A little Valentine's treat

The very first place I will post about is the fabulous Old Spaghetti Factory in downtown Minneapolis, a lovely location on Park Ave, close by the Guthrie Theatre and the river. Not a very hole-in-the-wall place, granted, but a treat nonetheless. 

The inside of the restaurant is beautifully decorated, and the building used to be an actual factory, so there is piping in the ceiling that makes for an elegant and old-style feeling.

All the main courses come with a side salad and unlimited bread for the whole table (Olive Garden style, oh yeah!) The salad was small, but decent, and the bread was delicious, but crumbly, as you can see.

I ordered the Manager's favorite, which was a spaghetti and your choice of two sauces: I picked marinara and mushroom. It was average at best, but I'd eat it again. Which is why I took half of it home to have for another meal later. 

Each meal, in addition to coming with salad (or soup) and unlimited bread, also comes with your choice of chocolate or Spumoni ice cream after the meal. The ice cream was TO DIE FOR. Seriously, so delicious. 

Overall, a lovely experience. Although it had somewhat of a "fancy-restaurant" vibe, the atmosphere is very calm and chill. The service was good; our waiter even offered to take a picture of the group (it was blurry though... they will have to update their "how to take pictures for guests" section of their wait staff handbook).

I'd go again. Maybe I would order something different, and maybe we should plan better so as to miss the Valentine's day rush, but it was good food, service, and price.

The price breakdown: I paid $10.56 for salad, bread, two servings of spaghetti and one scoop of ice cream. That fed me for two night's worth of dinner, plus I would have normally had to pay extra for an ice cream, sometimes at least $4. So, even though it was a little pricey, you do get your money's worth. Bonus: spaghetti is even good as leftovers. College-student approved!