Have you ever wondered which of the big Italian restaurant chains makes the best spaghetti, or how they measure up against each other? Me, too. So I went on a marathon spaghetti binge to find out. Here’s what I learned.

Maggiano’s Little Italy. When I lived in Chicago in the ’90s, I worked around the corner from the original Maggiano’s Little Italy. I ate there weekly not simply because it was convenient but because I thought their Italian food was genuinely very good. That was years before Maggiano’s became a national chain. Although I haven’t stepped foot in that Chicago flagship in decades, the California branch where I recently dined reminds me fondly of the original.