Tony Roma’s

SAVE YOUR MONEY, GO TO MCDONALDS
We waited at least 20 minutes for our drinks. Not to mention the place was so dead it was creepy. I wanted to order a pasta and the waitress talked me out of it and said «it wasn’t good» and she «wouldn’t recommend it» so I ordered a filet mingnon which was BLAND and tough !!! I asked for well done, came back medium, my mashed potatoes were COLD, soda was FLAT, and we waited almost an HOUR for our food. It was SO DISAPPOINTING. !!! I would have rather had McDonald’s! Check came out to $ 60 then we realized when we got in the car and on the road that we dropped $ 55 in the restaurant. We called within 10 minutes of leaving and apparently NOBODY has seen it. So it must have disappeared because there sure wasn’t anybody there to pick it up. Save your money, you can buy better steak at vons and better instant mashed potatoes for half the cost. I’LL NEVER GO BACK.

I went here today with a coupon, bogo free, for my birthday. I went at 1pm. Not a soul was around. The place was dark. No lights on. No hostess. But the door was open. Bar stools propped up on bar. Whats the deal here? Are they open or not? While I was kind of hanging around hoping a hostess would show up (or someone that works there) another woman showed up to eat. I told her no one seemed to be around. What kind of place is this? Not very inviting to say the least! Kind of spooky. Never got my birthday lunch there.

Not a bad place to go if you want a good deal on a plate full of ribs.
This chain has been around for awhile (since 1972) and seems to have found a niche amongst my fellow carnivores.
The restaurant itself is a bit dated and dark. It kind of felt like an indoor barbecue and had a moderate noise level. I personally think if they gave this place a major facelift you’d see a commensurate price increase so file it under, If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”.
I’d rate it A-​OK. We ordered, it came out in an acceptable amount of time’, it was hot, had a decent taste and the waitress was nice. The porks ribs were cooked correctly, the sauce had a good flavor, the potato was picnic grade (and I like picnics), and I left the table satisfied. Nothing elaborate here but then I don’t think they strive for that either.
No complaints. If I’m in the mood for some pork ribs in the future I’ll be back.

I haven’t been to a Tony Roma’s in about 15 years so I’d thought it would be worth a shot. So basically it hasn’t changed one bit in all that time. The restaurant is bland and dark. I feel like I am on a movie set from the 70’s. Okay, maybe the food might be good. I open the menu and there are items crossed off with a sharpie !!! What? Is this a national chain restaurant? That is more like something from a mom and pop diner ! I ordered short ribs and loaded mashed potatoes. The short ribs were beyond salty and the mashed potatoes dry. I look up at the light above the table and there is a cobweb. Come on? Tony Roma’s needs to move the décor, food, ambience, and cleanliness into the 21^st century. I give it two stars for plenty of food and a friendly wait staff, but that is about it.

My boyfriend and I decided to go to Tony Roma’s today for lunch, since I have never eaten there. We walked in (they werent very busy at all, probably about 10 tables were filled) and waited a lil while until a man wearing a collared charger shirt, who looked to be the manager, walked by and seated us in a booth. Once we sat down he turned to one of the servers a few tables down and said «I just seated section _​_​_​» I don’t remember exactly what number he said but nonetheless you get the picture, they knew we were sitting there. We sat there for about 10 minutes with our menus closed and hanging off the edge of the table without being greeted by our server or even brought waters. A busser came by a few times, looking over from a few tables down a couple times, but still nothing. I decided that we’d wait 5 more minutes since I was really looking forward to trying their filet medallions, but still not a single soul approached our table after sitting there for 15minutes.
So we left, angry and hungry.
Definitely would NOT recommend coming to this location, unless your very patient and can wait to eat.

Been a regular here for 16 years. Fantastic service. The awesome people bring you back. Great place to hang out. And tonight my wife had the best ribs of her life. Baby backs with Carolina honey sauce. Beyond incredible. The beef, chicken, and seafood here are consistently excellent. The salads are great too. And the baked potato soup is insane. That one’s definitely not on your diet menu but if you have a real hankering for a rich, hearty, chunky bowl of yummyness… that’s the one for you.

There is a waiter there named LEO; absolutely phenomenal. The hostesses have great big smiles with a personality to match. The manager is a very hardworking young man and treats his customers like family. Overall a great place to visit in San Marcos for ribs or great drinks!

Hostess wished me a Happy Father’s Day, but they did a good job of detracting from my day… Won’t happen again…

Seated fairly fast on father’s day… never had a server stop at our table. Was able to pick my meal and post this before we finally gave up and walked out.

I knew I was going to be stepping down as I had to skip Phil’s because of the line. My in-​laws suckered me into coming here. Mistake.
The restaurant was drab and dreary and felt out dated. Not a good start. I am guessing they are on the verge of going out of business, so they aren’t reordering items. I guess which is fine if someone tells you, but of course they didn’t. So after trying to order two different items and being told they didn’t have them, I gave up. I had limited choices anyway, so I settled for a cup of soup. I would have walked out had it not been for the in-​laws. On a Saturday night on a holiday weekend? Seriously? Mickey D’s here I come…

Restaurant is a little out dated especially for a young college town. Food is pretty exceptional, and I actually really enjoyed my Asian salad! I didn’t even know Tony Roma’s had all of the food options that they do such as pizza, salad, etc. I can’t remember our servers name, but I do remember the hostess Kerry was extremely sweet and accommodating!!! She greeted us right away with a beautiful smile and sat us down at the perfect seat! My parents are a bit older and are extremely picky with where we sit at restaurants so it was so refreshing so have a hostess who genuinely cared and wanted us to have a great experience! Thanks Kerry!

Super friendly service. Food was tasty. The restaurant needs a face lift and new booth seating. My butt fell into a sinkhole in the booth chair. We had to change booths and the next booth chair had duct tape all over it. Other than that. it is a nice casual spot.

Ohhh, it’s always fun to travel back in time. OK not «literally» like Marty from Back to the Future, but whenever I need to revisit things I did in the «early 1990’s» Tony Roma’s seems like a good place to eat. Now, TR serves just about anything you want (e.g. burgers, salads, sandwiches, seafood, dinners of varying healthiness) so don’t feel pressured to get ribs smothered in BBQ sauce, but when in Rome…
What’s important to me in a restaurant certainly has changed (now that I’m in my 30’s). For example, I really like the Jack Daniels upgrade for your dinner cocktail (so very important) is only 50 cents!
I give Tony Roma and his funky ribs 7 «so now that we’ve eaten, where are we playing laser tag people?» out of 10.

The good things… lots of shrimp in the shrimp pasta and the server was great.
cons: food in general. steak had NO flavor, bread is hard although the butter is good. way TOO HIGH priced for their food. you can go to outback and get 50% better food for 50% less. I sat in the booth and I almost fell to the floor, the springs were wore out, had to scoot to the other end. I went because I had a ten dollar off forty purchase and still felt like I got ripped off.

Food was over priced for what you get. I do admit it tasted fine. The service was poor. The waitress after serving our food never checked on us or refilled our drinks. I will never go back.

We conciously came to eat here after seeing the plethora of one– and two-​star reviews to see if this Tony Roma’s could possibly be that bad, or if some people are just dicks. The last time we had gone to a Tony Roma’s was probably 12 years ago.
My husband said, «This will be the test. If it’s good here even after all the bad reviews we’ve seen, that means we have to go to every 2-​star restaurant we find.» Guess what? We had a five star experience. Maybe management read all the negative feedback and gave the staff a pep talk. But I’ll bulletize the details so that you don’t get all fuckin irritated. Also, see pics.
Rob: 14 oz rib-​eye, medium rare, with loaded baked potato and steamed broccoli
–rib-​eye was perfectly cooked, flavorful and marbled with «good» fat
–broccoli nice and bright green, tender.
–baked potato had plentiful toppings
— garlic butter with free rolls was very tasty and whipped, easy to spread
Me: St. Louis rib and 7 oz sirloin combo, medium rare, with garlic green beans and fries
— Sirloin perfectly cooked and juicy
— Ribs came apart easily. Could have used more sauce, but that’s just my preference
— Garlic green beans flavorful, tasted like edamame
— Fries even good after being reheated in a microwave (which I never do)
Jill, server:
— Walked briskly between our many requests for condiments and between her other tables. Very quick service.
— Happily accomodated my request for baslamic vinegar and olive oil for the bread, mayo for Rob’s broccoli, ranch for my fries and a box for my leftovers (all separate trips)
— Offered and cracked fresh black pepper in a separate dipping bowl
— Brought ketchup, A1, extra napkins without request and opened hot towels for us at meal’s end
— Refilled water after seeing me place my glass at the edge of the table
— Thank you message with smiley face on the receipt (it’s the little things)
Hostess:
— Immediately available upon entrance
— Saw us to a booth with a smile
— Laughed with us at the sign that says «Step Down» on the edge of the table
— Thanked us and said goodbye when we left
If you’re going to give a 1 – 2 star reviewed restaurant a chance, I’d be interested to see if you get the same service we did. Drop me a line to let me know if this writeup influenced your decision and what the result was :)

This place is awful on all levels. Poor quality food that simply doesn’t taste good. One of the worst meals I’ve ever had. Three to four bites into it my wife and I just got up and left. Seriously can’t understand how this place is even open. I can put up with bad service, cleanliness, etc. But if your food isn’t good. CLOSE. Your a restaurant, serve decent food. Never again! San Marcos doesn’t seem to have many decent restaurants. There are maybe two that come to mind. So in a town that has mediocre restaurants this one take the prize for the worst. That’s bad.

Broken toilets that have literally been glued back together, filthy bathroom stalls, crooked mirrors, ripped booths for dining, cobwebs on the paper lighting above tables, layer of dust on the fixtures on the walls… I’m really beginning to wonder if there is any management here at all. This pace needs a lot of work. Order food to go maybe. However my food was amazing and my waitress was also. She had more than 7 tables from what I can tell and she made sure everyone was well taken care of and that’s the only reason I gave this place 2 stars… the food and our waitress.

Omg! I came here for my birthday dinner! And it was soooooo delicious! I ordered the 2 medallions with hald rack of baby back ribs! Along with broccoli and their loaded mashed potatoes! Super amazing flavor. Super juicy! Just perfection. My honey ordered the 14oz. Ribeye with bacon mac n cheese and he loved it ! Will definitely be coming here again!

Two nice 14oz ribeye dinners with two sides