I really hate to say this, but I am extraordinarily disappointed in this place. Â Was... bland. Â We ordered pizza, ribs, mushrooms, and a couple of things and not only did we have to put the ribs in the oven for a couple of hours to soften them up, we just didn't een bother to eat the pizza, it was that flavorless. Â
We did call and let them know about our experience and the customer service wa wonderful. Â They offered send us another meal, but in all honesty that was really tasteless too. Â I would love to see them retool their recipes, he'll, they carven have my husby come over and help!
I was tempted to give this place 4 stars, but I think it's mostly because it's in my neighborhood. Â My wife and I heard from friends in the area that it wasn't that great of a place, and it had 3 stars on Yelp. Â So, still curious, I purchased a Groupon as an excuse to just give it a try. Â We went a few nights ago, and were pleasantly surprised.
We went for dinner and ordered their thin crust pizza with mushroom and jalapeño.   The sauce was very tasty, and the pizza was pretty good overall; not the best we've had, but good.
The place was pretty dead, which I don't mind, though more people in the neighborhood should definitely come here if they're in the mood for pizza somewhere close! Â We sat at the bar, and the bartender was friendly and attentive, but left my wife and I to our conversation when we were talking, which I appreciate.
As for the environment, it was fairly pleasant. Â There were lots of TVs making noise, but not too loud. Â Since the place was pretty empty, I was glad that there was something other than complete silence to fill my ears that wasn't annoying (like bad italian music or something, like another local dine-in pizza place we've been to in the area). Â The place had a similar feel to Marie's, another pizza place in the area that we frequent.
This place is no Boiler Room, Piece, or Apart, but it's good and in our neighborhood, so we'll definitely be coming back.
Ok, not only do I go here on a regular basis to see Crystal and Tara, but my salon orders from here at least twice a week. When I walk into the baked tomato, I feel like I'm walking into an 80's movie, which is actually quite comforting to me! The food never disappoints, and good conversation is always expected with the two above mentioned servers. The pizza is the freaking best, and if you want to be a bit healthier, get the spinach salad with chicken breast (suggested by Crystal) YUM!!
Review Source:Extremely disappointing. We walked in and the place was completely empty. No staff, no patrons, nothing. The TVs were all on & music was playing, and a paper sign on the wall encouraged us to seat ourselves, so we did. Perusing the menu didn't take long, so we sat & talked while waiting for someone -anyone- to appear from the back and, I dunno, take our order? There was nobody. Meanwhile, the sound system was spitting out some rather loud static, which became very annoying very quickly. After 10 minutes, the bartender magically materialized behind the bar, but did not even acknowledge our existence. Instead he merely stood with his back to us for several minutes, until finally we got fed up & walked out. Â
We live right down the street, and are always excited to try a neighborhood joint. Drawn in by the Saturday Drinks Specials ($5 Absolut Bloodies & Long Islands), we thought we'd give it a try in hopes of kicking back, having some cocktails, and enjoying what we hoped would be some good pizza. Instead we left angry, hungry, and determined NEVER to go there again. Thumbs DOWN, Baked Tomato!
I have to say, I am VERY disappointed in this place in the last year or so. This place used to be fantastic with service, delivery and great pizza. I have now idea what has changed. It has been a change to the bad.
Pizza was always late. And I only live less than 20 minutes away. Drivers were rude. And when there was an issue with your order, the management would get angry with me, the customer.
Sorry, but I will be skipping this place for my Friday night pizza night ritual.
The pizza here is great however the current interior is a bit dark. New ownership is remodeling the interior and windows to make it look more welcoming though. Â We went in to pick up a pizza and they were having a meeting with the designers and contracters. Â Also, they are adding more veggie/Middle Eastern options (i.e. hummus, falafels, etc) as well as keeping the Italian menu but expanding on that as well- more variety in pizzas. Can't wait for the remodel!
Review Source:For some reason, I thought the food here would be delicious -- don't ask me why. I also thought that a place called 'The Baked TOMATO' would be a bit more veggie friendly; they have 2 vegetarian options other than pizza.
Due to the lack of vegetarian options, both my boyfriend and I ordered the Veggie Calzone & a side of fries. Â There isn't much to say about this besides bland, bland, bland. Seriously, this is the most bland food I've ever had.
Atmosphere-wise, this place is a bit of a dumpy dungeon.
We went here for dinner tonight and it was better than I expected. They have a free parking lot in the back and the folks were super friendly. It's definitely a neighborhood pizza place and you feel like you're among friendly neighbors.
There was another couple just finishing up when we arrived. We asked what was good and they suggested the pizza - its what they're known for. We went with their thin crust deluxe pizza and yes... it's one of the better thin crusts I've had in the city! Who would have thought this little place had it in them?! To accompany our pizza, we also had their chicken wings (good!) and fried mushrooms (good too!).
There's plenty of tvs around so we enjoyed watching Wedding Crashers while we had dinner. Aside from the tvs, there's a full service bar and pool table. It's definitely a place to hang out, although we were on the only ones there today (possibly due to the holiday weekend and torrential rain only a few hours earlier.)
We plan on coming back, as I used Dealavue Dollars (another restaurant gift certificate company similar to <a href="/redir?url=http%3A%2F%2FRestaurant.com&s=0aab4cbd731f3d3b0d1453050d3abc56a8c80bd214e25469c7555b750dca8a51" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">http://Restaurant.com</a>) and we're definitely coming back for more pizza.
I love going to the Baked Tomato, location is convenient, staff is friendly and food is delicious. Â I mainly stick to pizza (pick up, and eat in) and have always been happy. Â Great pizza (half price dine in on Wednesdays), cheap beer prices ($1 domestic drafts on Saturday and Sunday).
They also have lots of flat panel TV's to watch sports (though its not an overly loud environment) and they have a pool table.
I've dined in here and mainly ordered for delivery. The service is quick and friendly. Depending on your pizza mood this could be a great hidden place. Personally, I stick with a pepperoni pizza as I found it's a bit more spicy than most pizzas I have eaten in Chicago. The onion rings are pretty solid too.
Review Source:Tried The Baked Tomato for the first time last night and were pleasantly suprised. Buffalo wings were good, nothing new and different just average chicken wings but that is ok. Sometimes experimenting goes too far!
Pizza is great got a XL thin crust pepperoni, good well balanced pie not too much of anything and reheated very well this morning!
Only complaint is that for the price the pie is kinda small. Definitely not an XL at most places!
All in all great neighborhood place and hubby loved the old school pizzeria atmosphere!
3.
Another GrubHub-friendly restaurant, ordering was no problem and delivery came exactly on the projected minute which was a nice change of pace. I ordered a burger and fries and a deep dish pizza and the food was very affordable when compared to a bunch of other places near me and being on GrubHub is always going to make me take a second look at the menu.
The food was neither great nor poor and was up to snuff. The burger was mediocre and the fries were fresh cut but lacked a crispiness that one would enjoy with fries and were a bit too greasy. The burger itself seemed to come from frozen meat and was not that pleasing to the palate.
Pizza had a nice layer of sauce on the top and was Chicago-style with your sausage, your green peppa, and your onion. It was still warm and was good but tasted better when I layed on some Parmesan, oregano, and hot pepper flakes.
You could do worse, you could do better, but Baked Tomato is the perfect three when chillin' at the crib on lazy lockdown.
I was a bit surprised the Baked Tomato was pretty much empty on a Friday night, but kind of liked it. The jukebox was awesome, the pizza was delicious and fast. It was kind of crappy that if we ordered the special (Large Pizza, 1 topping) with an additional half ingredient, they wouldn't just let us pay for the additional topping but the new bartender/waitress was apologetic enough.
Review Source:My first taste of our new neighborhood was definitely a good one! The food was really more like 4 stars tops, but the service was just so friendly and attentive that it made the food taste better. Apparently they're under new management(?) but you'd never know because everyone there is so welcoming, like they've been around forever.
We walked in on a Saturday afternoon to find that the staff was decorating for a birthday party for a family member. It looked like they had meant for the restaurant to be closed to the public for a private party, but everyone there seemed genuinely happy to see us and made a point to say hi. The decor is old school with fake brick and everything, it just feels comfy. Â
The food was solid. My freshly prepared calzone had a delicious crunch to the crust and perfectly melty cheese inside, Shawn's grilled chicken sandwich was...well...a grilled chicken sandwich. Whaddya want.
I don't know what the old management was like, but I think the new management is really onto something and we'll definitely be back!
This place will is not a destination for pizza if you live outside of this hood. Â I went there to meet friends, and I didn't even know where the door was to enter. Â Well I found it and upon entering it's like a step back in time.
Basement chairs surrounding the checkerboard plastic topped tables. Â It basically looks like long ago yesterday. Â Which ironically , sorta fit the place. Â It kinda lowers your expectations a bit. Â
They have a pool table, a dart board and a jukebox and an internet jukebox (yay). Â I found no problem finding anything I wanted.
We ordered a large thin crust cheese pizza, which was good. Â Nothing to write home about. Â The crust was crisp and had decent flavor. Â The sauce was a little lacking but was tasty. Â Our beer was cold and there was only Heineken or Miller Lite on tap.
The staff was SUPER nice. Â They tried to please us at every step. Â
Overall, it would be nice to drop in and have some beer and a pizza every now and then if I lived in that hood (albany park). Â
Bring a sweater if it's cold outside because that made it a little chilly inside...brrr.
I attended a one year old's birthday party at Baked Tomato this weekend, and really enjoyed the place. Â It's got sort of an old-school pizza parlor feel that could probably stand to be updated, but it was warm and cozy.
We had pizza, salad and garlic bread, all of which were good. Â The pizza was thin crust, and had a great crispy crust and a good flavor. Â The salad was a pretty basic salad, but the veggies were all fresh which is always nice. Â The garlic bread was served warm and was very tasty - my only complaint is that it got very hard when it cooled off.
The staff was great - super helpful with putting up decorations, and getting space set up for gifts and cake and whatnot, so it was very easy to have a party here. Â I would imagine that they're just as gracious for a regular meal.
They did mention that they're under new ownership as of a month or so ago, so hopefully some of the food issues that other reviewers have noted have been improved (the new owner was WELL aware of the recent less-than-stellar reviews). Â It's a nice neighborhood place, so it would be great to see it succeed.
After reading some of the high-rated reviews here I gave it a shot. But like the 2-star yelp rating suggests, "Meh. I've experienced better."
Ordered a pizza and their signature appetizer, a baked tomato.
Pizza: 2.5 stars. The crust was a weird cracker-like thing, maybe too much cornmeal? Bizarre. Sauce was okay. I ordered it with sausage, green pepper and fresh tomato ... the tomato slices were barely cooked and sort of mealy. Sausage was okay.
Baked tomato appetizer: 1 star. What a joke! 2 roma tomatoes fresh out of the Rock-Hard Bin at Jewel's, tops sliced off and inside scooped out, with a ball of greyish, mealy-tasting (breadcrumbs?) meatball mix inside and a tablespoon of melted mozzarella on top of the meat. The tomatoes were not cooked! Just warm. The meatball mix was cooked. How did they do that? I'm afraid to think. The cheese had congealed to transparency by the time it was delivered ... I opened the styrofoam to reveal such a lovely presentation: Â 2 smallish, tepid hard tomatoes rolling around with a hunk of meatball stuffing carelessly thumbed inside, and one of them had fallen out of its tomato home so it looked naked with a little hat of melted cheese. Unbelieveable!
Nonetheless i tasted one of these suckers ... blech. Threw the rest away.
The ambiance isn't anything special .... like a pizza parlor from the 70s. Â But the food was great! Â We ordered the stuffed tomato appetizers (tomatoes stuffed with meatballs and served with crustini), which were a good way to start our evening. Â As our entree, my companion and I split one of their specialty pizzas -- the bruscetta. Â It was so good! Â Tasted just like a bruscetta appetizer, but in pizza form. Â If you like garlic, this is a good place to sample their menu items. Â I had a side of the potato wedges (cannot recall the exact name) which were topped with garlic and other spices in an oily gravy/sauce. Â So yummy! Â My friend had the meatballs, which fell-apart as you tried to eat them (a good thing!). Â In all, the meal was excellent, and the server was very friendly. Â She seemed happy that we ordered all her favorites (which we didn't know when we ordered them).
Review Source:Pizza is okay - only okay. Â When they first opened the pizza was pretty good, but they have not been able to maintain that level. Â They barely cook the pizza. Â We've repeatedly asked them to "burn" the pizza to get a little carmelization of the mozerrela, but that's not working anymore. Â Come on guys - NY can keep that soggy goopy mess, this is Chicago where the crust is crispy and the cheese is bubbly and browned. Â The pizza sauce is one of the best - if they could just get the rest of it right. Â Sometimes a little extra time and care make a world of difference.
Review Source:The Baked Tomato is the quintessential Chicago neighborhood pizza joint. Â Whenever we're in Chicago we make it a point to stop by for at least one meal here. Â The service is always attentive (although it hasn't been very busy on most of our visits), the pizza is consistently good (more on that later), there's a good selection of beer (including Guiness on tap), there's live jazz on some nights, and the price is very reasonable. Â Also, there's only one other restaurant in the neighborhood worth visiting!!
The pizza here is light and healthy - unlike the artery clogging 'Deep Dish' style for which Chicago somehow became infamous! Â There's a good selection of interesting ingredients available - like artichoke, asiago cheese, baked or barbeque chicken, etc. etc. The crust is thin and crispy, but not dry at all. Â Best of all, the kitchen is very flexible with special orders for us 'high maintenance' types...
Desserts here are excellent as well. Â They offer authentic Italian Spumoni ice-cream as well as Canoli filled with either fresh creme anglaise or fresh fruit. Â The fresh fruit version (raspberries the last time) is generous and delicious.
At least one of the owners is always present and invariably someone will stop by to check on our experience and chat a bit. Â That personal touch is a nice reminder of the good old days when establishments actually cared about retaining your business.
Lastly, the music. Â We've dropped in on some Friday evenings in the past when they've had a live jazz band playing. Â I generally avoid venues which require shouting over loud and mediocre music, so I was reluctant at first. Â We discovered that the band was talented and the music was pleasantly unobtrusive. Â I'm actually looking forward to going back for that now!
Hint - parking is behind the restaurant with a back door to enter the restaurant. Â Don't struggle to find street parking!
All in all this place is well worth a visit for good pizza in a true Chicago neighborhood environment. Â Enjoy!
This place is okay. The pizza was very good. The restaurant was extremely quiet, though - we were the only customers in there. The place is old, dark, and a little smoky. Our waitress, who might have been one of the owners, was very attentive (perhaps a bit too).
The food was good; I think I'd opt for delivery next time.
It is a quiet/quaint little restaurant. Hardly anyone was there... Actually anticipated it to be more like a Buca di Beppo (if you've ever been to one), but hardly like it. It is nice because the waiters/waitresses focus their attention on you (but it's also bad for the same reason...). The food is mildly good...... everything is homemade, and definitely tastes like it. Some pasta dishes weren't salty enough, so I suggest the pizza. It is known for the pizza anyway.
Review Source:I just had the pizza this evening and thought it was very good.
The crust was nice a crunchy. The toppings were very good and plentiful. I will be back for the pizza and may try the pasta dishes based on other reviews. Â I have been here before when it was called ' Aiello's Golden Crust ' and it seems to be the same pizza.
This place has good pizza. But more than their pizza, I prefer their pasta dishes. They have lots of different pasta options. Their lasagna is the one I have liked the best. One thing I don't like about this place is that it is not open for lunch. And to me, this place seems better fit for lunch food.
Review Source:
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