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- Hours:
Mon-Wed. 5:30 p.m. - 11:00 p.m.
Thu-Fri. 5:30 p.m. - 12:00 a.m.
Sat. 10:30 a.m. - 12:00 a.m.
Sun. 10:30 a.m. - 11:00 p.m.
- Parking:
- Street
- Accepts Credit Cards:
- Yes
- Price Range:
-
$$
- Attire:
- Casual
- Good for Groups:
- Yes
- Good for Kids:
- No
- Takes Reservations:
- Yes
- Delivery:
- Yes
- Take-out:
- Yes
- Waiter Service:
- Yes
- Wheelchair Accessible:
- Yes
- Outdoor Seating:
- Yes
- Good for:
- Dinner
- Alcohol:
- Beer & Wine Only
23 reviews for Tonda
I've always defended this place because I think the pizza is quite tasty and the ambiance is lovely. However, after the terrible service I experienced last night, I don't see a reason to return -- especially with all the new pizzerias in the city.
On previous nights here I've noticed the service was a bit slow, but not ridiculously so. Last night, however, was ridiculous. I was at a birthday dinner with about 10 people, and we were seated at the long table at the rear of the restaurant. After being seated, it took about 15 minutes for the waitress to take our drink orders. Then, another 30 minutes for appetizer/pizza orders. After they had dropped off the food, we had to physically get up and flag them down to order more food. It was insane. Granted, it seemed like she may have been the only waitress working there (although the hostess seemed to be helping), but she didn't even apologize or comment on the fact that she was trying to take care of everyone.
When a place has good pizza in a town full of amazing pizza experiences, they should take care to not give customers any reason to go elsewhere. Tonda failed in this regard last night.
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Great late night spot for dessert and sitting outdoors. Nutella calzone was delicious dough hiding oozing chocolatey goodness. The patio is unique in East Village since it's calm and relatively quiet, but there's still decent people watching.
Dinner wasn't quite as impressive. Pizza was okay.....a little dry since they didn't use sauce on the one I got. Your best bet is to go around 11 and have a drink/dessert outside.
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I went at Tonda last week and I loved it . I m a pizza fan and let me tell you they have the best pizza in NYC. I got the tuna salad that was so yummy, my husband got the rice balls, he loved it so much that he ordered more. We then shared a Pesto pizza and an egg and speck pizza on whole wheat crust. Both were spectacular.
The atmosphere is great. We were seating at the terrasse and stayed there for two hours, chilling and sipping wine. We appreciated the fact that they didn't push us out after our meal, and the terrasse was packed! it is so rare in manhattan.
I am planning on doing my birthday over there , the food is great, the service is friendly and the prices are sweet. Tonda is definitely my new hang .
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OK, so I realize that this is mostly a pizza place and we didn't have pizza, but if you can't make food well, then just don't make it. I had an italian niciose salad and my gf had the shrimp risotto. Neither was very good, but my salad was just a glorified tuna salad. I think it was from the can. It was even missing the onion that the menu says it comes with. The risotto was at most OK. The service just kind of sucked. I mean there wasn't really anyone there to begin with, how do mess that up? The music and ambiance was great though. Also now that I think about it, they started off by telling us all the things they were out of. That's never a good sign.
Fennel, pear and spinach salad was fresh and tasty... but the merriment ended here for me and Pri. First off, there are no slices cut into the pizza when it arrives. Yo, I ain't f-in Paul Bunyan ova hea - why the hell am I paying the Tonda??
After we chisled our way through a slice each of the pizza, the AC peed onto what was left of the tasteless pizza and beers. The waitress responded to the issue by saying, "Yeah it's the air conditioning upstairs... that happens sometimes." Ummm...sorry - no one in their right mind eats food that was pissed on... by anyone or anything. piss off.
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I recently discovered some cool place on this street so I decided to come back here and tried out their food.
They have pretty nice decor. out-door seatings.. very specious.. food was decent. service is a little bit on the slow side...
I think this is probably a one time deal with me !!
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My friend made a reservation here as it recently opened and heard good things so we decided to check it out. Six of us went on a Saturday night and it was a cool room, cool ambiance. They had outside seating and cool art on the walls. The music was fantastic and I wish I had whatever mix or ipod was playing.
We ordered a bottle of red wine and prosecco that was yummy and came in cool glasses. We shared two salads. The Spinach pear, fennell, toasted pine nuts, mustard saffron vinaigrette was really yummy. Then we shared a few pies of pizza. The Margherita pizza was good and the pesto/potato/string bean pizza was very interesting. I was disappointed that the potatos were like potato chips, it was random and weird. As always, love pesto pizza, but this wasn't excellent. We all had espressos or cappuccino and we shared a nutella calzone. It was good but NOT Gemma.
We were definitely a loud pre-occupied group but the waitress paid very little attention to us and was pretty spacey. It was reasonably priced and after paying, one of my friends noticed a cockroach on the wall. I was nearly squealing and screaming and had to run out of the restaurant. Clearly, there are many other great italian places in the city. Especially in the east vil.
In my opinion, poor customer service is about as bad as finding a cockroach in your food. It really destroys my mood and any desire to return to the establishment. Unfortunately, Tonda has served up distasteful service with their tasty pizzas twice, and so the end to my crunchy, thin-crust pizza escapades down the block from my apartment has arrived.
Also, I hate not leaving a tip when customer service is poor because everyone has off days. In fact, I consider myself a gracious tipper, but my last trip to Tonda merited zero tip, and that's what they received.
I won't bother going into details (or will I...?) but you can image that whatever it was (staff ignoring us) prompted (red wine that I ordered at the start of the meal arrived when I was finishing my pizza) me to write this review (kept ignoring us so we had to physically get up, walk to the bar and ask for our check there-luckily we had exact cash and jetted out of there the moment we paid).
An extremely inattentive staff (but highly attentive to the bubbly "journalists" sitting next to us ::scoffs::) is unfortunate for them and I hope they get their act together or they won't be around for much longer.
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This place was bittersweet for me to go to since it replaced the E.U.
However I always loved the space of the restaurant because its spacious yet intimate at the same time.
We ordered the quattro stagioni and the vegetarian pizzas. Their oven is impressive and the pizza came out fast as it should if its made the real way. I loved how the quattro was not typical in that it had tuna, ham, broccoli rabe, and mushrooms. It's hard to find a pizza place outside of Italy that serves Italian tuna-which I always have to get bc it reminds me of my days in Milan. It was also cool how they put extra soft dough across the pizza to actually separate the 4 sections.
I feel like a lot of new pizza places are sprouting up in NY, and this place actually met my expectations.
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Judging from some of the early reviews already up on Yelp, Tonda has improved things in their first week of operation.
Adding itself to the already impressive Avenue B/Clinton St. lineup, Tonda is a welcome addition. While San Marzano is right down the street, the two are pretty different. Tonda is definitely a classy, hip, upscale pizza joint. As others have commented, the interior and decor are fabulous. No complaints in that department. Tables are comfortably spaced out, as the space is pretty large. Tonda even has a great bar area where you can sip on pretty reasonably priced wine while you wait.
Even before I was seated, I found the staff to be helpful and polite and it seemed genuine, not just because they are new. This didn't change once seated at the table. Most of the waitresses are attractive, but, luckily for Tonda, don't suffer from the "Coffee Shop Bitchy Witress Syndrom." So no problems with service.
There has been much fanfare over Tonda's mythical $30,000 pizza oven that can supposedly cook pizza in a minute and a half. Well, it's certainly big. It's the first thing that hits your eye when you walk into the restaurant. Tonda's clearly proud of this beast of a oven. Good news, it produces pretty damn good pizza. I found the crust to be thin and crisp--the way I like it. There's no shortage of topping combination (they offer at least 15 different pies), so it's easy to pick two and share between a couple.
One major complaint and one minor annoyance.
They make you cut your own pizza with a knife and fork! As the meal went on, I got used to this and just stopped trying to eat my pizza in slices. But it was pretty annoying and seems like unnecessary work that detracts from the experience.
And for the annoyance, they don't take AmEx. I hate that.
Overall, I'll be heading back to Tonda for pizza when I want to stay around the EV/LES area.
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Oh how I tried to fall in love with this place! The quest for the perfect pizza continues...
Found Tonda ironically through an old issue of GQ magazine, thinking that the insight of a man would be trust-worthy. After being weary of almost every pizza joint I looked up and reading the reviews via Yelp and NYMag, I was hoping, just hoping that everyone was wrong.
Showed up tonite with a friend for some girl-time, so we were low-maintenance anyhow. It was early, and the restaurant mostly empty. We chose a seat outside due to the early fall-like weather, but didn't let the beautiful atmosphere of the restaurant escape our eyes.
We ordered the Panzarotti 'street food' item, a Spinach & Pear salad and the Quattrostagioni pizza (because, of course, we were there for pizza). Out of everything ordered, we loved the Panzarotti (potato croquettes) and salad - great! Pizza was so-so. We're talking a smorgasbord of ingredients - broccoli rabe, mushrooms, tuna, prosciutto cotto, cheese, tomato sauce (there maybe a few more items) and was disappointed. Not only were the ingredients..interesting, but not a great mix. This is due to a few facts: 1) each ingredient on the pizza was piled on high/thick and in separate piles and not mixed together. 2) some ingredients were lukewarm at best (tuna) and wet (prosciutto cotto), which in turn made the crust and cheese entirely wet and soggy in the middle.
Overall, after staying for a good while and looking around, conclusion is, if you're coming for the pizza, stick to the basic Margherita. Everything else on the menu looked tasty, minus all the tuna dishes.. Great on the wallet - and in the winter, the restaurant is absolutely picturesque for that holiday gathering with a group of friends. Really - the size of the/decor a standout in East Village. Oh, and the service, not bad either.
I usually trust Urban Daddy's recommendation when it comes to new places to eat, but last night dining at Tonda, really did not live up to my expectations.
I have to say that the ambiance and decor are top notch. I love the whites contrasting with the dark browns and the pizza oven that everyone is raving about is absolutely beautiful - we were lucky enough to have the table closest to the oven and it was nice to look at while waiting for our food. The bathroom is pretty neat itself - tucked behind a sliding door and curtain, the bathroom reminded me of what the original bathroom would have looked like whenever this building was built. The sink and the mirror were very old fashion and the exposed brick made me feel like it was 1900.
One gripe - the lighting was WAY too dark. We had to use the candle to read the menu. And there is a step down when you walk through the door that no one notices until it is too late.
We ordered the fried polenta and the fried artichokes for starters. When asked about what is the difference between the two fried polentas on the menu, the server kindly told me that it was a typo. There is only one. While I know this restaurant JUST opened, one of my pet peeves is finding typos on official things. The Polenta was OK - a little small. It was sitting a bed of mushrooms that really did not seem to match. The fried artichokes were dry and uninspired. I would have likes to see a sauce or less batter when frying.
For our pizza, we ordered the pesto, potato, and string bean pizza. While the pesto was good, there was a little too much on the pizza and not enough potatoes (which was the reason we had ordered this pizza). The string beans were a non issue with me - they were hardly detected and at times, I even forgot they were on the pizza.
I really think that they should cut the pizza for you, because having the patron cut it themselves just kind of makes the pizza come out unappetizing.
The wine was good and cheap - which is always a plus.
I do not think I would go here again. Maybe for the fact that we live on the UWS and maybe for that fact that it just was not that good. If they take their time and listen to what people are saying, this place could actually be top notch, but right now, they are still far from it.
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Tonda soft-opened today (3/24/09) with fanfare from the foodie blogs and press alike. Their buzz comes with good reason, as this location is the second coming of the critical flop, the EU which promised re-invention with authentic Neapolitan pizza, fired in their $30,000 oven, which spews out heat at a remarkable1000F. With that kind of heat, raw dough and sauce is turned into an edible pie within a minute and a half.
Given that this was the first day of the soft opening, this review excludes service gaffes, of which there were more than I care to comment on. Well, just one small jab and i'll move on - the FOH was clumsy and forgetful to an almost comical level. The Benny Hill theme song (Yakety Sax) may have been more appropriate than the salsa/latin music being pumped from the hidden speakers. Certainly would have made the meal more enjoyable. Instead, I am only opining on the food and the ambiance in this review.
The ambiance is beautiful. It's a second coming of Death & Co. Dark browns and creamy whites, with muted lighting and a chic atmosphere which would be better suited for $14 cocktails rather than $14 pizzas. The waitstaff are commensurately hip and beautiful, as were the first smatterings of punters (excluding yours truly).
As for the food, not quite as beautiful. The mark of a good Neapolitan pizza is a crispy charred crust, a flavorful tomato sauce, and a creamy mozzarella. Tonda failed at all three points, presenting a doughy, soggy crust with no discernible char or depth of flavor. The sauce was incredibly watery and under seasoned, and the cheese was rubbery and cheap.
To further grieve on the pizza, the center of the pie was pure mush, almost a soggy paper towel consistency. Toppings slid off, and a fork and knife were all but a necessity to consume a slice. Speaking of slice, the pizza does not come pre-sliced. Left to our own means with a butter knife, the pizza was torn apart into an unappetizing heap of dough in our hands.
As if the food couldn't get worse, it did with the fried artichokes. Served lukewarm and dried out, they were in dire need of a sauce, some inspiration, some TLC, anything to make it better.
A far superior pie can be had at Luzzo's down the street. Hell, i'd even cab it cross-town to Co, and waste an hour queuing for Lahey's pies. I will say that the portions are large, each pie is more than filling for a single diner. But quality over quantity, I digress.
The poor service may get a mulligan due to inexperience, but the food should be on point, no matter what. Tonda unfortunately does not meet the hype, and is frankly not worth the trip.
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I was excited for Tonda to open and went last Thursday for dinner with a friend. There were two tables for 4 open, and the hostess/server took about 5 minutes to decide if we were worthy of one of those tables. Finally we sat, and waited 5 minutes for water to be poured and another 5 for anyone to come back to the table.
The panzarotti were yummy but needed some type of dipping sauce. We ordered the sausage pizza which came out quickly. The flavors were good, but the crust was burnt on the outside but soggy in the middle.
Once we were done, we waited a while for the server to come over, as she was busy chatting at the bar. The credit card machine broke while we were there, so my friend went to the atm around the corner, and then we had to flag someone else down to get us change since she was still at the bar talking.
The restaurant itself is a beautiful space, and the outdoor seating will be nice during the summer months, but the service was definitely lacking and the food was not worth the hype.
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Stopped by here to meet a couple of friends today. Had a tomato mozzarella panini, it was tasty. The bread was yummy. The waitress was super cute, though a bit slow... lots of outdoor seating, that's a winning factor in the summertime!
Went here for my friend's birthday and I thought that it was good. The caprese salad (tomatos & mozzarella cheese) was good to start out with, the Margerita pizza was the type of pizza I like (thin but chewy crust w/fresh tomato sause & cheese), the shirimp & mushrooms risotto I stole from the girl sitting next to me was the type of risotto I like (the rice was al-dente and the flavors being not too strong, not too weak), the chocolate cazzoli for dessert was nothing special but good! Nothing here WOW!ed the living japanese out of me, but I'd say that this place serves solid good food in a affordable price! If I'm in the area again feeling like pizza, I'll probably come back.
Pros: Nice ambience, interesting pizza toppings (string beans and caulifower!!!) nice sides (tried the potato-cheese balls), outdoor sitting
Cons: Pizza size large for one person and small for sharing between two people!
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You know, I love pizza and whenever a new place opens up with good reviews about the pizza, I'll give it a try. This place sure had a lot of good write ups in Time Out, New York Mag, etc....all I'm saying is the owners must have great connections, someone owes them alot of favors, or the people who dined here and wrote those reviews have no tastebuds or don't know what great, wait!, even good pizza is.
We went on a Thurs. nite and the place was pretty dead. We got the arancini and panzarotti to start. We wanted the fried artichokes too but they were out of them..at 7pm??!!!? Anyways, the arancini was ok, cheese in the middle was still cold. The panzarotti was basically flavorless mashed potatoes coated in fine breadcrumbs and fried. I will admit that both starters had a good crust to them.
Now the big deal pizza: we ordered 1 pie, the broccoli rabe and spicy sausage one. Pie is tiny and arrived uncut. We had to hack it up ourselves. The middle was really soggy and the pie was flavorless. No spice to the sausage and the broccoli rabe was long and stringy, not chopped. Utterly lacking in flavor. We were so disappointed. The desserts were boring, don't even bother.
We will not be returning and will continue to get our pizza fix at Posto and you can get better food across the street at Perbacco. So sorry Tonda.
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This place will now forever hold a special place in my heart because this is where dinner was right before I got engaged. Tonda was our third choice, and it was because at the point we were at in the night we were starving and every place was filled and had an obscene wait. This place looked inviting, and frankly- it was empty. We were sold. By the time our wine was brought out it was wall to wall packed with people (it was incredible to see a place fill like that). Ordered the arancini (for Joe) and an arugula salad that I could much on. Rabbit food at best with some parmesan honestly. Fresh but flavorless. The arancini- Joe said were good but needed sauce. We each ordered a pizza (loved the whole choice between crusts- gluten free, white or wheat) mine was the basic margherita and Joe got one with Speck and gorgonzola. It was yummy but a bit too salty and honestly mine was as well (but didn't really both me because I happen to like excess salt). I ate my entire pizza, so whoever tells me it will be too big doesn't know how much food I can put away in one sitting haha.
I like the place. It was cute. I am a sucker for décor. I might go back with another couple- the ambiance is nice and you can order a few pizzas to share in a more romantic setting, but tell them easy on the salt buddy! Holy hypertension!
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Wow was I disappointed with this place! They have a super-fancy pizza oven which is supposed to do wonderful things to pizza. I really didn't expect RUBBERY to be one of them. I went expecting wonderful pizza and got overpriced, totally mediocre pizza, served by a clueless and careless waitstaff. There were 3 of us and we all felt the same way. Not one of us expects to try it again.
Fortunately I live on the UES and only a few minutes from Serafina. Their pizza is consistently excellent and is still my go-to place. If you reall feel like trying Tonda I would strongly suggest that you wait a bit, maybe they'll iron out the kinks by then. They really have a long way to go before the waitstaff grows up and the food is worthwhile.
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I joined yelp just to write this review. Tonda-shmonda! My gf and I were looking for a brunch spot in the E.Vil (our nabe) and stumbled upon this place. It looks tres chic and there was some outdoor seating, so we decided to give it a whirl.
Let's just say the service left a lot to be desired. We waited about 15 min to order drinks. Our server couldn't answer pretty straight-forward questions (i.e. what is in this interesting sounding brunch cocktail?). So we end up ordering drinks, 2 mimosas, which took another 10 min to arrive. Within that span of time, no joke, two other tables that were seated just left since no one had greeted them or even given them menus. Two tables. I've never seen that before.
We noticed the table across from us had some nice looking bread and evoo/vins, so we asked if we could also have bread for our table. Our server replies, "well (confused), I'm going to have to check the kitchen." What??! It's bread! That table right there is eating it and it looks delish. Finally, after "checking" she brings the bread, and it's raw and doughy and inedible. Damn!
We finally ordered a salad and pannini. The salad came out 20 min before the pannini. WTF. All that wait, and the food was simply mediocre. Why put up with the unreal terrible service?
The table next to us had a mistake on there bill (surprise, surprise), but just left because they didn't feel like waiting another 30 min to have it fixed by the blundering wait staff.
Our bill was also incorrect. Literally, as far as service goes, they didn't get one thing right. Not one.
I will not be going back and I would recommend that you save yourself the headache. $30k oven? They might want to invest in better training and staff.
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Who knew that tuna on pizza could be so delicious? Tonda was excellent. From the great ambiance, to excellent service to delicious food with reasonable prices, this is definitely a spot to check out. The night we went was rainy and warm...making the restaurant warm and sticky, but that's really my only complaint. Would definitely recommend Tonda to anyone who wants great food on the cheap in the east village.
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i liked it. the food was good and decently priced. the atmosphere is great, and much better than the former EU. the other reviews are partially right that the pizza was soggy in the middle, but the amount of cheese forgave that plus the appetizers were big enough to fill me up. the eggplant is awesome! wine is cheaply priced by the glass, though they are working on getting better wines on the menu. i will definitely go again.
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