Recommends

mhoskinson

Joined 6 years ago

The Best Neighborhood Italian Restaurant in Newport Beach. The Bender is the real deal!! We've been there for nearly 40 years and is a great spot for families, couples or anytime you just want excellent home cooked Italian food. We have an outside patio wine bar and very cozy dining room. The food is great, the portions large and the price is right. the servers take great care of you as well. In all fairness, my family and I have owned the restaurant for 38 years, trust me, it's a great restaurant.

We also do fast Take Out of our entire menu 949-631-TOGO.

Doesn't Recommend

bulaklak

Joined 6 years ago

not so great pasta. A friend took myself and our significant others to Spaghetti Bender for my birthday. He had heard from his co-workers that it was a great place. The setting and ambience was pleasant. The main dining room seemed small but cozy. It had a good crowd for a Sunday night and we were all hungry and in good spirits. After a slight wait we were seated. We all had different pastas and one of us ordered one of the specials. The salad seemed adequate. It was good but nothing out of the ordinary. The minestrone soup was actually pretty good with nice chunks of veggies which had me excited for our main courses. I had the chicken marsala. While the chicken was not dry, it had absolutely no taste. There was no sweet taste of the marsala wine and even the fettuccine alfredo that accompanied it had no taste as well. Everything was just bland. My boyfriend ordered the Papa's Combination and was disappointed as well. Our friends were also disappointed in their dishes, stating on more than one occasion that everything tasted on the bland side. The waiters and staff were all friendly and the atmosphere was pleasant but I was sorely disappointed by the food, which was our main reason for the trip. And for the prices they charged, I was expecting a lot more. When the reviewer above said Olive Garden 2.0? At least Olive Garden food has some taste to it, this did not. I'm all for giving places second chances but this is not a return trip I want to take.

Recommends

cambird

Joined 7 years ago

An Italian food oasis on PCH. I can understand why I'm the first to review this. Before someone nudged me into eating at the Spaghetti Bender for the first time last year, I had never even heard of it. I'm glad I was nudged. Take a date: enjoy the drive along the coast, the gentle ambiance of the cottage-like architecture, and eat an affordable and filling meal. Each dinner entree comes with sweetly dressed salad, minestrone soup, and garlic bread. It's like the Olive Garden 2.0.