I'm surprised by some of the other reviews I have been reading. Tomato Fresh Food Cafe is a great place for lunch or breakfast... although every time we have gone here for brunch has been fantastic.

I usually order a chocolate milkshake, the french toast, and a couple sides of the back bacon.

I always find the french toast to be outstanding... topped with delicious fresh fruit (always creative, usually a mix of berries and sometimes even cranberries!) and the back bacon is delicious. I love that they use fresh organic food and I think it's worth paying a couple extra dollars for this vs. Denny's or White Spot. The french toast also comes with a side of fresh fruit salad.

My boyfriend usually orders an omelet or scrambled eggs and says it's always good as well.

Service is not great (it's sometimes quite slow), but I find it's worth the wait, especially for brunch. This is our most regular breakfast place. Try the french toast!

We've eaten here several times and have experienced the same ups and downs as other reviewers. One thing we've noticed is that it has become a bit of a hangout for young families on Friday nights, so with the already noisy room, those who want a quieter dining experience might want to stick to "school" nights.

My husband ordered a burger and it was thick and juicy and I ordered a spinach salad and crab cakes, which are technically both appetizers. The salad was very good, with a nicely spiced puck of goat cheese over fresh greens and a few candied pecans. The crab cakes were okay, but the dish was really made great by the fresh relish that came with it.

However, what I really want to comment on is the waitress. What a change from previous servers! She was fast, came back several times to ask how things were going, and was friendly without being overly so.

Well since these guys are close to me I figured I'd give them another whirl, but no dice.

Had the lunch special lamb curry and the portion was simply abysmal.. barely appetiser level for a full meal price. When I can easily count the pieces of lamb (cut very small) its a very poor portion, barely half a cup of rice and some raita .. if they are going to serve this as a lunch special, either reduce the price by three/four dollars (it was 12), or have a side salad as part of it. Too much cumin used in curry and over-spicing evident in saffron rice. I like spice, this just was not balanced.

Service was slow and inattentive and not pleasant in the least. The ambiance when it was Fiasco, felt more intimate. The wide open room with no drapes or fabric to absorb the noise made the place a great echo chamber. Add the fact that there was no one in the restaurant and it made for an unnecessarily echo-y atmosphere. Coffee was decent, water straight tap drawn and tasting of minerals.

I loved Tomato when it was on Cambie, but since then its felt like corners are being cut and attention to Detail from food on out has fallen by the wayside.. try East is East down the block, or even the Banana Leaf for curry.

Waste of a lunch with a friend. I won't be going back.

Thursday night - we arrive around 7:30pm. It is not that busy in Tomato.

The hostess, who wouldn't have cracked a smile if you tickled her, begrudgingly sits the 5 of us all crowded into a corner of the restaurant with the only other tables with customers. For the convenience of the wait staff no doubt. After all, it's not about customer comfort.

Speaking of which, with empty tables (one long, empty one...) she sits 5 of us at a table for 4. There is not even enough room to put our menus down on the table, so we ask the waiter, whose facial expression from beginning to end, with all customers, looks like he's going through a profound personal tragedy, and he acquiesces.

Questions about the menu are answered very bluntly, and food is thrown on the table. When offered black pepper, my friend will take it if the kitchen hasn't added it yet. So he asks, "Has the pasta been seasoned with pepper already?" The waiter responds with, "Whatever." and walks away, not giving him the pepper.

My friend and I exchanged shocked glances.

The food is excellent, by the way. But the pall over the restaurant by the waiter and hostess makes you feel upset to be spending your cash here.

The chairs are not comfortable. The tables don't have table clothes, though they charge bistro prices. The room is COLD, and there is no music. The ambience is notable for its absence, made more poignant by the rude and abrupt service.

"Is everything ok? Can I get you another drink? Would you like anything else?" These are questions that we would have appreciated. But no. Instead, once our table was cleared of food, the bill was presented, and suddenly, what do you know??? A smile! My gosh! We are thinking of tip-time now, are we???

We left a tip commensurate with the level of service, and a promise never, ever to waste our time and money here again.

Another typical Vancouver dining story. *sigh* This town is SO unprofessional...

So I finally went here for dinner instead of my usual breakfast.
I'm not quite sure what's going on because I have always had great service and food for breakfast, but dinner there sucks.
There was a few other tables who were onto their dessert and coffee so it wasn't very busy.
We waited an hour for a caesar salad and a pizza which is totally not acceptable, even if they screwed up and had to make it a second time, it still doesn't take that long.
Our server disappeared for that hour so we never had the chance to ask her, so we asked another girl about it and instantly they brought out our food??
The pizza was horrible, the only thing I liked was the pre made frozen crust. It had five slices of sausage on it, tonssss of cheese and this is the best part....the menu said it came with tomatoes on it and there was none! How ironic haha.
Anyways poor service, crappy food.
I will probably give it one more chance.

First time for brunch recently and tried the eggs benny. I like the back bacon touch and the hollandaise sauce was more white than the traditional yellow. More mayonaise taste. Very good but the ham portion could of been bigger. Nice potatos (onions and rosemary). Coffee could of been a bit stronger. Very good service with warm greetings from the mgr/owner. Would return to try other items.

I went for brunch with trepidation, having read a number of bad reviews. Well, after my wife and daughter went a few days earlier and reported that it was good, we all went for Saturday morning brunch. I don't take my brunch lightly. I hate bad breakfasts and poor service, as I have seen described, but my experience was entirely the opposite.

Tomato is a beautiful, relaxing restaurant with light pouring in through skylights. Lots of space, much more than the old Cambie location. Service was fast, attentive and polite. Seated quickly, no wait, service was great. Coffee topped up frequently. Fresh fruit smoothie was wonderful. I had the signature benny and it was honestly the best benny I have ever had, and I've had a few.

The eggs were perfect, the ham was a good portion, but the main thing was the sauce. Not lurid yellow and gloppy, but a light, fresh tasting hollandaise with a notable lemon zing and fresh pepper. This is my new favourite breakfast place, well, for benny's at least.

The other important thing about any breakfast is the potato. Don't want them too dry or too greasy. These potatoes were perfect. Red skinned, moist, crunchy and a good portion.

I don't know what took me so long to try Tomato as I live in Kits. I had such a horrible experience at it's predecessor in the location, but that's a really stupid reason. I also read bad reviews, which put me off. I'm glad I finally went. Can't wait to go again.

It's no one thing that creates success. You have to have the right space, the right presentation, the right location, quality ingredients, attractive dishes, and the list goes on. But I'll tell you, you can have ALL of those things and lose customers because of the service.

I went one time to the old Cambie location. I took my wife, her sister and my two children. We wanted it to be good. As a matter of fact, we eat organic so we were hoping it would be our new favourite. The 30 something man who served us was incompetent - slow, socially inept, ignorant, and seemingly preoccupied with his personal life. Nevermind his disgusting habit of serving beverages by putting his fingers on the rim of the glass!

I haven't yet succumbed to the urge to say "I used to manage a restaurant and I would have fired you if you treated my customers this way" but this was about the closest I ever came. We have never been back. Too bad. Such promise.

I'm all for local food well prepared, but the dishes at Tomato are inconsistent at best. The scallops on risotto is very good, as were other appetizers. Unfortunately, the mains were overpriced and not anywhere near as well prepared. I had the indian candy salad which wasn't a very good combination of ingredients. The creme brulee was poor as well. We were a large group and the service was just awful, for example our waitress didn't even bother to take our order for mains until well after we had finished our appetizers. We had to pay a mandatory 17% service charge which was downright CRIMINAL for the abysmal service we did not receive. I personally won't go back here, but if you are a smaller group and only order appetizers you will probably be safe.

My wife and I went for lunch at the Tomato on Tuesday about 1 o'clock, it was busy, had to wait about 5 minutes to get a table.
The wait was worth it.

Started with a cup of soup, a Dahl, fantastic and the rotiserie chicken on a lovely baquette, it was delicious. And organic to boot.

The service was fast and friendly.

Liked the new open feel of the restaurant, it wasn't dark on a cloudy day like the old place.

Definetely will return.