Hot Tomatoe Neighborhood Bistro

I love the food at this place. It's always fresh, served hot (or cold as appropriate) and well conceived. Unfortunately the place is small and they won't tell you that they're overbooked when you make reservations. Last three times I went, we waited over 30 mins. past our reservation time. Wouldn't be that bad if they had a bar, but it's a small place and they don't. Last visit, they took up half the restaurant with a 13-person group that simply would not leave. Almost everyone waited more than an hour past the reservation time. Duly embarrassing, I was with my parents who generally eat dinner at like 3:00 or something, so they were really unhappy waiting until 9:30 to get salad and bread. My partner refuses to ever go again, which annoys me since I do enjoy the food. Despite the wait, the servers are generally very nice and competent and as I said before the food is delicious. The heavy Italian crowd, with the shrill and nasally voices sometimes makes me feel like I'm on the set of Joey, but I guess it's a good thing that the NY Italian natives enjoy the place so much too.