The Hot Tomato

While visiting Fruita my pals and I stumbled upon this awesome little spot! Our whole experience was out of this world. Fast service, attentive staff, amazing food, and a cool atmosphere. I loved the patio a whole bunch and their soda options are also pretty dope. I’m definitely coming back when I drive past Fruita, and I’m definitely going to be talking about this joint to my friends and family.

This pizza place is off the hook. It was definitely some of the best pizza we’ve ever had. The way it works is you go find a seat then go up and order. They have really great soft drinks and also sell beer. We had a large group and had The Bob Steve, Skinny Girl, Stinky Deluxe, and the Meaty Boy. All were outstanding. The crust was just right and the ingredients were really really great. The drink selection was also great. We did not have any but the salads looked great as well. The place is really cool and has a nice side and outside patio as well. It gets very busy but the staff handles the crowd. It was worth the drive from Grand Junction to Fruita to try it. I would definitely come back.

While visiting my grandmother she took me to this great pizza joint. She is allergic to gluten and doesn’t really realize that most restaurants offer gluten free food. So apparently one day she drove by here and they had a sign out front advertising gluten free crust. It was the first time she’s had pizza in like 20 years! WHAT! Anyways… so she goes here all the time for their gluten free crust. I thought that the pizza was really good. You can only get the gluten pizza in one size (maybe most places are like that). It has a younger hip crowd feel to it on the inside. They don’t have your typical coke and pepsi products, it’s a craft cola which was only OK (why it’s getting 4 stars). A great pizza joint for a small town.

Stromboli is the shiznit. Use restroom before you arrive, lack of water closets doesn’t detour us

best. pizza. (and strombolis) ever! Yummy! Yummy! Cool and hip atmosphere too! Unilocal is making me add words to this review, so blah blah this place ROCKS!

Still login’ this place. It’s always the first place we go for dinner when we come to Fruita. The Sicilian pizza is a must!

I love eating here since I live in Fruita, BUT not anymore! We call once a week and order pizza and almost every time we call they are out of Sicilian Crust or they don’t have any Sicilian slices at all. So instead I say can I get a large pizza and they say well we are out of large pizza dough also, well how much for two smalls well it will be $ 32 plus tax compared to $ 20 for one large. No thank you I will take my business somewhere else I am very sick of the I’m sorry’s every time I call. Make more Dough for crying out loud! But they won’t so I guess they would rather their customers take their business somewhere else.
I’d rather throw a couple of pizza doughs away in the morning than turn customers away that will never come back.

I love this place! Relaxing ambience. Great pizza. I always order the Icarus which never fails to be fresh and yummy. Whether you are driving by or live here, I recommend trying Hot Tomato.

My Wife and I love food and Pizza is high on the list of favorites. We live on the far eastern side of Grand Junction and decided to drive to Fruita to give this place a try. Don’t be afraid on first glance, this place is much bigger on the inside. We went for an early dinner and while slightly busy, we found the atmosphere to be great. There were several families with young kids and the employees were very friendly.
Both of us are not fans of crappy red sauce that most places have, we we opted for the granny’s pesto pizza. We also got some cheesy bread sticks. If the red sause that came with the bread sticks is the same as the sause they use one their pizza I would have no problem with it. The pesto pizza was fantastic but what really stood out to me was their crust. I consider myself a bread guy and a Baker, and I found the crust to be practically the perfect combo of soft, chewy, crispy, and tasty. I would love their pizza dough recipe.
While a bit pricy compared to fast food pizza, it’s worth the trip. Pablo’s has a major competitor in my opinion. I am coming back to try their other items that sound great as well!
It seems the it may be a local hang out at night of it that’s your thing.

Five stars is not enough. I will talk about the food and ambiance below. But I have to shout out about their community involvement and courtesy to their staff. Both of these say — good people run this place and I feel good supporting them!
Hot Tomato fund raises for local causes. Their employees get a nice Thanksgiving and Christmas holiday. Yay them!
Their food is so good. Don’t know where to start. Salads are hearty and well balanced — they don’t skimp on the good stuff. The stromboli is dough wrapped around salami, ham and cheese. You get about a 5 inch segment, which would be a good appetizer for a teenager — or a full meal for me. They give you a generous cup of marinara to dip it in. Oh, that is one tasty sauce.
They make a Sicilian pie — but I haven’t tried it. I had the Bada Bing — decadence! It is on an olive oil base with mozzarella, garlic and big blobs of ricotta cheese strewn with spinach. The Icarus is pretty much a loaded pie — meat and veggies. The Kokopelli is a veggie pizza — really lovely. I want to try some of their seasonal specialties — the potato, the peach, the smoked meat. Guess I have to go back.
They have a good selection of New Belgium beers on tap as well as a beer or two from Copper Club nearby. Sodas are their for you to refill — including 2 Gatorades (I guess for all the mountain bikers)
Somehow, this place has a great vibe — inside, out in the covered porch, and out back on the patio. Everyone who works there is friendly and helpful — you will be checked on multiple times to be sure you have everything and they will refill your drinks for you if you are deep in conversation and don’t want to get up. We told them how much we liked their marinara and they brought us a cup to dip our crusts in.
You can eat vegetarian, low gluten or full on carnivore here.
Really fun and really nice place with excellent food. Love this and recommend it highly.

Obligatory stop when in Grand Junction. I find the pizza dough/​crust to be especially good, in addition to the fresh ingredients and exemplary service.

Mediocre pizza! Pride themselves on high quality organic ingredients but use cheap deli style meats and little to no sauce on their pizza. I didn’t taste any sauce it was supposed to be marinara. No play with ingredients you’ll only find mozzarella, maybe some bleu cheese crumbles and feta on a specialty pizza. Sauce variety very limited. Plus our pizza was soggy in the middle, dripping wet. The waitress had to reheat it for us.

I would drive the 65 miles from my house to the Hot Tomato for lunch. Oh wait, I just did. Amazing amazing food.

My wife and I come here at least once a week. The food is always great. The stromboli is a personal favorite, but do is the pesto pizza, and the peach pizza during the peach harvest is great. More than just the food, however, is the service. I always feel like family here, from the first time we visited town, until now. This is the place I always bring out of town company to eat and they are always impressed…

This is a great place to never, ever go to. I was here on business and went based on these other reviews some of which actually look to be fake, one-​review accounts now that I look at them a little more closely.
I ordered Stromboli and it wasn’t fresh, was actually pretty gross as if it had been reheated a time or two and the sauce it came with was cold. Big thumbs down.
Bathroom was dirty and I’m a guy who can usually look the other way, but it was just too much. I could swear I saw a rodent.
Lastly, was waited on at the bar by a young woman wearing glasses named Nikki, who was unbelievably rude when I had a question about the menu. Management would do well to teach their staff what customer service is. A fish stinks from the head.

I come here every time I’m in the area. The pizza is great and the staff is quirky but friendly. Only one tv over the bar that is usually off but they were good to us and turned it on so we could watch college football. Most of the beer on tap is from new Belgium brewery which is a plus for me because I think they brew some great suds. I will keep on coming back.

If you’re ever in Fruita, I hope this wonderful, bicycle themed downtown restaurant is serving their Peach pizza: bleu cheese, Palisade peaches grown a couple cities over, and Canadian bacon. Whoever came up with that combo of sweet and savory is a genius.

This is a must if you’re visiting Fruita. The pizza is delicious, they have several great beers on tap, and the chicken avocado salad with their homemade balsamic is one of the best salads I’ve ever had. Try the Thai Me Up pizza for something different!

We were sent here on a tip and we are glad we came. We had the Stromboli slice which was decadent and delicious. We then ordered the Icarus pizza. I’m a stickler and pizza and it annoys me when the middle of the pizza is soggy. I am unsure what happened there, but you had to use a knife and fork for the bottom half of the pizza slice. Once past that, you could pick it up and enjoy it. The crust redeemed the soggy start because it is fantastic. And the marinara sauce was so good. We have decided the pizza is great, but too many toppings take it too far. We will definitely be back for a more simpler pizza. Being a CSU ram, love the NBB on tap. Great restaurant overall.

Great pizza by the slice. Had the Pesto slice and a side salad.
The pizza was tasty and had a lovely crisp crust (crisp without being burnt is a rare comodity with pizza and this is the real deal). The ‘side’ salad was as not really ‘side’, more like ‘full on’. Lovely romaine (not an iceberg in sight) with plenty of cherry tomatoes, cucumber, mushrooms, red onions and olives. Seriously, other restaurants should take note!
The New Belgium on tap is just the icing on the cake.