Tomatina

Avoid if you can. Ordered a takeaway.
1. Stale broccoli
2. Long wait to pick up. Cooking started after I had to re-​swipe my card for an online order already paid for.
3. Staff could care less.

Service was ok. It could have better and they could have smiled more. They did not make the guest feel special or very welcome. Good was so so. I would have expected much better. Overall the restaurant was clean but they could have gotten the tables cleaned off quicker. Management was out of sight and should have been making rounds.

As a regular coming here I’m appalled that this amazing restuarant is reviewed as only 3 stars total. The customer service is great, my family and I always get attended with great customer service by the friendly servers. The pizza and pasta are delicious! Yes it is a hassle finding parking here that could be a pain in the ass, which is why i think people rate Tomatinas a 3. The wait isn’t too long for a large party. It’s worth trying if you’re in the Mercado Plaza!
CARNE COMBO PIZZA!!!

Service here is very slow. We sat down for about 15 mins and I had to wave the hostess over to ask for her waiter.
It’s been like this for the last 3 times but the food is good enough for me to come back every once in a while.
Went in for another visit. Service was a lot better but i did notice the wait was pretty long for other groups. There was a big table sitting next to me trying to waive down the server. They made a comment that they hope the sever doesn’t spit in there food.

The service is great. The staff is wonderful. The place itself is nice. However, the pasta, not so much. I ordered the penned bolognese. Very very bland the sauce was extremely watered down. My girlfriend got the spaghetti and meat balls. The meat balls were completely tasteless and the sauce was bland and watery. We had to douse our food with salt and pepper to give it flavor and even then it wasn’t all that satisfying. Rather disappointed especially for the prices here too. Go to spaghetti factory instead.

Nov. 20, 2015
Wifey & I had a date night dinner and a movie. I tried Tomatina’s for the first time. Anytime I go to a new (to me) Italian restaurant I always try their lasagna. I judge by their sauce/​gravy. If an Italian restaurant can’t make a good sauce/​gravy. There is no need for me to try anything else. (Secrets in the sauce)
I have to say Tomatina’s lasagna is not the traditional lasagna I’m used to. But let me tell you it made my taste buds dance! The sauce/​gravy was excellent and extremely tasty. They were very generous with it and the cheese. I love the flavor of fennel sausage underneath all the gravy and cheese, not over powering in taste.
I would have ordered a glass of wine but I didn’t want to feel sleepy for our movie so I opted out for root-​beer instead.
The restaurant was pretty crowded and loud on that particular Friday evening. The tables were large family bench (picnic) style which I didn’t mind sharing with other strangers.
I know there was music playing but I couldn’t really hear it over the crowds chatter and laughter that filled the room air.
There were families with well behaved children, which I admired.
Over all ambiance was warm and cozy in a dimly lit room.
We told our waiter that we were watching a movie afterward and strapped for time. Which they accommodated. We did not have to wait long for our meal. I really appreciate that.
I am a stickler for good tasting Italian food. I make my own at home from scratch which takes hours, do to the slow cooked sauce/​gravy, including home baked bread.
I would have liked some warm bread to have with my lasagna as some restaurants provide. However, they did provide some skinny bread sticks in a jar, resembling some new age art.
We will come back to try different items on the menu. Tomatina’s gravy passed my finicky palate test. My wife is secretly saying Hooray! Victory! He actually likes a (new to him) restaurant.
I will spread the word and recommend to other family members and friends about Tomatina Restaurant in Santa Clara.

Went here on Halloween day for early dinner, not so much crowded.
Ordered Crispy Parmesan Polenta, Potato from October Monthly Special, Fusilli Gorgonzola and Tiramisu.
Loved Polenta. Simply awesome. Fusilli Gorgonzola had way too much cheese for my taste. Potato was very oily. Liked Tiramisu.

We enjoy eating here when we want somehing tasty and quick. We arrive before the dinner crowd so the service is a bit more speedy than when the place is busy. Overall the food is tasty (our faves are the piadinis), the service has been good and the wait has been decent (if we arrive during the rush).

We order pizza & salad from here for our work meetings and everyone is pretty happy with it! To my dismay, eating at the restaurant was definitely different, all our food was pretty mediocre, at best.
We ordered drinks and it took awhile until someone came back to take our orders. We had to ask for utensils and napkins since it wasn’t already at our table. I got the St. Germain Gimlet (I think?) and it didn’t really taste like there was alcohol in it at all. Same for my friend’s basil martini. We got the garlic rolls to share, and I ordered the pescatora entrée. The rolls, with the amount of roasted garlic in the oil that the rolls were in… were still pretty bland. They were warm though? I think we would’ve been happy with just the complimentary bread, that came with COLD marinara /​tomato sauce, even though one of us saw them take the sauce out of a warmer. how does that happen?
My pescatora entrée was extremely bland for it being cooked in a white wine, pesto-​butter sauce. The salmon was extremely overcooked, and fishy smelling. I had to add a hefty amount of Parmesan to revive it. I should have just ordered the margherita pizza instead… :(

This location had super rude staff. No one would help me and had me stand to wait for service for nearly 5 minutes. An older man and woman pretended not to see me just so they can keep conversing.
The personal pizzas: Rip Off
The speciality pizzas: 3 – 4 toppings max. They withhold the veggies just so you can pay $ 2.00 extra for a measly morsel of spinach!
My food was ready, but the server put my to go order under the table and did not even bother to hand me my order.
They need to reorient their staff immediately. Just because they hate their job doesn’t mean they should use their customers as an emotional punching bag.

The foods here are not for me. All dishes lacked flavors and were extremely oily. Service was somewhat slow.
I tried:
— Angel Hair Shrimp Pasta — need seasonings
— Garlic Roll — super oily
— Bruschetta — not that great
— Salmon plate — salmon was overcooked, dried, and lacked flavors.
I don’t think I will come back

Service was good, food was ok. Came in for a quick lunch and out.
I had the Pecatora? It was good to me just really oily.

Wow food was terrible
Sangria red was bland
Beet salad was flat
Brussels sprouts was plain
Server was horrible too, kept interrupting and was intrusive
Bruschetta was ok but not great
Haven’t been here in years and will nvr go back

Waited about 45 minutes for a table. Service was a bit slow once we got a seat.
Food was fresh and tasty!

Probably 1.5 stars, really. There wasn’t anything about my lunch at Tomatina that would make me want to return.
To be fair, the interior is nice in a casual way and the prices are fairly reasonable. The person I was with ordered one of the piadines — basically a flatbread crust with a bunch of salad dropped on it. I guess you roll it up and eat it like a burrito? Whatever — she said it was just okay and kind of hard to eat.
I went with the lunch special which is $ 9.50 for a soup or salad plus a lunch sized entrée (two or three pastas or a pizza). My pick was minestrone and a pesto pasta. The minestrone was effectively a teaspoon of ketchup dissolved in hot water with a few veggies listlessly floating around. Absolutely no flavor whatsoever. The pesto was slightly better but in desperate need of seasoning/​salt — and when I say that, it really needs seasoning as I’m not a «salt» person.
Service was slow and inattentive, even though we were past the lunch rush (came in after 1pm). It took a long time for us to be waited on and drinks were never refilled despite my glass being empty for at least half the meal.
I can’t think of any reason I’d ever come back.

After a long day of shopping and driving, my hubby and I wanted to go to a quick place for a casual dinner. Tomatina was near my place and the wait was only 10 minutes, even when they had a full house, so that was really promising.
Service was quick and the waitress herself was very friendly. She offered us some bread with a tomato sauce that I liked, but my hubby thought was overpowering. For a drink, I tried the vanilla lemonade with mint leaves. I LOVED IT. My hubby had a vanilla Italian soda which he thought was slightly strange, but enjoyable.
For our entrees, I ordered the pescatora which was spaghetti with seafood in a garlic butter sauce. I liked how light the dish was, but the flavor was more on the bland side. My hubby ordered a baked pasta dish that he seemed to like, but didn’t have much to say about it.
So overall, Tomatina isn’t a restaurant that will leave a lasting impression. The food is alright and the prices aren’t pricey. However, if you’re in the mood for Italian food, you can probably find other places to satiate that appetite.
We’re not too sure we’ll return, but we didn’t regret coming here either.

Quick stop during a work conference to have some lunch since they have several gluten free pasta and pizza options.
I’m not a fan of sitting at a long table top next to strangers but I also understand it’s the best seating option for the lunch hour rush. The service took a little long to stop by, especially when people that arrived much later than me ate and left while I was still waiting for my food. My waitress was a little all over the place and it was clear the manager was not happy with her since the manager served me most of the time. A little unprofessional to have little bickering wars in the middle of the restaurant in front of lunch rush. I would suggest to take the waitress to the side and talk to her then.
The pizza was good. I would’ve like to have it cooked/​baked a little longer to have a golden crust and so the crust wouldn’t be so soggy towards the center. I had the 5 cheese pizza and it was good. I wanted to come back and try some of their pasta but, unfortunately, I didn’t have the chance.
I give it 3 stars for the food but none for the service.

I still love Tomatina for their fast, friendly service and reasonable price point! And as I discovered on a recent lunch time visit, they now they have a lunch time special too: you can order two primi dishes or one primi and one lunch-​sized portion secondi, all for only $ 9.50! Another new thing is that now they’ll bring you bread upon request too. This was REALLY good rosemary foccacia that was greasy and delicious and even better with some butter. It’s obviously house made as they bring it out still warm and moist. I could make a meal out of this alone!
For my lunch special, I opted for roasted broccoli and cauliflower (minus the spicy feta) and a lunch-​sized portion of chicken spaghettini. The server brought out the appetizer with the feta, but she quickly rectified the situation by taking it back to the kitchen. I enjoyed my spaghettini, though the sauce was more tomato-​y than I remembered from the past. It seemed to be more tomato-​based, rather than clear-​broth based as I remembered it from days past. The portion size of the pasta was probably just enough for a kid, but the roasted broccoli and cauliflower side more than made up for it. I got so full off of the delicious bread that I ended up taking home the side.
This place is packed at lunch time, so I highly recommend arriving before 11:45 to get a table, especially if you are a large party. Also, the host won’t seat you until your entire party is present.

If you want good Italian food, then this place is probably not going to be where you go. Don’t get me wrong, its not bad, but its not great.
Still its a cheaper alternate if you want some Italian food and are in the area. Service is mostly decent even though our server didn’t seem too focused on much. (might have been a language barrier), but was nice overall.
My gf’s dinner was better than mine and I had a calzone which was of Pizza Hut caliber. Which isn’t bad per say, but nothing special.
Mehhhhh…

Der Laden ist auch an einem normalen Wochentag richtig voll. Und nicht ohne Grund. Nix außergewöhnliches aber sehr guter Durchschnitt. Hat alles gut geschmeckt und nicht teuer. Die Weinempfehlung war auch passend und der Kürbis– Cheesecake richtig gut.

Pros:
–Lunch special is only $ 9.50 which includes a primi and a secondi (ordered the tomato soup & spaghettini).
–Complimentary bread: soft pieces of bread with fresh tomato sauce. Pretty good and unique too!
–Nice atmosphere.
Cons:
–Found a PIECE OF HAIR in my spaghettini dish. DISGUSTING. Did NOT eat it.
–Tiny plates and small portions. Almost looks like a kid’s size meal. I guess I know why the lunch special is only $ 9 (it looks like you’re getting a lot, when you really aren’t.)
–The soup of the day was tomato soup and it was basically 50% oil. Seriously. I felt like I was drinking a bowl of oil. YUCK. A few sips and I was done.
Basically, the only thing good here is the complimentary bread with the accompanying tomato sauce.