Sweet Tomatoes- Bradenton
| Address: | 5407 University Pkwy, Bradenton, FL 34201, USA |
| Phone: | +1 941-359-0110 |
| Site: | sweettomatoes.com |
| Rating: | 4.3 |
| Working: | 11AM–9PM 11AM–9PM 11AM–9PM 11AM–9PM 11AM–10PM 11AM–10PM 11AM–9PM |
Location
Photos 100
Reviews 5
MI
Michael Schoen
Honestly giving this location even one star isnt worth it. Its basically like saying yes they have not been shut down yet by a county health inspector... pay attention to the emphasis of "yet". I will not be one ounce surprised when they do. After a long day at work and looking forward to a Clean Environment and Healthy Clean food, I was heavily disappointed. Lets start off with walking in the door to get a tray, first few I picked up were a dirty water wet, with filthy with large chunks of food stuck to them- my first sign to run(If my mother in law was not so excited to get s salad here, I would have left and I and my party wished we had done so). A large abundance of the Salad bar looked like it was meant for the trash. These food items and then some were terrible quality that should not be on the bar- Broccoli shreds, dark soft old tomatoes, were spinach quality was not good. 1/2 looked as it should in quality and freshness. The Salad Station was not sanitized. And you could tell the water to clean it had no cleaning agents present i.e. Soaps etc. Bakery area was decent, muffins were the only good appealing item we found. Poor selection of pasta- spaghetti, macaroni. Watered down soups. No containers for the soft serve icecream. So many customers were looking for the cups. Employees obviously hate working here. They do not wish communicate or help customers. I watched customers trying to communicate or find staff to no eval, merely the one overworked cleaning lady, whom couldnt answer their questions. Is a manager present? Very short staffed here. Present Staff displayed No desire to keep the place sanitary, dirty tables that staff do not Clean after each person. To my knowledge you should wipe the table sanitary, remove germs and filth ...take dirty dishes away in a quick mannner, say prior to 15-20minutes. Food was bad, two people in my party bite into Multiple rotten tomatoes. This particular location- Sweet Tomatoes seems to be ROTTEN TOMATOES now. Old management is missed dearly. New management needs to go immediately. They need to hire properly trained staff. Or send this staff to food care preparation clinics & restaurant management clinics. The staff need to be trained before releasing them onto the job site. A janitor is not a dentist, as much as a regular untrained individual is not a capable of being a quality janitor nor appropriate to be a caterer. Staff must be taught how to sanitarily clean a restaurant. They need training and guidance first and foremost. Im sick to my stomach after that cruddy quality meal, as is the family. Do Not Eat Here, For Your Health & SAFETY. This is the best advice I can give you about this particular Sweet Tomatoes restaurant on university. The sweet tomatoes on 41 MIGHT still be ok read the reviews or do not be afraid to walk out if it is not clean enough. Walk and Look around at the sanitary conditions and quality of food before purchasing.
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Ted Haas
The name is "Sweet Tomatoes" but dont expect to find any "sweet tomatoes" there, or for that matter, ANY tomatoes! They dont have them! They have a couple of some tiny sour cherry tomatoes on the salad bar, but they do not justice for good vine ripen tomatoes. Funny thing is, pound for pound, those little cherry tomatoes cost more per pound than vine ripen tomatoes. Also another funny piece of useless information is, they are located about 20 miles in several directions from the Bradenton location from some of the largest producers of vine ripe tomatoes in the country, located in Ruskin, down east on Hwy 62 and Myakka! Go figure!!! I talked to the young manager, showed her the picture in their ads, in "ALL" the posters in the restaurant and even their logo of "a regular vine ripe tomato" and yet they dont have them. She says she likes the little red cherry tomatoes better and that Im wrong that a good vine ripen or beefsteak tomato doesnt taste better! ~lol~ She also told me I was wrong about the taste and what people want and says its perfectly fine that they play on those adds and logos and not provide and sell regular tomatoes. My opinion is that there is no comparison in taste between the little sour cherry tomatoes and a sweeten by the vine locally grown tomato. Even the ones they fly in from Peru are better! Whats YOUR opinion about that? Is it false advertising?? Nevertheless, the salad there is ok and we tend to go since there is hardly any salad buffets around. But the price has gone WAY UP from a few years ago and Im beginning to think the price vs the value is not matching up anymore. I do like the asian wonton salad and they had a fresh spinach mandarin orange salad that was good as well. All things considered, there salad selection is pretty good. The soup is hit and miss. I had a Chipotle tomato bisque that was something that was not thought through. It tasted more like chemicals than anything. Dont get me wrong, Ive had good soups there, but that one tasted like the cook didnt taste it first to make sure that combination was working, when in fact, it wasnt! The bread there is always good and so are the sweet potatoes. They should change their name and image to.... "Sweet Potatoes!!!" ~Laughs~
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Steve Kadlen
Everything was exceptional. Carrot and cream cheese lava cake was great with ice cream. Tried about 4 different salads. three different soups together. Peach poppy seed muffins And Pizza. And several other things. It was all free with anniversary coupon in email. Yelp said this location on University Boulevard was closed not true. My coupon was expired by one day but they let me in anyways very friendly. Review being continued on a later visit- This is my second time here and both times the waitresses have cleared off my table taking everything when the card that says Ill be right back is placed on my tray. I had to go get new silverware and drinking glass. Everything else was great as it was last time. Used the coupon in my email. Continuing my review this is my third visit here Diane was one of the employees very friendly and made sure everything was right took my empty plates. 9:15 p.m. and they still are putting fresh food out everything was kept full for people who are already here
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Stephen Smith
This Restaurant is not my first choice because when I go out for dinner I prefer a choice of Meat, Chicken, or Seafood. A Salad bar, Soups and Pasta is not really my style. We went there for Fathers Day because my Dad really likes them very much. They offer an extensive variety of toppings on the salad bar, four different types of salad, six kinds of soup, spagetti and pizza, God knows how many types of breads and muffins and its all you can eat and drink. The desserts were scrumptious, they even have milk. All the food tasted exceptional. Everything is fresh and it was delicious. The only reason they didnt get five stars was because the wait staff was not very attentive. Dishes piled up on our table while they were standing around chatting with each other. If you like a variety of fresh prepared pasta and vegetables as Ive described, then this is the place for you.
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Anne D.
I have gone to Sweet Tomatoes regularly for years, first the location on Tamiami Trail and now the newer one on University Parkway. In that time, the price for a meal has gone from $7.95 to - tonight - $11.79 per person. For that price I can go out for a steak! The wonton chicken salad has always been my favorite - but tonight it tasted strongly of chili pepper, strong enough that it overpowered the flavor of the rest of the salad ingredients. Loaded baked potato soup was flavorless and lukewarm. The dessert was a pumpkin spice cobbler that was grainy and awful. The sugar-free chocolate mousse in the dessert bar was room temperature. About the only thing that was up to normal standards was the Yankee clam chowder. I wont be back to the University Parkway location again, even if it is two miles from my house.
