The Hot Tomato — Restaurant in Florida

Holy Cow this place has gone downhill bad! This used to be my go to, at least once a week we'd go get a Dirty Bird and a Cuban (me and my wife). We decided to stop today on a trip back from Palmetto and it was really really bad to the point I need to warn others to stay away.

To start, my wife had to order her Cuban 4x because the girl at the register couldn't understand wanting mayo, mustard and Pickles only on the sandwich (no lettuce, no tomato... a normal Cuban at most places around here). The sandwich itself came out cold (used to be warm/pressed), the meat & pickles were maybe half on the bread and half outside of it and they put so much mustard and mayo that it was dripping (literally- no exaggeration DRIPPING) out of the back side every time she tried to pick it up and take a bite. The bread just crumbled into pieces like it was a couple days old. My wife eats nearly everything, she ate about 4 bites and apologized for wasting it because it made her feel ill.

I ordered the Dirty Bird and some corn nuggets. When ordering the nuggets, I was asked if I'd like blue cheese or ranch with them, to which I responded ranch and was charged another $0.79 for a side of ranch. I asked the cashier "doesn't it come with a sauce?" to which she replied "I don't know I just started here". Fine..... but $45 for 2 sandwiches, one drink and some corn nuggets?!?!?!

Our meals came up in about 10 minutes and I noticed the corn nuggets have 2 Ranch sauce cups on it. I ask the cook that put them up on the counter if it's "supposed to come with sauce?" to which I got another "I'm not sure, I just started here" but then he noticed they forgot the powdered sugar that's supposed to come on them.

Not sure who DOES know HOW things are supposed to be served/made but makes sense they weren't there today because everything was really bad and inconsistent with past visits.

My dirtybird always was a warm sandwich, pressed with melted cheese. Today the Turkey (which is maybe at most half of the old portion) was ice cold. I ate 2 bites of my sandwich and felt sick. The bread, which is now 90% off the sandwich since they skimp on the turkey, was just as stale as my wife's sandwich so it just crumbled. The corn nuggets were so overcooked the corn itself had no more "meat" in it - just batter with corn skins in it - gross.

I was so excited to see the place made over and a bigger better menu but in doing so, they lost focus on the delicious food they used to serve. We will...

I haven't eaten there yet what's the ratings were just pushed so that I can get to this point. I checked everything out and to pay for a little bit of chili on a french fries which is the cheapest thing you can buy in a little bit of cheese with a little chili is outrageous. You can make him at home a whole lot cheaper and then a baked potato with stuff on it $13 are you kidding me you can go to McAlister's and get one for $10.49 which is still too much money but it's a huge potato two of them put together. Looking at these prices is just ridiculous it's Americans taking advantage of Americans and screwing over Americans because of the government we have in here they're using that for an excuse to raise their prices.$14 and $15 for sandwiches like a Cuban or a Ruben is ridiculous. Great dollars and change you can get a room in from 78th Street market for $10.49 you can get a Reuben stacked 3 in deep with meat and cheese and add all the extras lettuce tomato onion lettuce tomato and onion and spinach for I checked this out because I heard their sandwiches were good which I'm sure probably they are but the prices are ridiculous so you won't catch me in there. A lot of these restaurants are taking advantage saying everything so high everything so high they raised the prices on our meats and our cheeses and well suck it up. The rest of us are no reason to double your prices 899 now they're $15 and $16 that's double prices on groceries that have not doubled or has anything else. Couple of dollars at the most the prices should have went up up but these restaurants are using this excuse the government has raised everything but they can double their prices. Again I say Americans...

SAVE YOUR MONEY! TERRIBLE!

Several co-workers praised this place at how good the food was so I finally went one evening after work. I went with a co-worker and my two children. I ordered the Reuben on Cuban bread since I do not like seeds in rye bread and a kids chicken tenders basket. The sandwich was pathetic. Dry and hardly any meat and sauerkraut. I had to open the sandwich to actually see if there was ANY sauerkraut at all! Barely there and it was pretty dry. I hadn't realized until I finished half of the sandwich that it was MISSING the melted swiss cheese! How hard is it to make a pressed Rueben? Apparently pretty hard. The kids chicken basket was more like a french fries basket. If your looking for dry-unsalted french fries this is the place to go. If they're going to call it a chicken basket then the chicken should be the larger portion and the fries be the side, no? I must have high expectations. My friend wanted to help and she told the very rude older women at the front counter who took my order the error they made in my sandwich. Unfortunately my friend did not take a replacement order sandwich that the rude woman offered but took a peanut-butter brownie instead and the rude counter woman took the rest of my sandwich instead of giving me the brownie as complimentary. The table and booths feel old and grimy and falling apart. Flies bothering me while we ate and service was terrible. I have better experiences at a fast food joint and the Rueben at Arby's is better than this one. Hot Tomato should be ashamed of serving this type of food and not doing the right thing for customers. I will never go back nor will I recommend this...