Derek W.
Yelp
I came in a group of 10 on a Saturday evening with one person in our group being a regular at this upscale Italian restaurant on Seal Beach Blvd just north of the 405. It's just on the other side of the golf course at the Old Ranch Country Club, so I figured this would be a great hangout spot for golfers who want to enjoy some fine Italian cuisine after 18 holes there.
Spaghettini is next to Kobe Steakhouse & Lounge, and this is where I need to mention the parking situation. The two share a lot, but some spots are reserved for Kobe customers while other spots are specifically for Spaghettini customers. It wasn't clear to me where they draw the line, and there was even someone out in the lot making sure that the cars parked closer to Kobe do belong to customers dining at Kobe.
I arrived just before our reservation time of 5:30, and most of the unoccupied spots were for valet parking only. And that part of the lot was directly in front of the restaurant too. I didn't actually know about the valet parking until I exited my car and saw the vacant part of the lot closed off for valet. Besides valet, there were very few empty spots left, so I was super fortunate to have scored one of those last spots. Otherwise, I would have either had to do valet or park at a different lot on the other side of Old Ranch Parkway.
Another concern I had was the dress code. I wasn't sure if it'd be okay to come in shorts and flip flops, or if men had to come in wearing a suit and tie. Shortly before I left, I saw on their website the attire is business casual, so I came in dressed like a golfer, including a hat. However, I did see someone dress more casually than me, so really, I think as long as you're not dressed like you just came from the beach on a hot summer day, you should be fine.
The Yelp check-in offer is a free creme brulee, but it does mention the caveat of one per table. Though we all sat at one table, I felt tempted to propose to the group to split ourselves up into two tables just to get another complimentary creme brulee lol. It's a $14 dessert, so if you do have a second person in your group with the Yelp app on your phone, that may be an idea you want to try, or if you're good friends with the server like the regular in our group, the server may be nice enough to honor multiple times for the same table.
Our group had confusion about the group size, which caused us to be initially seated at a smaller table, and we had thought about trying to squeeze everyone in until we got re-sat at a different table just a few feet away. I thought we'd get new cups and a table setting, but I didn't realize until one of the servers handed me my cup from the first table we were at. I was impressed he remembered with how many people were in the restaurant at the time!
We shared a couple of pizzas and other starters. It took a while for everyone else to decide what to get, but I had my eyes set on the Wild Mushroom, Chicken, and Roasted Garlic Penne from the get-go thanks to one of my Yelp friends who had been here twice before and ordered that pasta dish both times.
Service was kind of slow, but with so many people in our group and so many others enjoying the musical performance that night, I won't hold it against them that much. They gave us plenty of bread to munch on before the main course, and there were two types. One was like a soft focaccia, and the other was crispier, like a mini baguette. The butter worked well on both, and I thought it was pretty cool to try two different types of bread to evade monotony.
The pizzas we got were Pepperoni and BBQ Chicken. They were so large that for an upscale Italian restaurant like this, $25 isn't too bad, but the flavors aren't too extravagant. The BBQ Chicken legit looked like cheese pizza with some garnish on top, so definitely don't judge a book by its cover here. The BBQ and chicken were hidden underneath the cheese. Both of the pizzas were pretty good, but I don't think they were that much better than California Pizza Kitchen, which is best known for their Original BBQ Chicken.
The Wild Mushroom Pasta was pretty good! It's hard to say if it's really worth the $35 price tag, but it was infused with a great deal of flavor that I was okay with splurging this one time for one of the tastiest pasta dishes I've had to this day. The pasta was also pretty slippery that it took me a long time to eat that plate of pasta with just a fork. However, I regretted eating a lot of the starter bread and should have saved at least one of the softer ones to sop up all the remaining sauces that were left over upon conclusion of my main course. I ended up using a slice of BBQ Chicken Pizza to clean that plate, but it wasn't easy lol.
Valet is $10, and you enter from Old Ranch Parkway. You can pay by cash or credit card. The attendants are very punctual; I even saw one literally do a 40-yard dash across the lot just to retrieve a car lol.
Overall, not bad! Also, no, I don't golf lol