A few weeks ago, I was having such a craving for ramen or noodles, or something like it, and I was determined enough to go an hour north or south just to have my noodle fix!
People were suggesting left and right anywhere from Chowking to Pot and Noodles. And my dear old Google suggested this: The Spaghetti Factory!
It looked fun enough for me, and had a menu wide enough for a vegetarian (moi) and a pile of carnivores (them LOL). And, though it wasn’t there that I ate that day, I made sure that I’ll be visiting the place really soon. And soon was yesterday at SM Megamall!
While I was at Tally’s, I showed her the website for The Spaghetti Factory and not much convincing had to be done. They had a VERY wide variety of dishes, but all she had to hear was “walnuts” and off we go!
She was craving for Cibo’s Pumpkin Soup, and since The Spaghetti Factory offered the same, we decided to try it- split it. Oh. MY. GOD! Heaven in a Bread bowl! Who’d have thunk it! Their’s is the best Pumpkin Soup I’d ever tasted! Better than Jack’s Loft’s!
It’s so creamy and thick, one can probably eat it from a strainer! The soup itself was so full of flavor, you just have to let each spoonfull set in your mouth a bit. INDULGE! That’s the only way to eat this soup. INDULGE!
And to those who are turned off by the idea of “pumpkins” being the base for a soup- get over it and try this! It’s like soft curry (less the spice), made just mild enough to be eaten on its own. The only thing not right for me in this dish? Chili. The soup lacked that kick that I adore so much. But hey, that’s just me since I’m a chili addict! For everyone else, it’s damn perfect!
Their pasta dishes can be fun to order, since it’s a mix and match game. Choose which type of pasta (noodle) you want, and what sauce to use it with. Deciding what type of pasta to use was easy. Linguine for me. Fettucine for Tally. But the sauce… well… I had to take a moment to get to that part.
After a very intense decision making on what pasta sauce to choose, the coin I drew chose tails- ergo, Forest Mushrooms. Very close call! 
A rich combo of shitake & button mushroom in a cream & herbs sauce
Hmmm… I love shitake.. I love cream… I love herbs… GO!
Tally, of course, skimmed the menu for “walnuts” and headed to order the Salsa De Noche,
Delicious fusion of tasty walnuts in a smooth ricotta cheese-cream sauce
You know, our pastas were served at the same time and MAN DO THEY LOOK ALIKE! Like really! But since we both got cream-based sauces, I guess it shouldn’t have been that surprising.. huh?
I was quite disapponted with my dish. There wasn’t a tad of Shitake mushroom in that pasta. Not even in spirit! LOL! I mean everybody knows that Shitake mushrooms are quite strong and infuse that particular unmistakeable tang of their own. But it wasn’t there! At least not in my pasta. What happened? Did you guys ran out of Shitakes? I can see the Button mushrooms. I can taste the Button mushrooms. But I wasn’t in it for the Button mushrooms, man! I didn’t even get to finish half of it. Note to self: get something else next time.
All their pastas are served with a side of Foccacia slice and grated Parmesan cheese. Nothing special there.
Tally finished her dish off. I forgot to taste it LOL!! I’m guessing it was pretty okay, since I didn’t hear no complains from her end.
We took the Foccacia slices and the (almost) whole bread bowl home for Tally’s dogs. And I had what’s left of my pasta wrapped for Sonny, Malyn and Liza later that night.
All in all- their Cream of Pumpkin Soup??? An instant fave!! If you’re going to SM Mega, Ayala Center, SM Manila, or SM Fairview, you can’t leave without trying their Cream of Pumpkin Soup first!!!! Trust me on this one- damn good!
Everything else, from the pasta to the service, well, nothing special. It’s not a fine-dining resto, so not for intimate dates. But for family day outs, barkada foodtrips, or casual meetings, it’s do-able. Again, aside from the Pumpkin Soup, there’s nothing that would piss you off, but nothing to drive you gaga in love either.
hmmm… reading this.. the pasta wasn’t bad. Actually, my friends liked it. I was just really disappointed because i LOVE Shitake mushrooms. they could have exploited it waaaay more than they did, coz honestly, there was no shitake tang in that pasta. btu i bet their other dishes are good too!
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