I love this place. Everyone is so nice. It feels like family The food is very good. I have brought all my friends there. The manager JEFF is a great guy. Friendly. Happy takes care of issues right away. Makes you feel welcome Carly read more

No flavor, absolutely NO flavor in the dishes. We were a party of 8 and i had the chicken marsala, no marsala wine or garlic in the sauce. The person that had the chicken parmesan said the tomato sauce tasted like it was nothing more than smashed tomatoes. It's sad when even the pesto on the brushetta is flavorless read more

I've been walking past this place for years. From the outside this establishment doesn't look that inviting, it looks more like a supermarket than a restaurant, but inside it had an inviting energy to it. The service was excellent and the food was delicious. Took my family out for Mother's Day, and glad to say that each of us enjoyed our plates. We're definitely coming back for more. Their bread pudding with gelato was perfection. read more

Tomatina - Bread pudding with vanilla gelato - Italian Near Me - San Mateo, California

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A great family friendly spot. We often sit at the bar for dinner when it's the 2 of us. Service is always good. Gus was our server at our table and she was terrific. Can't go wrong with the Chicken Parmigiana. read more

Wow- horrible service and mediocre food. They must be short staffed but the server continually passed us up and took care of tables that were seated after us. Had to get up and ask for service. The hostess - who was the only nice person and apologetic- had to step in and help us. Not coming back. read more

Everything was wonderful! Our server, Sherri was friendly, and attentive. Faris, the manager at the San Mateo location, always takes time to welcome us back. He makes us feel appreciated to be customer. My friend and I, have been back here five times within this year. The food, service and atmosphere have always been 5 stars!! Thank you Faris, and staff. read more

Definitely not a fan. We decided to eat here because a family member recommended it. Our server was an absolute joy, she was very friendly and always refilled drinks without us even asking. The food was mediocre though, the quality did not match the prices. I ordered the meatball sandwich with the Caesar salad. It took quite a long time for the food to come out and there were only two other tables in the restaurant. When the food did come out though my Caesar salad was drenched in dressing and the meatball sandwich came out cold. This place is definitely not worth going to, there are plenty of other places to get good Italian food. We should have took it as a sign, when we saw that there were hardly any people here during lunch time. read more

Worst Hawaiian pizza and lasagna, I didn't get more than my money's worth! Caesar Pizza is better with very affordable price.

The food was mediocre and it took a while to come out (15 min for apps, 15 min for drinks and 30 mins for entrees) but one thing I could say was our server was informative and apologetic. After waiting 30 minutes for entrees and being pretty irritated, the manager came with the check and said they took off the appetizers. It seemed like they thought a freebie would be suffice but I would have preferred a sincere understanding of what it feels to be a guest waiting and rubbernecking for our food and drinks. Was hoping this would be a pretty cool family Italian restaurant but perhaps my expectations were high. Damn read more

Had Ethan as my server. He was amazing very attentive and did a great job while maintaining the restaurant. I never had to ask for a refill and he was there to ensure things were pinpoint. Food was delicious, service was amazing and drinks were outstanding. Will come back soon!! read more

Andrea the manager was very attentive, uplifting and had great customer service! She deserves a raise!!

The gluten free pasta was the best I have ever had! The clams and salmon sauce was wonderful! Our server was wonderful! I think the older servers are much better at customer service and ours proved that! read more

Outstanding meal! They beautifully accommodated our group of 11 with lovely and prompt service, I highly recommend!

I liked Tomatina. Nice food, nice atmosphere. Downtown San Mateo has quite a few Italian restaurants, but Tomatina fills the "family-friendly, but still nice" slot well. It's funny that it's within eye-shot of Spiedo, but the food really is different. It feels a bit more casual -- but it's not "fast food" or anything of that nature. I think you could bring the whole family and make them all happy. The service was super friendly. The hostess was great, and my waitress was very nice and attentive. NB I was there on the "early side" for dinner. I had a "personal" margherita pizza and a small antipasto salad. Both were tasty -- perhaps not the fanciest stuff I've ever eaten, but satisfying. By the way: the "small" salad was plenty big, and the "personal" pizza was -- all told -- pretty large. I think it would qualify as a "medium" at certain pizza places around here. I like the bread that they bring to the table (they'll ask if you want it)... it comes with a checca of sorts (chopped tomatoes in olive oil - I think?). The bread is soft, and the tomatoes are flavorful. And in keeping with the broad menu, there's a lot of choices for beverages, too. The vanilla-mint lemonade was really good -- somewhat like a "virgin mojito," if you can picture what that would be like. Always nice to have some creative non-alcoholic drinks on the menu. In short, I'd put Tomatina at about Pasta Pomodoro level -- perhaps a bit higher, because I think there are more choices on the menu, and the service is a bit more polished and the environment is a little nicer. So if you like Pasta Pomodoro, you will like it here. (I do like Pasta Pomodoro.) I would definitely return and would recommend it to folks looking for an Italian meal downtown, where you can get something just about anyone would like, and get your money's worth. read more

First time I came here I loved it and wondered why all the negative reviews around service... second time we came here the food was good, but I totally got the negative reviews around service. It was like eating at two completely different places. Visit 1: Staff was super friendly and very attentive. Servers and staff not from our table stopped and checked on us or got refills. Visit 2: We had to stop people to ask for refills. The food took a very long time to come out. I had to ask several times for the check. I wanted to pay by credit card, but gave up on the return of the waitress and left cash. I only had enough cash for a sub 10% tip... but based on the service and the fact I could not get the money collected it seemed more then generous. I did like the food both times and will try again. I just will not come here if I am in a hurry or the kids are restless. read more

I went with my sister, Mars. I was excited for this new Tomatina to open as I drove past it frequently during the remodel. I was prepared for a predictable menu as I've dined at Tomatinas before, a fairly popular chain that's more "high end" than Pasta Pomodoro and the likes. I was impressed with the seasonal dishes - I got the kale salad and my sister got the Brasato di Manzo. Both dishes were good and refreshing options to find at a chain restaurant like this. The sangria was pretty weird - it tasted like a bunch of pineapple juice and soda water with a as plash of wine. Hopefully they tweak their recipe a bit to make it resemble a real sangria. Fortunately though,the normal wine options by the glass were pretty reasonable and fairly priced, however, I was very surprised that the waiter knew nothing about them. We also had to ask for water, bread, etc. However, looking past that, our waiter was extremely friendly and accommodating. The day to day specials though are worth a trip - we only paid $3 for our Tiramisu during that week night special (typically a $6-7 dessert). Each night they have a different special. Good for families, date night on a budget, or groups. I would try coming here again - our server was friendly, just lacked a lot of knowledge. I think it'll be better once they smooth out their kinks. read more

Mediocre. Total meal cost for a lunch party of four: $70. Mind you: these were all lunch specials. I had a minestrone soup (cup size) and bruschetta. Mom had the special, and my brother & sister shared a pick 2: Caesar salad and small pesto pasta. Ridic. Not worth it. Went during their lunch hours yesterday, there were only two tables dining at this time, yet it took over 30 mins to receive our lackluster food. I understand there was only one chef at this time, but for the amount of time it took to prepare the food should have tasted excellent. Presentation was beautiful but everything we had was flavorless. Such a bummer considering the price. Overall: slow service, waiter sucked, food is flavorless. Not worth it. read more

We had an amazing experience here this evening. Perfect venue for our son's 16th birthday with friends. The group loved the pizza - carne and margherita. And the planning was seamlessly handled by Jeff who manages the place. During dinner, Ashley was awesome, handling 9 teenagers and their many requests. Strongly recommend this place for group events, they have their act together! read more

The food was 1 star but the service was AWFUL. Here's a tip: you're better off at the Olive Garden. At least the service and food are decent and consistent. We came on a Monday night and it wasn't busy. We were seated fairly quickly but it was downhill from there. The service was extremely slow and inattentive. It was about 10 minutes before we were greeted and able to order drinks/apps. The manager dropped off our calamari, which was chewy but not inedible. We finished it and were ready to order entrees but didn't see our server for ANOTHER 10-15 minutes. Finally, he came by and we ordered 4pcs of garlic bread (AMAZING), a personal size carne combo pizza (MEHH) , and the Pescatora pasta (Blehh). The food arrived after about 20 minutes which I can understand but the pizza was barely warm and the pasta was drowning in the white wine pesto butter sauce. I couldn't even complain because our server never came back to check on us. We tried to force some of it down since we were hungry but couldn't eat more than 1/3 of our food. I hate being wasteful but we didn't even want to box up the leftovers and take it home. We waited and waited and finally had to flag someone else down to get the check. I understand they were probably understaffed, but the server was nonchalant and non apologetic about the long wait for service, which is what ruined it for us. Needless to say we won't be going back. read more

I've had 3 encounters with Tomatina in the last couple months: 1st time was my husband and I dining in--Friday night around 7 and they had recently opened--took about 5 minutes to be seated but after that it was all downhill...service was super slow, my husbands meal came missing some items he ordered on the side, which then took longer to cook because they were never even put on the order. Our waitress offered a dessert as long as we put the order in quickly (she said jokingly because the food was taking so long) however we declined because I just wanted to go home after being there so long...food was ok, garlic rolls were sooooo oily and my husbands pizza was super soggy with oil and cheese, but flavor was nice. 2nd time was when I ordered lunch for an office meeting---I was nervous and hoped everything went well as this was my first time with this responsibility. All went well except our salad came with zero dressing---quite disappointing for the people who could only have the salad :/ But, the pizza was good and the garlic rolls, again super duper oily, were still pretty tasty. 3rd encounter was this past weekend---my coworker decided to order pizza for the office because I worked her shift so she could have the day off. Except the pizza never came....she asked me at work if it ever came and after me having no idea what she was talking about decided to call. She was told they tried delivering but no one was came to the door---this is impossible, we work in an office that does not close or lock our doors until 5 pm---so they decided to just not charge her for it. No call, nothing. Apparently they went to the office next door, which clearly has a different suite number, but never tried walking 5 steps to the right to see our door? They didn't try to offer her anything as an apology, which I think should've happened in this situation because it was clearly their mistake. **Update: I've learned that they do not deliver, only cater, however my co-worker is adamant that she ordered from Tomatina, and that she had also done so in the past...weird... All in all, I will just stick with Pasta Pomodoro...their FREE bread is amazing and I've never had any issue with food or service... read more

For the price, the food was just so so. I was expecting better since it was in the heart of the Bay Area. I'm from South Lake Tahoe which I consider "the sticks" as far as having quality restaurants, but I can name at least 2 Italian restaurants up here which far surpassed this one and are half the price. I had a chop salad with prosciutto which was basically kind of bland with not much prosciutto or cheese in it and coated with a heavy dressing which was indistinctive. If you sit next to the window; be sure to bring a coat because there's a substantial draft which will cool off your food in a hurry. My husband said the pizza was okay, but then, I have to compare it to pizza places up here...we've had better. read more

Good casual Italian restaurant with reasonable prices and generous portions. We were pleasantly surprised. We went on a Saturday night and did not have to wait for a table for the five of us despite the place being fairly busy. We waited for our server a bit to show up after we went through the menu and we were ready to order. He was friendly and did a decent job. The pesto chicken pizza was very good. It exceeded expectations. Thin crust with a thin layer of tomato sauce, mozzarella, chicken, diced sweet red bell peppers, and drizzle of pesto. The personal size pizza is larger than most in other restaurants. We also shared the Pescatoro pasta dish, comprised of spaghettini pasta and chopped clams, small pieces of salmon, garlic, in a pesto sauce. It was a good sized amount of food. It's hard to find casual Italian restaurants that serve the same size portions. The only things about the Pescatoro that could use a bit of improvement are: there could be more clams. We had mostly salmon and very little clams, and the dish could have used a touch of salt (I added a few sprinkles). I sampled the pepperoni calzone which was good. The crust was the right texture and not too hard. The place is kind of noisy and unfortunately the server misheard one of the people in our party and got her order wrong. She decided to eat it anyway and took home what she did not eat. The interior design, atmosphere and food remind me of another chain Italian restaurant that used to be at the Bridgepoint Shopping Center in San Mateo, Cucina Cucina. Dinner for the five of us, including beverages (both the red and the white sangria are decent and come in 16 ounce glasses), tax and tip came out to $104. read more

Tomatina - Pesto Chicken Pizza. - Italian Near Me - San Mateo, California

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This place has a great ambiance and all of the waiters are super friendly! I came with friends and we had our fill of their deliciously fresh, complimentary focaccia bread. We all had sangrias, a mix of white and red. Our very nice waitress got the order mixed up and didn't charge us for one! I will note that they use soda water in their sangria, which I thought was interesting. For my entree, I had the seasonal winter pasta featured on their menu. I figured it would be amazing, but it was bland pasta with oil, kale bits, mushroom, and sausage. I was able to try the risotto with pork which was tasty and very filling. The risotto was a little more watery than creamy than I would have preferred, but the pork was very tender. I also tried the cheese sandwich and chicken sandwich. Both were very tasty! The waiters were all very kind and happy to crack jokes which made the night even more enjoyable, on top of the intimate atmosphere. Overall, we had a fantastic time and had great service! Maybe just ask about suggested dishes when you order so you don't get a dud like me! read more

Solid food, solid service, nice establishment. Seasonal dishes are worth a look. A value restaurant experience.

Two and a half stars, not worth a return visit. Food was average at best and the service left a lot to be desired. Long wait before anyone came by the table, long wait for anyone to come back. My pepperoni calzone was the best dish and was pretty good. Cesar salad, polenta, spaghetti and meatballs were all very forgettable. Garlic rolls were not worth bothering with. read more

I'm inclined to leave a bad review because of the other bad reviews. Isn't this terrible? So instead of 1 star, I'll leave 2. This is not because they're a glorified Olive Garden though. Rather, it's because a 10 year old could have made my dish (I got the penne bolognese) with penne, meaty spaghetti sauce and cheese. The presentation left much to be desired. I'll probably skip this place next time I'm looking for an Italian restaurant solely because I want a different restaurant to open up in its place. read more

Tomatina - Penne Bolognese. It's meh... - Italian Near Me - San Mateo, California

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Lunch with my son in Sunday afternoon. Restaurant very empty but slow service, they apologized said it was there 2nd day. I had the steak Piadine, a salad with steak wrapped in Italian flatbread my son had the classic salmon. Both were good although not outstanding. I will try the restaurant again once they have everything running smoothly read more

Tomatina - Bread - Italian Near Me - San Mateo, California

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Good pasta and pizzas. Their lunch deal is pretty affordable. Server was really nice and checked in on us constantly. One thing though, the restaurant smells from the moment you walk in! Smells like food and very smoky. Their kitchen is open and I am pretty sure their fans are not working. So I left the restaurant smelling like food, all over my clothes and hair... this makes me not want to go again. :( read more

They have nice Italian food especially their Pasta and Pizza. They also have cheap wine which is always fun. The waiters are nice, they offer good service and overall its a nice restaurants. read more

Quick and friendly services however the foods falls short on flavor. Love the anchovies with the Caesar however a little goes such a long way. Who needs a huge pile of these intense guys crowding this classic salad . The entree of moms spaghetti and meatballs was piping hot with no appearance of a robust tomato sauce. The only indicator was the color red. Other menu options so perhaps I will return... read more

Not the best choice but we were hungry so.. I would have been better off taking a Lyft to somewhere else.

Simple. Yummy. Will not break the bank! We had a few of their signature items - the standout? Their Carne Combo Pizza! read more

Tomatina - Carne Combo Pizza mozzarella, Parmesan, tomato sauce, sweet Italian sausage, pepperoni, prosciutto, and sautéed mushrooms! - Italian Near Me - San Mateo, California

one star for decent food & one star for nice decor. This review is about the customer service we had. Came here on a Sunday night. It wasn't that packed. Our waiter was very friendly at first taking our order but soon after we were served he didn't seem acknowledgeable after that. During my meal I only asked for him a fork but instead he forgot about our table. I had to take another fork from an empty table to finish my food. I noticed that he was mostly chit chatting with other tables instead. Not the best customer service as a waiter. Through out the whole night we had to tackle him down to just ask for water. Didn't really took the time to see if we needed anything (especially my fork). Hopefully next time they will improve on their service and providing customer service to all of their customer instead of just certain ones. read more

Hella good service. Unprecedented level of attention to detail. Keely, our server, orchestrated this masterpiece of fine dining experience.

I'm not too good at writing reviews, but I had such a great experience tonight, that I had to. Our waiter, Kalvin, recommend the lasagna and we both decided to go with his recommendation. I can't express in words how good it was. It tasted like how I imagine an Italian grandmother's would taste. For dessert we both got the tiramisu and it was phenomenal. To top it all off, our server Kalvin and the manager Suzanne provided amazing service. We felt so welcomed the whole meal. I would definitely recommend. They also told me they have live music Fridays and Saturdays. read more

Great place for lunch! First class service from Jade, wonderful food and great atmosphere. read more

Tomatina - Super Yummy Pasta - Italian Near Me - San Mateo, California

Our family tried Tomatina's twice, and both times, the kids said it was the best pizza in San Mateo! There's gluten free pasta, pizza, and piadine~ I had the GF pasta pescado and it was deLISH. They offer seasonal menus and a discounted family-style meal on Monday nights~ we'll definitely be back for that. The cocktail menu is tempting! I ordered a basil lime martini, and the manager checked in with our table when it took a beat for the bar to make the drink. Then, she sent tiramisu to our table! We hadn't complained~ she's just on point. Great customer service, yummy menu, comfortable setting, and family friendly. read more

We were OK with the food for our specific orders. But they didn't even bring any bread or olive oil. Ever. Unrelated to food: We realize everyone's musical tastes differ, but for the hour+ we were there, there was THE SAME NON-STOP & REPETITIVE track of house techno-track (or whatever it's called) playing loudly, which really got very annoying & started giving us a headache towards the end. read more

We went out for a nice Italian dinner, thought we'd try the new place in town and unfortunately were pretty disappointed. Although servers were really nice, we were pretty unimpressed with the food and believe a lot of kinks need to be worked out. The sangria was pretty syrupy, our polenta appetizer, although good, we were missing any side plates for this little saucey dish. The lasagna was well intentioned but was missing any punchy flavour to make it really pop and had a cake of cheese on the top. Although the menu described the other dish as described "creamy pesto" it was oily, came with no Parmesan on too as listed in the menu, and the added chicken was bland and flavour less. A ton of added Parmesan from the shaker unfortunately couldn't help it out! I unfortunately won't be going back, especially with so many other good restaurants in town. read more

Better than Olive Garden, but expensive! The salmon entree portion was tiny. Bread rolls are delicious and a good bang for your buck. Pasta dishes are a generous size. Personal pizzas could easily feed two people. Service is quick and friendly. If you order to share it will cut down on the expense. read more