| rev:text
| - Meh!
This is an over-rated restaurant folks. Let's be clear that this is NOT a gem of a YELP "foodie" discovery. Nope.
This is sadly yet *another* one of the many Phoenix overpriced, overrated, uninspired comfort food operations catering to a (mostly) wealthy geriatric and pseudo biker crowd that thinks "Chicken Parm" and "Penne ala Vodka" are gourmet treats. What a joke.
Went here last night for the first time after reading all the YELP rave reviews. It was my wife's birthday and we made 5pm reservations a week ago. I also let them know it was a special occasion.
Upon arrival our family were seated upstairs, overlooking the bar. Yes the place is decorated very cutely - kind of like the "Rio hotel casino" in Vegas meets "Goodfellas." The location I think is what is what is helping boost the reviews here - it's an odd duck location next to the bowling alley and across from old standby Red Devil across the street. I'm sure people have been hankering for a new Italian joint around this slightly seedy area. We had big hopes too after reading the YELP reviews!
As soon as we were seated (I mean instantly) things got off to a bad start. Our waitress approached the table. "Hello and welcome! Would you care for any drinks besides water? Oh, by the way - we will need you to all be DONE with your dinner by 7pm firm as we have this table reserved for others! No problem. Just make sure you are finished by 7 OK?"
Wow. We all just looked at each other, puzzled. We were not a walk-in. We arrived on time. We had a reservation. It was my wife's birthday (which we told in advance). Yet the #1 thing we are told at 5pm on a Saturday night with a reservation ... is we need to hurry up and eat. Wow. Weird.
So like I said the menu is pretty much the same Italian/American comfort style favorites that you will easily find at about 100 other Italian joints in Phoenix. Places like Ristorante Giuseppe in Scottsdale (or Red Devil across the street). Prices here at Tommy are however all the the medium high side, averaging $16-27 for the chicken parm or veal (Picatta, Parm, Marsala, etc).
Let me cut to the chase: The food was good but certainly not stellar by a long shot. The sauces were competent. I make better Marsala at home. The pastas tasted ordinary and were not cooked al dente.
What we have here with Tommy's place my friends is a cute establishment in an area desperately needing more good food options. This place caters to the east coast crowd with a few bucks after retirement, seeking comfort classics in a nice clean little place.
I won't be back most likely because for the average $30 spent per person, this was not great food nor was it a value for my money. The weird rush to be out by 7 started things off oddly, but if the food would have been amazing we would have promptly forgotten that.
The food was not bad, but it was very ordinary Italian comfort food that was not remotely deserving of a 5 Star YELP rating. No way.
***Update: Just to be clear, this is a genuine review based on our dinner on March 3rd, we had never been here before, we do not know any of the owners or employees. We had very high hopes for this place. It was my wife's birthday and we had our two daughters with us. I'm a longtime YELPER for nearly a decade, with more than 80 posted reviews. under my belt. We sincerely wanted a great experience but we were disappointed.
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