Spaghetti Warehouse

When I railed against pasta emporium Italian restaurants in yesterday's review of La Plaia, I think I might have been describing the Spaghetti Warehouse. Considering the prices, you would be better off making pasta at home yourself.

Considering that this menu consists of many pasta dishes, you'd think there would be more vegetarian pasta dishes than there are. I tried the manicotti, which was stuffed with ricotta cheese with alfredo and tomato sauces and sauteed mushrooms. The bottomless salad is a nice touch. The sourdough bread was tasty. But for $12, the whole was definitely a problematic price to quality ratio.

The service was efficient. In downtown C-bus, the place is so enormous that I don't think there's enough parking to fill the whole place. The decor is kitschy Americana.

They are basically an Italian-American TGI Fridays. It's probably a good spot for kids who aren't adventurous eaters. Check out the photos below.

Spaghetti Warehouse

Massey's Pizza

I've been working hard on my goal of sampling pizza from every joint in the Columbus area. I'm a big fan of the 'za, and there are many reasons why I would undertake such a foolish venture as eating piles of pizza pies.

For one, as a former resident of the City of Big Shoulders, I have eaten some pretty good pizza. But I'm much better at picking out "must eat" pizza shops in the 312 than I am at picking pies in the 614.

Also, I have an unhealthy preoccupation with having more esoteric knowledge than anyone else in the room about a given topic...even pizza. In my imaginary world where women find knowledge about obscure Rhone grape varietals, characters from HBO series and pizza quality indescribably sexy, this is how I imagine one scene going:

Enter a dark and smoky room, late at night, during a large, rather boisterous party.

Random Jerkoff: Man, I'm hungry. We should order some pizza from Pizzeria X, yo. They have like the best pizza in Franklin county.

Me: What in the f#$* are you talking about, douchebag. Pizzeria X is nowhere near the best pizza in the area.

Random Jerkoff: Dude, it totally is like the best, you know. If it isn't the best, it's mos def in the top three.

Me: Top three? Do you subsist off a diet of saw dust and car grease? Pizzeria X is ranked 43rd on the USA Today Coaches Poll Columbus pizza rankings. It was demolished by Pizzeria A, it clearly was dominated by Pizzeria B in the trenches, and that victory over Pizzeria Y was questionable at best based upon the pushout rule that cretin ref issued. Pizzeria X is lucky to be in the Papa John's Bowl...of pizza.

Eveyone cheers, picks up their cell phones and dials Pizzeria A delivery. Me exits stage right, talking in low voice about the third season of Oz and the Bourboulenc grape's light acidity with Rihanna, Mischa Barton and a cadre of Suicide Girls while everybody cheers his discerning pizza palate.

OK, so it's never going to happen like that. But a man can dream, can't he?

Anyway...along my never ending quest, I tried Massey's Pizza in Westerville. Massey's is a small chain that has pizza, stromboli and subs for vegetarians on the menu. I modified the veggie pizza, dropping black olives and adding green olives.

The pizza crust is thin. The sauce is great. The toppings are voluminous, including what surely was an entire large white onion along with green olives, green peppers and fresh mushrooms. I can see how Massey's won both the prestigious This Week Best Pizza online poll and the coveted Otterbein College's Favorite Pizza Award...this is seriously damned good pizza, all tongue-in-cheek jokes aside.

I was especially fond of the reheating instructions, which recommended reheating the pizza in a skillet. I don't know if it works, and I was too afraid to give it a try. Maybe next time.

Massey's toppings were very good. The pictures will show you how many onions they put on a pizza. If you don't like onions, don't order pizza with onions, or you will be crushed by an avalanche of onion. I will definitely have to sample the white pizza and the four cheese pizza, because if they are as good as the pizza pictured above was, they will be tasty.

I can't say if Westerville is the only Massey's that is great, or if all of them are equally good. I'll have to travel the circuit on my pizza quest. Enjoy the pictures below.

Massey's Pizza

First Watch

My efforts to get some pictures of the vegetarian offerings at El Arepazo continue to be thwarted. I could be wrong, but they appear to have gone into hibernation until the New Year. Oh well. It's on my list of things to do in '08.

Short of vegetarian patacons and fried plantains from the Pan-Latin alley eatery that is El Arepazo, I instead met a friend at First Watch in German Village and sampled the vegetarian offering there. I say vegetarian offering as a singular noun because outside of the breakfast menu, there wasn't anything other than the flatbread hummus and veggie sandwich (called Not Guilty Your Honor) that was vegetarian.

I'm sure the waffles, pancakes, oatmeal, fruit crepes and other assorted breakfast items are vegetarian (they are most certainly not vegan, so stay away Kevin Nealon and Woody Harrelson). I'm not vegan but I am diabetic, so I usual take the route of a low sucrose start to the day, though...plus I don't usually eat eggs, so I was left with the above pictured item.

The sandwich was on a plain flatbread with hummus holding together cucumber, spinach, mushroom, red pepper, tomatoes and feta cheese. It was served with First Watch potatoes, which were adamantly not fried in trans-fat oil according to the menu. They were griddled potatoes lightly browned, and they seemed a touch more delicate than a typical cookie cutter hash brown. The sandwich was also served with a tomato and green salad served with a citrusy vinaigrette.

The food was decent. They are similar to other businesses in and around downtown in that they close very early (close to 2:30 if my memory serves right). Be forewarned of the dearth of not-sugary-breakfast vegetarian items. There are multiple locations as it is a chain, so check the Web site out and see if it works for you or if any of the other locations have different hours. Check out the pictures below.

First Watch

P.F. Chang's China Bistro

After trying the new P.F. Chang's offering Pei Wei, I would have been remiss if I ignored the vegetarian menu items from the flagship P.F. Chang's. Overall, the food quality is good-not-great. The service is solid, and although the place has a great deal of vegetarian options, most neighborhood Chinese bistros offer better quality vegetarian food at better prices. P.F. Chang's is a safe option that can easily be beaten by the competition.

They do clearly indicate vegetarian offerings on the Chang's menu, a technique I applaud. The vegetarian lettuce wraps were decent if unspectacular. The ma po tofu, an item that must be carefully ordered from Chinese restaurants because it is often made with pork, is piggie-free at P.F. Chang's.

The wine list is carefully selected to be matched with Asian dining, and is passable. Check out the pictures below.

PF Changs