Tommy's Pizza — Restaurant in Clinton Township

Where to start with Tommy's Pizza?

Well I've lived in the Columbus area for over 18 years and have never eaten at any of their locations - I know that's almost blasphemous. To my defense I've always lived on the NE or E sides of cbus.

I decided to make the trip on 01/25 to the Upper Arlington location and give it a try. I called to order pickup at 6:30pm, the line was busy - didn't even think that was still possible in 2019. Called back a few minutes later, phone rang 10 times then someone answered and said "Tommy's can you hold." I said sure, then was on hold for another couple minutes. Not a great start so far.

I ask if I can place an order for pickup, the person said it'll take an hour, to which I replied no problem. So I place my order - a large pepperoni and pineapple, a large sausage and green pepper, a meatball sub, broccoli bites, and cheese balls. The person doesn't tell me how much the total is and just says bye. Not really a big deal, but they're not off to the best start.

So I wait an appropriate amount of time and set out on my drive, trying to time it so that I arrive after an hour has elapsed. Based on my GPS it looked like I was going to arrive a couple minutes early, so I stopped and got a car wash. I finally reach Tommy's and it has the old school charm from the street with their old fashioned sign and building. However I quickly noticed their parking lot was packed full, so I double parked at the pet supply store next door, figuring I'd be in and out since at this point it was an hour and 5 minutes after I ordered.

I walk inside, pay my bill and the cashier says "We'll let you know when it's ready" Hmmmm perplexing considering it's already been longer than an hour. So I stand there, 5 minutes pass, then 10, now I'm getting worried about parking at the pet store, figured plenty of people do it and they probably get towed. So I nervously walk out front and very quickly check on my car - it's fine, no tow truck in sight. Walk back in and continue to wait. Another 5 minutes pass, I repeat the check on my car and walk back in. Finally after waiting a total of 20 minutes they have my order ready, which makes it an hour and 25 minutes after placing my order.

So at the point I'm pretty irritated and thinking to myself this pizza better be worth it. I get home and check the order, it's all correct which is a good sign, pizza looks great, has ample toppings. All the additional stuff I ordered looked great as well.

Now to the good part, despite the issues with ordering and picking up, it was absolutely worth the hassle. All the other reviews I read said the crust was cracker thin, and this is only sort of true. When I hear that description of a crust it makes me think of Rubino's which I didn't particularly like. Tommy's crust while thin, was crispy, flakey, and delicious, definitely a bit thicker than cracker thin. The sauce/cheese/toppings were all fresh and excellent quality.

The meatball sub was awesome, you can definitely tell the meatballs were homemade. The bun was a bit soggy even though they double wrapped it in aluminum foil, but that's easily rectified by just toasting it at home for a little bit. The cheese balls were golden deep fried and tasty. Lastly the broccoli bites - it was like eating cheesy broccoli casserole inside the same golden deep fried shell that the cheese balls had.

The pièce de résistance, however, was their ranch. Hands down the best ranch in the city. It's homemade and spectacular. I recommend getting a pint with your order if you carry out so you have extra at home.

Overall the quality of the product far outweighs their customer service and was totally worth it.

My personal rating for the pizza is a 4.9, ranch is a 5, sides are a 4.7 and customer experience is a 4. Overall I would rate Tommy's a 4.8. Since Google doesn't allow decimal reviews I rounded up to a 5.

I will definitely be back in the future and will just plan on their quoted pick up time being off due to how...

My friend and I ate here for the first and last time tonight. I had heard good things about their pizza, it had good reviews, and it's been open forever, so I imagined it would be fantastic. I believe the main issue was that we chose to dine in and order dinner. It might be a perfectly good place to carry out pizza, but if that is the case, they should not even offer dine-in and should definitely not offer dinners. The ambiance was severely lacking. (There really is no ambiance.) But, that wouldn't have mattered if the food was good. I ordered the chicken parmesan. My waitress asked, "the sub?" I said, "Oh, no - the dinner. I didn't realize there was a sub." She said, "Sorry, we just don't get a lot of people that order dinner. Normally people get pizza and subs. I don't think I've ever had someone order that before. I don't even know if it comes with salad or anything." RED FLAG. My friend ordered the ravioli. Another item that apparently had never been ordered before. When our food arrived, I imagine it is what italian food would look like if you could buy it at Speedway. Our pasta wasn't drained and was soaking wet. There were pools of water in the bottom of both of our bowls coagulating the bland sauce. To say the chicken tasted like a hockey puck would be an offense to hockey pucks everywhere. It seemed to be seasoned with something odd that left an aspartame-like aftertaste. My friend's meatballs were burned, and her ravioli were barely cooked. When our waitress asked how everything was, we told her it wasn't good. She said she had no power to do anything but we could tell the cashier. The cashier didn't give any indication that she cared how our meal was, as when we told her it wasn't good, she just told us our total. I took my leftovers home because I was hoping it would be better reheated and that maybe I could jazz it up somehow. It was not possible. So that was a waste of $12. If the subs and pizza are good and everyone does carry-out, maybe just stick with that and don't offer dinners that you aren't prepared to make. I could've gone down the road to Carsonie's and spent the exact same amount for something delicious, plus ambiance,...

I'm really sad to write this review. I've eaten at Tommy's for over 20 years and it is still the best pizza in the Columbus area. However, they've outsourced their menu and delivery services to third parties. If you click "order online" it isn't Tommy's, it's DoorDash and not immediately apparent. If your order gets messed up and you call Tommy's, they tell you to take it up with DoorDash, and DoorDash is going to take at least an hour to fix it - meanwhile your food is cold or you aren't eating dinner until 9 PM. Tommy's is out of the picture and unwilling to help. In the last 4-5 orders I've done online, only one has been successfully executed without some sort of error. Also, they are hit-and-miss with making their awesome subs available. Tonight I just decided to drive down to the store and order subs directly becasue we all wanted subs from Tommy's. They are the best, and nobody makes them like Tommy's. I walk into the store to see a skeleton crew. It's been this way since COVID. But now, with all the restrictions lifted, they seem to be sticking with running the restaurant as solely a pizza factory. The only people coming in the door are DoorDash drivers. I wait for 5 minutes before anyone acknowledges me at all, and when I finally walk up and state that I'd like to order some subs and I have no problem waiting, they tell me they aren't making subs tonight. I ask when they are making subs, and she states that they make them during the week but not tonight. Tommy's needs to embrace the 20th century and get a real online ordering system and be consistent for their customers. The only reason they are getting away with this current model is because they have multi-generational loyal customers and great food, but that won't last if they keep operating this way. I'm so sad to write this review. I love you Tommy's. Please try to get back to making it easy to get your food. I'm happy to give you my money. But if you are making it this hard, I'm sorry to say I'll be spending my money...