Only had one experience with Tino's but the one I had was fantastic. I ordered delivery to my office. Â Not only did the order come quite quickly, but the food was still piping hot and fresh. Â All amenities were included (warm bread, plastic silverware, etc.) and the driver was courteous. Â The food itself was excellent. Â The pasta was clearly homemade, the veggies were all fresh, and the sauce rich and flavorful. Â I will certainly order from them again!
Review Source:We've been here 4 or 5 times and never had a problem with the service.
The staff is very friendly. Â We usually sit in the bar area at the booths and everyone is always friendly and attentive.
I like the sauces there because they are lighter than other Italian places I've been, they don't seem to use a lot of butter or heavy creams.
My favorite dish is the Chicken Cacciatore; however, I do  request that the dish be cooked 10 minutes more than they normally serve it.  The reason is the onions and peppers are usually crisp and I don't understand that because cacciatore should be slow cooked. However, the sauce is good ( I like their marinara sauce ) and the veggies and chicken always taste very fresh.  The chicken seems grilled not slow cooked, but good quality and flavor.
Their Chicken Piccatta is also is very good and light as well.
Also they have a "build your own" pasta dish option with whole wheat and gluten free pasta options.
They serve bread with olive oil and both are very good. Â My son likes the pizza.
We are not a fan of the caesar dressing, it is too fishy flavored, I guess from the anchovies. Â Last night we got dessert for the first time and the Tiramisu was very good, and my husband enjoyed the chocolate mousse. Â They said they make the desserts onsite. Â I also like their wine selections...they separate the wine listing into light, medium or full bodied on the menu and it helps you decide which wine is best for what you are in the mood for.
We enjoy the atmosphere and food so have to say I am a fan of this place and plan on coming back!
Wow - I'm shocked at all the poor reviews! Â This is not only my and my family's favorite Italian restaurant but it is one of our top two restauarants overall! Â We really liked it when it used to be Strapazza and were thrilled to find out that the new owner kept the same head chef. Â The atmosphere is much nicer after the renovations and I think the food is even better. Â Their minestrone is awesome - so thick it is more like a stew than a soup. Â Every entree we've had has been great. Â I always get the seafood Mare Bella. Â Lots of shrimp and scallops, cooked perfectly in a light tomato broth. Â Their chicken dishes (Chicken Vesuvio, Chicken Cacciatore) are so good with the most tender chicken breast pieces. Â I NEVER eat chicken in a restauarant because I am always disappointed in the quality but at Tino's it is amazing. Â We have also used them for catering for large parties and the quality is just as good for the large pans as it is for individually prepared entrees in the restaurant. Â My only complaint is that the service is sometimes too fast. Â I don't like when they bring the entree just as we are finishing or before we have finished our appetizers. Â Last time we were there we were catching up with old friends so we asked the waiter to space out the dishes and the service was perfect for us.
Review Source:While Tino's isn't horrible, it certainly isn't anything to write home about.
Granted, I've only been once, and it was for lunch. Â But it was with a party, and each of us had the same opinion-the food wasn't bad, but it wasn't great either.
The prices are relatively low, and the service we experienced was good, so I wouldn't recommend not going. Â Just know when you do that it isn't going to be anything to rave over.
My friends and I like to go to Tino's because our only other option for sit-down Italian food is Olive Garden, and we are not so big on chain restaurants. The atmosphere of the restaurant is really nice and the location is convenient for me but the food is not so outstanding.
The first time I went I got the Fusilli Alla Primavera because I had had it at a catered event and it was DELICIOUS. At the catered event, the dish was the consistency of a baked pasta which was fabulous. At the restaurant however, the sauce was very runny and lacking in flavor.
I have also had their Fettuccine with Broccoli and Garlic White Wine Sauce. This dish was extremely underwhelming. Overall it is a decent place with decent prices, kind service, and good table bread.
chicken was very dry and had a strange texture to it. Â Pasta sauce was too sweet with sugar. Â do they do that in italy? bottled salad dressing. That is not olive oil for the bread dipping! Â So if you need a quick bite to eat and you dont want to impress anybody or yourself this is the place to go. Â Otherwise make real italian food at home. its fresher and made with love there.
Review Source:Tino's is an ok place. Â The service was terrific. Â The food was OK, nothing special and certainly not bad, pretty much right down the middle. Â I went with an old South Philly relative who grew up with good basic Italian food--the type of food Tino's purports to serve--and he felt it wasn't quite there. Â The dessert was fantastic, the tiramisu was a stand out. Â I'd go bad, hell it has a wine bar, how cool is that!
Review Source:Wow what a disappointment. I ordered carry-out for lunch because I work near by. The mozarella fritta was little fried balls of cheese served on sticks, tasted like it was frozen and they just fried it. Not fresh or tasty at all. The fettucine alfredo was disgusting. The alfredo was like water. No flavor at all. The place looked nice inside but wow I will never be wasting my money there again.
Review Source:Cold pizza delivery and the pizza was hacked up and it being 1.2 miles away knocks this to 1 star from previous 5 rating. A large pizza was cut into four pieces and there was a huge hack mark in the middle where someone dropped the pizza cutter. We ordered delivery being 1.2 miles away because we had company over and had to do things - but to get it cold? c'mon now.
Review Source:We are definitely fans. We have been looking for a really good pizza place and have had the hardest time finding one. Its not our first pick but it definitlely would be our 2nd. They have the convenience of ordering online and when we went inside to pick up the decor and setting seems to be welcoming as well. My boyfriend also got a steak and cheese sub that I tasted it was really good. He enjoyed it as well. The meat seems to be well seasoned. If you want really good pizza I would definitely recommend them.
Review Source:I've been to Tino's four or five times since they've opened. I was a frequenter of Strapazza. The service is always good and friendly. I grew up in an Italian American family and tend to be picky about Italian restaurants. Tino's is solid and reasonably priced for the quality. Their gnocchis (like Strapazza's) are delicious. And they have reasonable wine selections.
While there last week, the food was less than par. The iceberg lettuce in my Ceasar salad was actually icy. Marinara sauce tasted acidic and lacked the full range of flavor it should have. I'm hoping the regular chef was just out sick. It'd also be nice if they turned up the music to drown out kitchen noise.
Ok. I came, i ate, and meh...
Food wasn't horrible but it seems like a lot of "Italian" restaurants around here think they can add some garlic and tomato to a jar of "generic Italian name, lets say Mario koompa stompers" rustic tomato sauce and pow they are a great place for "Italian" dining. LIES!
Now to be honest, as my fans deserve muchly, i ate here probably 4 months ago. Now there may or may not have been a monetary exchange for a brief period of silence for my review. This time is over my children. Let the truth shine free.
I ordered the veal Marsala and my girl at the time ordered some sort of steak salad.
Survey says "BZZZZZ"
The Marsala was thinner than An Ethiopian kid on hunger strike. Now a Marsala wine and butter drink may sound delicious, but in practice and on pasta is silly. Picture throwing a pot of linguine into a full bathtub. That's what my plate looked like.
The girls salad was fresh, however their idea of rare looks like coal. Now maybe this is just a bunch of sedimentary scientists playing jokes on Columbia for a hilarious rock formation timeline...coal----sirloin-----diamond or they don't pay attention.
I hear their pizza is good tho. Sorry forgot to type in pseudo NY. " I hear their ZAAAAAAAAAAAA is like awesome, I'm from NY so i know what I'm talking about"
It's been awhile so i guess ill check it out again. However, for good Italian, try pasta plus in laurel if you're local. La Tavola in Baltimore is also ridiculous.
Tino's is a great neighborhood find! The bar is great and separate from the main restaurant so you can belly up and have a beer and a pizza while watching the chefs in the kitchen. The dining room is small but that adds to the charm. We started at the bar while we waited for a table and got a red sangria and a maker's mark manhattan on the rocks. The bar tender was very nice and friendly. The sangria was delicious and the manhattan had an extra special treat in it, cherry juice!
Our server was great and made good recommendations as it was our first time there. Â We order steamed mussels to start. We ask that they use white wine and garlic for our mussels and they came out great! So great that we used our bread to dip in the sauce instead of the oil and herbs. I got the shrimp scampi and the shrimp were big and delicious but the sauce was red in color and tasted funny so I returned it and got a Caesar salad instead. My boyfriend got veal saltimbocca. It was delicious and he was thrilled. I think we found our new neighborhood place. Â We will definitely go back and will bring friends and future guests here.
I live right around the corner from this place, and was ecstatic when the dreadful predecessor, Strapazza, went out of business. The pizza at Tino's is solid (just don't order Italian sausage - they use the cheaper sliced kind, not the tasty crumbled kind), and the mozzarella fritti is pretty tasty. I'm also a fan of the fresh bread with the garlic and herb-infused olive oil. To me, fresh bread is a sign of a good restaurant.
However, the pasta dishes leave something to be desired. They use the same marinara on everything, and I noticed this last time (tonight, to be exact) it was very acidic. It made the spaghetti with my chicken parmesan taste funny. Also, the chicken wasn't crispy at all. Breaded, fried chicken cutlets should be crispy, at least around the edges if not under the cheese. But the worst thing about Tino's is by far the caesar salad. It's like one of those salads you get at an airport kiosk. An Italian restaurant should be able to make a decent caesar, and it's all about the dressing. Tino's uses a glorified Italian dressing that's all vinegar and clearly from a giant Sysco jar.
Finally, a word about the service. They are super-friendly, but I, too, have witnessed the disappearing act. One server was out having a smoke break (she shared this info with me) while I sat for 10 minutes with no water, desperately trying to get the attention of the other staff who were standing around idle. On my next visit, this same server brought my pizza to the table cold. Clearly it was sitting in the window while she was grabbing a smoke. I am not against servers taking breaks, but I am against seeing so many staffers chit-chatting while a new customer sits without drinks, bread or even a menu. I'm also against a server making the mistake of leaving a repeat customer waiting for their food...again.
Mid-price-range Italian restaurant to me means Pizza. That's all I want. I can boil pasta and buy good ricotta and sauce on my own. But I can't make good 'za. Luckily for me, Tino's can.
As noted in other reviews, I'm a displaced Noo Yawkah. I take my pizza seriously and have found most "pizza" (please make airquotes with your fingers) in MD to be....well, not pizza. And in some cases (Ledo), not even food.
Tino's pizza is pretty darn good, though. The New York style is tastey (not quite garlicky enough to really claim the NY flavor, but....). Margarhita is a favorite among the book club gals and I'll eat the heck out of their white pizza. Be sure to ask for the crust to be well-done if you want to get closer to the NY experience.
It's not my top pizza choice in the area, but it is a very reliable second.
When this  restaurant first opened I was impressed.  My las two meals has changed my mind.  Last night my wife and I ordered the Shrimp Parmesan  and the Lasagna.
The Lasagna was tasteless, all Ricotta cheese with the only sauce poured over it. The noodles were over cooked and tasteless. Â The entire meal was in a word disappointing. The Shrimp in the Shrimp Parmesan were first breaded and deep fried. Â Then sauced and cheese placed over them and placed in the oven. Â The shrimp were over fried in the fryer and insulted with the melting of the cheese.
Even the sauce which originally was fantastic has lost its taste. Did the original chef leave. This is the second bad meal from them of what has been many good meals. Â What has happened or have I just been spoiled by the previous restaurant to occupy that space?
After seeing this place open up a while ago near my favorite hobby store, I finally decided to bring the family and give it a try. It wasn't a bad experience, but it wasn't a great one either.
The staff were very friendly and did their job. Unfortunately, as mentioned by previous customers, they have a tendency to disappear. You'll receive constant check-ups for a while, and then you have to actually look for your server and flag them down toward the end.
Prices are alright, although I think they're priced to match the atmosphere rather than the food. Not to say the food wasn't tasty, it was definitely good... but I think the pricing was a little more than what we got. Still, this is Columbia, so you have to expect that. :P
The main complaints are parking, which fills up very quick during the dinner rush, and a lack of attention to detail. Servers are nice but their disappearing act is annoying and sometimes they just don't pay attention. Plus, we asked for a coffee one time and it got brought out... cold. After finally flagging down our server they gladly replaced it with a fresh, hot cup, but the concept that you couldn't tell a cup of coffee was cold (or that cold isn't how you serve it) is a bit mind-boggling.
So, overall I say this is an OK place to eat. Nothing fantastic and what is good is counteracted by what is not so great.
I had a great experience at Tino's; it combines two of my favorite things-- Italian food and wine bars!!
The restaurant hasn't been around very long, so everything looked clean and new. Rachael was an awesome server-- enthusiastic, knowledgeable, but not smothering. We had a nice conversation, and I noticed her chatting up her other tables as well-- it was nice to see a server actually ENJOY their work and WANT to be there!
I decided to try the peach sangria, based on Rachael's recommendation, and was VERY impressed! The mozzarella fritti was great, as were my spaghetti and meatballs-- an all-around great, relaxed, affordable, Italian meal! I highly recommend it.
The place is average. The servers seem have to do everything which adds to the poor service. The food is a B- at best, but its the only place in that area so at least we have some Italian to work with.
Bartender was rude as if he's doing us a favor by serving people.
Bottom line, sure go try it out. Just know when its busy you'll be waiting a longtime with poor service.
Love it! Â Have been here 5 or 6 times since Tino's opened and every experience was great. Â Even had a good size family party here on a Sunday, late afternoon and couldn't have been happier. Â Food is terrific and the owner, Chris, is so down to earth and friendly. Â One of the best bartenders in town, too!!! Â You gotta give this place a try.
Review Source:My wife and two sons went to check out this newly opened restaurant relatively late on a weeknight for a restaurant in Columbia. Â Many other diner's also had the same idea. Â The hostess thought it would be about a 10 minute wait - turned out to be about 20 minutes for a table. Â Â I was happy to see that they were using the "pager" system. Â While this doesn't pair well with upscale restaurants (though neither does yelling out a name form the list), I find them very efficient. Â
The entrance had a small seating area that really didn't lend itself to hold very many people. Â It was hot outside, so we chose to stand inside, across from the hostess stand. Â From there, we got to observe a couple of things. Â
The interior itself was much improved from the prior Italian restaurant that was there. Â Nothing too impressive, but pleasant and a much better use of space. Â Seemed a lot larger. Â
We also noticed though that the 3 hostesses that were working seemed to be pretty idle.  They were all pleasant enough, but while tables sat  full of dishes and water glasses got low, they were still standing talking at the front waiting for the next customers.  I don't blame them at all, but this is rather a management issue to ensure that the staff is well balanced and that idle time in one area is used to effectively compensate for problems in another.  Â
As we sat down, we got to hear our waiter apologize ("sorry again...") to the departing guests at an adjacent table about the wait. Â It took quite a long time for him to come to our table, but he seemed very friendly and competent once he did. Â It was clear that the rush had passed (we were one of the last groups who had to wait to be seated). Â During the time we sat there, some tables were cleared and set, but weren't filled.
As a result, we were hopeful that service and wait time would be better for us than prior diners. Â Unfortunately, that wasn't the case.
Our waiter started out well. Â He took our orders and followed up on drinks and bread. Â While waiting for salads, he came back by to ask if we wanted more bread. Â My wife asked about wheat bread. Â He said he wasn't sure if they had any, but would check. Â
We waited what seemed like a long time, then the salads arrived, brought by another waiter. Â We didn't see our waiter though and he never followed up about the bread. Â We waited what seemed to be a very long time. Â He finally came to pick up the salad plates and let us know that our food would be "out soon". Â We then waited for another very long stretch. Â The kids both were getting really miserable waiting. Â They are both over 10, so I'm not talking about a 4 year old who has no patience. Â
Finally, the food arrived. Â My wife ordered a pesto pasta. Â I ordered pasta with broccoli and a white wine sauce. Â One son ordered pizza and the other a ravioli dish. Â
The food wasn't particularly impressive - but to be fair, there's probably a limit to how impressive most of those dishes can be. Â My dish was nice and light (which was my goal), but wasn't hot and was a little too light on the broccoli. Â
We waited a long time again for our waiter to come back around to get a dessert order. Â He brought that relatively quickly.
Prices were definitely good. Â Not cheap, but definitely not overpriced for what you get. Â
So, in summary, the atmosphere was pretty nice for a strip mall restaurant and a huge improvement over the prior establishment. Â The service was poor overall - good when our waiter was present, but he was just MIA for most of the time. Â The kitchen itself was also backed up and I'm not sure I can see why. Â
The food was pretty average. Â Nothing too much to complain about, but nothing to write rave reviews about either. Â
In short, I hate to say it, but next time I think I'll go to Bertucci's. Â The atmosphere isn't as nice, but I think I'll get almost the same level of food, but won't deal with falling asleep waiting for my waiter to come by or get my food. Â
Willing to give this place another chance to work out what hopefully are just some operational challenges of a new place. Â However, I'll probably wait for a while before going back.
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