Melissa N. / Yelp
Pasta is some serious American comfort food, which is why almost everyone loves Italian restaurants. There’s plenty of chains ready to serve up big bowls of spaghetti and meatballs and chicken parmesan whenever you want it.
Some Italian restaurant chains are better than others, though, and some have downright terrible reputations. Here are some of America’s pasta and pizza chains you should probably stay away from, in no particular order.
When people hear the name Fazoli’s, most seem to think it’s a defunct chain. “I ate at Fazoli’s one time….22 years ago,” said u/vaporintrusion on Reddit. “I thought the franchise died off,” responded another Redditor.
The other thing people think of? Those incredibly greasy garlic breadsticks. They’re so sopping with oil that there used to be a rumor that they were deep fried. Once you moved past your teenage years, there was really no other reason to visit this chain.
The butt of so many jokes, Sbarro is the quintessential mall food court chain for pizza and other Italian food. As malls have died out, so has Sbarro. It’s now thought of as a restaurant of last resort you see in airports, bus stations, and highway rest stops. You never know how long the pizza has been sitting under those heat lamps, but you know it’ll be dry no matter what.
“I’ve only been to the one across the street from Madison Square Garden, but it’s probably the worst pizza I’ve ever had,” said u/Relevant_Slide_7234. “Worse than dominoes and Papa John’s.”
Most people seem to go to Bravo! because “It’s not great but it’s better than Olive Garden.” That is such a low bar to set, and it barely clears it, even with a similarly boring menu. You’re much better off getting pasta at any number of chains, even non-Italian ones like Cheesecake Factory. Plus, what’s with the exclamation point in its name? You’re trying too hard, Bravo.
Of course Olive Garden made this list. Its food is so bad that back in 2014, an activist hedge fund revealed that the chain doesn’t salt its pasta water so it doesn’t void the warranty on its pots. And anyone who’s eaten there can tell you they overcook the pasta, too.
If you’re an Italian chain and the best thing to order is the soup, salad, and breadsticks — NOT pasta — you’re doing too many things wrong. We remember when OG was good in the 1990s, but as soon as they started making up insane pasta names like “pastachetti”, there was no turning back.
Lots of people have good memories of eating at Old Spaghetti Factory as a kid, but once the novelty of eating next to a train car wears off, you realize the place is more about atmosphere than food. Former employees on Reddit confirm that it was basically cafeteria food, even decades ago. “We didn't ring in our tickets until about two minutes before you were finished eating said salad, because it took the line cooks about that long to plate up some already-cooked noodles and ladle sauce over the top,” said u/post_obamacore.
Years ago, Johnny Carino’s had over 150 locations. Nowadays, it’s down to about 40, which tells you a lot about this chain. Most people find it overpriced for what you get, and the food itself is pretty weird (Italian nachos, anyone?). People on Yelp regularly complain about terrible customer service, tough chicken parmesan with a hard crust, mangled steak, and watered down sauce.
Romano’s used to be a larger chain, but it filed for bankruptcy back in 2017, and it hasn’t ever fully recovered. There are only 21 locations now, and two are in some of the worst airports you can imagine: Orlanda and O’Hare.
People often talk about its overpriced pasta and its slow decline over the years. “There was a time when Macaroni Grill and Outback steakhouse were better than Denny's and Olive Garden,” said u/Sega-Playstation-64. “They fell. And hard.”
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