Pasta Pomodoro (San Ramon, California)

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Pasta Pomodoro


Various locations in California

I was immediately struck by two things upon visiting California: (1) strip malls and shopping malls are ubiquitous, and (2) Asian cuisine is standard fare, whereas European/Middle Eastern cuisine is "exotic." Pasta Pomodoro well-exemplifies these two observations. This is a chain Italian restaurant that serves semi-Italian fare. By that, I mean that their kitchen had an idealized vision of what Italian food is, but I find that it does not translate too well on your tastebuds. With that said, however, their prices are about half that you would find at a NJ/NY family restarurant.

For apps, we ordered a caprese salad and bruschetta (both unpictured). The caprese's mozarella was not as milky and creamy as the buffalo mozarella that you can get at our NJ /NY groceries. I was surprised that their tomatoes were the watery kind that you usually see at the supermarket during the middle of winter. The bruschetta was ok.

I ordered their butternut squash ravioli (for their apps selection) as my main dish.

Butternut squash ravioli with crispy sage leaves. The filling was rather sweet but bland. I liked how the sage complemented the squash.




Chicken parmesan, ordered by Superfatty's brother. He found it a bit bland, too.

On the whole, the food here is ok, albeit generic. It's too bad because their menu does such a great job describing their dishes. They have a decent selection of drinkable wines by the glass.