Trombino’s Bistro Italiano

I have a huge soft spot for Trombino’s. The décor is old school, almost cheesy Italian, the lights are dim, the wine is superb, and the food is served generously at a leisurely pace. What’s not to love?
Let’s start with what you come here for: the food. Trombino’s serves a mean Chicken Piccata. Two full breasts for the dinner portion, so there’s plenty to take home for tomorrow’s lunch. The calamari is also a house specialty, served as an appetizer or on a salad, it’s hot and fresh. The bread they serve before the meal is also fantastic and my husband raves about the Chicken Parmesan. The lasagna is enormous, but my father in law polished off every bite. Delish.
The service is always on point. Responsive, knowledgeable, there when they need to be and gone when they don’t. I’ve easily spent 2 hours at dinner just enjoying the company… Never felt rushed to pay the tab or turn the table.
Finally, ask for a booth if it’s available. Super comfy and you don’t feel pinched like the tables and chairs in the narrow side room. It’s important enough to wait if you have to. Trust me on that one…

Ambiance is nice. Service is adequate. Food is average.
I wouldn’t seek out for a special meal, but wouldn’t avoid it either. Prefer Scalos in Nob Hill and Joes Pasta Shop in Rio Rancho, but Trombino’s is an option.

Food was okay. Nothing to really make me want to go back to. Unfortunately, I thought the chicken parm is better at Olive Garden.
Reason for 2 stars:
#1 I strongly dislike when you order the soup or salad and then get your main meal 5 minutes afterwards! Either why take so long to bring a soup or a simple salad OR why not give the patrons time to enjoy it before their meal?
#2 The chairs were wobbly. Not just mine but I noticed other customers sitting down say/​mention the same thing.
#3 Chicken parm. Just subpar at best.
#4 Their house special desert is tiramisu? It was more like dry cake with cinnamon on top.

The service was very excellent– our waitress recommended dishes as well as those that accommodated my vegetarianism. The fried mushrooms were SO GOOD. Highly recommended. As other reviewers have said, the marinara was delicious. The chicken Marsala was okay, not outstanding, but definitely enjoyable.
Definitely recommend this place!

Great food and service. Sat in the bar area, not very appealing — but my seafood Fra diablo was great. I’d come back again.

Always have good service. Food is amazing no matter what dish we try. Highly recommend

I had the Mahi. Lukewarm veggies, over cooked Mahi & seemed to have been left under a warmer while the other plates were prepared. The seared tilapia however was excellent! My turn in the barrel I guess

We were originally looking for a different Italian restaurant that was closed for the night, but we were not at all disappointed in this place.
Starting with the bread and olive oil mixture, to the calamari to the main courses of lasagna, penne and meatballs, to frutti de Mari all were excellent as well as the service.

So so yummy! Took a one day road trip to Albq and we weren’t sure what we wanted to eat. I typed in Italians, saw a ton of good reviews for this place and decided to try it out for myself. It was great food and good service.

IT was time for a monthly date night with my queen and I. We enjoyed a comedy show prior to our visit to Trombino’s. We’ve eaten at many traditional Italian restaurants before. We’ve always heard great reviews for Trombinos and thought it was time to give them a try. First off they partner with Opentable. This gave us flexibility on what time we could have dinner. Upon arrival, the seating hostess knew we were coming. They seated us almost immediately. There was a small crowd when we arrived, but it was very quiet and quite romantic. Our server, (I think his name was Eric) was awesome. He was patient, and very friendly. He took our drink order and suggested the fried zucchini. My wife has never had fried zucchini so I was worried she wouldn’t like it. The zucchini was amazing. It was sliced like that of a french fry. It complimented the Italian bread, and the olive oil. Next up was our entrees. I ordered the Vodka pasta while my queen ordered chicken Parmesan. Both plates were amazing. I always order Vodka pasta if it’s on the menu. This was by far the best I’ve had. I didn’t forget the grilled chicken. It too was cooked perfectly. We finished our dinner with desert. There’s nothing like finishing an awesome Italian dinner that finishing it with Gelato. We ordered the cappuccino Gelato, which literally melted in our mouths. The experience was great, the staff was exceptionally nice and the décor felt like we were in Italy having dinner. We will be back soon.

Let me preface by saying this: I hate marinara sauce. Okay, now that that’s out in the open, let me tell you about the incredibly delicious marinara sauce they have here! It’s literally fingerlickin good! My friend and I came here last night craving good Italian, we ordered a side of calamari (which is HUGE for only $ 10) and the marinara that came with it was just amazing! For entrée, I ordered a vodka gnocchi (not on the menu, but you can ask for it ;)) and my friend ordered a lasagna. both dishes were amazing! And it was very affordable ($ 15 each entrée). We definitely did not finish our calamari nor our pasta, cause dishes were big! But I am still savoring the gnocchi as we speak! Will definitely be back for more!

Wonderful food, nice restaurant. So many different selections to choose from. My 2 kids and I were very pleased with our food choices, our appetizer of clams and mussels, salads and main course. Everything was excellent including our server. She was wonderful! Definitely recommend!

I read reviews posted on Unilocal and decided it was a good choice. So glad we came here. The restaurant is charming. It is Friday night and it was packed with locals /​always a good sign. The service was excellent and the food delicious.

The food here is exceptionally good! The bread was fresh, a lot of options to choose from, portions were generous, and our waitress was awesome! Loved the ambience here. Definitely will come back!

Read the reviews. For top notch Italian, this is it in ABQ. I almost can’t say it better than the other Unilocalers. Eat here – now!

More like 3.5 stars, but I’ll round up. This place has been around for something like 35 years and is never eaten here before. It was okay. Not as nice inside as I expected. The food was pretty good, but there are better Italian places in town. It was plentiful – huge portions.
I had the fruitti di mare which had a lot of seafood and was quite good. My son had a piece of pizza, daughter had lasagna, and husband had… Chicken? Pork? Don’t remember. Everyone seemed to like their food, but it doesn’t really stand out. I think I recall my parents saying as much back when I was in high school, so I guess I can’t be surprised.
They seem to have special holiday meals, so if you’re looking for something other than typical hotel holiday buffets, this might be an option.

New Mexico is known for, well, New Mexican food. Sure, in Santa Fe you have some great «fusion» cuisine and I’m sure some good Italian if you want to spend $ 100. Albuquerque’s war – er – international district has some great Vietnamese and Thai. What New Mexico doesn’t have, or so I thought, was good Italian. Sure, Scalo is fancy and such, but I’ve been underwhelmed by their marinara on multiple occasions. Like Phở at Vietnamese, Pad Thai at Thai, and the red and green at New Mexican, an Italian restaurant should be able to do a good marinara sauce. Enter Trombino’s.
My wife and I headed up here on a night I really wanted some marinara. The restaurant is in the NE Heights in a strip mall off San Mateo. The place itself has that «family restaurant trying to be classy but comes off kinda corny» flair: painted walls, faux villa stuff, waitstaff in uniform, etc.
We started with the mushroom «frito» (fried mushrooms) appetizer. It was HUGE! One thing I’ve missed since going on a plant-​based diet (vegan if you will) is calamari, so this was a pleasant substitute. My marinara had a great sweet/​sour balance and texture. They even put mushrooms in (by request). My only complaint was that at the end of the meal I was kind of on salt overload. I didn’t notice it at first, but I think the cumulative effect of mushroom frito and mushroom marinara did me in.
All and all, if you want «good» Italian in Albuquerque, this is your spot.

Well Italian and Albuquerque aren’t two things that go well together but this place is above the pack. It use to be the goto place for date night, prom, and other special occasions. Been here a few different times and was pleased on all occasions. Parking can be tight and can be rather busy. There are a few better Italian places in town but this is one of the better ones.

What a cool little cozy place.
From the moment I walked in I felt like o was in for a treat. The hostess was really friendly and as I was being taken to the table every one that I passed welcomed me to the restaurant.
The place seemed to be fly with a lot if regulars which is a good sign to me.
The food was good, served fresh and had plenty of flavor.
You can’t go wrong eating here.

Good Italian food is hard to find in Albuquerque. We finally tried Trombino’s after several people told us how awesome it is. No, it really isn’t. I had the eggplant parm, the eggplant was slimy and not fried well and the pasta with it was overcooked like the spaghetti I used to eat in the elementary school cafeteria. I don’t think they make their pasta in house, which I would expect of a place charging these kind of prices in this city. I wasn’t impressed with any of the food anybody at our table had, but dessert was good. I gave the place 3 stars because the service was truly up with the best we have had in Albuquerque. We probably won’t go back, service isn’t worth subpar food at this pricepoint.