Tomasso's Italian Grille — Restaurant in Quinte West

UPDATE 2: Four weeks after the last update. Food was still delicious, but our service was less than expected. We booked a reservation for 7pm on Feb. 15th. Our server was good, friendly enough, but we found she didn't come check on us at all. She only came by maybe once when our pizza showed up, asking us how our pizza was while she was still walk into the other direction. She didn't bring out any cheese or pepper to top our food (they ALWAYS) do this. We we not given the breadstick with garlic butter (they always do, since first introducing it). While the food was great as alwasy, the service wasn't up to our expectations. Very disappointed that the waitress didn't bring by the cheese and breadstick. Everyone around us received some, but for some reason our waitress didnt accommodate our table with the same. While i won't take a star off my review, I do hope this isn't a decline in service for our favourite dinner location.

UPDATE: One year later and STILL loving this place. It's our go-to. Food quality is consistent and delicious. Service is always great! Tomassos never disappoints. It's clear why they've been around for as long as they have been. 10/10!!! We keep going back and always leave happy and full!

OLD REVIEW: We tried Tamassos for the first time ever last night. We've always heard rave reviews about the restaurant and finally decided to give it a try. Atmosphere was lovely, the seating wasn't too crowded, lighting was nice. We sat in a smaller booth right by the big windows looking towards the river. Excellent spot to sit. We made a reservation for our Anniversary for 7:00pm, we showed up a few minutes before 7 and they were ready to seat us right away.

Service was exceptional. Our waitress was very accommodating and extremely friendly.

Food was delicious. While slightly on the pricier side for some stuff, it's well worth it. Pricing is justified with the quality and quantity. We spent $100 for the two of us. That's with 2 appetizers and 2 main courses. Very reasonable and we had leftovers.

We got two appetizer to start. The Bruschetta, which was yummy but alittle messy to eat, as Bruschetta can be. I was impressed that they put a very good amount of tomatoes and feta on it. It came with 6 generous size squares on a thick baguette style bread. 10/10 would get again. We also got the Spinach Dip and it was delicious. Generous portions. Lots of bread with the dip. I can't explain how the bread was that came with it, but it's so good. Crunchy, but soft, very good.

For our main meal we both had to try the pizzas. I tried the Pizza Bianco, a Spring time special they were having. (White sauce, cheese, shrimp, artichoke, arugula). It only comes in Small size (for $24), but after all our appetizers, a small was more than enough. The pizza was cooked perfectly, the Arugula on the pizza was the best part. So glad I decided to try it out. Very tasty pizza. My husband got the Tomassos pizza in a medium ($28) and he was raving about it, said it was well worth the hype.

We were stuffed so ended up bringing some leftover pizza home and our lovely waitress also offered us a slice of chocolate mouse cake on the house for our Anniversary. Very nice gesture.

Overall, excellent experience and great service. Wish we didn't wait so long to try the place out. I heard it can get kinda busy, so I'd recommend a reservation. Lots of sitting inside though.

Will be back for sure. Great service...

We will not be back. This place came as a recommendation. We are new to the area and we're very much looking forward to finding a new spot. Sadly, this was definitely not it. We had a reservation for 6 and 2 of our guests whom were coming from Toronto were running about 20 minutes late. No problem for us until we tried to order appetizers while we waited as I was personally starving. Our waiter refused. He would NOT take our order until the 2 additional guests had arrived and we were ready to order our mains. He said the kitchen requires all food to go in at once. He mentioned thid during our 5 minute discussion on why we could not order our appetizers first. I have not ever in my life heard such nonsense. To the owner of this restaurant. Please help that man understand the concept of serving your customer. You are a restaurant, having tables of hungry people denied an order because a guest was late is ridiculous. The concept of an appetizer being an item you eat while you wait needs to be retaught. Once our guests arrived, one of whom was not driving and had just finished a 6 hour drive in traffic and is 6^7 and 300 lbs ordered a drink and a shot, we ate a little and had some water. He ordered a double whiskey sour and the waiter looks at his watch and says oh sorry I can make it a single. You have 10 more minutes before I can serve you that, you can only have 3 drinks per hour so your at your limit. Ok, I can appreciate your doing your job but honestly did you look at him? Did you see he ate? Did you see the water? Did you factor in the food he was about to eat? Did you understand the concept of a few drinks before supper? We had a reservation Thursday May 9th for 8 originally at 8pm, 6 people ended up coming. We sat in the back and I can not for the life of me remember his name but I do encourage a discussion with this employee. Denied the ability to order an appetizer while we waited is such a turn off and I hope to not ever have this happen to any other customer of yours. I can't imagine this is how you do business despite what our waiter had said. I wish I could say I would try again in the future but I won't. Beautiful restaurant and I really did love the atmosphere. It's a real shame that we were given this waiter. We will not be back nor do we have anything to say when it comes to recommending this restaurant. Only take away for me is that I tipped him too much and honestly I wish I could take my tip back because he really did...

Ok the atmosphere was nice, very clean, and the staff looked professional, I'll give them that. I ordered the chicken Marsala, and nothing was seasoned, the veggies, the mash, not even the chicken. It was bland and dry. I told the server it wasn't seasoned and she asked if I wanted salt and pepper... Thanks for that. Service was terrible. After the first check didn't see our server again until the bill. Me and my colleague both had empty glasses at that check and we were never asked if we wanted anything else. My kid's meal came with a cookie I had to ask for too when we got the check. My colleague ordered a steak medium rare and got a dry, unseasoned, medium steak. My kid loved his chicken tenders ha, but I have a feeling they didn't make them. My colleague's wife had some questions about the menu and the server acted like she was speaking a foreign language. I could tell that she wanted nothing to do with us. I was visiting and getting this meal for a birthday dinner. I was planning on a few rounds of drinks and desserts, but none were offered and we were made to feel unwelcome. There's no reason we never saw our server again, and weren't asked if we wanted more to drink (I had one beer, my friend a lemonade, and his wife a water to start, but would have probably gotten wine if anyone had come to check before we got the check). There's no reason they didn't offer to remake or change my dish beyond give me S&P, and there's no excuse for treating us like pests.

Besides that bad food and service, we also had a reservation we were 8 minutes early for and they said they didn't have a table for us, then sat us at the table directly in front of the men's room entrance... We had a reservation, ha. Here's the rub, we were seated at that table after they saw my associates were black (the only people of color in the place). They didn't pick up on it, but when I remarked that seat was odd considering the reservation, they said that's where they sat them last time they went there too. I have a hunch there might be some bias at play here. In any event, next time I'm in town I'll go...