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Mamma Lucia, Strip-Mall Italian Food - Pizza and Pasta in Numerous Maryland locations


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Yeah, there are some options further afield but with a 4-year-old and a 7-year-old, taking a 30 minute drive to dinner on a weeknight isn't always an option. I've had a suggestion of Mamma Lucia and might give them a try next time.

I've been to Mamma Lucia once. (In Bethesda -- don't know if there's more than one.) I was in a big group that included children not sprung off by me. It seemed like a perfect place for kids. The staff and clientele were tolerant and friendly. And, I might add, my entree was delicious. It was a pasta with a spicy pork sauce -- can't recall the name. But when it was served, the following things occurred: (1) I thought, "Wow, that's big, I'll never finish it"; then (2) I thought, "Wow, that was big, I can't believe I finished it."

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Mamma Lucia is definitely our favorite for red-sauce Italian in Rockville. Substantial portions, decent prices, and very family-friendly.

Warning: the Rockville location (Federal Plaza) is IMHO miles better than any of the other locations. I've eaten at the Olney, Bethesda, and Gaithersburg locations, and they pale compared to Rockville, especially with pizza. The Rockville location is unfortunately also the smallest space, though other than Friday and Saturday at prime time, I've rarely encountered more than a few minutes wait for a table.

Mondays at ML is buy a pasta dish get one for $4 (dine-in or carry-out), and Tuesdays is similar for pizza ($2 for the second pie - carry-out only).

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I would definitely consider Mamma Lucia's for red sauce Italian in MoCo. Their pizzas are actually quite good, if salty (not a problem for me, but my 3yo wakes up in the middle of the night begging for water after we feed him some of it). I've never eaten in at dinner time, so can't comment on its usefullness as a place to dine with children.

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How are the pastas? What I'm looking for is good lasagna, manicotti, maybe linguine with clam sauce - standard Italian American stuff.

(Re: the title of the thread. I understand the need for a pejorative comment, but would suggest "strip-mall dining" doesn't quite have the same bite here as elsewhere. There's almost no other kind of location in MoCo.)

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How are the pastas? What I'm looking for is good lasagna, manicotti, maybe linguine with clam sauce - standard Italian American stuff.

(Re: the title of the thread. I understand the need for a pejorative comment, but would suggest "strip-mall dining" doesn't quite have the same bite here as elsewhere. There's almost no other kind of location in MoCo.)

[Not pejorative but descriptive of style and feel - see Desperately Seeking Strip Malls. There are also seven locations of Mama Lucia throughout Maryland, most of them in strip malls I believe. Yes, I'm scornful of strip malls themselves, but not necessarily the restaurants in them. Restaurants in big enclosed malls, on the other hand, are almost never family owned and are almost always corporate and wan.

Cheers,

Rocks.]

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How are the pastas? What I'm looking for is good lasagna, manicotti, maybe linguine with clam sauce - standard Italian American stuff.

That's the kind of stuff we usually order, and we've always been pleased. Their basic red sauce has good body and flavor, and they don't overcook the pasta. Though I should note that things like the linguine with clams and the Salmon pasta are not covered on the Monday special.

Here is the dinner menu; the "Pasta" section on page 4 is the Monday special; I can't remember if the "Pasta al Forno" specials at the bottom are also included.

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I'm OK with that, since it's my Emma's favorite restaurant.

Sushi? A Gifford's? Doesn't sound too awful. No idea what "Primo Italiano" is...maybe it's a competitor for Mamma Lucia. :)

I am not sure if it is related to the Primo Italiano in Reston, but if it is, it is a competitor. The location in Reston does make a decent sub (or at least they did three years ago).
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How are the pastas? What I'm looking for is good lasagna, manicotti, maybe linguine with clam sauce - standard Italian American stuff.
That is the perfect description - Standard Italian American Stuff. Pasta with various sauces. The Monday night special works wonders.

The kids love it, I have never had a bad meal at the Federal Plaza location (But very tiny). Please listen to Dan's advice on the Shady Grove location - I have never had a good meal at the Shady Grove (near the hospital) location. I only get pizza from Bethesda (usually pick it up on Tuesday night's when they have buy one get one for 99 cents). Never been to Olney.

Maybe you Dan & I can pack the place on a Monday or Tuesday with all the kids.

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Thanks Joe. Does anyone know which "upscale grocer" they're referring to in the press release?
Given the size of the space and the number of other stores moving in, I think that Trader Joe's would be the best bet with an outside shot at a Balducci's.
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Given the size of the space and the number of other stores moving in, I think that Trader Joe's would be the best bet with an outside shot at a Balducci's.
A current lease-holder in Congressional Plaza told me that Balducci's might be moving into the space currently occupied by the Rockville Whole Foods, and WF will be building a new store across from White Flint mall. Maybe it will be a Dean & Deluca? This area could certainly support it.

That said, I would love having a Trader Joe's within walking distance so we will root for that option.

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Actually, the scuttlebut I've heard (I like w/in walking distance of town center and am intensely curious about this myself) is that it will be a Harris Teeter. I don't think magruder's has yet "released" their hold on the grocery store space (for lack of a better way of putting it) and I don't think anything has been nailed down with anybody. The result being, so far nobody is really willing to name names.

ETA: Although i wish the WF wouldn't move further away from me, they're WAY to crammed into that space. Oh, and a Balducci's, mmmm, capogiro, mmmm.

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A current lease-holder in Congressional Plaza told me that Balducci's might be moving into the space currently occupied by the Rockville Whole Foods, and WF will be building a new store across from White Flint mall. Maybe it will be a Dean & Deluca? This area could certainly support it.

A new WF store across from White Flint? Interesting...my office faces White Flint, staring directly into that giant D&B sign and the entrance to two restaurants that are never a lunch consideration. The only place WF could build is where a closed motel currently is, just down from Chillis, a small strip that also had a Subway. It's all closed now and surrounded by chain link fence.

To return this to Mama Lucia, the 2nd pizza for $2 is a great deal. Their plain pizza is great, but adding toppings quickly pushes the price up. I just wish the pizza were still hot by the time I get it home. I guess think crust just can't hold heat, like Armands. Except Armands crust and sauce have no taste.

And to go slightly off topic, the Hank Deitle's just down from White Flint is open. Not sure if it was ever closed earlier this month. Sure looked dead, but I've seen a few groups of people hanging outside in the evening.

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To return this to Mama Lucia, the 2nd pizza for $2 is a great deal. Their plain pizza is great, but adding toppings quickly pushes the price up. I just wish the pizza were still hot by the time I get it home. I guess think crust just can't hold heat, like Armands. Except Armands crust and sauce have no taste.

I always eat a slice at/in the car before I bring the pies home. It's 1000 times better than when it sits in the box for 10 minutes.

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I always eat a slice at/in the car before I bring the pies home. It's 1000 times better than when it sits in the box for 10 minutes.
I'm with you on that one (as well as the tropicana pure premium, now that I think about it!)
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FWIW, there's always the Mama Lucia location in Silver Spring for a fallback position.

I can't speak for the Silver Spring location, but all of the other Mama Lucia locations I've tried (Olney, Fallsgrove, Bethesda) are pale imitations of the original Rockville Federal Plaza location. Expansion did not do them favors, IMHO. Luckily, it doesn't seem to have affected the quality of the original.

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A 5 o'clock doctor visit scrapped our dinner plans tonight, so we ended up with takeout from the Silver Spring location. I have no wish to revisit the details, but I must have done something heinous in a past life to deserve a meal like that.

I know that I've warned you to only go to the Federal Plaza location...

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Warning, this posts contains language not suitable for children under 17...

I have given the Silver Spring location two chances, one "dine" in and one carryout, and cannot believe the bullshit that passes for food at this place. And it's always packed.

White Pizza Dough, with food-service mozzerella. No garlic. No red pepper flakes. Apparently no salt. Not even a fucking sprinkle of parsley. I have had bad pizza (Eddie's Uptown, anyone?) and this takes the cake.

Spaghetti with marinara precooked noodles, dipped in hot water and inadequately drained so that the underseasoned tomato sauce becomes watery. My children refused to touch it.

Lasagne would make Mario Batali weep in fury. Limp noodles swimming in a watery sauce, with over-browned cheese on top. Worse than Stouffers, and Stouffers is an abomination unto the Flying Spaghetti Monster.

Chicken Parmagiana Sub Usually my favorite trashy "Italian" sandwich - Giuseppe's in Rockville makes a good one. This was cottony bread filled with chicken slices that look as if they had been repurposed from a salad, doused with cheese and packed in a plastic clamshell so that the steam makes everything soggy.

Limp, overdressed salads. Stale bread. Prefab desserts. Sucky gelato.

I hope the owners are laughing all the way to the bank.

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I hope the owners are laughing all the way to the bank.

They are. In fact a friend who does business with them told my they just bought something like 15 "Five guys" franchises.

As for the food. Mama Lucia's in Fed Plaza used to be a Sunday lunch staple for me and the wife when we lived in Rockville. Pick any pasta dish off the menu and you could not go wrong (I would even put the food above overpriced, just don't get the hype Il Pizzico). Not incredible just very solid for the price. My personal favs were Chicken Cardinal and Penne Vodka. The pizza is just fantastic although I will still stand by La Pizzaria and mid Rockville as the best around. I also must agree with the rest that any other location Mama Lucia's presents food so different than Fed Plaza, it seems as if they are not related at all.

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Has anybody been to the Fairfax location? It's a tiny strip-mall joint in the Fair City mall (with the Cinema Arts theater) with walk-up ordering and a few seats. It was be nice if their pizza was decent...
Are you sure that it is a Mam Lucia? The website shows no such store, and the radio ads only mentions having Maryland locations.
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Has anybody been to the Fairfax location? It's a tiny strip-mall joint in the Fair City mall (with the Cinema Arts theater) with walk-up ordering and a few seats. It was be nice if their pizza was decent...

There seems to be a place called "Mama Lucia" in the Fair City mall, missing the crucial second "m".

Not related, that I can tell.

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I've been reading this thread off and on with a raised eyebrow. I've been to the locations in Fed. Plaza, SS, and Olney. None of them do much for me at all. SS was the worst, thought my trip there wasn't quite as bad as Heather's, Olney at least is a sitdown place with a wine list (abet a Montgomery County list, nuff said), and at Fed Plaza I've gotten cold pizza and bland pasta. None of them were exciting enough to make me seek them out, though I've been back to the Fed. Plaza and Olney locations when they were the most convenient and I wanted pizza. Better than Pizza Hut, but nothing to get excited about.

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Why can't I listen to my own advice?

"only go to the Federal Plaza location...only go to the Federal Plaza location...only go to the Federal Plaza location..."

Last night, after a flick at the Landmark, we were wandering around Bethesda at 9:30p looking for a place for a bite to eat. My wife's job was to pick the place. We walked past Mon Ami Gabi, Levante's, Raku, Jaleo, etc., and she decided that she wanted Salmon Rose, her favorite dish from the Federal Plaza location.

The Salmon Rose here is a pale imitation. It came out at around 800 degrees, so you know it hit the heat lamp. Half the amount of Salmon as Rockville, twice as much (canned) tomato, and even the sauce was different. My "special" of Chicken Rollatini w/Prociutto and Shrimp was far from special. Several slices of completely unseasoned (microwaved? steamed?) chicken, with a measly piece of ham (not prociutto) stuffed inside, and three freezer-burned fishy-tasting shrimp. I ate most of the chicken, one bite of the shrimp, but all of the huge pile of PERFECT, sweet snow peas.

At least the weather was gorgeous, so we could sit outside. The one thing that ML does seem to be good at, regardless of location, is finding cute 18-22 y.o. girls to host and wait tables...

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Since moving to Rockville, I've hit Mama's a couple of times for their white pizza. This ain't one of those high-falutin' fancy-pants artisanal pies by any means, but it beats the hell out of Domino's and its ilk. The crust is decent, I dig the cheese, and it spruces up nicely when you get home and give it a grate of parmesan and some red pepper flakes. I might take a stab at some pasta one of these days. And you're right, Daniel, they do seem to have a flair for hiring rather appetizing female help. The blond at the cash register? "Mama" indeed! :angry:B)

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Has anybody been to the Fairfax location? It's a tiny strip-mall joint in the Fair City mall (with the Cinema Arts theater) with walk-up ordering and a few seats. It was be nice if their pizza was decent...

I was in Old Town Fairfax last night. After dinner, we took a walk around the block because I wanted to look at the new construction along North Street. One building said that a Mamma Lucia's was coming. (But, now that I read this thread, I can't be certain it had two "m"s.)

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Listen to Dan - he is very correct - At Shady Grove the cute girls are behind the counter but the pizza not near as good as Federal Plaza.

Why can't I listen to my own advice?

"only go to the Federal Plaza location...only go to the Federal Plaza location...only go to the Federal Plaza location..."

The one thing that ML does seem to be good at, regardless of location, is finding cute 18-22 y.o. girls to host and wait tables...

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Just found this article:

The shopping center along North Street will have two sandwich shops, Panera Bread and Potbelly Sandwich Works, the pizza-Italian restaurant Mamma Lucia and a smaller version of the Tex-Mex restaurant Austin Grill...

The same sign that mentioned Mamma Lucia's also mentioned Austin Grill, Foster's, and some coffee joint.

The above article also mentions "an upscale restaurant."

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Just found this article:

The same sign that mentioned Mamma Lucia's also mentioned Austin Grill, Foster's, and some coffee joint.

The above article also mentions "an upscale restaurant."

Great. The Connaught Place gets kicked out to make room for revitalization and this is what we get in return. feh.

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Hadn't been to ML in a while for the Tuesday "buy a pizza get one for $1" special, so that was the call (remember, Federal Plaza location only) when traffic delayed my wife's arrival home even later than mine.

Tonight I had the best NY-style pizza I've ever had in the DC area. No joke, no exaggeration. Tasty, thin, perfectly cooked crust with just a touch of char. Sauce was sparingly applied and savory rather than sweet. Not too much cheese, and even after 10 minutes in the box on the drive home, no rubber. Generous piles of spicy pepperoni, and a light sprinkle of oregano. Our other pie was a white pizza with ricotta, which actually got more attention than the pepperoni pie. And, good lord, they actually cut the pies into 8 slices, not this mutant 12 that places in this area seem addicted to.

The last year or so, we'd been hitting Giuseppi's more than ML for take-out. No more - ML is back with a vengeance. If your definition of pizza means some guy named Tony on a corner in Brooklyn made the pie, if you watched Sopranos and drooled at the pizza, than you owe yourself a trip here.

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Stunningly, the pizza was among the best NY-style pizzas I've had in the DC area. Good crust with a good char, sauce not too sweet and sparingly applied, and just the right amount of cheese to generate a touch of grease when you fold the slice over. I need to try it again to see if the consistency is there, but this MIGHT be worth driving across town for...

Thanks for the update; I think I know where Friday's dinner is coming from. Though NY-style pizza may not hold up well if it takes me 20 minutes to get from Boiling Brook to home. I've driven by the shopping center dozens of times since Coaches has been open, always wondering if it is worth stopping in.

To make sure we're speaking the same language....the closest I've seen to NY/NJ pizza around here is Mamma Luccia. But the crust is too soft or chewy. But then, my survey of area pizzerias is limited.

Steve

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Thanks for the update; I think I know where Friday's dinner is coming from. Though NY-style pizza may not hold up well if it takes me 20 minutes to get from Boiling Brook to home. I've driven by the shopping center dozens of times since Coaches has been open, always wondering if it is worth stopping in.

To make sure we're speaking the same language....the closest I've seen to NY/NJ pizza around here is Mamma Luccia. But the crust is too soft or chewy. But then, my survey of area pizzerias is limited.

Steve

We're on the same page - Mamma Lucia (Federal Plaza location ONLY) is my usual haunt for pizza. But you have to ask for it well-done to get the proper crust.

And I agree on takeout - sitting in that box for 20 minutes, or even 10, does pizza no good. I am in the habit of eating the first slice before I even pull out of the parking lot...

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Had their plain cheese pizza today at the Bethesda location.

Crust was OK. Not enough bubbling or char for my tastes. A little cardboard-y, but crisp (not soggy). The sauce was under-seasoned and decidedly average, er, well, subpar, no taste really. Waste of calories.

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Had their plain cheese pizza today at the Bethesda location.

Crust was OK. Not enough bubbling or char for my tastes. A little cardboard-y, but crisp (not soggy). The sauce was under-seasoned and decidedly average, er, well, subpar, no taste really. Waste of calories.

I know I sound like a broken record, and I'm sure Bethesda was convenient to you, but the Federal Plaza (Rockville) location is the only one worth visiting. It's such a different experience than all of the other locations, that I feel like I want to start a separate thread for it.

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I know I sound like a broken record, and I'm sure Bethesda was convenient to you, but the Federal Plaza (Rockville) location is the only one worth visiting. It's such a different experience than all of the other locations, that I feel like I want to start a separate thread for it.

I want to say the Federal Plaza location is the first one. The Mothership. Maybe that has something to do with the quality variance?

I started getting them to give me the pizzas half baked; then I get the pizza stone going before I leave the house, then set it on there when I get back for a few minutes and fix the crust up right.

Both Bethesda and FP (maybe all?) locations have the Tuesday carryout special (buy one pizza, 2nd one is $4.) Instant weeknight pizza party. Also, both of those locations now have delivery service.

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I go to Mamma's at least twice a month - Fallsgrove, Federal Plaza and Bethesda. I haven't noticed any difference in quality between any of them. Ordered a pizza just last week at Fallsgrove and it was excellent. They have pizza specials on Tuesday and Monday night is buy one pasta, get second for $3.99. Best deal in town and portions are big enough for leftovers.

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I've been a number of times to the Columbia location in the shopping center at rt. 108 and 175 and have always been pleased with the food and service. I haven't had the pizza, but the pasta dishes are always nicely done. If I had one critique, it would be that the portions are a little too large.

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