My Tomato Pie — Restaurant in Town of Amherst

A seminar brought us to the restaurant. Not quite sure what to expect of the facility, being in a Top's mall. However, upon entry we were quite pleased. Nice and clean, big entryway. A counter with host to greet and seat. The first room was the banquet room where our seminar was. It was beautifully set up with white table clothes, stem water glasses, cloth napkin wrapped silverware. We were give a choice of three entree items; a chicken salad sandwich, 1/2# cheeseburger, or personal pizza. Here is a review for the two we enjoyed. The 1/2# cheeseburger adorned by a couple nice slices of tomato, lettuce, special sauce on the side. A wonderful spiral pasta mayo salad. The personal pizza, dough was cooked perfectly with a nice crisp on the bottom; yet, soft and enjoyably tender as crust. Just the right amount of tomato sauce, quite deliciously somewhere between sweet and standard. The cheese was just the right quantity, filling dips in the dough for a delicious gooey chew in some places and not others. The pepperoni was charred ever so slightly around the edges, similar to a cup and char, but the slices were larger in diameter and the taste remarkable. A few green olives sprinkled about. Another topping was included if desired. Overall, the meals were very good. The staff was very friendly and polite. Boxes for leftovers brought without needing to ask but not being rushed. The room was quite suited for a small seminar with a nice television for display show. Being the dining room was on the sidewalk side of the building, pull shades made for nice privacy but allowed ample sunlight and viewing to the outside, but not in. Although, we did not eat in the other dining section, which seemed to be the main dining area for the restaurant; it was audible that there is an echo from crowd noise. Those that prefer a quite meal, consider this. The entire facility seemed great for a date or family dining. We would definitely return to the restaurant if...

Over the years my family and I have given our patronage to My Tomato Pie many, many times. This past Saturday will likely be our final visit.

We put in an order for takeout, as we often do, and yet again our order was at least 30 minutes delayed. I say yet again, because our last 5 visits have been similar to this occurrence.

While inside, 5-10 minutes went by before someone even came to check the front desk to ask me if I needed help. And I was not the only one who was waiting for their order. All of the other people were also past their respective pickup times. (I overheard the huffs and grumbles while waiting for my food to be ready). During my long wait, I heard the hostess, say, "were backed up, we had to shut down online ordering". Now I understand it's not her fault that they were understaffed, but if that's the case, just shut down online ordering as a whole. It just creates an even more unsavory experience. If you cannot handle online ordering, at a Pizzeria in WNY, don't offer it.

Now to my food. I waited over an hour for a very, very, sub par focaccia sandwich. And to cap it all off, they forgot both my sides, they got my wife's salad order completely wrong, and I was so frustrated I never bothered to go in to fix it, fearing it would be another 20 minute wait.

It will be a very long time (if ever), before I go back and try My...

It's hard to find places that cater to the Celiac population and take it very seriously. While the owner seems to have a solid understanding of the issues surrounding gluten free eating out of medical necessity, I was less than thrilled with his customer service and "people skills" after my fiance became violently ill following a gluten free lunch over the weekend.

It took a few days to get in touch with the owner (after the woman who mans the front desk accused me of trying to get a donation first!) who then tried to tell me that "those aren't usually symptoms of Celiac disease" and "I'm confident the issue isn't cross contamination" and "we had a woman whose son got sick who then called a few days later to apologize to us because it turned out to be viral". Really? Are you a doctor now too? Hmmm. I believe that he takes staff training seriously, but to try to discredit the possibility of cross-contamination in the kitchen and then say "Well, we can't even be certain it was or wasn't the food" was rather irritating.

An apology and a "How can I fix this?" would have been sufficient. Wasn't impressed with the ego. Eat at your own risk if you require gluten free, but that is always the case with serious food allergies. We certainly...