Tommaso’s Trattoria

You would think after visiting Italy and cooking italian food so much when I came back that I’d be sick of it by now.
Nope.
Can neva be sick of it!
Stopped by here on my way home from taking a drop in local Aikido class…
Was in an odd area of Eastern, seems to be in the middle of no where but perfect spot to stop off and great parking.
Craving pasta.
After about 18 yrs since my first trip to Italy — I pretty much ruled out ever finding that similar dense pasta I had in Italy here…
First thing I noticed coming into this place: It was full of Italian customers. Good sign.
(Sorta like any Asian resto — if its full of that same culture as what it is serving, it is always a good sign)
Just had the pasta — Plain ol’ Spaget and Meatballs. Wasnt plain ol’ tasting though. Dense heavy pasta cooked perfectly ! Hit the spot! Had the home cooked hearty feeling.
Apparently some of their pasta is home made but not all of them, but still pretty good.
My friend loved their dish as well.
Gave us complimentary warm toasted dunked in olive oil bruschetta which was so yum.
Very friendly staff.
Did not rush us out of there.
Prices were reasonable too.
Will go back and will recommend! For family, friends or even a date.
Yummy!

I took two of my friends here for lunch on the advice of another friend. We all got the combination, the hot/​cold plate special. The staff were very friendly and solicitous, pushing the combo plate. The offerings were various and I had the gnocchi, lasagna, a meat ball with Caesar salad, cold rapini and a toasted bread. The food was clearly hand made but under seasoned and the hot plate was really a slightly warm plate. The TV was most distracting but I imagine some patrons like it. We all had a good time and the staff were quite lovely. None of us left hungry and the meal came out at $ 16 per person with tax and coffee. We were not dissatisfied but they could up their game a bit.

Family style dining, great variety in the food items and everything is absolutely delicious. We come for lunch and fill our plate to the max. Love the desserts too, especially the tiramisu!!!

We passed by one Saturday night on our way to a downtown restaurant, and because the place looked packed, we thought we’d give it a try on another night. A little Italian restaurant tucked away on an industrial street in the east end, packed on a Saturday night? Must be a secret little spot that some people weren’t letting out.
We weren’t disappointed in our meal.
We started off with a generous plate of fresh bruschetta (happily, no melted cheese on top) and and a generous basket of homemade spicy (olive?) bread served with olive oil and balsamic vinegar. Off to a fine start.
THE FOOD:
The chicken parmigiana was very good, as well as the delicately flavoured manicotti. The roast meat plate had a wonderfully spicy Italian sausage and good lamb chops. Unfortunately, they replaced the promised pork with two drumsticks without mention. These were on the dry side and didn’t have a very appetizing look. Only disappointment of the meal.
There was also a very enticing-​looking pizza counter. Will definitely have to try next time.
THE SERVICE:
Service was very friendly, from the booming voice on the phone who said he looked forward to seeing us for supper, to the friendly, chatty waitress, and two other employees who didn’t serve us but still stopped to say hello and ask how our meal was.
Pricing was average for a mid-​range Italian eatery: $ 15-​$ 30 for mains.
The view isn’t great, the restaurant being situated on a stretch of Eastern Ave. across from a Mini dealership and a yard full of Enbridge gas trucks. However, everything else made up for it.
Definitely coming back again.

The food is overpriced and I know someone who worked there. They were a foreigner from another country and the owner treated them like completely garbage and like a slave. They even forced them to go and paint their house.
Do not support these people; they are rotten to the core.

What a wonderful surprise. You can’t tell from the outside, but the inside is quite nice with a comfortable bright atmosphere. That being said, let’s get to the only thing that matters, the food.
First off, we ordered one of their brick fire pizzas. Absolutely delicious. I never eat the crust on my pizza but found myself doing so. The crust is fluffy yet has crunch and also very flavorful. The pizza was our appetizer! The next thing I ordered was the house special. Stewed lamb with homemade gnocchi. Oh my goodness this was good. Gnocchi wad well prepared, the lamb was fall of the bone tender and the sauce was great.
The service was excellent and I enjoyed chatting with the host and server. The host made us feel like we should stay a while and do and typical 4 hour Italian dinner. I and coming back!

A hidden gem… off the beaten path. My wife tells me not to write a review for this place, or else we will never go back. Wrote a review once, for another hidden gem on another account… place was always packed afterwards. Not my fault, as I doubt many people read my review, just pure coincidence is all! Anyways, here goes:
Have been here many times since it has opened. Veal and chicken sandwich, large, delicious, and reasonably, if not, underpriced, for the size and the amount of stuff packed inside… onions, peppers, their homemade tomato sauce.
Their pizzas are great. Very comparable to some of the better pizza places in Toronto, including Vivoli, Via Mercanti, Taverniti Trattoria, Libretto is probably still better than Tomasso, but Tomasso’s is definitely up there, one of the best pizza’s in Toronto.
I’ve tried half of their pastas on their menu. Simple, delicious recipes, the Fetteccini and Porcini Mushroom pasta is one of the best pasta’s I’ve had in an Italian restaurant in Toronto. So simple, I am trying to perfect it at home myself. Although, I have not tried Gusto yet, but I hear that place is excellent as well.
Quiet, quiant, friendly, and reasonably priced. You always get their complimentary Bruschetta, the loaf is kept together, hot and fresh in the middle, crunchy outer crust with just a few pieces sliced off and covered in olives, EVOO, tomatoes, oregano.
Unfortunately, this place is rarely ever packed, the most I’ve seen it full, almost half the dining room was still empty. This can be a good thing for regulars, never have to worry about seating, consistency of food quality and service remains high, but location is not very central, a little off the beaten path, may make it not so great for business.
$ 15 corkage fee for bring your own bottle of wine, standard individual pizzas are roughly $ 13-​$ 18 or so… but any large pizza is $ 30, can feed two easy! Especially when you get their complimentary bread.
All pastas fairly priced, Mr. Tomasso is super friendly.
Décor 3.5 out of 5
Food 4 out of 5 (consistency has been an issue on one or two visits)
Staff and Service 4 out of 5
Price at lunch time, depending what you get, is great! Fair and reasonably priced for dinner.

Tommaso’s is the BEST BEST BEST. Its absolutely delicious and very well priced. Its wonderful to get the combo hot/​cold plate for lunch and bring it back to your home/​work. The sausage in the hot plate is crazy good– best I have ever had! I love it here!

Off the beaten path but well worth the visit. Hot table with the usual italian comfort food like pasta, pizza, sammiches, veal, meat balls etc. I loved the meatball sammich. Make sure you got an appetite because the sammich is massive! Popular with locals, décor is basic and clean. Staff are friendly and the owner is a hoot! He barks out marching orders to his colleagues… quite funny. Parking is limited

The hot table is awesome. Straight up goods.

The staff here is incredible.
I wanted a quick takeout dish, they basically asked me what noodles and sauce I wanted and made a couple quick recommendations and made me up one of the best pasta dishes I’ve had in a long time.
Can’t wait to try the pizza.

Bumping this place up. A lot. I tried their pizza for take out tonight, and I’m so glad I did.
Delicious, thin crust, with a light texture and balance of flavour that I haven’t experienced in pizza since my last trip to Italy.
The wine is amazing too.
And I can’t praise the staff enough.
Will go back. I have a feeling my first experience here was a blip.

Ok, so we are feeling like pizza, but not the Pizza Pizza /​Domino kind, but something good and close. We call Tommaso’s and order a simple Margherita; they have an electric oven not wood fired, so I’m wondering what we’ll end up getting, but at least the server is from Italy and so are the owners… Then boom! This is amongst the best we’ve tasted in town! The place is tucked in an industrial part of town, but their pizza will now be forever our go to pizza! We actually love New York pizza, especially John’s and Grimaldi’s, and Tommaso’s gives you that experience: is like having the best of NYC pizzerias minutes from home… We will try their other stuff at some point, but for pizza this is an awesome place at very reasonable prices… Way to go Tommaso!

Ordered the «meat» lasagna — it was just layers of pasta with sauce poured over it and barely any cheese. My husband ordered the chicken parm which was pretty bland. I will say that their pasta sauce was very nice. Overall it was totally overpriced and not great.

Extremely, Extremely super nice staff and owners.
Mom and Pop Italian place.
Very comfortable, great simple food and good prices.
You will love it!
We finished the meal off with an espresso and Tiramisu.
Will go back very soon…
Thanks Tommaso’s

This place is such a gem. Somewhat hidden in a strip plaza on Eastern Avenue, I never would have thought twice about this place except because of the oddness of the location, I was instantly drawn to this place.
As a surprise my fiancé made reservations here for Valentines Days. Since both of us wanted to escape the pretentiousness and crowds that usually mark Valentines Day dinners in Toronto, this place was PERFECT! It was casual, authentic and cozy. We were greeted in the most unpretentious way with a warm Italian family hello. It suddenly felt like we had been transported from the cold Toronto winter to the warm Italy. That sat us in a nice booth and we were immediately impressed with the décor which was the perfect mix of shabby chic.
As we looked at the menus, the waitress brought us each a small sip of champagne to celebrate the occasion. As we drank our champagne and looked at all three of the menus (wine, pizza and home cooked Italian) the owner of the restaurant came over to give us a personal welcome. How fabulous!
We were immediately stunned by the price of wine, multiple bottle available for $ 30, $ 35, $ 45. I don’t think I’ve ever seen such low prices for bottles of wine in Toronto. We didn’t try any of those because once we mentioned that we liked Pinot Noir, the waitress went and found us a bottle off menu. To our surprise it was a delicious California Pinot Noir and one of the best bottles of wine I can remember drinking in Toronto in recent history. It was a bit pricier than the $ 30 bottles of wine but it was by no means extravagantly priced, especially for how good it was.
For the food choices we were torn between the entrees and pizza. We decided on pizza and the arugula salad to start. The salad was great and was brought out with delicious bread and bruschetta. As for the pizza. We got two personal sized pizzas, one with sausage and a white pizza with porcini mushrooms. Both were delicious. The pizza is the perfect mix of thin crust and doughy. We both eat a lot of pizza and this pizza was some of the best. I prefer it to a number of the other pizza places in the neighbourhood. I must say, probably the best part of the dinner was the delicious house made hot sauce! It was fantastic on both of the pizzas and put regular red chili flakes to shame. Even though we got two personal pizzas we were only able to eat half of each because we were so full. We ended up bringing it home and are happily looking forward to eating the rest this evening for dinner.
So in summary, the food was great, the service was spectacular and the price was very good too. We left as very happy customers. We will definitely return to this restaurant!

It was a sentimental journey that brought be me back to late 80’s and 400 Eastern Avenue in Toronto. I owned a business that was one of the first tenants upstairs when this building was brand new, lots of memories.
The main space is just as I remember it when the landlord ran an so-​so restaurant there. Luckily Tommaso’s fairs much better. The friendliness is surely worth five and the food is good as well. I had was a home made soup (good) and a slice of vegetarian pizza (very good).
Will be back.

My friend lives literally 5 mins away from this place, and from the very first time we got takeout for dinner, I was sucked in!
Their pizza is quite literally the bomb. The crust is crispy, chewy and buttery, unlike any I’ve had in the city. Our go to selection is the White Pizza (no sauce) with Arugula, Feta, Tomatoes, and Hot Peppers.
Lord have mercy. The pizza is literally the size of a rim on a Hummer, lol. And though I should limit myself to one slice (because they are so huge), I always swoop in for a second.
I’ve also had their Manicotti which is sensationally cheesy, luscious, and gooey. Not good for your thighs, but great for your mental state of well being.

This place just keeps getting better and better. And the price stays the same. I love the convenience of picking up dinner and then popping next door to pick up some groceries for the rest of the week.
I can’t express how happy I am to have this joint in my hood. I would recommend it to anyone looking for great rustic Italian food.

I was pleasantly surprised by Tommaso’s Trattoria. Driving around Riverdale on a Saturday night without a reservation is more than a little dangerous, especially when you are hungry. Crippled by my growling stomach, I pulled over and whipped out the Unilocal app. The closest restaurant was Tomasso’s, so there we went.
Tomasso’s has the strangest location. It’s tucked into a strip-​mall on the already morose Eastern avenue. The restaurant itself is enormous and split into two portions. One half seems to have more of a cafeteria feel, whereas the other is a bit more of a proper restaurant. They have super high ceilings (warehouse-​like) and the vibe is uper casual. Like Telelatino playing on a TV, cans of preserves on the walls and a saloon door into the kitchen adorned with a pistol and a crucifix. You know how it is. The space wasn’t terribly busy, and we had our pick of seats.
The menu is very italian. Pasta, pizza. Our night started with some complimentary bruschetta and extremely generous pour of Sangiovese. I ordered the rotto misto, a trio of meats served with potatoes, vegetables or salad. It was actually quite good, and the house-​made sausages were really enjoyable.
I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention the service here. Super homey. Kind of like Italian family dinner. Prices are pretty reasonable also. I recommend!
Obligatory Title Pun: No DOUBTING this TOM.
Menu Readability: Simple one pagers on cream with a brush typeface.
Need to mention: They have a pretty long wine list, and Barking Squirrel on tap.
What this place teaches me about myself: That you don’t always have to make dinner plans in advance!