Tony Roma’s

Order ribs here or else you’re kinda defeating the purpose of coming here. They are world famous of course.
Maybe cause I’m not a big ribs fan, but I wasn’t totally blown away.
I’m gonna come back and get the rib sampler before giving the final verdict on this place…=/

0 Stars… if they had it.
I took my family here about 2 months ago around 45 mins before closing. We were seated… thats when all hell broke loose!!!
The waiteress who was helping our tables, clocked out… the other employees didnt want to help us… «becuase it was not there table»… are you serious!!!
I ask for the manager, he was no help… i drop some F bombs to the entire staff, alomost got into a fist fight with the punk a$$ manager…
Kids were starving so was I… we left and ate at Carls.
I could type all day…
Just dont go here, avoid like there serving the plague.

This place has CLOSED.

We saw a happy hour sign on our ways to eat at shakas and since I havent been here in ages, decided to go in and ask them what their happy hour hours were… as soon as the waiter said all day every day we should have known better and left… those happy hours always suck
We order the trio and chicken tender which were only a buck off. and order wings which were half off and then their happy hours were $ 5 larger and $ 3.50 small drafts… limited selection but i guess its okay, the large was probably like 3 pints of beer…
but the food was greasy as hell, they ran out of potatoes skin, so we got onion thing… food was kinda soggy, took forever to come out and probably the worst wings i ever had… the grease was making me kinda nauseous so i had to order a salad to actually sorta have a something that wouldnt upset my stomach from all the nasty greasiness. I though applebees was bad, this is worst.

Let me preface by saying that I am not a rib fanatic, but I am a GREAT FOOD fanatic.
I ordered the ribs because I was in a rib joint… when in Rome, right? I ordered the St Louis ½ rack with the Carolina sauce. The flavor was fine… a little sweet, a little spicy… but boy those ribs were dry. Like I said, I’m not a rib fanatic but I’ve had amazing ribs in the past year (in Ft Lauderdale), so I know great ribs when I taste them. I brought half of them home thinking my pet cats would like some meat treats… HA!
I ordered the green bean side which was fine! Fresh & salty! Also, the loaded mashed potatoes which were tasty… melted cheadder on top with mashers w/​the skin left on.
Also, I should mention that I cannot even fathom initiating a trip to Tony Romas (I tend to cringe at big box eateries), but I saw online that during your birthday month, you get a free entrée valued up to $ 15.99. There is a location next to where I work out, so I decided to visit after a workout to get my free birthday dinner (protein good for sore muscles…)
The waitress/​hostess (same girl) was friendly & delightful and liked to chat… service was fine, and food came out in 15 min or so.
Also, seems like it would be great for families with kids, but not for a romantic or gourmand experience.
The last thing I’d like to comment on is the building… it’s an amazing 19^th century building (or older?) with splendid ornate crown molding, high ceilings, red brick… but TR did all they could to ugl-​ify/​big box-​ify this gem.

i was never a big fan of ribs but sometimes i do eat it once in awhile, but tony romas never leave me with a smile on my face when i walk out the door. Maybe it’s just the locations around my place. I’ve been to the one in Arcadia, this one is Alhambra and Universal City. This is probably the worst one i’ve been too.
Thinking that it’s in a nice area, with all other nice restaurants and bars next to it. The décor and cleaniness of the place is horrible. It’s looks like it’s 100 years old, or maybe it is. Only the seats looked kinda new outta everything else. The bathroom upstairs is the worst, the door doesn’t even close, so dun even think about locking it. That already ruined my appetite.
I was trying to comfort myself, thinking that the food will make it up but no! We got the sample platter, with baby back ribs, st louis ribs, beef rib with garlic grilled green beans and and loaded mashed potatoes. The ribs were dry to the extreme, close to like jerky, and the buffalo wings were sour and soggy. Sorry to say it, but NOTHING on the plate was good. I think the boiled then drenched in bbq sauce ribs from my work cafeteria is even a little better.
The only good thing is that they are having a promotion right now, happy hr all day, 7 days a wk. Appetizers (onion loaf, wings, potatoes, cheese sticks) are ½ price and drinks are $ 3 – 5. Not a bad deal, but they ran out of onion loaves when the place was not even half full on a sunday night. A very disappointing dinner experience. I will not go back unless they remodel the place and change the chef, because i’m not going back to a place that messes up what they said they’re famous for and with a bathroom door that doesnt even close.

Second time coming to Tony Roma’s and it gets better.
Happy hour is amazing… all night and great specials.
I see that most of the reviews are older, so i’m happy to see that the restaurant has changed things for the better.
And i also don’t think that writing a fake «funny» bad review about bones being in ribs (duh, there are bones in ribs) is very nice.

Pros: Not crowded … you will know why in the Cons
Cons: Oh boy where do I start. OK first off it was 100 degrees outside and 99 degrees inside this place. The ribs were over cooked and has little to say about meat on the bone. Some of the ribs felt like I was tearing velcro off the bone. I had a chocolate shake and because it was so hot in there felt like I was drinking chocolate milk. The ice in the glasses melted so fast that they had to keep giving us refills. I like Tony Romas, but this one was under par by far. The waitress was nice though and friendly asking us if everything was OK, little did she know … I didn’t want to say anything just because she was so nice to us.
Sorry Tony you failed on me this time. At least at this joint

Wow, many people don’t have good experience there huh?
This is one of my favorite restaurants in Alhambra.
Their ribs are so good that I always order full rack and take the leftover for next day’s lunch. lol their salad is fresh and delicious too!
I think their happy hour ends very late, because I always get their huge margarita with super cheap price.
Just thinking about it makes me hungry…

Got a coupon from the TR e-​mail list for a free entrée (up to $ 15.99). I splurged and got a full rack of baby backs (OK so I had to pay the difference). Best with the Carolina Honey sauce (original sauce wasn’t bad either). Service was OK (server was also tending bar). Any two sides (you don’t have to have cole slaw). BBQ beans and fries were good, as was the sourdough bread and garlic herb butter.

Wha??? How does this place have such low ratings??? I’m appalled!!! This place is #2 on my happy hour list, this is mainly because of the health factor and not the cheap factor. It was soooo cheap eating and drinking here!
$ 60 before tip got my party and myself:
7 25oz draft beers
1 full onion loaf
1 order of mozzarella sticks
1 full rack of ribs (Sweet honey carolina’s…their original is GROSS)
If that’s not a deal, I don’t know what is… come here for the deals and the adequate food. Don’t expect anything fancy and WOWzers about it and you won’t be disappointed. If you were to get their ribs, stick with their sweet carolinas, I tried their original sauce from the bottle and … I was about ready to leave their restaurant @_@ Good thing I remembered I had ordered it in their other sauce… haha…
All day hh… Tony Roma’s, you’ll see much more of me =D
Oh! And there is no price difference between their domestic and imported drafts =D! When I was there, they had Heineken, Stella, Newcastle… and…more =d

I ate at Tony Roma’s reluctantly for lunch today with gal pals from work. I’ve come here about two other times before and was not at all impressed. The restaurant just lacks ambience. Although, we had a nice waitress and my dish (Chicken Tuscany Pasta) was good, I still don’t care to come back. I just don’t get excited with going here. Maybe its this particular location, because I’ve gone to different ones and I liked them. If you really want your ribs fix, go to Lucille’s.

It was my dad’s birthday on Friday, and we were deciding if we should eat Asian food or American food. Well, for the 20+ some years we have lived in this neighborhood, we have never went to Tony Romas and decided to try it. We all had higher expectations, considering this franchise still survives in a sea of Asian restaurants, and not to mention, boasts to be «Famous for Ribs».
Some points to make:
–Their current promotion is ½ prices on selected appetizers, and we ordered their half Onion Loaf (for 2 – 3 people, but we had 4). It didn’t look like a «loaf» at all, but tons of slices of breaded, deep fried onions (not onion rings) encircling a jar of sauce (thousand island?). It was okay, but my total fat for the day just went through the roof.
–The bread basket was inedible. It was basically hard, stale, room temperature bread with a side of weird butter lacking total flavor.
–My parents ordered the full baby back ribs, with a baked potato and beans. The ribs were just okay, soft, but barely any sauce or flavor in it. The baked potato was hard as a rock. The beans tasted like canned beans with a ton of sweet sugared sauce.
–My sister ordered the Top Sirloin with fries and beans. The sirloin was ordered medium rare, but it came out ALL chewy and totally inedible.
–I ordered the Shrimp Scampi pasta. My pasta was hard, and didn’t have any flavor to it at all. The grated cheese on top was already hard and cold when the dish got to us.
My review is only for the food. Our server was extremely nice: kept coming to refill the hot water, brought us a ton of condiments, and came to check up on us at least 4x.
Did anyone mention that the 2^nd level was completely empty? Perhaps not enough business. Also, the bathroom (upstairs) was oudated and dirty.

After reading J.K.‘s review, it dawned on me why my friend had food poisoning here earlier this year after having lunch at this Tony Roma’s. I ate here twice and felt that the ribs and steak were not as good as other Tony Roma’s. I remember the fruit I got was not fresh. After reading the reviews here with my personal experience, I don’t think I will ever eat at this location again.

Time has past for this restaurant chain. Ordered a full slab of babby ribs that cannot even be compared to the cooked ribs from Costco! Not much spicy was used on the rib, at least I can’t taste them. More or less ribs coated with Catchups. If compared to BBQ restaurant chain located in the Southern states, this is a 1 out of 10.
16 of us were there at 6pm when the restaurant was only 20% full and we waited close to 45 mins for all our orders.
Service was 5 out of 10, cleaniness of the restaurant was the same rating.
No reason to go back and won’t go back.

This is my first 1 star rating I’ve given so far (and hopefully this would be my last…). This place was HORRIBLE.
My friends and I decided to have lunch here before heading off to watch a movie. Bad choice.
I ordered a Shrimp Scampi pasta. WOW… false advertisement. I mean, sure, the pictures on the menu ALWAYS look better than they’re supposed to, but this was ridiculous. It looked like completely different entrees! First off, the picture on the menu looks absolutely tantalizing… the plate I got looked the opposite, like fucking puke. Then I told myself, «well, maybe it tastes better than it look.» NOPE. It actually tasted as bland and unflavorful as it looked. I took about 2 – 3 bites thinking I could at least attempt to shove the atrocity down my throat. However, I thought about the unnecessary calories and also why i must endure this suffering and decided to return the dish back to the kitchen.
My friend ordered the sampler plate. Onion brick wasn’t tasty (who could make onion rings taste bad???) and the artichoke dip was by far the WORST dip I’ve ever tasted, ever. I never thought any restaurant could mess up on artichoke dip, but I was proved wrong. The only good thing on that plate was the boneless hot wings.
Not only was the food bad, the service was even worse. I drank all my water the first 10 mins we were there, and no one came by to refill it until I made a comment and pointed to my glass wondering when they would come to fill it up. It was precisely at that moment that manager saw and decided to get me a new glass… great… The service was horrible and extremely slow.
I would not recommend ANYONE to visit this place unless they like bad food and crappy service.

I loathe walking out of a restaurant feeling that the food was a waste of money and calories…
So I have been to the Tony Roma’s in Asia and it was really good (it’s meant to be a pretty nice restaurant there). Anyways, here’s the story about our horrible experience at the Tony Roma’s in Alhambra.
First off, screw you, Easter Sunday, you ruined our original plan of going to delicious Chipotle for less expensive yet satisfying burritos without a long wait or long lines on a holiday. Sadly, we got there and realized it was closed!!! As a result, we had to resort to eating crappy, oily junk at Tony Roma’s.
I always get a queasy, uneasy feeling when I walk into an empty restaurant, but I thought, maybe everyone’s busy celebrating Easter at nicer, more luxurious restaurants? Oh well. We sat down and ordered the sampler platter, a salad, and a pasta between the three of us. To my surprise, the sampler platter came out first (I thought the salad would be the first dish out). Of course, the actual platter looked nothing like the one that was on the menu, and to make matter worse, the artichoke dip tasted more repulsive than microwavable dips (do they even have that?). The onion rings were stuffed and mushed together in a cylinder shape, as if they stuffed left-​over onion rings from the other night into a container and reheated it and served it to us… I’m serious, it did not even taste like onion — I felt like I was eating a giant blob of fried batter.
Next came the shrimp scampi linguini. Again, it looked nothing like the picture from the menu (lol but of course, we didn’t expect it to). My friend had a hard time eating that dish (and mind you my friend usually eats ANYTHING and I mean everything and anything), so if she thought that pasta tasted like crap, it must have really tasted like crap x 20. We felt so gypped. We felt like we had to do something about it and so for the first time, my friend voiced out her disappointment about the pasta to the manager. «I’m sorry, but this tastes REALLLY bad… *helpless stare*…» The manager immediately took away the dish and said he could waive the pasta dish off our bill.
There was still no signs of the salad. Hmmm, maybe they forgot? Since they managed to screw up every other dishes we had, we were not looking forward to the salad at all. The second we decided to ask to cancel the salad, the waitress brought it to our table. Dang it. As expected, it tasted like crap. The chicken breast was so dry that my lower jaw got tired from chewing it. It was just bad. All bad.
Aside from feeling crappy about wasting money and calories on crappy food, I’m going to carry this crappy Easter memory with me and remember this every Easter. LOL, great.
Honestly, I’ve never written such a horrible review, but I really meant every word. Sorry to those who actually like this place. I’m NOT coming back.

There were 4 of us on a Sunday night. Service was pretty slow but it may have been because we were expecting 2 more people to come and the waitress was waiting for their arrival so the 6 of us can order together.
Food was OK. I ordered mahi mahi and it was a bit dry, but then again it is known for ribs… :P My husband ordered a steak and said it was really good. The portion sizes are just right, that is if you are human and not a whale.
We were sitting next to the «emergency exit only» but everyone kept going out through that door and the REALLY cold wind outside kept blowing in.
The waitress refilled my ice tea with a Dr. Pepper…
When we were done (around 10 PM) the waitress took AGES to give us our bill, she wasn’t busy because there were only about 2 other tables and she didn’t forget about us because she gave us our left over take home box so…
I doubt I’d come here again…

Yikes, appears that many were less forgiving than I…
Anyway, I think Tony Roma’s on Main suffers from chain-​venture-​malaise, which is basically the law that all good ideas get lost in translation over 25 sister stores.
The food’s not great, nor is it terrible. Same for the service.
I went with my folks while we were waiting for a friend’s kid at the nearby Alhambra HS. We got a full rack of baby back ribs ($ 18) and the crazy fried-​onion starter ($ 6).
The bread was really, really good. Best of any I’ve ever had at a chain store. Not exactly gourmet fare, but it did do the most important thing right: it was piping hot and soft sourdough. The three of us ate the entire bread basket, and as that was happening, the onion rings came. That’s an obscenely huge amount of fried food to have on the table, and though it was good and fun to try, I’d never order that again. It’s basically a bird’s nest worth of onion rings settled around a little bowl of Thousand Island dressing. Two thousand calories would be a conservative estimate.
Then, the entrée came. The ribs with the Carolina honey sauce was a-​okay at best, too. I’ve had much better ribs at much worse establishments. In general, too much flavorless meat. And the cole slaw side was just disgusting. There’s no other word for it. I’m a very big fan of slaw and can be fairly forgiving about it (and was, considering the complete imbalance of aforementioned meal that made me crave anything vegetable related), but TR’s slaw was just the worst ever.
Luckily for us, though, we didn’t have slow or inattentive service, just typical fare for chain restaurants (nice but nothing special). We were in and out of there in under half an hour. Again, bread was great. But last time I’m going there for ribs — which means… last time I’m going there.

Last night, my family and i went came here for dinner.
I ordered a Sprite but, it was Sierra Mist so, i asked for a Pepsi
and it was flat. I had The Portabello and Swiss Burger.
It was so dry. The Waitress didn’t ask how i wanted my burger.
My husband and daughter both liked their meals. We also ordered
The Carolina Honey Wings, that was the only thing that was good.