Pomodoro Cafe

Like another reviewer below, I do not understand the many negative reviews. My wife and I have been eating at Pomodoro Café since it opened, and over the years have dined there dozens of times. During that time, I have been disappointed with the food exactly once. I ordered Chicken Piccata, never having had the dish before, and did not enjoy it. Was that Pomodoro’s fault? Not to my way of thinking.
I will agree that sometimes the service is a bit spotty, which is the only reason I’m not giving 5 stars. As for the food: the pizza IS excellent, especially the meatball pizza. But pizza you can get anywhere and I rarely order it at Pomodoro. My current favorite is Ravioli Alla Vodka, consisting of three huge cheese-​filled ravioli in a subtle pink sauce with tomato and bacon. I always order a side of Italian sausage which I think is the best I’ve ever had. One night a week is an all-​you-​can eat spaghetti night, with choice of pasta and sauce. We did that recently and had no room to order even seconds.
I am not a salad guy, but Pomodoro’s side salad is done right. It comes chilled and crisp and is as good as a side salad can get. I use the balsamic vinegar reduction served with the complementary bread as the salad dressing. I love that stuff so much that I have ordered a pint of it several times to take home. The Antipasta is excellent and includes roasted veggies, which really add another dimension to the salad. Be warned though, even the small antipasta is enough for two people that you’ll be taking home part of the entre.
Pomodoro may not be perfect, but it is a darn good neighborhood Italian restaurant.

For many months (if not over a year), this establishment has participated in TV Channel 20’s Friday morning (6:40 AM) ½ priced $ 50 gift certificate offer (limit two). Pomodoros isn’t a bad place for Italian, but nothing thus far jumps out as spectacular. Seasoning… Seasoning…Seasoning– I can almost hear Chef Ramsey screaming that at Pomodoros M*O*R*E is often needed! Have eaten here 10+ times over the past 3 yrs due to discounts, & there has been no magnificent flavors. I do like the pizza crust (nice flavor & consistency), and the sauce and cheese are good. The clam linguine in red sauce today was mediocre; I have had better at a handful of other places locally/​statewide, although no place in Gainesville appears to have an excellent recipe. It was, though, HOT. It definitely had seasoning! Not sure what spice was added, but the dish reminded me of heat I could expect when eating Mexican, & this woman who had probably experienced heatburn just 2x previously in her lifetime, ended up w/​a horrible burn. The bread loaf brought to each table is warm & good (& you can request seconds & thirds), but unless you like a heavy-​handed dose of vinegar you may want to forego dipping. The Diet Coke is always very good, which sounds negligible, but many restaurants appear to offer it overcarbonated or undercarbonated. The calamari appetizer was very chewy & not very tasty; however, the fried cheese was worthy of subsequent orders. The crab tomato bisque (Soup of the Day) was ok, but lacked flavor (& seasonings), & it was not seved hot enough. Have yet to try the fancy desserts, along w/​many other food items. Hope to return & one day be impressed with the chef. Perhaps the owners should consider cutting down such an extensive menu & concentrate on spicing up (or down in the Cedar Key clam linguine’s case) their recipes. This establishment’s take-​out business appears to be booming, & I hear there’s a nice weekly special on pizzas-​to-​go. As for service, it’s never been more than (or fewer than) 3 stars. Nobody appears very happy here, so I have to wonder about management:(

Wow, not even sure where to start. Our favorite Italian place was closed tonight for Memorial Day so we ordered doorstep delivery from Pomodora. I dont usually write anything but could not avoid it tonight. We ordered chicken parm, lasagna, spaghetti with sausage. All meals were bland and flavorless. In addition, ordered an appetizer of calamari and it was soggy and chewy. To quote my oldest daughter, «ew». Most of the food ended up in the garbage.
We have eaten there before and the meal was good. Perhaps it was just an off night, really off.

They had really good lunch specials. We had soup, salad, pizza and an open faced calzone, all of which were delicious! Will definitely be coming back to try more.

Comfortable, homie, cozy, ambiance! Everything from the host seating us to the check was perfect well done, low-​key, efficient. The food was awesome. I wish we lived in the area I would eat here at least once a week.
Ask for Dalton as a server. He is polite, knowledgable, efficient, and even refills the drink glasses without being told!

Food wasn’t fast coming. If you are doing lunch on an hour lunch break, you may be pressed for time. Prices were very reasonable for lunch, and also for dinner menu. Food was fine. I got a burger, which wasn’t very Italian, because it’s not Italian food.

There are not too many restaurants options in this area so I decided to do take out. I wanted a salad decided to ordered Pollo Mediterrenean it’s a good size salad and you get a full chicken breast. For me the chicken was on the salty side but I tend to eat fairly plain so it would probably be fine for most.

Perfect Italian place to eat. Pasta excellent, wine perfect and deserts delicious I really recommend. The ambient is very nice

went to today after not being for several years. Did my grocery shopping at publix, then wanted to come in for a decent meal by myself sitting outside in the beautiful weather. I am on a very strict diet, which has been doing really well.
Greeted with bread, I said ‘Holy cow, no bread! Im trying to be good!:0′ But otherwise I am about the most pleasant person you can know!
Disgusted waitress, what do I want to drink? I ordered my diet soda and water. Disgusted acting as I asked for my hamburger patty with no bun and a salad. I sat for quite awhile with no diet coke refills, while I watch the table of 4 next to me have plenty of refills.
so my hamburger patty gets delivered, no vegetables, lettuce, onion, etc. Plop… I ask ‘Do you have any mustard?” uh no! I, suprised, said ‘really??” and I got an extremely smart assed ’ well, you know we ARE an Italian restaurant.”. Well sorry Im not that cultured, I did not realized Italians don’t eat mustard.
I was not even half way through my patty when I was presented with a check, with a ‘no hurry/​’ This is even before I have been given my to ‘go order’ of unhealthy eggplant parmesan dinner with bread and soup for son.
After being married for 18 years, I am fairly new to the dining out single. but with the to go order, plus tax and tip, I spent $ 30. I am starting to see a trend of who treats there single diners well, and picking out restaurants I will return to. (while I watched the table of 4 next to me treated qute well), and will learn to take my money elsewhere

Very disappointing. Server was in the weeds all night. App came out with lots of unrelated pieces like french fries and fried scallops when it wasn’t supposed to. Special of the night came out cold the first time, then the second attempt the pork chips were to tough to cut with a steak knife and the broccolini was a soggy pile of mush.

We haven’t been here in quite a while. We always like local restaurants. We went with the special dinner menu. Extravaganza which comes with soup or salad, a selection of meals, & a dessert for $ 11. The bread comes out with a yummy honey balsamic dipping sauce. The bread would be better if it was warm! The salad was just iceberg lettuce… pretty generic. I got the linguine with shrimp, which was good, BUT only a few shrimp. I say add a few more & it would have been awesome. My friend got the shrimp & chicken pasta, potatoes with spinach. Way too many potatoes & not enough chicken or shrimp!!! The dessert was a generic strawberry iced white cake. Nothing fancy. Server was friendly! The music playing in the background was so annoying & way too loud! Italian opera… say no! The specials are a plus & we had a coupon for $ 5.00 off.

Pomadoros has consistently good food. For a family they have buy one get one free pizza in the evenings. It is good pizza using quality ingredients. I usually get their salmon salad. It is always a tasty. I have eaten here for years.

Mediocre at best. For being «authentic» the majority of dishes are Americanized Italian food that is overly salted or bland. The last straw was when I asked for coffee… expecting a coffee menu, as I saw their espresso machine, the waitress only asked if I wanted regular or decaf. Instead we asked for the check. The only indication that this was not an Olive Garden in disguise was overhearing the owner berate his employees in the front area. Classy all the way.

Dinner with friends is always a good time. We were seated after a short wait. There was some confusion with the seating staff. She told us there was a wait, but less than 2 mins. later we were promptly seated at our table.
The bread with the reduction sauce is pretty good. It would be so much better if the bread was warm.
The table shared a calamari appetizer. These were light and flaky. Very good. But no tentacles and I kind of know I am getting real calamari and not pig butt when I see the tentacles on the plate. I assume I had pig butt and it was good.
We were a party of 5 and 3 ordered the calzone. I tried one of them, the taste was good but the inside was so cold she had to ask for them to warm it up again. It made no sense because the outside was warm and the cheese inside was melted but it was cold inside. Strange.
I had the alfredo sauce w/​penne pasta and an order of meatballs. The meatballs were good but the alfredo was missing something. It was also watery and not thick.
The waiter tried to make up for the cold calzone by giving us a free desert. We appreciated it.
We had the chocolate cake and the two timing cheesecake. The chocolate cake was the better of the two.
The food was not bad, but it can be improved on. I gave them 3 stars because I don’t want to kill their ratings. I understand this is Alachua and not Rome, but there is potential here. Pomodoro Café could do better. Just saying!

Normally I like Pomodoro’ Café. however the last visit I got some food poisoning. I thought the spinach in my gnocchi tasted a bit off, but I still ate it looks. the calamari was on point, and the soup of the day (tomato bisque) was delicious. The veal was ok, only because I normally do not like the taste of sweet chills in my dish. Except for that one experience, I think Pomodoro Café is the second best Italian restaurant in Gainesville.

My go to business mtg place. Good tables, good food, and good services. Soup and salad is tasty, especially the hone made salad dressings. And I have a hard time getting past the the vegetalie con penne.

WOW; trying to get to I-​10 via I-​75 and had one of the best Italian meals in 14
years in Florida. Service was very good,
ambiance very good, food for here is excellent. I had the Risotto Milanese for lunch with salad, etc was outstanding;
I. E.; In Italian ’ Multa Tutti Beni’ !
Highly recommend this restaurant as a Northern Italian Amateur chef for many
years from NY. I might give it a five star once I have dinner entrée here.

This place is a hidden Gainesville Pizza Secret…
They have some of the best huge pizza’s in town and do buy one get one free carry out. So you can get two MASSIVE Specialty Pizzas for less than $ 20.
I’m not sure if they have the best Pizza in town but it’s in the top 3 and definitely the best deal.

I was extremely disappointed with the food. They didn’t give me food I paid for, then when I called to speak to the manager Leone, I was put on hold and never received a call back. The chicken was bland and rubbery. I didn’t eat what food I actually got and am now out $ 30. I will avoid this restaurant from now on as the food quality and customer service have reached an all time low.
Update: To the manager’s credit I did receive a callback. He was very nice on the phone and offered me a dessert on the house next visit. I will be extra careful and only order the ravioli from now on.

Pomodoro is a bit of paradox. Read the reviews and you’ll find a number of them mentioning lackluster food and service. That has been our experience when dining in, also. I’ve had several really good meals there and several not so good.
But where they REALLY shine is their pizza. It is superb. And they offer buy-​one-​get-​one on carry out. I believe that you can mix and match pizza and calzone. We live about 20 miles away but my wife works in Gainesville. So it is fairly convenient for her to stop off on her way home from work — usually on Friday — and bring home two large pizzas for right around twenty bucks.
I’m a big eater and, between the mrs and me, we can polish off most of a large pizza in one sitting. That leaves the second one for lunch on Saturday. But it is fabulous pizza with lots of cheese and plentiful toppings.
A couple of tips: Meatball, sausage, and onion is our favorite combination of toppings. When it comes to reheating… use a toaster oven set at 225 – 250 degrees. Warm for about ten minutes. That temperature won’t overcook the crust (I like light crust) but it will get it hot. Then put the slice in the microwave on med-​hi for about 45 seconds. It’ll taste like it just came out of THEIR oven.
I’m going with four stars overall — three for dine-​in; five all the way for the pizza.