Tommy's Restaurant — Restaurant in Visalia

I hate to even write this post because I was so disappointed on Thanksgiving, and usually, On a normal day, most everything is good to great. But, this has to be said.... I have always bragged about the food and service at Tommy's, and can say, I have been going there for Years... And have NEVER been so dissatisfied. We decided to treat ourselves and family who drove over 4 hours to spend this Holiday all together, and instead of cooking all day, and cleaning half the night, we chose to make Reservations about 2 weeks prior, and go to one of the "3" best restaurants (in my opinion) in town, and let them do the cooking, clean up, etc. While we just enjoyed the day visiting and relaxing. Now, there are "other" places that we could of chose, some a little more$, some the same $, and a few that were about half the $, but still are good places to eat regardless. The GREAT MENU at Tommy's was what decided it for us, and knowing the kind of service we usually get, WELL, it was a No-Brainer.... So, knowing per person, it was going to cost anywhere from $75 to $125 a person, depending on if they only drank Water, or like most, has a glass or two of wine, couple cocktails, or even just Tea-Soda, etc. The price was No big Deal, because that's an cost of any decent meal with good service at a well known and reputable restaurant. So when making the reservations, I even asked if the menu choices were "For Sure" going to be served and available, and I was told YES. due to the limited number of reservation being taken for that day....... GREAT I said. So, we showed up for our SPECIAL Dinner, excited to all be together and all able to chose any of the 5 available Dinner options, when we were told over HALF of the menu was unavailable, and couldn't get what we set out to enjoy. But that was just the beginning....... Unfortunately..... So we sit and wait for about 20 minutes + for a waitress to arrive and take our order. So we order Drinks, a bottle of wine, and Water with Lemon all around to begin, while we wait for our drinks to come. And So she took our "Starters" order, our main course and deasert order and left. Another 20-30 went by, and NO WATER, no bread, No soup, Salad- Nothing. I finally got the attention of a different waitress and asked if we could at least get some water, and she said she would as soon as she was finished with her customers. 5-10 minutes later, the waitress comes out with the Salad and soup, BUT STILL NO beverages AT ALL. She apologized, and said she would return with them................ Our First course was nearly half gone, when she came back with our drinks, but still NO Bread that we ordered to have with our firsts.. Our wine was finally opened and just poured immediately without any of the proper steps, and No ice bucket- just sat on the table. At that point, we already need water refills, asked, never got till our meals came about 15-20 minutes later. And already disappointed because even what we ordered had to have substations, But still NO Bread. Finally got that, and we ate. Some of the items we extremely dry, and it just continued on the downward spiral. No waitress to come by during our meal to see if we need anything or even check how we were. Then our dessert had to be substituted and were were not able to even get what we had ordered to begin with.. I guess I have over described our situation maybe, but my point is, this is NOT how you expect to have service or food from a place like Tommy's , ESPECIALLY on a Holiday. I'm just glad we were able to come home and Get some things that I had available to eat, so that we could end our evening still feeling Blessed and happy to just be together...

This was my first and last experience at Tommys restaurant. It was unfortunate due to the service of the waiter. Just horrible. I will first post this review and secondly, meet with the management team. If this is the service they are sending to the public, it needs to stop because it is an expensive restaurant and we could have easily patronized another establishment.

On Thanksgiving Day I was invited to attend Tommys by some friends. It was my brother's 70th birthday and we were celebrating because he transitioned this time last year. It was a heavy experience. Nonetheless I accepted their offer. We arrived at the restaurant and placed our order. Let me start by saying, when we received our salad, it was without any dressing. While the three ladies commented they did not have any dressing, I requested dressing. The server said, "it is tossed in the salad." Well I'm 72 years old and I can see dressing tossed in a salad. He walked away. I raised my hand and requested a side of dressing. He brought the dressing with a loud sigh. We received our food. It not even room temperature. It was cold. I had the haddock. We ate without complaints and requested doggie bags. We ordered dessert. Our bills were divided 2/2 as we gave him our cards he became frustrated and said, "this is too much, I won't come back." We were confused. So I said ok, just do it this way and he accepted the two cards and walked off. Afterwards, as we were looking over the receipt, we noticed one of the receipts charged for the total bill and two for each half. We didn't check at the restaurant but after I arrived home I noticed my card sent me a notice for a duplicate charge. He ran my card twice, deducted it and ran it again. What was wrong with that server? I gave him a $25 tip.

Next as he brings our boxes for our left overs he says hand me your plates I will prepare your doggie bags, so we did. I was first. My back was turned. As I gave him my plates but could hear him slamming my plate onto something hard. I didn't turn to look. I heard him mutter, "you have given me problems all night." I ignored the comment. As I was the only Black female in the restaurant I sincerely felt as though there was a target on my head. As he prepared the other three ladies, he prepared their bags in proper fashion. No slamming of the plates. Food placed right side up. But I was confused because no one at my table said anything to me about his actions until later when I asked them about how he prepared my doggie boxes. They admitted he was a rude waiter. They admitted he did not provide good service. But no one said anything to him.

Now back to the prep of my take home boxes. I should have taken a picture but I was too hurt to think I paid $75 for a dinner, ate less than half, $25 for the tip and came home with a take home tray that looked like garbage. When I began to put my food in storage containers I noticed my food was sloppily upside down and tossed around. The Haddock and the Brussels sprouts were all thrown together. The dessert, bread pudding, and the whipped cream, slush.

This was the most horrible experience I have ever had at a restaurant in my life. I will never patronize Tommy's in the future, ever. And the server, is the guy with the multiple earrings on his left ear. He never introduced himself so we did not know his name. He does not belong in the restaurant business and definitely not working in a high establishment. I will continue to post this message across social media platforms....

So Tommy's is that place that every one in town knows is there, but knows that it's a little pricey. I always felt a little reserved towards it just because I'm not really big on dropping the "big bucks" on food. 5 years later I finally decided to give it a go and treat the wife out to nice dinner.

Setting: The ambiance was very quiet, elegant and comfortable.

Service: Waiter was quick to attend, courteous and knew the menu pretty good.

Food: Of course this is the one that truly matters, I came to experience what the "Tommy" name was all about. Wife ordered the New York steak with a side of vegetables along with some Chile Verded macaroni and cheese. The steak was ordered medium, and came out medium. The flavor on the steak was just blah. It was tender, but it tasted just like a regular piece of meat. At home I can cook up a decent steak and finish it off with butter rosemary and garlic, I would expect more from a fine dining establishment.

We also ordered a Chocolate Martini from the menu which was overpowered from too much alcohol compared to the chocolate so when the drink hit your mouth, the alcohol said "Hello"!

The steak was dressed with 2 pieces of shrimp coated in a type of BBQ sauce which were delightful.

For me: I ordered the special of the day which was a Mahi Mahi fish with a side of vegetables and rice. The Mahi Mahi was cooked correctly as the fish flaked perfectly and was not dry when bitten into, but once again, there was no flavor present. I'll give the chef props for the mango salsa he added to the top of the fish, although it did not do much. Of course the rice and veggies were just whatever, as the fish should have been the highlight of the dish.

Overall: I walked into Tommy's expecting to be "wowed" with different flavors hitting my palate and having an experience that would separate Tommy's from the rest of Visalia. I did not find anything special in the food, and especially for the price I paid. I don't think I will be returning to this...