The Tomato Palace

This is a pretty tasty restaurant in the heart of Columbia. It has a nice view of the lake and the lunch specials are very affordable and delicious. I was here for a short meeting but if I am around again, I definitely will stop by.

Okay guys, let’s try to review this place for what it actually is, not what you think it should be. This is an affordable, family friendly Italian restaurant that happens to be part of the Clyde’s chain. This is not Clyde’s, this is not Maggiano’s, it is not fine dining, and your waiter/​waitress will not fill your water for you after each sip. With that said, this place is freaking awesome for what it is, and for the price of our meal, I really thought we got more than what we paid for. My husband and I had a gift card for the Clyde’s chains and decided to try this place out since neither one of us is a huge fan of Clyde’s (overpriced and I’ve never had anything that wowed me there). Let me first start by saying our total bill was $ 42, and that included 2 pizzas, 1 bottle of wine, and 1 dessert. How can you argue with that?! And on top of that, not only was it well priced ($ 10 bottles of wine? WHERE ELSE can you get that at a restaurant???) but our food was good too. Like I said, we had pizza, so I can’t comment on some of the entrees, but I will likely be back to try those as well. The pizza was very good and we both had half to take home for lunch the next day. We had the tiramisu for dessert which was fine, nothing amazing, but certainly tasty enough that I’d get it again. Our waitress was friendly and the manager came by to check on us too. This place is totally family friendly and would be a great place to bring kids (because pizza… and affordable… oh and $ 10 bottles of wine…). We will definitely be back to this place, even after our gift card is all used up! I really suggest you take some of the 2 star reviews with a grain of salt. If you go in understanding this is not an upscale restaurant, and you aren’t expecting people to kiss your butt while you eat an ultra affordable, and tasty dinner, I think you will be pleased.

I love this place! The prices are great and the food is so tasty. They are willing to customize their entrées for you! The food is full of flavor. The complimentary bread is scrumptious! Delicious!!! My husband and I love this place.

Wow… Where do I start? The food was not good. There. I said it. Servers were nice, though not particularly professional, and the décor was passable. But you go to a restaurant to eat. Do yourself a favor and go somewhere else. Even the spaghetti and meatballs weren’t good. The pasta fagioli was bland. My daughter’s steak was chewy. An Italian restaurant should be an easy place for a vegetarian to eat, but we ended up sending two vegetarian dishes back. Ok, my son didn’t hate is cannelloni, and the chocolate mousse for dessert was ok (served on the house due to our disappointing dining experience), so there’s that. Simply not enough to get me to ever set foot in there again.

Never sat down and ate here but the pizza is decent for a grab and go. I usually get a pizza and sit by the water or listen to the live music with friends. It’s more authentic style pizza which could be a plus or minus depending on what you like.

Holy mackerel! I had to get on and give the Tomato Palace a review since it seems to be slammed with a 2 ½ star rating when it is one of my families most favorite restaurants in Columbia.
I have eaten at the Tomato Palace at least 30+ times in the last 10 years. It is always excellent and even though we moved from the area we still stop at the Tomato Palace whenever we are in town.
Their prices can’t be beat. I love their bread, any of their pastas, half-​price bottles of wine, desserts, and house salad. This place is a great little gem down by the lake.

I can’t believe this place is still here! I’ve tried this place three times in the past and I just went back yesterday for lunch.
First of all the host was giving us bread & drinks. I was thinking «maybe they’re understaffed» but I didn’t care. Our server shows up 5 – 7 minutes later to ask us if we want anything else to drink and we told her we’ll stick with water. Mind you, this place is really not big and is very open but our server kept disappearing on us and we were hungry and ready to order!
Not only that, seems like their was some issue with the food and all the employees were huddled into a little group by the chef I assume and seemed to be making a scene in front of all the customers. Such a big turn off and unprofessional.
Finally our server comes and takes our order. Our food came out in a timely matter and I had gotten the carbonara and it was so bland and plain. The seafood pizza was pretty good though.
I don’t think I’ll be returning. Everytime I come here the food was never that great and service is just terrible.

Food was ok, but service was poor. Food took 40 mins. to come out and the kids food came last. The bread took 30 minutes to arrive. No ketchup for burger, no salt/​pepper on table. Servers red seemed clueless and how to serve.

This place is very authentic, so authentic that I almost had to speak Italian to get a table. The wait was 20 mins, then after that they added 15 mins. Then another 20 mins… We left

The experience at Tomato Palace was HORRIBLE. We came on a Wednesday night, not a busy night, there were maybe 5 tables, 10 staff members yet it took us 30 minutes to get a margarita pizza and chicken Parmesan Alfredo. Our waitress came
Over after 25 minutes in «shock» that we haven’t received our food. She then went to the manager to «figure» out what happened. No apology from the waitress or manager. HORRIBLE CUSTOMER SERVICE.

Food is made from scratch and is very good! Great place for a business meeting or to bring a friend! Pizza is very clean and Italian!

This is just a great place to relax and have a good meal without pretense and pressure. Great location. The pizzas are as good as any woodfired pizzas in the area. Our server Abby was just wonderful and attentive. We will be making the tomato palace our go to spot. Great desserts and a nice wine selection.

I eat here quite often. This place is a bit run down. The seats are worn down. The service is on the slower end. It’s hard to give this place such low stars because the servers seem friendly. And I typically like to judge a restaurant far beyond the food and really take service and staff into consideration. The food service is slow. And typically I won’t blame the wait staff for that. It’s most likely the management or the cook staff to blame for slow food turnaround.
They offer a large range of pasta dishes. However, I have yet to find a dish that I am 100% pleased with.
The pro– they are located right on the waterfront! It’s such a beautiful space. The restaurant outlooks the water and it makes the evening that much more romantic and calm.

This restaurant is awesome! Lots of choices for vegetarians and non vegetarians. They can make many of their meals without meat, which opens a whole new set of options for vegetarians. I had a waiter named Mike and a hostess named MacKenzie. They were both amazing, polite, and dedicated to the customers. This restaurant has a great view of the water front as well. Great family restaurant as well as first date choice. The price is quite reasonable given both the quantity and quality of food, ambiance, and view.

We hadn’t been here in a few years, and we should have waited a few more. Maybe they would have been closed and saved us a miserable experience.
50 minutes after ordering and our food still wasn’t at the table. The LAST item to arrive was the kiddies menu mac n’ cheese. The kitchen hasn’t even started making it when the other 4 entrées were brought to the table. I don’t know what the deal with the kitchen was, but they need a crash course in being timely. This isn’t fine dining. This isn’t haute cuisine. It’s line chef Italian that shouldn’t take longer than 20 minutes. Especially since 2 of us only ordered salads.
The manager personally took over our table. Things improved some, but not enough to ever venture back.
What a disappointment.

The tomato palace is a great place to have a nice dinner. The prices are very reasonable. I really enjoy the $ 20 bottles of wine with dinner. The eggplant parm is very good. The calamari is not fried it is in a tomato sauce that is really flavorful. The view is wonderful by the lake.

Do not order the Chesapeake Rock Fish entrée. The fish is over cooked. The vegetables are good.
The wings are bland.
The seafood pizza is good.

Two bites in and I told my fiancé that we wouldn’t be coming back. I was pretty disappointed. My food was luke-​warm and lacked flavor. My fiancé’s lasagna was all cheese; he nearly choked on it. There is seriously way better Italian food in the area. I think whoever owns this place should just focus on Clyde’s.

… I am being generous. My sister swears she has had perfectly good pasta here and the prices are more affordable than some of the other places in the area [which is true], so we went and… I think regretted it. My arugula salad [arugula, beets, hazelnuts, apple, goat cheese] was decent but the arugula itself was less leafy and more… stem-​y than I am used to. The crostini [with english peas and cheese and honey] were reasonably good, but everything fell apart when the pasta came. Whatever might have been served in the past, the noodles in both dishes had clumped together as if they’d been left to sit before being plated, or possibly just never stirred when they were cooked. One of my mussels [I had the seafood linguini] was so gritty I had to spit it back onto my spoon, and the bite I tried of my sister’s puttanesca had an olive pit in it.
The server was relatively inattentive, though he managed to bring the check with –blinding– speed, speed not demonstrated when I asked for cheese to go on my pasta… a request met with apparent confusion and answered with a small ramekin of powdered parmesan. I might go again to be certain they weren’t simply having a horrendous day in the kitchen, but this place is not on my to-​do list for Columbia any longer.

Located on the Columbia lakefront, The Tomato Palace has been a longtime fixture in the area. However, I hadn’t been here in years… so when I had the opportunity to get lunch here, I didn’t know exactly what to expect.
The restaurant looked exactly like I remembered it looking like. Lots of the standard red, white, and green color tones (gotta remind people its Italian food I guess) and a huge mural of happy veggies and such along one of the walls.
Since we came in around 3PM, it was pretty empty for lunch. However, we were immediately greeted and seated. They had a lunch special going on where you can get dishes for under $ 10. I opted for that, getting the lunch size penne bolognese for $ 7.50. My table also ordered a margherita pizza and the seafood linguini.
The penne bolognese was okay. It tasted good, but it wasn’t anything special and the pasta was overcooked. The margherita was decent as well… the basil was especially fragrant but perhaps a bit too much; it seemed to overpower the other flavors of the pizza. The seafood linguini, which costs a few more dollars than the other lunch options, was probably the best dish of the day. Lots of seafood in a slightly spicy tomato based sauce.
Service was a strong point. Our server, Amanda, was exceptional and really attentive and helpful.
Overall, it was a decent place to eat and a good lunch value (not too much more than going to Chipotle or something).