Tarantino’s Pizzeria

First time for me last week. I had the veggie pizza — it was very good — and I was 20 minutes late picking it up.

This is an honest review on the food, service and place. It is unbelievable they got 4 stars on Unilocal.I tried it because of the 4 stars and was greatly disappointed.
Food: Chicken Parmesan with Angel hair pasta was horrible. Chicken was very salty, the sauce on the pasta was disgusting. I ate less than 30% of my food. I got sick and had diarrhea as soon as I got home.
The works pizza was barely edible. My husband had 2 slices of the 14″ Poco size pizza. The crust was thick and gross.
My husband and I ate 30% of our food and was asked if we want a box, the food was so bad, we couldn’t even eat it at the restaurant. No thanks!!!
Service: ok. $ 40 for food that is not edible, more importantly made me sick.
Place: ok, noticed pasta on the carpet, the floor looked dirty.
We will NOT be going back to this restaurant.

This has been my favorite place to eat since moving back to Pasadena. Some dishes are a miss but these are killer:
— Pizza (don’t forget to add garlic as a topping soooo good!)
— Putanesca
— Chilaquiles
Also, CASH ONLY!

What can I say! I love this this place! It’s a hole in the wall with the best food. They have delicious pizza and pastas! And you can everything is fresh… My favorite dish well DISHES lol, are Pastas: Spicy chicken (no onion for me though and extra spicy!) Quinceneras (GOODNESS!!) let me tell you about this pasta!!! It’s like an Alfredo pasta on steroids! It’s so creamy and then so cheesy! And it has mushrooms, fresh jalapeño, onion, and so many other delish things!!! Ahhhh!!! With a side of the famous garlic rolls! Yummmmm!!! And for pizzas… Drum roll please!!! TUCCIS SPECIAL!!! Omg, it’s shrimp heaven!!! It’s a pizza lightly oiled, with cheese, oregano, tomato and SHRIMP!!! It is Definitely a party in my mouth! And when I feel like having a red sauce pizza, I go for the Grandma Tony’s!!! Yummmm!!! Just be ready to leave the restaurant stinking of garlic!!! Hehe

Maybe with another visit 5 stars. If your going for the first time make sure you let them know how many people and wait in the back to the side. They have no list to write names down or anyone come greet you and explain how seating works so its a bit confusing.
Pros: ravioli, garlic knots, salad.
Cons: Small restaurant, seating, pesto pasta, missing order.
We waited for a while for seats that were there before we came in, it was just me and my boyfriend (don’t know why we weren’t seated right away there was 13 person group but obviously they can’t use that table) Also my ravioli (very tasteful, well done!) came after my boyfriend had already eaten his pesto pasta (was ok…), I think it was a mistake it came so late, maybe not written down with our order or they forgot. Would of been nice to eat with him other than a salad and some bread knots (soooo yummy!) but they discounted our order for that I believe. Waiters are nice place is small but the food was good overall and we will return!

Des pizzas américaines immangeables avec une tonne de fromage et une pâte très épaisse. Bref, aucun rapport avec une vraie pizza.

We’ve lived in the neighborhood for 4+ years, and have walked by this place several times — read some great reviews, but didn’t end up trying the place until yesterday evening. They are always busy, which is a good sign — but it also doesn’t allow for much human interaction from the people at the front register. I didn’t really feel welcome at all, more like let me take your order and that’s about it.
We ordered take out and tried their Grandma Tony’s Special pizza — the sauce was delicious, the toppings were okay, and the pizza dought was delicious but there sure was a lot of it. The only major disappointment we had was that when we went to pick up the pizza it wasn’t hot, but just warm. Otherwise good place, and we will definitely try out some other dishes but at the same time not sure what all the hype is about.

One of those places that remains in business for so long seemingly only because it… uhh… has remained in business for so long? Like it’s reached some kind of critical mass of self-​sustaining business.
Can’t say the pizza’s bad, but it’s just so generic. What with so many pizza options these days, a place has got to either have REALLY good food or have something «different» about it. Tarantino’s has neither.
If you just want «classic» taste, I guess this is your spot. But so is any other old pizza joint. If you want options and «fun» pizzas, nope.

Finally, I’ve found a real Italian Pizza Place in Pasadena! Makes me feel like I’m in the East Coast again.
This place is a 3 minute walk from the Play House District and the food is amazing. Priced well too specially for lunch!
So far in the last week we tried:
Stromboli (Amazing)
Calzone w/​cheese (Amazing)
Baked Ziti (Out-​Standing)
Cucumber Salad
Pasta Salad
You have to try the marinara sauce, Its real good!
This place is amazing, Great Food… Tons of Flavor.
5 Stars all the Way!
Staff is Great too.
Next thing to try on the Menu: Pizza…

I ate dinner at Tarantino’s Pizzeria in Pasadena, CA on 11÷9÷2015. I’ve been there before. This time there were 3 of us. Warning: cash only. I had their Italian wedding soup and their puttanesca. The puttanesca was outstanding. Plus, I took photos.

I love discovering little «hole in the wall» restaurants that serve great food. This was my latest find. As simple as pizza looks, it’s not easy to make it right but this small pizza shop definitely knows how to make a classic pizza!
I tried the marinara based pizza and thought the sauce was nice and thick, flavorful and balanced (not acidic at all). The veggie toppings were also fresh tasting and generously added. The taste was true to the classic pizza taste you’d expect with a wonderful golden crust.
The restaurant itself is small and cozy with traditional Italian red checkered table cloths and tons of picture frames on the walls. The staff is also friendly and polite.
If you like pizza you have to try Tarantino’s. Next time I’m also going to give their pastas and side dishes a try.

five stars for the Tucci’s Special. delicious!
Pepe salad is also darn tasty.
ps: if you’re into crust you will not be disappointed. ughhhhh. so good, all of it.
if you’re going to cheat on your diet the calories may as well be worth it.

Whenever I go down south, I try to make a special trip to Tarantino’s! Known locally as a top flight pizza joint, we go there for their exceptional pasta and salad. The Pepe Salad — chopped with traditional fresh Italian Insalate veggies — is a delight. Two can share a grande for a healthy delicious starter. The Puttanesca pasta has an incredible kick, but maintains its subtlety so one can taste all the ingredients! The Paisano — red pepper, sausage and parsley sauteed in olive oil with homemade sauce — is my favorite! Always cooked al dente, this dish (I choose Penne pasta) is so good that you’re sad when you’ve finished and wax nostalgic about its brilliance for the rest of the night!
The waiters couldn’t be nicer — helpful, kind, and patient! The entire experience, including the reasonable price, reminds you what a pleasure dining out can be!

Best place to eat. Henry’s Special is the one you should go for if you are a shrimp fan! Full of flavor, they way food should be served. I give it a 5 star.

By far the best lemons I’ve ever had! The pizza was on par. 10 out of 10 would try again.

Tuesday night, pretty empty. A friend recommended this place, last minute. Those darn cravings! Decided to try it, and I loved it!
Now I’m not much of a salad girl, but the salad here was pretty tasty! The garlic knots were my favorite! The bread was delicious and fluffy on the inside. Onto the main dish! We ordered a spinach pizza. O-​M-​G it was so tasty! The cheese was melted perfectly, the crust was soft on the inside and PERFECTLY crisp on the outside. SOOOOO GOOOOD!
From just those 3 items, I will definitely be coming back to try out their pastas!

2^nd night just as good as the first night. Except there was this annoying old man talking throughout my dinner.

Not the best experience, perhaps the kitchen was having an off day? The linguini with clams was so salty I had two bites and I was done. When I informed the server he said «we don’t add salt» and walked away. The pasta puttanesca tasted like fish, I know this dish is made with anchovies but it should not dominate the dish. If I wanted a fish dish I would have ordered that. Finally the pizza…2 attempts to get my order right and it still wasn’t right. The order was a cheese and mushroom pizza, not rocket science right? Each time the pizza came out with sausage! C’mon kitchen, what’s up?!
I won’t be back!

It’s awesome I have some local friends in the area that have kept recommending Tarantino’s for Italian food. I’ll admit, I was a bit skeptical as I walked in the first time dining here. If you’re looking for fine Italian dining, you best go elsewhere but if you’re looking for a tasty home-​cooked meal look no further.
Over the past few visits, we have always ordered the Pepe salad
. A damn tasty salad where they use a pesto sauce as their dressing tossed with garbanzo beans, pasta, lettuce, red cabbage and tomatoes. Definitely a must order when coming here. I think 99% of their patrons order this salad.
This time around we tried their Italian sausages w/​peppers
. Another tasty appetizer with a tasty tomato red sauce along with sauteed green peppers. Served with the sausages is their white bread
which is the perfect vehicle to mop up all the leftover sauce on your plate.
Baked ziti
. Not a bad non-​meat pasta dish but nothing I’d recommend. I did really like the ricotta cheese that was mixed with what tasted like parsley.
Paisano pasta
. A spicy red sauce w/​sausages which is my go to pasta dish here. The combination of the onions, garlic, sausages and their red sauce is damn tasty. I keep telling myself to try other pasta dishes but for some reason I keep ordering this one. Oh and this tastes even better the next day.
Cash only business so make sure to bring plenty of cash if you’re thinking about coming here.

Cheap and fast Italian food that doesn’t overcook their pasta. Seriously, that’s all I ask for when I’m craving pasta. I come here during my lunch breaks sometimes and the prices are ridiculously cheap. I mean, I know what the price of making pasta is and I appreciate that they don’t mark it up more than they should.
This wouldn’t be somewhere I’d particularly want to take someone, but for its price, convenience, and taste, I’d take it for lunch any day.

I have a hard time paying a lot of money for pizza. With the rocket scientists at Trader Joe’s concocting an easy to manipulate dough, a good sauce, and cheap toppings, it’s pretty easy to make a good pie at home. Most decent pizza places average 20 dollars for a large making it a somewhat pricey meal if any amount of beer is purchased. All this being said, I don’t have high hopes for a great meal if pizza is involved.
We walked by this place a couple months ago and the look of it was intriguing. Tiny, crowded, and out of the ordinary. It literally is probably the size of a Subway and you’ll get to know the people sitting around you because you’re almost sitting on them. It isn’t a bad thing and kind of fits the Italian family style meal idea. We started with the garlic knots because they were raved about and I fully understand. At 4 bucks, if you don’t order them and eat at least one, you’re crazy. We went with the Tucci’s special pizza. I think the large is 21 and the medium is 19. Hmmm. I think I’ll have the 2 dollar more large. Amazing. Shrimp, garlic, basil, sauce with drippings of olive oil and I don’t know what else. Best pizza I’ve ever had. All the other pics of pasta and other pizzas look great but I don’t know how I can cheat on Tucci next time we’re in there. It’s so good.
Beer specials were 2.25 a bottle. They did have some tap beer, but it was a little too pricey. Service was good. We really just enjoyed the overall feel and experience of the place. Parking is on the street so if you have to park a bit away, it’s ok. It’s worth it.