No it's not fine dining but you know what to expect and they always deliver. Inexpensive pasta meal in comfortable surroundings. They throw in the soup or salad, bread and dessert which are pricy extras elsewhere. So you get a three course meal in comfortable surroundings at an inexpensive price -- Take the kids.

It's been years since I've been back to the OSF, and walking into this one tonight reminded me of old times - nothing's changed, from the slightly "old house" smell of the restaurant to the paper menus, to the decor. The food quality is similar as well.

You get what you pay for - At $10 - $15 per person, you get a three course meal. While the quality of the salad, pasta and ice cream leave a lot to be desired, I did leave with a full stomach. My seafood linguini in marinara sauce had a small amount of seafood, topped with watery, flavourless sauce. My friends' spaghetti and meatballs was similar to cafeteria food - meatballs lacked in the "meat" dept. and seemed to have a lot of filler. Other friend's pot pouri pasta (3 sauces) was reported to be ok.

The price is right if you're hungry, want food fast and aren't too concerned about quality.

I've been to the OSFs in Gastown, Whistler, and Victoria, so I know what I should be expecting from the chain. However, the New West location is the worst out of all the ones I've been to. Being a New West resident, and having fond childhood memories at the Gastown OSF, I really wanted to like this place... but I can't.

I've visited this location for lunch, dinner, and in the middle of the afternoon. Regardless of the time, and regardless of how empty the restaurant is, it takes a long time to get a seat.

The OSF concept is great: no-fuss spaghetti meal complete with bread, butter, salad/soup, dessert and tea/coffee, all for one low price. But while they allocate the effort in wowing the customers with the generous loaf of bread, garlic butter, ice cream and bottomless coffee, they skimped on the one thing that is in the name of the establishment---the spaghetti.

I've always wondered why they don't offer other kinds of pasta for a change. But no matter. In all the other OSFs, the spaghetti is usually cooked properly. Here in New West, it's always overcooked.

And the sauce... oh man. I have jars of generic-brand pasta sauce at home that taste better. The "fresh, plump mushrooms" in the mushroom sauce are obviously from a can. The white sauce has the consistency of glue and tastes similar to it. Perhaps it's the same in all the other OSFs, but the horridness of the sauce is far more pronounced in the New West location, probably because the spaghetti is bad to start off with.

I've had the salad once and that was the last time I had the salad there. It's the same salad mix as found in the other locations, but doesn't seem to be as fresh here.

Very, very disappointed.

Well, I have been going to this place since I was a high school kid. Me and my two friends went in the other day to celebrate that we met each other 10 years ago. I thought about how many loafs of breads I ate with unlimited refill of cokes when we were in grade 10. (we did order entrees so I didn't feel embarrassed) FIVE LOAFS of bread. And until the last loaf and last refill of coke, they still smiled at the end... just wanna thank them for that...

This staff was incredible at helping my girlfriend and I make the two-year anniversary of our first date, which was at the Old Spaghetti Factory, a memorable experience! They were extremely helpful and accomodating in making sure the table we had originally sat at two years ago was reserved for us when we arrived, and they placed a rose I had brought ahead of time on the table in a vase so that it was ready when we entered. The staff was very attentive. This place always feels like a slice of home when I enter, and the spaghetti reminds me of the homemade pastas my mother used to make when I was a child. Love all the antique features. On behalf of both of us, thank-you to the staff of the Factory for helping us re-live our first dinner together!

I like the free bread and butter they give you and you can keep getting more bread. Also, a choice of ice cream or coffee is included if you ordered a main dish. My favorite is the Spumoni Ice Cream!

I had vegetarian lasagna, cheese bread and a cookie monster shake and i was impressed by the flavour all of these foods were great. However the salad was just a bunch of vegetables (carrots, lettuce, radish, and cabbage) thrown together not very well with presentation the downtown location has a better salad with spinach, apple and almonds.

I've been to to OSF Richmond, Calgary, Gastown, and New West. Although the quality of the entire chain is poor, new west ranks as the worst. My last (and final) visit , I ordered regular spaghetti. It was my impression that spaghetti and pasta in general is hard to mess up. Restaurants make huge margins on pasta as their cost is dirt cheap. The sauce essentially came from a watery can of plain tomato sauce, absolutely no flavour. Even the spaghetti noodles themselves were soggy and of poor quality. The entire dish was luke warm at most. Garlic toast was burnt. Service was terrible. When I was paying, the manager asked me how everything was. I told him it was the same old crappy spaghetti factory quality. His response "can't expect much from us man". I have no idea why people continue to go here..

The OSF is usually not somewhere one would go for Italian fine dining, but in my opinion if you're looking for decent pasta at a good price I'm all for it. The Manager's Special with mushroom sauce and mizithra cheese is the usual for me and I've been pretty happy with it. Last time I went the server was quite friendly and efficient. Overall, it's somewhere I don't mind visiting. I do have to say that the New West location is probably the least favourite of mine given the area, although that doesn't affect my opinion of the food/service.

I used to work at this location and let me tell you i'll never eat at this location again.
I hate to bash on a place , but there was nothing really good to say about this place.
I was gretted by some homeless people at the door before entering for starters. Then when i ordered a salad , i was horrified to find a dead bug in it.
I almost left then , but my date was looking forward to her onion soup. My pasta fell apart on my fork, and it was very dry and bland.
We also had to ask for cleaner spoons.
The service we had was the highlight, since it was someone i used to work with. Thats about it. Also only had to pay for her soup and drinks.

I first went to The Old in Gastown 12 ago to celebrate the birth of my son. It was wonderful. Then, a few years ago, I went again...loved it! Then, knowing there was one closer to my home, I went to the one in New Westminster. It wasn't too bad. Had a few complaints, but nothing major. However, after the last time I went, with my family for my other son's birthday, I swore I would never go again! The food was still frozen in his lasagna. My chicken neptune was burned on the outside and luke-warm inside. The portions were okay for size, but once you started to eat you didn't really want to finnish it..the taste was awful. Service was horrible!! Our waitress went to the table of people (who were seated well after we were) and took their order before even coming to our table and then never showed up again, except to serve us out dinner, even though she kept going to the table next to us constantly. The bus boy was the one who brough us dessert. When she was finally flagged down to bring us our bill, she finally asked us how our dinner was. The bus boy saw me shake my head and got us the manager who gave us $30 in gift certificates for another meal at their restaurant. While this was a nice gesture on his part, it didn't make up for the crappy food and service for a birthday dinner or the cost of >$100. We sent the gift certificates to my sister hoping her experience at the one in Winnipeg would be nice, but told her to not hold her breath. **The solid rating for service is only inclusive of other times at their restaurants.**