6 Restaurant Chains With The Best Spaghetti And Meatballs

It's time to put "That's Amore" on repeat and practice your fork twirl, because we're here to discuss the classic dish of spaghetti and meatballs. It's nearly everyone's introduction into Italian cuisine, a staple of both kid's menus and Italian restaurants in America — though interestingly, you shouldn't expect to find spaghetti and meatballs in Italy. But while you're here in the good old U.S. of A, there are a few chain restaurants in particular that tend to handle the dish the best.

It should come as no surprise that all of these establishments specialize in Italian cuisine, which is good, since it'd be downright embarrassing for a steakhouse to put out a better offering than an Italian restaurant. Though it may be on the simpler end when it comes to the dishes at their disposal, being able to elevate a relatively basic meal of spaghetti and meatballs can assure customers that they are in good culinary hands. So while it might help you at home to know beautiful ways to plate spaghetti and meatballs, these chains need no such trick — their recipes speak for themselves.

Sure, it may seem like it's tooting its own horn with a name like Bravo!, but anyone who's tried the spaghetti and meatballs from Bravo! Italian Kitchen has likely said the same thing when they were done. Though Columbus, Ohio may not seem like a natural birth place for an Italian restaurant, customers don't seem to mind, especially when it comes to the spaghetti and meatballs dish. Featuring Grana Padano cheese and meatballs made of both pork and beef, the dish on its own has its fans, especially thanks to the generous serving size. However, the massive meatballs seem to take center stage here. It's hard for them not to — even though it seems that each dish comes with only three meatballs, you won't be left wanting more. These gigantic meat hunks take up the whole plate, rendering the spaghetti noodles to second billing.

One Yelper who apparently simplifies their Italian restaurant reviews based on the meatballs gave Bravo! 5 stars for its meat offering, and numerous reviews noted that they skipped the pasta and got the meatballs on their own. Another Tripadvisor review even had to admit they were beat when it came to cooking meatballs, writing, "The meatballs might have been the best I've ever had including the ones I make." Bravo!'s method may or may not involve one of the 12 best meatball recipes out there, but whatever the chefs are doing back in the kitchen, it seems to be working.

While you debate with your friends over whether Olive Garden or Carrabba's is the better Italian chain restaurant, we'll be chowing down on a plate of spaghetti and meatballs at the latter. At least one Tripadvisor review raved about Carrabba's meatballs being "true Italian," which is quite the compliment to the pair of Sicilians who grew up in Texas and founded the chain's first location in Houston. The secret to its success may be due to the fact that the chain's spaghetti is served with pomodoro sauce, rather than marinara, and the difference between the sauces might be what makes diners such big fans of Carrabba's spaghetti. It's a simple yet effective recipe, consisting mostly of yellow onion, garlic, and of course, tomatoes.

Multiple claims of Carrabba's serving the best spaghetti and meatballs this side of the Atlantic span different review sites. It's something that the founders must love to hear and read since one of their main goals was to perfect their classic Italian dishes before moving onto more complex offerings. Overlooked details like getting the sauce to noodles ratio just right also helps put it ahead of other competitors. Of course, there's also the all-important meatball factor, which Carrabba's seems to be more than up for, judging by the fact that at least one frequent diner on Yelp claimed that they sometimes drop in solely for those delicious meatballs.

There's a saying that you shouldn't order something at a restaurant that you can easily make at home. But while spaghetti may be a staple dish for most home cooks, how many of them are adding Wagyu meatballs to the mix like the chefs at Maggiano's Little Italy? One formerly skeptical TripAdvisor user claimed that spaghetti was part of their home meal rotation, so they normally didn't order it out. But after trying Maggiano's offering, their apparent vendetta against restaurant spaghetti was lifted as they proclaimed the chain as the best place to go for the classic meal.

While it may not be the first place you think of when listing chain restaurants that serve Wagyu beef, Maggiano's utilizes the revered beef for their meatball offerings. It treats it like the precious gem it is, as when you order a plate of spaghetti and meatballs at Maggiano's, you'll only find one meatball atop the pile of noodles. Don't worry about not getting enough meat though, as the single ball of meat is the size of a dang softball — though much more delicious.

One meatball fan on Yelp described it as "tender" and "light" in spite of its size, while another appreciated the fact that their serving was well-seasoned without going overboard on the salt. Portion size is another plus as well, so in addition to your dinner, your lunch the next day is taken care of as well.

As we've now discussed a few times, spaghetti and meatballs is a pretty basic dish. It's not exactly the most exciting thing to order, which is what a Yelp reviewer thought when they ordered the dish from North Italia. So imagine the shock of this diner when that order of spaghetti and meatballs turned out to be the best dish they'd ever had, summing up their review with, "I will be craving this forever now." They are far from the only reviewer to make such bold claims, with a Tripadvisor user writing, "I'm not typically prone to hyperbole but the spaghetti and meatballs I had here for lunch are easily the best I've had in this life or any past life."

So, what's going on with the dish for it to receive praise so good that it calls on past lives? Well, we can talk about the pasta that's made in the restaurant daily, or the sweet sauce that tastes like it's never seen the inside of a can, or the flavorful meatballs, but since the chain boasts an open concept kitchen, you can honestly just peer in and watch how they do it. Just do your best not to drool on the glass, though that might not be such an easy task. With reviewers claiming to be in love with the dish, or feeling transformed like the evil critic at the end of Ratatouille, it appears that North Italia has found the right recipe.

Has Johnny Carino's had to declare bankruptcy twice in recent years? Yes. Does it still serve up a delicious plate of spaghetti and meatballs? Also yes. When you dine at Johnny Carino's, you have the opportunity to turn your meal into a certified feast, courtesy of Mama. If you come in ready to put away some meat with your pasta, Mama's Spaghetti Feast gives you the option of inviting a hunk of Italian sausage to the party.

But if you're simply craving a classic bowl of spaghetti and meatballs, as one Yelp reviewer was, you won't be disappointed. That reviewer had their craving thoroughly satisfied, highlighting both the taste and the portion size that was big enough to feed two people. Another reviewer added to the invite list, claiming that the Mama's Feast option was big enough for three. The generous servings seems to be the main theme among the reviews, though at least one Tripadvisor user made sure to shout out the marinara sauce, calling it "perfect."

Though it's a definite plus, Carino's isn't simply a case of quantity over quality. People aren't writing soliloquies about the taste of the meals, simple but effective compliments of "excellent" and "delicious" adorn many of the reviews. However, at least one Tripadvisor reviewer decided that it was worth the lofty superlative of "best dish ever."

We once again have dear old Mom to take for another delicious offering, this time from Romano's Macaroni Grill. Mom's Ricotta Meatballs & Spaghetti mixes up the name by putting "meatballs" first, but since they're made with house-made beef, veal, pork, and ricotta, it only makes sense that they get top billing. Though they come in a slightly smaller size than some of the others we've seen on the list, you'll still get your money's worth when it comes to meat.

Though you can substitute in a bolognese sauce, the dish as it is comes covered with a pomodorina sauce. If it tastes like the real, authentic deal, it might be because it's made with Emilia Romagna tomatoes from northern Italy. Multiple TripAdvisor reviewers highlighted the sauce in their reviews, and one Yelper claimed that Mama's Spaghetti was their go-to dish every time they came. The Romano's experience could perhaps be summed up best with a Yelp review who wrote that, while the chain isn't exactly offering a gourmet meal, "It is good, dependable food and plenty of it at a fair price."

Many chains offer a spaghetti and meatballs option, but to curate the list of restaurants we've put before you, we had to get mighty picky. To be qualified as a chain restaurant, each entry had to have at least 10 locations spread across the country. From there, we dove into other publications that produced similar rankings, looking to see which chains consistently received top marks. After whittling down those establishments, we went even further by looking through reviews of the restaurants from different review sites, including Yelp and TripAdvisor.

Like the saying "beauty is in the eye of the beholder," taste is in the mouth of the reviewer — which is our way of saying that no matter how beloved a meal might be for some, it's sure to have its share of detractors. So, while none of the spaghetti and meatball offerings were deemed to be absolutely perfect for everyone out there, we looked at which ones, more often than not, left reviewers satisfied enough to write a positive feedback. Lastly, different locations from various regions were examined to make sure we were getting the complete picture, and not letting one location determine our viewpoints. All of this led us to the list that appears before you.