Everything You See, I Owe To Spaghetti (Spaghetti House)

Member Name: zoe_page_1

Product:	Spaghetti House
Date:	19/10/09 (90 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Good menu, some decent set-menu offers

Disadvantages: Only London locations

"First opened in 1955, today Spaghetti House still brings the same authentic Italian passion for conviviality to neighbourhood restaurants throughout the West End of London. Generations of Londoners have been enjoying Spaghetti House..." - from their website

Years and years ago, before marriage and babies and divorce and death, my parents were students in London and, in their dating days, frequented the Spaghetti House restaurant. That's not the reason their two offspring ate there on a recent trip to London - once again that would be thanks to Mr Tesco and his mighty Clubcard Deals - but it makes a nice story.

We were in London to watch the Gymnastics at the O2. Since it kicked off at 6.30pm, a rather inconvenient time, we decided a big lunch was in order to tide us over. Having both travelled down / over to the capital that morning, we met at Euston and immediately set off walking towards the Goodge Street branch since I'd identified this as the closest one. This branch is located among an array of other appetising bars and restaurants, and looks small from the outside but covers a couple of floors with quite a few tables rammed in.

Initially we were offered a table for two on the ground floor but just as we were peeling off our coats, we were asked if we would prefer to be upstairs and agreed. Both floors were quite cramped and would be tricky to navigate if you had walking difficulties - reducing the number of tables would soon solve this, but would understandably have an impact on their profits too. There's cramped, and then there's *cramped* and this really is the latter - I hit the waitress in the head, Leona style, at one point when I was innocently showing my sister part of the routine I'd learnt at cheerleading the previous night.

It's also worth noting that the women's toilet is downstairs, and the men's upstairs, with no lift in sight. I visited the toilet and it was all a bit strange - there was a single cubicle with sink outside, but the cubicle didn't lock, and had a barn-style door, so you had to close and bolt the original main door behind you. The toilet was clean if a little poky, and there were no paper or cloth towels, leaving you with just a choice of loo roll or the heated dryers.

I had already looked at the menu online but read it again and saw it was almost, but not exactly, the same as what was on the website. While we waited we were brought a generous sized complimentary dish of black and green olives, which I had great fun de-stoning, never having had ones with stones before (olives are a new addition to my diet - I've been eating them only for the last 3 weeks of my 27 years). This was a Friday lunchtime and the place was very busy, so once we asked for a bit longer to decide on drinks, we didn't see the waitress again for a few minutes. When she returned she didn't write down the order, and forgot it while still at the table, asking us to repeat it, but what subsequently came was correct.

We ordered a starter to share and two main courses, and the former arrived after about 10 minutes. In the meantime our drinks had arrived and were pleasingly large soft drinks, not the small glasses many places try to palm you off with. Interestingly the menu only lists Coca Cola and Lemonade, but I ordered Diet Coke, am pretty sure I received this, and it was correct on the bill later. We were not offered ice and lemon, but automatically got the former though not the latter.

We had ordered garlic bread which was smaller than I expected and more buttery than garlicy. It was nice, but unusual, and we got 4 slices of baguette cut lengthways. Before hand I'd 'worried' we'd ordered rather a lot for lunch (and certainly more than the gymnasts would be eating at that time), but I was beginning to think otherwise. That was before the main courses came out, though.

The menu includes various pasta dishes (lots of shapes, not just spaghetti!), a few pizzas and what Italian restaurants tend to call main courses (fish, meat and so on) which always amuses me since even if I ate steak, I'm not sure I would ever manage it after an initial pizza or pasta. You can order a 'double' spaghetti to share, but it's worth noting this isn't always cheaper than two single dishes, so check. Also, on the menu, a (v) means meat-free, not strictly vegetarian - lots of the dishes contain fish, though the clear descriptions under each Italian name do clarify what exactly it is that you are ordering. Parmesan isn't vegetarian either, but that's a bit more forgivable than claiming prawns and salmon are.

My sister had ordered one of their several vegetarian pizza options, but, given the name of the place, I had thought it appropriate to stick to spaghetti and ordered it with garlic and chilli (in for a penny, in for a pound with garlic that day). The pasta vas a veritable mound and perfectly seasoned, not dripping in oil as some chefs seem to think required for this dish. The pizza, which I also tried, was tricky to cut with the blunt-ish knife (and the quarters they'd considerately sliced it into were too large for a lady to eat) but had a light crispy base, a thin layer of fresh and tasty sauce and lots of gooey and tangy cheese.

We didn't go for puddings, but the people at the table next to us did, and it took a lot of will power to resist having seen their orders arrive. The menu may not sound that impressive - your standard Italian staples of profiteroles and tiramisu, with nothing out of the ordinary to tempt you in - but they certainly presented them beautifully and our neighbours licked their plates clean.

Even though the place was packed, and the atmosphere bustling, we didn't feel rushed to vacate the table once the plates had been cleared. We sat for a while, digesting the food before the bill arrived (minus any mints - something you notice more when lunch has been garlic followed by more garlic). At a fraction under £25 for two it wasn't a cheap lunch by any standards, but then we had ordered off the main, more expensive a la carte menu and they do have various lunchtime offers and set menus also available if you're paying with proper money. We couldn't go for these - offers cannot be combined - but since I had £20 in Tesco Deals vouchers with me, we had calculated it well since our food part came to £20.50 (as usual, the vouchers cannot be used on drinks), leaving us with only a fiver to pay.

Spaghetti House is a London-based chain though it has many branches in the capital (we walked past numerous others in the 24 hours that followed). What I liked about the place, though, was that it didn't seem like a chain. It wasn't just the food (perfect) or the decor (cute, trattoria style) or the service (friendly in a ditzy kind of way - in addition to the waitress forgetting our order, the waiter subsequently didn't bring out our side dish until prompting, and the waitress started clearing the pre-set side plates before realising we'd need them for the starter). It was something about the atmosphere that made me feel as if I were in a good, independent place rather than a generic chain. If they were to open branches up here I would probably go quite often, since they compare well to other restaurants that fall under the Tesco Deals umbrella, and they had several tempting dishes on their menu that I wanted to try, quite rare for someone who is a fussy vegetarian. As it is, I'll have to be content with putting them on the list for my next trip to the capital, and leave it at that.

If you are a London resident or a regular visitor to the capital, this place also has a loyalty scheme you might be interested in, and in addition if you log on and provide feedback after your visit, they'll also send you a voucher for your next visit. It's not for very much but...every little helps.


http://www.spaghettihouse.co.uk/ lists locations, opening times and menus

Summary: A non-chain, chain of restaurants with well prepared, tasty food