Tomato Thyme-Willow Glen

3.5 Stars–
I’m usually not a huge fan of places like this, they feel to much like a Buca Di Beppo food by the pound style of joint, however surprisingly, Tomato Thyme does food pretty well compared to those other type of places. My wife and I have been eating paleo recently and if you check out the menu it’s a disaster for most paleo enthusiasts however fear not my friends the specials menu is chopped full of plenty of paleo friendly feasts.
My wife and I both had the Chicken stuffed with pancetta. The breast portion of the bird was dry but the rest of the meat was juicy. The potatoes (Yukon golds) were delicious and just in case the food wasn’t enough we ordered a grilled artichoke which was awesome!
The server we had was Angel, he has served my grandma for a long time when she comes in with the bf for a meal and this guy is the man. He is super helpful, always attentive and funny. He got a nice tip because of his service and he’s a main reason I’d return to try some more of their specials like the Mahi Mahi or Salmon.
Better than average and worth a stop if you’re hungry!

The entrees are good. The salads, not so much. There is just something off about this place. The service seems disjointed, for lack of a better word. It’s really to bad, because this place has a lot of potential.

Food was great. Service was prompt, attentive and friendly. Ambiance was nice as well. Kid friendly. Highly recommend coming here for a nice meal.

I’ve been here many times. Service is good, food is good. I had some amazing butternut squash ravs on special on Saturday Night. If I was picking knits, the only gripe (coming from a long time former waiter) was that it took a long time to get greeted after we were seated. Every table should be greeted within the first two minutes of being seated. An order does not need to be taken. Just a «Hello, I will be right back with you in just a few minutes.» Done. Expectations are set. Other than that, I will keep coming back.

Service was pleasant. We came in at 2pm. This was an obvious down time. We were the only customers for the first half hour. We brought our own wine. $ 15 cockade fee. We ordered 2 lunch specials (the specials run till 4pm but, we were told at first, they aren’t serving the specials at the time. Again, we came in at 2pm.) after asking again and pointing out that it is still in the time of the special, we were able to have the special. We ordered 2 specials: pizza and salad, fried raviois, the soup of the day and the lasagna. It was fairly fresh and hot. Hot is always good ! Really can’t say anything bad and really nothing special. I would recommend if you are coming for lunch.

My wife and I came for brunch at her suggestion. It was a great idea. If you live in Willow Glen, you know brunch is popular on Sundays, and restaurants can be crowded. It was not crowded here at 12:30. I feel a little guilty writing this fact, since now I am drawing attention and a potential crowd. They deserve it. Food and service were fantastic. Lots of menu items, and I chose the breakfast burrito. Eggs were perfect. I got the avocado as an extra. Potatoes on the side also perfect. The waitress was friendly and found the right balance between leaving us to eat in peace but checking in when needed. She was great.

Very few places have good Clam Chowder without pork products and this place has AMAZING Clam Chowder on Fri and Sat. Dont be fooled by it’s location (next to a grocery store). This is a very nice, family friendly restaurant with great Italian food. They also offer Burnt almond cake from Dick’s Bakery as well.
Try the pastas, fried ravioli and Clam chowder (Fri, Sat only).
We have been there 2 times and service has been excellent with only 20 min wait on a Friday evening :).

This is nice place for a quite family dinner. The food had good taste but a bit expensive for the service.

Had the meat lasagna and spaghetti bologenese with meatball and of course the standard free bread.
Meat lasagna was excellent.
The spaghetti was meat heavy which i oike but some may opt for side other than a meatball. The meatball itself could have used a small sear on the outside.
Other than that, the free bread is nice and soft but has no flavor, just bland. They should do some kind of flavor like rosemary bread or anything.
Great place overall.

We have been coming here to Tomato Thyme for many years. The service wasn’t that great back in the day. But, when Bryan Godfrey took over as GM this year (he came from Giorgio’s) the service, food, and overall vibe has been up leveled. Bryan knows his customers very well and when we walk in we get greeted personally. The menu has been updated with high end food items but prices are very reasonable.

Love this place! Coming back for sure! Service was great! Pasta was not ur usual. Best part of my experience.

Went for lunch! Food was good, but when the place started getting busy the waitress seemed a bit overwhelmed and service got slow and we were ignored. It is not good when your waitress is gone so long from your table you forget what she looks like.

Had dinner here Tuesday night, it was kinda busy but not too bad. Pretty strange how the hostess stand is in the center. Anyways, once we got seated they brought us water and see if we wanted to drink anything else. We waited until my friend arrived and then ordered the fried ravioli, which was alright isn’t that great! I got the pan seared salmon, OMG it was AMAZED BALLS! My got spaghetti, looked and tasted okay and my other friend got the angel hair with prawns, pretty bland. All in all, I would definitely come back because you can draw on the table! Hell yes!

Wonderful service! Our server was very attentive and was courteous. Upon seating, our table was nicely set, and the restaurant was beautifully decorated; very nice, clean, and gives a warm and cozy feeling. This restaurant is a place where you can take someone out on a date, bring your family, or just come solo and grab a bite to eat. It’s very elegant and casual. The atmosphere is a ⁵⁄₅!
What makes it even more inviting is the staff. Our server was amazing and very attentive. When she brought out the food, we were excited to dig in! Our pastas and one plate of lasagna were delicious! There are different spices, grated cheese and other condiments on the table so that you can add more flavor if you’d like.
I ordered the salmon pasta, my sister ordered the angel hair pasta, my friend ordered pesto linguini, and my other friend ordered a lasagna. All delicious. What I also like is that they have small little plates for you. This way, I was able to sample my friends’ and sister’s food; I liked the different plates, it was yummy.
I will be back again! Great atmosphere, friendly staff, and delicious food.

Service was very good. Very attentive.
Food is mediocre. I mean it’s good but it could use a bit more flavor.

Service was great; attentive, efficient and kind.
Ambiance was nice too. Great place for a date.
I ordered a small pizza, individual size. The flavors were delicious and it was filling. I would definitely go back again.

This place has amazing service and tasty food. I brought a group of 21 people to this restaurant via reservation made earlier that day, and the waiters and waitresses were extremely accommodating and got our food out promptly. We were all allowed to do separate checks for our meals, and they gave us a room in the back that was away from other diners that night. The ambiance was classy but welcoming, and despite the inherent nuisance that comes with hosting such a large group, this restaurant handled us beautifully.
I had the fettuccine chicken tequila pasta, which was slightly bland for my taste, though others that had the meal thought it was satisfactory. We had a great time, and I would recommend it again for large groups looking to spontaneously celebrate!

I’ve been here a few times and the food is always good each time! I especially like the clam chowder, it’s homemade and so delicious. It’s chunky and has lots of clams, incredibly delicious. I’ve also had the lasagna and mushroom raviolis here, both which were also very good.
If you come during dinner rush, it’s going to be a pretty long wait. The service is always pretty great, one time they had taken forever to bring me my salad entrée, but the waitress gave me free dessert to make up for it, so that was nice!
I keep coming back for that clam chowder though and will continue to!

Hubby wanted lasagne and we were around the area– after seeing the 4 stars on Unilocal,we decided to give it a try.
For those who are not into details:
½ star for immediate seating
½ star for the bread
We started a bet on who our server was– that’s how long it took for a server to even greet us. We had already finished the bread and we’re still wondering who our server could be.
After the mystery was solved, we promptly gave our order (since we weren’t sure how long it would take her to come back).
I ordered the spaghetti carbonara and hubby got the lasagne. Lasagne was cold in the middle — fail. Check out the photos of my supposed «carbonara.»
I may not be a professional chef, but I do know that spaghetti carbonara DOES NOT have scrambled eggs as one of its ingredients. Someone OBVIOUSLY needs lessons on how carbonara is prepared. EPIC fail Tomato Thyme… We won’t be back.

Tomato Thyme is a great place to come for a company/​team or family meal. It has a very homey environment and the service has been consistently good for the 3 times that I’ve gone.
My favorite so far is the fettucine chicken tequila pasta — it is spicy but extremely flavorful and delicious. The pizzas also look good, but things like pizza and calzone takes a long time to bake (~30 min in my experience) so it is not good to get if you are only visiting for your lunch break, like I typically do. The portions are very generous here, no matter what you choose!