Pasta Pomodoro

We recently reserved a room and celebrated my brother’s birthday at this place. A lot of us were not at all satisfied with their service. Waiters were very slow and not too responsive with our needs at all. No follow-​up. They weren’t at all interested in catering our needs. It takes time before we get what we ask for, and they even forget. They served coffee in our table with no sugar. You have to ask for it. Does not make sense at all. My husband ask for a diet beverage, and the waiter looked like he was about to chew him off for asking. Not doing any more events at this place!

I made my own pasta: spaghetti, tomato vodka sauce, and meatballs. Portion size is large but expensive. $ 16 to make my own pasta. Service is quick and friendly. Free bread of course! However, my pasta taste like cream and vodka, not so much like spaghetti. I was extremely disappointed that the meatballs came out cold. In addition, they gave us the wrong bill and we had to ask for the right one.

The food was awesome. The staff was friendly. The bread sticks are out of the world. The dipping sauce that came with the bread sticks was amazing.

A great go-​to restaurant in Santana Row! I have been coming here for years, and it’s a solid meal every time. I always get the shrimp & asparagus pasta. I love the sauce — a tomato base without being too sour/​acidic or tomato-​y and the perfect amount of creamy without being too heavy. I also really like the butternut squash ravioli because the brown butter and sage really brings the dish together. The Brussels sprouts are okay — I’ve had them a couple of times, and I always wish they were seasoned better so I always have to put salt and pepper on them.

Great spot on Santana row.
½ wine Wednesday’s and discounts for residents and Santana row employees
Big should to the host/​hostesses who go out of their way to walk orders made by Santana row employees to their places of employment!

I have been consistently impressed with the quality of this particular Pasta Pomodoro compared to other locations of the chain. The bread tastes fresh and the tomato basil soup has a better tomato flavor and fewer chunks of tomatoes than the soup at the Cherry Orchard location. Also the taste of the food is more consistent. I enjoyed the create your own pasta with whole grain fusilli and arrabiata sauce with meatballs the last time I came here. The meatballs were tasty and the pasta was cooked nicely. My only critique was the arrabiata could have been a tiny bit spicier. Overall, nice Pasta Pomodoro location.

I think this is an ok place for quickly grab some ok and quick italian food. On Santana Row in San Jose, there are really not many great choices for dinner, and great choices usually take lots of time for a wait. This restaurant was also kind of packed at the night on 12/​23/​2015, but not really a long line outside, so my girlfriend and I decided to give it a try.
We ordered butternut squash ravioli and seafood pasta. The butternut squash ravioli actually tasted good: rich sauce and squash flavor. But it was way too sweet and I was trying to find some other flavor to balance it out. I notice that the chef added some salt on top of the ravioli, and the server also added some parmesan cheese for us. But it still tasted more like a dessert for some reason. The seafood pasta was ok. The pasta itself is not in really good quality so it tasted ok even though it was cooked well. The tomato-​based sauce is kind of watery and one-​note. The seafood were all cooked decently: shrimps tasted pretty good both in texture and flavor, and so did the clams. Mussels were also good, but calamari slices tasted bland. Food portion is also ok. I might come back again if I have to eat on Santana Row without better choices available.

The food is good but the owner is extremely rude!
I had a lunch date with my sister and her one year old baby. The baby was sleeping so I asked the owner to give us a table that we can park the stroller next to it. He showed attitude and didn’t let us bring in the stroller. So we ended up leaving the place and looking for another restaurant to eat. The most kid-​unfriendly restaurant ever!
I had been to so many classy and fancy restaurants with kids and never had this problem. Unfriendly and rude! I will never go back there again!
My sister and I started going to the one on Camden. Much bigger restaurant and friendly staff. If you are in love with the food, I would recommend the Camden location. Just because the restaurant is located in SR, doesn’t mean it’s a good restaurant. :)
Thumbs down all the way!

Since when did restaurants add automatic gratuity of 18% to party of 5??? (I thought it was 6 or more for who ever that does it. It wasnt mentioned anywhere) And also leaves a blank for an extra tips??? I always tip 15% minimum and 20%+ for a good service. I didnt want to argue over couple of dollars so i didnt but that is not right. Food was okay. Honestly i think its over priced. Server wasnt good at all. Ordered 2 of the same item on menu and only brought out one. And told us she didnt know what happen. And brought it out when other people ate half of the food. She probably put only order in. Plus i over heard she did something wrong and gave a couple next to us free salad. What about us? Anyways enough of that. Will not go back.

Came here around 9 and the service was really good. Fast and friendly.
I got the lasagna and it was so good. My boyfriend got the grilled vegetable salad with chicken. The chicken was on point, we just wish it wasn’t drowning in dressing. Overall it was really good. We’ll definitely come back!
Came here tonight and Armando was our server. HES AMAZING! Best server ever. Super friendly, attentive, on point!!!

I’ve eaten here several times when I’m in the San Jose area — the food is tasty (I especially love the pesto that comes with the bread and some of the pasta dishes) and Santana Row is a great area.
However, not ten minutes ago, I was shocked at the lack of service and the rudeness of the staff, specifically a server named Fatima. Currently, I’m chaperoning a group of (incredibly well-​behaved and driven) students and four of them had lunch in the restaurant. We, a group of five adults, came in after them, were seated after them and ordered after them, and as we were leaving, saw the group still at the table with only drinks and waiting for their food. The girls were worried they’d be missing the bus and were ready to just pay for their drinks and leave. Myself and another chaperone intervened and asked for their food to be packed to go. When I addressed Fatima, the server, she was rude and snapped at me, saying «well, we’re busy» and «show me who sat down after them» in incredibly rude tones. At that point, I asked for a manager and she actually rolled her eyes at me.
The girls were disappointed, I was annoyed, and the whole lunch experience was ruined because Fatima decided that her ego was more important than a paying customer getting their food.
It’s a good thing I’m here only rarely, because this is something that would drive me away entirely.

10÷11÷15: The first time I had food here about a year ago I was so surprised how great it was! And since then, I believe I’ve come back at least once and it was as good as I remembered. So, after watching a movie at the theater I was super eager to come back and convinced my gf that this place would be awesome! But this time… was absolutely different…
1. Moretti Beer $ 5.00: Was a good light beer. Decent taste. ⁵⁄₁₀.
2. Polenta $ 7.00: So… this was the most memorable dish I had the last few times. I remember the polenta was so creamy and rich, and the cheese oozing. And that spiced butter/​oil was generously drizzled. The waiter came and told us to be very careful because the plate was extremely hot. And it was. So, I was expecting all that hot goodness to explode in my mouth with flavor… and it was lukewarm. WHAT?! Typically you have hot plates to keep the hot food hot… but clearly someone screwed up. The polenta wasn’t creamy – it was okay, but not awesome like before. The middle piece out of 3 got a good helping of spices and herbs and was alright, but the outside 2 just weren’t great. It was the exact same dish I had a year ago, but 10x worse. I’d have given it a ¹⁰⁄₁₀ before, but today’s was just okay. ⁵⁄₁₀.
3. Build Your Own Pasta (Fettuccine, Alfredo, Meatballs) $ 15.00: So, I always ordered one of their house pastas, but this time I felt like a good creamy alfredo, cause again, when I ordered I thought this place was gonna be epic. Well, the pasta wasn’t properly cooked and the texture was just off, but the worst part was the alfredo sauce! – it was sooooooo bad. Any canned sauce from the market would have been 10x better. Absolutely no flavor, and not even creamy! And the meatballs – wow, horrible. Like cheap frozen stuff. No meat flavor, no texture. Could have been vegetarian for all I know. Worst plate of pasta I’ve had in a long time. ¹⁄₁₀
4. Grilled Chicken $ 13.50: WHAT THE F. You know what was served? Two pieces of thin and far overcooked chicken on the side. No sauce. And a pile of «sauteed farro» on the side. Looked like something a kid would make with mommy at home. My gf noted over and over that the farro was not «sauteed” – looked boiled. If they did not lie, the surely bent the truth. AND there were tons of slices of garlic inside (and I love garlic), but it was RAW. Like not even edible amounts of garlic. We had to pick them all out. It was so horribly bad that I told the waiter that it was raw and he should tell the kitchen. He apologized and offered to bring something else, but we said he didn’t have to. ¹⁄₁₀
But… he came back later and offered again to give us maybe free dessert. So, I did feel like something sweet and said okay…
5. Tiramisu $ 7.50: Yeah… should have known. Not very good. Not bad. But not good. The cheese frosting on top was very good though – love the flavor. But the cake itself was very plain and flavorless and tasted watery. Anyway, was okay. ⁵⁄₁₀.
I think this was the worst Italian food I’ve had in years. I dunno what happened – new manager? But it was so awesome before. Hard to believe now I thought it was good before.
¹⁄₅
#italian

OH MY GOD!
The first time i went here i order pasta and i was so hungry i couldn’t wait to eat my food.
Sad to say i found a bug in my pasta and was grossed out. I returned the pasta and the manager apologized and didn’t end up paying.
He offered me coupons to come back, but there is no way I will be returning back here.

Horrible.
Came here on a Friday night, and put down our name and was told it would be a 30 minute wait for our birthday party of about 12 people. We came back in 20 minutes to check on our reservation, and they canceled it WITHOUT telling us — when they clearly had our name and phone number too. So, so unprofessional and horrible service! I am baffled.
We asked for the manager and all he said was sorry, and that they couldn’t accommodate us still, really !? So here, the birthday girl is left without any dinner reservations, stressed, and sad (we also canceled our Yard House reservations to commit here).
Never coming here ever again.

Last time I came here was in high school… it’s been 5 years and I have to say I’m a little disappointed that the quality of the food has downgraded a bit. This is just one of the more affordable spots if you don’t want to splurge on Maggianos.
My favorite here is the penne portobello (in creamy sauce) and fruiti de mare (seafood pasta). I decided to go out on a limb and try the butternut squash raviolis since it got so many positive reviews. Low and behold… disappointment. The ravioli pasta was still kind of hard and the filling was way too sweet for my taste. The sweet buttery sauce did even more harm than good… adding to the already overpowering sweetness on my numbing my palette. It was an oily and sweet mess.
I would only come back for my go to favs here and the bread appetizer (which is super delish with their pesto sauce). Staff is friendly but overall service is slow.

I’ve been to this location several times and I have to say that the food has always been good. If memory serves me right, the menu and the food used to be better, but I still enjoy it.
The service is great, we’ve always been treated right here.
The location is excellent. Santana Row is one of my favorite spots in California and one of the places I miss the most since I left the Bay Area. Pasta Pomodoro blends beautifully into Santana Row. The ambiance is fantastic.
But the one thing I saw this time, and I ABSOLUTELY CANNOT get over, is how disgustingly filthy the restroom was. So Gross! And it’s so hard to trust a place that doesn’t take care of the hygiene of the facility. If I had gone to the restroom before I ate, I would have walked out. And no I didn’t use the restroom. Yuck!

Service and food has improved recently.
Inexpensive chain Italian restaurant located at the corner strip of Santana Row.
Tip– hostesses always quote a longer wait time. This place doesn’t get that busy compared to it neighbor restaurants and should be able to seat you rather quickly.
Favorites:
Appetizer–
sautéed shrimp– in pomodoro sauce with toasts
Tortellini soup– with braised beef and spinach
Pasta–
Penne portobello– w/​mushroom/​sausage/​chicken
Seafood pasta– prefer with pomodoro (red) sauce
Entrée–
Chicken Marsala –light and tasty
You also have the option to make your own pasta!

My friends and I came here because Maggiano’s had a really long wait. However, Pasta Pomodoro is really tiny inside and really can’t accommodate large groups very well. Our group of four ended up sitting outside with heat lamps that only work out to a few feet beyond the wall of the restaurant.
The food itself was pretty good, but nothing spectacular to write home about. It’s pretty affordable and the portions are decent, but not as large as many other pasta dishes served at other establishments. It’s nice to come here if you don’t want to drop too much on the other places at Santana Row, but I would probably try another restaurant along this strip.

As far as places in Santana Row go, this place is probably one of the more affordable. I have been here SO many times (one of my early visits here as a matter of fact was for a high school winter formal pre-​dinner!). They have a decent menu selection, pretty much your ordinary run of the mill Italian type of place.
This time around, I had the Roberto’s Chicken on Capellini pasa and the BF had a Rigatoni pasta. Both dishes were pretty decent portions and were yummy! However, I want to point out that the BF said he liked the Rigatoni had Maggiano’s better.
Pro tip: if you sign up for their newsletter, you will get an email for one free entrée of your choice during your birthday month. :)

Friend wanted to come here for her birthday lunch. It was half empty on a Sunday afternoon. Their focaccia bread is always so good and it came with a pesto creamy sauce this time, which was really tasty. We ordered an entrée caesar salad to share for 3, and our own individual pasta dishes along with some white wine.
Our waitress was great, really attentive, and was more than happy to bring my friend a birthday dessert.
Great prices for decent sized pastas!