Tomato pasta sauce is so bland and must come from a can. No flavor! Disappointed and won't go back anymore.

3.5 to 4 stars. Best (and only) italian food I've had in alameda. I ate the December special, a beef ragu with homemade ribbon pasta, which is one of my favorite dishes, a rich stew with real beef chunks and soft ribbony pasta (absolutely am not making a reference to dog food - I truly liked it). My sister had this really interesting (and tasty) pita thing that was a cross between a sandwich, pizza, and salad. California fusion if I've ever seen it. Extra points because it came with special "how to eat me" instructions. The dessert was so-so. Chocolate cake with whip cream and some sort of wine based sauce - okay but possibly not worth the price of stomach space when tucker's is across the street. read more

Really? I've never reviewed this place? We've been about 5-7 times since its opening. Usually an ok time, once a horrific customer service experience, where I did not return for over a year. The other might Jack & I went for an early dinner and sat outside in lovely weather. Our waitress was a great woman from El Salvador who actually recommended dishes and steered us away from a not-so-popular special. Wow! The free style lasagna was fantastic. Muchas Gracias! read more

The is a good go to family place. Feels like a smaller version of a big chain restaurant down to how the food is presented. The pasta was all pretty decent, my wife was pleasantly surprised. The spaghetti and meatballs was well done though I wish there were more meatballs. If you have a family and want a comfortable place that's no frills with decent food this is the place. read more

Tomatina - Summer pasta and meatballs - Italian Near Me - Alameda, California

My first time here and my husband and I enjoyed it. A cute little spot with pretty good food. read more

Tomatina - Lasagna and Chicken Parmesan. - Italian Near Me - Alameda, California

Last week I decided to bring my children out to a "nice dinner" and I greatly underestimated how difficult juggling a 5yr and 2yr old by myself would be at a restaurant ‍. My server Chloe (whom I was told was also the manager), could see the struggle on my face as I became flustered while trying to put our orders in. Noticing my oldest was having a hard time, she took it upon herself to engage with her and ask her questions not only about what she would like to eat, but about her day, fav color etc, and even doodled with her with the provided crayons and playmat as i "got my shit together" with the little one. lol. Her calm, helpful demeanor set the tone for the rest of our visit. Our food came out promptly. She and all of the other servers were attentive and personable. And I cannot express enough what a great experience we ended up having. Yes, the food was delicious, but the exceptional customer service will be having us coming back as often as possible! Thank you Chloe and your awesome staff! read more

Great place for eating outside during this time. Tables are greatly spaced. It isn't complicated, order and then walk around to the patio. They are keeping their inside super clean. You receive an electronic check upon ordering. After you are done you pay through a cell phone. And after all these safety precautions can't forget to mention the food is great! We had the caprese piadine and chicken parm. Yum! Crissie and Jennifer are excellent! Thanks for the awesome service! read more

Just had dinner delivered via door dash. Took 45 minutes from order to delivery which was great. BUT.... my pizza was completely cold. Not a drop of warmth left in it. The cheese had begun to firm up and came off in clumps when I tore a piece off so clearly this pizza was already made before I even ordered it. Was also missing my beverage which is just awesome when you're trying to eat cold, tough pizza. My garlic bread was also sitting in a pool of grease to the point where I could only eat the top of the bread. This is very, very disappointing for a $40 meal! read more

Tomatina`(it's a chain) never seems busy. they have the usual italian fare as well as some lunch specials. after eating here, i know why. Sampling: -pizzeta con portabello (lunch special 12.50) roasted portabello mushrooms, fontina cheese, shaved fennel, pancetta, thin crusted personal pizza had some zest but no lasting punch. pizza lack pizzazz, got boring. -raspberry iced tea (2.50) sweet tasting, had multiple refills, didn't notice tea taste. leftovers -would have loved to give them 3 stars BUT i had no desire to finish the pizza, this speaks volumes . -good service, many checkins, -food (pizza) not overwhelming -menu pricey, pizzas from 11.99-18.00 read more

Tomatina can be a hit or miss. The food isn't bad, sometimes it's good. I feel like their menu has gotten better. Staff is friendly and it's a nice-sized, family-friendly restaurant. I'm being generous in taking away two stars, however, due to an icky experience that I think should have been handled better. I found a long, blonde hair in my spaghetti once. Obviously, it wasn't mine. They were good about replacing the dish, but I sort of lost my appetite after the one hairy bite. I think it would have been nice if they would have comped the dish, or at least my $5 sangria, but all I got was an semi-genuine apology. *shrug* read more

yummy food nice place great atmospher

This place is an Alameda gem. I was watching my daily dose of food network and caught Mario Batali in his hometown of Seattle. He showed the TV audience how to make a piadini. I had never heard of this and wanted one. My wife Mai then tells me that she's tried one already at this place Tomatina on Park in Alameda. Fast forward a week or so, we found ourselves in downtown Alameda in need of a late lunch. We were seated in the front window seat. The place was bustling with families eating thin crust pizzas, pasta and salads. I liked the casual environment of the place. Our waitress took our order promptly and gave us fast and friendly service. We got a parmesan crusted polenta appetizer. Oh man, this was so good. The polenta was crumbly on the outside and creamy inside with a touch of nutmeg. Next, the Caprese piadini came out. A wood fired flat bread, topped with fresh mozzarella and parmesan, sun dried tomatoes, hearts of romaine with balsamic vinaigrette. Tomatina supplies instructions on how to eat the piadini, an image depicting: do not use fork, instead fold and eat with hands. Brilliant. We also got a simple cheese ravioli in marinara that was alright. I'll be going back soon to try some of their pizza, perhaps the Margherita... May 2006 Update: Went for dinner one weeknight. We had the Margherita Pizza. As expected, the crust is fantastic! We had the house red wine with it; very flavorful at a reasonable price. My only gripes are that we had to wait around 30 minutes to get seated, and the air conditioning draft was distracting at two different tables we tried. Fortunately, the quality of the food is the winner. read more

Tomatina - How to properly eat a piadini... - Italian Near Me - Alameda, California

Two words.... Garlic Bread!!! Sucks that they are not complimentary because they are soooo yummeh! Everything we ordered came out really good. I wanted something different so went with their Piadines. It felt very healthy despite the size. It came in a large fluffy sort of a pita like bread. At first, it comes looking like a pizza. Then I was told you have to fold it in half like a taco and eat it that way. That was definitely a treat. I went with "The Hero" piadines. We also ordered their pizza and that was really good. So overall I have no complaints. The server was prompt and the host came around and greeted our table and surrounding tables. Very Italian like! =) My only reason for the 4 stars is this place didn't give me the WOW experience. Nothing really stood out as being great. If the garlic bread which blew my mind was complimentary, that would have earned them that extra start. read more

Tomatina - Garlic bread... Super delicious!!! - Italian Near Me - Alameda, California

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Food is good but $12 for three pieces of bruschetta? Seriously? Not enough for 2 diners. Severely overpriced.

This is my third time here. The first two times I had a pretty bad experience due to lack of service-it took forever to get food and the server didn't acknowledge us., not once. Tonight we got lucky with an attentive server and it made the experience oh-so pleasant. read more

Tomatina - Italian Near Me - Alameda, California

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Everything was beautifully prepared, scan to order at tables made it quick and easy to order and pay.

we enjoyed our visit it was perfect ! Great service delicious food big shout out to our waitress aylissa was awesome although it was very busy she was so patient with our son and. very attentive to all of our needs. id have to say this best restaurant experience read more

As suggested by Darren, we tried the Family Pizza Pack, and my family raved about it so much. We added a gluten-free pizza, and my kid asked where I got it and I said, "Tomatina," and he said it was one of the best GF pizza he's had. Also, their golden beet salad is delicious! The customer service is pretty good, and I'm sure it's not easy being the most cheerful host during these times, so I appreciate their service. Thank you for providing a reasonably priced and delicious meals to the community during these hard times. read more

Taste: 3 Value: 2 Service: 3 I came here twice nearly two years ago, around July 2008. The second time was okay. We had a group of about 10 people, and we sat outside in the patio area. The weather was quite nice, and our server was pretty good. The first time, however, is why I'm giving this place 1 star. I can't remember what I ordered, but I bit into a quarter-sized piece of cardboard as soon as I started on it. I told the server when she came by that there was a piece of cardboard in my food and that I had bitten into it. She took a look at it and agreed. Although she did apologize for it, she made the excuse that they handle a lot of pizza to-go orders, and it was probably from one of those. Sorry, but there's no excuse for putting cardboard in someone's dish and having them nearly ingest it. read more

Me and my cousins spot! We love the piadines. We each have our own favorite. :-). I love the hummus one, and the salmon one when I'm in the mood. Sorta bummed they took out the mac n cheese off the adult menu, we usually order the kids mac and cheese as an appetizer. I highly recommend it, i hope one day i can steal their recipe! Hehe read more

Came here with a friend on a Sunday afternoon. The place didn't look busy, and it had plenty of empty seats. So, we were offered a table in the sun across from the bar. There were plenty of seats in the back, but it was fine. The waitress came within 5 minutes and took our initial order such as water and drinks. After 15 minutes of wait, we had to ask the bartender to give us water and drinks. As soon as we sat down, our water and drinks arrived. Go figure. We drank. We talked. And we talked. After 15 minutes, we looked at each other and wondered where our waitress to take our order. I had to track down the waitress, and she said that she had to take another table. She was no longer our waitress. I asked who is then? A young guy showed up at our table. Finally, we ordered our food. After 10 minutes, we got our medium meat pizza and an arugula salad. The salad was ok. It had a lot of good mixture, and it looked fresh. Make sure you order the dressing on the side. The meat pizza wasn't bad either. It was a little too salty for me, so I had to add some of the arugula to the pizza. Rating Food: 3 Service: 1 Ambiance: 2 Price: 2 Overall: 2 Tomatina food isn't terrible, but the service is absolutely horrible. This was the 3rd time coming to this place, and the service was the same from the first time I came to the last time. Hopefully, others will have a better dining experience than me, as this is my final time coming to this place. read more

Consistently good food, kids menu with crayons, and I love that I can get whole wheat crust for my pizza. The monthly specials are usually really good, and so are desserts. Salads are fresh. Service can be slow sometimes, especially for bringing out the first things (like drinks, or if you ask for the free bread). The place is good for families (and thus can be a little loud), but the slowness to get something out can make it hard with an active kiddo. read more

Good place to bring your family. Came here for pasta. Garlic rolls, chicken fettuccine Alfredo, and bolognese. Garlic rolls were okay, mostly just a fresh roll served in a bowl, in dip. The fettuccine was good, but the serving size was noticeably smaller compared to the bolognese. The bolognese was cool, no complaints, maybe heavy on the sausage, but good. read more

Tomatina - Menu. Seasonal specials (summer) - Italian Near Me - Alameda, California

such amazing customer service :) very nice workers and treat customers with care. karina was very helpful and always helped when you needed it!! definitely ask for her. will be coming back again! read more

The food here is pretty good but if you eat in they require you to keep your mask on even when you are seated at your table. They allow you to take it off once you get your drinks. The hostess was rude but the rest of the staff were polite and attentive. read more

This review is 3 1/2 stars. Tomatina's is a solid standard when you're in the mood for some quick contemporary Italian. Favorites: the Steak Piadine and the Chicken Caesar. My only pickle with this particular location is that the service has not always been the best. The last time I went, I asked for a straw 3 times before I finally got one. Hope their service picks up and gets better. read more

The first time I ate here, my pizza came out with the wrong toppings and it took ten minutes to flag down our waitress. I wanted to get a new one, but the place was packed so I sucked it up and ate it. And it was sooo disappointing. I remember the crust being soggy and the eggplant was mushy. I spoke to the manager and he was very nice and ended up comping my entire meal. So the other night, I decided to give it another try. It was during the week and was only 1/5 packed. The service was good, they kept our drinks filled and checked on us often. But that doesn't make up for the poor food quality. In fact, my piatta (sp?, the big calzone like thing) was so bland and greasy that I stopped eating after a few bites. My bf had the calzone which he also ate only half of. I'm surprised this place is still open. read more

They have a cheese-less pizza (no mozzarella and you can opt out of the Parmesan too) that has delicious roasted veggies on it. We generally get a couple other veggies added on too. I think it's called the Mediterranean. We get the extra large and bring home the rest for the next day's lunch. It's a good deal. The place is often crowded so we'll sit at the "bar" where the service is generally faster. read more

Tomatina's is a chain restaurant that serves average Italian food. If you are just looking for a quick, relatively inexpensive, good for groups and kids type of meal, then it is the place to be. Choose amongst favorites such as spaghetti, pizza (with over 20 different toppings), lasagna, chicken pasta, steak, salmon, salads, and piadines. In my opinion, the piadines are the real reason to go to Tomatina's. It's like having a healthy pizza salad - soft pizza bread wraps around a healthy mixture of greens, tomatoes, and cheese. You get the best of both worlds. I also highly recommend the lasagna - oftentimes, lasagna can be hard to eat on its own, but the tomato sauce that this lasagna comes in is a perfect complement and makes every bite delicious until the very end. Pros - Good for groups, inexpensive, italian, good dessert/beverages Cons - kids, food is hit or miss, sometimes there is a long wait, server's often forget garlic rolls. read more

This place wasn't that great or maybe my standards are a little too high. I was hoping for a better pizza after reading all the great reviews. Service: It's a hit and miss with the service. The first time I came here they were very friendly and quick with the customer service. The second time I came they tried to avoid all eye contact and they kind of ignore me until I was basically in their face. Food: The pizza was kind of small for what they charge. Maybe I'm soo used to the Italian places in San Francisco that I'm rating too harshly, but their pizza was not that flavorful. I could only taste the cheese. Their kind of stingy with the toppings. But their pizza was alot better than pizza hut or dominos (any chain pizza places) Their pasta wasn't unique at all. I felt that i could of prepare their pastas at home with store brought noodles and sauce. And it would of cost alot less than what they charged. Their salads were decent. Nothing much to add about here. Overall: I wouldn't go back here again, but I feel like I have a high standard for Italian. But for those who haven't been in SF north beach, I think this would be a good place for you guys. read more

I came here only because my sister had a buy one entree get the other free deal. If I didn't have that coupon, I don't think I would have come here for the following reasons: 1) it's pricey for Italian food in a dinky town like Alameda 2) the food wasn't all that great (nothing to write home about) 3) parking sucks in this area of Park St. 4) there are better Italian choices in San Francisco (Alameda isn't known for Italian food) 5) all the menu items are "standard"/"typical" Italian fare... nothing really special or unique We ordered some pastas, which were all overcooked--not al dente. Come on, pasta is supposed to be "al dente" right? We ordered the bruschetta, which was very plain and not very seasoned, so I can safely say that wasn't their house specialty. Perhaps I ordered the wrong things, but I doubt I'm going to come back here again... well, maybe I'll consider it if I get a coupon again, but otherwise, nope. read more

Honestly, I do like this place cuz its still pasta, but if it wasn't I wouldn't give it 3 stars, only cuz this place doesn't have much things in white sauce. I mean I know I can ask for it instead of marinara or something, but having meals that's already in white sauce is easier. LOL Anyway, like I said, its still pasta & I love pasta regardless. LOL read more

Sunday Dinner with the extended family. Delicious thin crust pizza, awesome salad and bruschetta. We had a group of 12 and didnt wait any more than 15 minutes for a table, during the dinner rush. Great food and service. read more

Wanted to try the remodeled Tomatina on Park St to see if the food was any better than before. It wasn't. Came in on Tues night and the place was packed. W e had to wait about 10 minutes for a table for 2. Sat in a tiny little booth which was fine for the 2 of us. While waiting we had a chance to look over the menu so ordered right away. One minestrone to split, one tortellini and one chicken parmesan. The soup came first. A little watery and the veggies were only OK. I prefer a thicker minestrone. 3 stars. Tortellini was in a cream sauce with peas and some kind of meat. A little salty for my taste and the 5 cheese tortellini while large just tasted a little bland. 2 stars/ Chicken parmesan was the best of the bunch. Cooked well, nice and moist, but the sauce and accompanying penne were just so-so. 3 1/2 stars. Service was OK. Waitress was real busy so didn't come around much. read more

Tomatina provides you so much food and fresh flavors. The atmosphere inside is welcoming but a bit generic. Try out the pizza and pasta! read more

Try the Piadine... It's the only thing they have that's a little different. Their Pizza and pasta are pretty average but not bad. Service is unspectacular. Last time they didn't give us bread and the waiter was pretty blah. Parking is a bit difficult unless you are pretty saavy and do street parking toward the back. They have a parking lot but it's shared, small, and almost always full. read more

Satise and I went here for the first time for a nice dinner date this evening. We walked in, noticed the place was pretty busy (as it usually seems to be during this time), and we were seated in their outside heated patio area in the back. Service was good & quick. For starters we had the garlic rolls, which tasted good. We ordered Piadines to try something new and were delighted with the freshness of its ingredients. I had the Chicken Gorgonzola and Satise had the Caprese. I wish mine had more chicken and not so much greens. We'll be back to try their pizzas. read more

Tomatina - Italian Near Me - Alameda, California

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Gotta update from my last review....they deserve it We gave this another try....twice...and both times were very good... We ordered the pasta dishes and that large flat pizza Very delish.... read more

Came on a Thursday night with a friend. I had the roasted salmon and my friend had the chicken Alfredo. The tiramisu was super bitter because of the wine it's made with. The apple crisp was a bit bland. I would go again. Now for the experience... We were greeted by the hostess who was really nice and communicated that there was going to be a 15 minute wait for a table. We decided to wait outside and sit at the outdoor dining area. One of the servers came up to us and asked us if we ordered yet and we said that we were waiting to be seated inside. The server then expressed "this is my area I don't know why she (the hostess) wouldn't seat anyone here" and kind of rolled her eyes. A few minutes later we were called inside to be seated. The same server came up to the hostess and it seemed like they didn't get along. Once we were seated, the hostess went through the instructions to order and introduced us to our server (the same girl from earlier.) Overall, the food was good, especially the garlic rolls with marinara sauce but the service was meh because of the way the server behaved around her coworkers. She made a lot of comments about them to us and it just rubbed us the wrong way. When my friend ordered something from the bar, the bartender brought the drink. When the server came to check up on us she said: "Oh, did she bring your drink? Good" in an almost condescending tone. Everyone else was really nice and attentive. Props to the hostess for remaining professional despite everything. read more

I purchased a piadine on 8/11 and was about 1/3 of the way through the very flavorful and fresh meal when I noticed there were 3 hairs in a bite I had just taken. I examined the bite and it was without a doubt very corse pubic hair. I opened the rest of of the piadine up and noticed another pubic hair. These hairs were deliberately placed into my food. I don't know what I could have done to deserve this kind of treatment. Even if I was rude to the people there, which I wasn't, it does not warrant this kind of deliberate, disgusting action. This was a to go order so I didn't even talk to any wait staff. I only dealt with the host and I even tipped $2 on my way out. (Before I even saw my food) I called and emailed them and Chris the Manager was very apologetic and as helpful as he could be, but his hands are tied and there really wasn't much he could do. I got the same response of "there isn't much I can do" when I spoke to Darwin the Operations Manager. I have not been able to hold down a meal since eating at Tomatina. Please beware of these vile pranks. read more