner with friends, we always have to go where I can eat. If my 25-year old daughter goes out to eat with all of her girlfriends, they go where can eat. Josh then really seemed to understand the influx of business his restaurant could have if they were gluten-free friendly to us.

I asked about some of the sauces, such as the Meat Sauce, Tomato Sauce, Mushroom Sauce and the one sauce I used to love to eat there - the Browned Butter and Mizithra Sauce. According to Josh, they used cornstarch to thicken these sauces. I did not ask him about the Meatball Spaghetti Sauce - there could be a bread of some type in the meatballs - don't know. Also on the menu was the Baked Chicken Greek Style which is marinated in olive oil, garlic, lemon juice and oregano served with the Browned Butter and Mizithra Cheese Sauce - seems like that could be a possibility you could ask the chef about. To be entirely safe if you dine there, I definitely would still confirm with the chef that these dishes or any of their other sauces are truly g-f and they use clean water and a clean pot.

I asked about their salad dressings, and Josh was great about reading the ingredients to me. He read to me the ingredients of their "ranch pesto" sauce, and it seemed fine to me to eat. He read the ingredients of their thousand island dressing, but one of the ingredients was a chili sauce they use from a can, and he did not know those ingredients, so I wouldn't recommend the thousand island. The vinaigrette dressing ingredients seemed okay to me.

The desserts are out - mud pie, caramel turtle pie, cheesecake, chocolate mousse cake - however, a delicious scoop of vanilla ice cream with some chocolate syrup on top could be a possibility!

Josh also said that they had an ingredient listing we would be welcomed to review when we came in, so you could ask for that, too. He was very accommodating!

Well, seems like there's another place we can eat. Here's their information. You definitely should make reservations if you want to eat there. Enjoy!!

Sue

San , CA51 N. San PedroSan , CA 95110P:408.288.7488 F:408.288.5241

Mon-Fri: 11:30am-2:00pmLunch

Mon-Thu: 5:00pm-10:00pmFri: 5:00pm-11:00pmSat: 12:00pm-11:00pmSun: 12:00pm-10:00pmDinner