Bar Toma

Just ok. We came here on a groupon. Let me tell you our waiter was less than thrilled about that. Once he saw the groupon-​it was attitude the rest of the time. We had two appetizers: white bean crostini-​bland and the cheese skillet with focaccia toasts-​super good! The baked ziti was great and the Brussels sprouts pizza was awesome!!! However, the margherita pizza was meh and the southsider was gross. For dessert, the snores pizza was probably one of the best desserts I’ve had! It was good to try and some of the food was really good, but given the attitude of the waiter and the hit or miss nature of the food overall, we are unlikely to return

I have been here a couple of times and it has been hit or miss for me. The first time I went they had this seasonal pizza with an egg on it which was delicious. The second time I went I had the margherita pizza which should have been excellent but it was very lackluster and unimpressive. I went today and got the burrata pizza which also had brussel sprouts and truffle oil and that was definitely so good. It had a very nice charred crust and the burrata was great.
Their service is always pretty good here. Once a waiter dropped half of the order of monkey bread and they brought over another order and also didn’t charge us for it.
I just wish there was more consistency in their food.

You know what? I made sure to have an open mind when coming here. Growing up in the city of Pizza all my life I figured it would be something like a Blaze. Honestly, the pizza was great. I would for sure come back. Service was outstanding! Our server was very kind and table touched every so often. Soft serve was homemade and the cookie was warmed to perfection! It’s not Chicago style pizza but it is worth going to!

Nate went out of his way to make sure I had exactly what I wanted. He was very patient and kind. My only request is that they include a little silverware. I’m just hangry. I will eat here again and again and I will tell my friends to eat here .
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Delicious pizza and roasted cauliflower — and I don’t even LIKE cauliflower normally. Served with goat cheese — yum! Great casual dinner date spot. Our waiter suggested a pizza each — but we really could have shared one and the appetizer. Although, I wasn’t complaining when I had leftovers the next day for lunch! ;)

Pass. Came here on nye, seated at the bar, ordered garlic parm wings ($ 13 for 5 – 6 wings) and pineapple express pizza ($ 16). Ginger ale from a can was $ 4. The food wasn’t bad, but the service was memorably off-​putting. Wouldn’t return because of that reason.

We had another great handcrafted pizza at the remodeled Bar Toma, near the Water Tower on E Pearson Street. The place looks great after reworking the bar area and the food and service remain top-​notch. Highly recommend the salads — we split a salad and pizza for two. Perfect! Worthwhile wine list as well. New Year resolution to come back more often!

some of the best burrata we’ve had!
…add truffle oil and brussels sprouts. yum x 100. barely made it as leftovers as i was tempted to have a slice on the way home. toasty sprouts, gooey cheese, soft yet crispy crust.
sort of baffled that a kids menu was not available for a place right by water tower. service was friendly but not the fastest.
i would pass on the monkey bread next time — looks better than it tastes. it needed to be seasoned and cooked more!

I just love this little place, and I am a huge fan of Tony Mantuano… I decided to order from Grub Hub because it’s a cold weather evening. My order was placed at 6:45, and never arrived until 9:22. The pizza was cold, and greasy. The order of «Brick Oven» hot wings for $ 13.00 only had 6 wings. In total my sad little order was $ 41.00. I feel so very ripped off. I called Bar Toma in the middle of this mess and was asked by the person on the phone if I needed him to do something… Then a second person grabbed the phone and said he’d sort this mess out.
If you can’t handle a secondary business such as a second party delivery from Grub Hub simply DON’T. My loss. It will certainly take this place off my list forever. Cold, small, greasy, expensive and pathetic service.

Tough one to review — great location, nice interior, painting, sort of cool open kitchen but struggles to really figure out what they are. The restaurant is overpriced and not worth the money — i.e. money and value are not aligned, the food is avg. If the owners are reading this — here is a little advice — the salmon at 24 dollars is very overpriced for what you get. The pizza is good but not great, 10 dollars for a large tap Stella beer is a little expensive. The real issue is that the restaurant isn’t sure what it is — it has big tvs all over the place like a sports bar, an open kitchen like an italian place, a DJ area, a big coffee machine at the bar. The place is sort of everything but also nothing special. When I walked by Gino’s East the wait was 1.5 hours on a Saturday night with a line out the door — when you go to Bar Toma it is empty on a Saturday night. Plus — get a kid’s menu — lots of kids there but not very friendly. I guess one saving grace– our waiter was very good and friendly — working hard.
Good luck!

The pizza was good, and the service was friendly.
Yet, given the price range, I would expect a bit fancier :)

This is me and the BFFs favorite place to get pizza in the heart of the Mag Mile madness. Sure, Chicago has the best deep dish and I agree, but this pizza is in a different category because it’s wood fired pizza. It’s never been super crowded, and they have a full bar to enjoy drinks while you wait for a table. The wait staff is prompt and keep the flow of customers moving so we’ve never had to wait long. If you are stuck with a long wait, I would suggest having a beer at the bar and ordering your food there, with the hope that you get seated before the food comes so you can eat sooner. You aren’t coming here to eat healthy, so order your table the Monkey Business bread to start and you will not regret it. Our favorite pizza is the South Sider with ricotta cheese, garlic, spicy salami and other yumminess! It has the perfect kick to it. The menu is priced fair, for downtown Chicago. I think the atmosphere is cozy and has a community feel, even though it’s in the middle of tourism. It’s the perfect place to chill out with a beer and watch the shopping madness outside!

I’m from out of town and came here looking for the French bistro. Loved the mussels then and was open to try the old space now revamped Italian style. My first impression was not to expect too much from the kitchen when the focus was definitely TV TV every where, but I was assured by the food server that the chef was famous and well accomplished. Great, let’s go!
Disappointments first: The beer selection was meh, pizza was fine but the real heartbreaker was the $ 14 kale salad. The kale was in big chunks and not pre-​massaged to break down the toughness. (Kale must be cut small if it’s not baby kale and it needs to be properly dressed or its challenging to eat.) It came with some breadcrumbs, dried cranberries and a perfectly cooked soft egg. I felt duped. Seems like the work of an inexperienced kitchen or perhaps salads are just an after thought for them, listed on the menu simply to satisfy those strange few that come to a pizza place and order greens?
Good news second: The chicken soup was scarce on the chicken but it didn’t matter because the flavors were delicious. My sister in law had the gigantic meatball and she was pleased. Excellent quality sausage and pepperoni on the pizza!
Would give 2.5 if possible.

Great selection for casual dining while at the mag mile. Came here to chat with a friend over some beers and was impressed by the service. Kenya was great! We had the meatball and the cauliflower which were pretty awesome. I was glad to discover a casual pizza parlor/​bar that has all the necessities: good beer, tasty food, tvs, and great service. Among all the high end, touristy places this is a nice option.

During our first night in Chicago we had been wandering around Michigan Ave. and found this place. We had planned to head back to where we were staying in Lincoln Park as we aren’t huge fans of really touristy, chain type places, but were so starving. The pizza looked good from afar, so we grabbed a seat on the patio.
However, after seeing the pizza close up and listening to the DJ for a bit we were a little turned off. Since we were already sitting we decided to get an appetizer. We ordered the roasted cauliflower with whipped goat cheese and we were so glad we did. It was an entire head of cauliflower that was seasoned well and roasted and came with a side of goat cheese and olive oil. It was great and a perfect snack to hold us over until we could find somewhere closer to our place to eat.

After their remodeling, Bar Toma goes from the top of my list to the bottom.
No style left to this place after their summer 2015 changes. Menu is poor, short on choices, and the Italy setting no longer exists. Not even an Italian beer on the menu. The pizza is still good, but they took all the good appetizers off the menu. The new appetizers are tasteless and poorly presented. Totally off my list now. Very disappointing.

I went here on a week night with a friend. We only had two items:
Spinach Pizza — I like wood fire pizza’s, but this tasted burnt to me. I wasn’t a fan.
Monkey Bread — I could have had another one of these. It was sooooo good! Loved the marinara sauce with it. Usually I think of Monkey Bread as a sweet item, but this was just fine :)
I would go back to try more items.

Pizza crust one of my favorites in Chicago, atmosphere was friendly and nice, but the toppings could be a little more intriguing. Pizzas are a great size and are perfect for sharing. came with three other people and we ordered three pizzas.

Very average. We were recommended this restaurant by our hotel because of the famous chef (who I believe was on Top Chef). I was excited to try some non-​deep dish pizza (which, I’m sorry, I’m not a huge fan of) and I loooove Top Chef, so I had high hopes.
Their drink menu was decent — the beers on tap were okay. From what I saw, their wine list was decent as well. We ordered 1 meatball, the Pineapple Express pizza, the veggie pizza, and the mushroom pizza. The meatball was suuuuuper tender which I was very impressed by, but the flavor was just okay. The pizzas were okay but — like Unilocal suggests for 2 stars — meh, I’ve experienced better. There just wasn’t much flavor. My favorite was probably the Pineapple Express, but the heat from the jalapenos kind of took over everything else.
They also close very early — 10pm — which is a mistake considering its close location to the touristy Hancock Center!

Pizza was so delicious! We had white zombie with pepperoni and pineapple pizza. Both where amzing!
I don’t think this place was kids friendly. They didn’t bring appropriate cups for kids. Customer service was a bit off. He needed to be a little more friendly and helpful. The pizza was so good, I’ll definitely come here again.

En fin. Podría decir que está bien el sitio pero espelta que, cuando aún te queda un trozo de comida en la mano tuya te están trayendo la cuenta para que te paguen y te largues. Y no es porque necesiten el sitio… Te obliga a un 18 de propina cuando, por este motivo no merecen más de u 10%. Dejen cenar en paz! Cohone…

Sur la façade du Bar Toma il y a une phrase «Best Pizza in the country» autrement dit «Meilleures pizza du pays»? Sacré culot d’afficher ça en façade… Surtout qu’après avoir essayé l’établissement, je peux vous dire que c’est un slogan qui s’avère faux !
Ça commence plutôt moyen avec l’accueil à l’entrée qui est assez sommaire et pas vraiment chaleureux. L’établissement a une grande salle de restauration où de nombreux écrans de TV sont parsemés, un grand comptoirs mettant en avant différents desserts et des tables et chaises en bois sans grand confort.
Le serveur nous conseille de prendre un ou deux antipasti a partager puis une pizza pour deux par la suite et suggère que c’est comme cela que ça se passé ici. Alors nous commandons, deux antipasti dont des calamars frits et des boulettes de riz au fromage. Les calamars frits étaient assez bon mais pas extraordinaire non plus, en revanche les boulettes de riz au fromage étaient vraiment délicieuses, dommage car la quantité (3 boulettes) était assez petite.
Passons à la partie pizza car le bar Toma se veut d’être un restaurant Italien. Notre choix s’est porté sur une pizza aux 3 fromages (un classique que l’on peut facilement évaluer). Et bien la aussi c’est une déception franchement… Le fromage était disposé en couche très (trop) fine, et bon courage même aux palais les plus avertis pour distinguer les nuances dans les différents formages. Quand a la pâte elle était croustillante mais légèrement brûlée en dessous.
Pour conclure je peux dire que j’ai vraiment été déçu par ce restaurant et que le slogan fièrement affiché en façade né correspond pas avec ce que j’ai pu manger ce jour la. Deux étoiles, car la carte des bières est intéressante avec notamment une très bonne IPA nommée «green line» que l’on né trouve pas partout à la pression dans Chicago.