Mamma Lucia of College Park — Restaurant in College Park

Quiet possibly the BEST pizza place I have EVER been to EVER!! We were visiting from out of town and Mamma Lucia came up after looking for kid friendly places to eat. We had a large party of about 12 or so, so I called ahead to make sure we could be accommodated before bombarding them with 5 kids under the age of 7, and very tired grown ups after a day of travel to DC. From the second they answered the phone they were fantastic. I did not get names (shame on me!!) But she was excited for us to come try them out and said she would have us ready to seat when we got there. When we arrived we were greeted by a wonderful older lady who knew immediately we were the party who called and took us straight to our table. We shared some funny banter and it was like we were long lost family and all of the staff was smiling and greeting us. She brought our her "very own special" coloring books and crayons for our little ones to use and was sweet as could be. Lets get to the good stuff... FOOD. we had calamari, a spinach, feta salad, some pasta that was on the nightly special menu and two pizzas. EVERYTHING was FANTASTIC. You could tell that love, time and quality ingredients were used in every thing they made. She even came over and cut the slices down for our little ones (HUGE SLICES!!) and joking offered to do it for the grown ups as well. I cannot say enough about the food. It was something special!! Our waitress was great as well, she never let a glass get empty, when my daughter knocked her drink over, she was there in an instant changing chairs, mopping up the spill and a new drink appeared like magic. Overall if I could give 100 stars I would. Resturant was clean, food was fantastic and staff was beyond friendly. We are from the south, so for what ever reason we never expected to have such a friendly reception in DC. (My whole thought on that is different now however; DC was FULL of friendly folks) Mamma Lucia will be a place I will return to over and over ...

Worst meal that I can remember. I generally have enjoyed the pizza and my wife considers them the second-best pasta in the area, but we had maybe the worst, most bland, bordering on suspiciously inept dining experience in a long time. We ordered a cheese pizza and chicken marsala and both were nearly inedible from a taste perspective and in the case of the pasta, from maybe in terms of safety. The pizza: Bland, bordering on stale crust, with a sauce that at best could be described as flavorless and cheese that was skimped on so badly that that I thought we had ordered a Connecticut red pie. There was a distinct lack of any classic Italian flavors (rosemary, garlic, basil) or even salt. I'm not going to say that the box would have tasted better, but gnawing for comparison did pass my mind. The Chicken Marsala: A similar blandness that lacked any robust flavors associated with that dish. Small mushrooms and not enough sauce. The worst part was the actual chicken, nothing to give is any distinctness (breading, bronzing marinade) other than a sliminess that was unsettling. It was just several sad, pale rubbery chicken. It was take out and maybe a less than enthusiastic staff, stuck working on New Years Day (front of house was nice when handing off the food), but it's an experience that left us turned off for the foreseeable future. Not sure if we'll go back anytime soon and not sure what I would advise except maybe dining in so if something is off, then you can bring it up to the staff in person, but for two meals at more than $50, I would hope that management would want to get it right. The Caesar salad that came with the...

Mama Lucia's looks like a pizzeria, has the menu of an upskill Italian restaurant And as far as I can tell there was nothing under $15. They didn't even have single pizza slices being offered. However, the service was friendly. I didn't feel expending 30 bucks total for a quick lunch so I decided to go with a salad. I ordered the Greek salad and I didn't specify what I want a small large so I could see what do it all for me. I did get the large Greek salad. I was fifteen dollars. However, it was worth it because that was the best Greek salad I have ever had. I came here because I used to visit the Mama Lucia at another location a long time ago on a weekly basis. Well I moved up the ranks and another company I had to do this. And I haven't been back to a mama Lucy and a very long time. So when I saw this founders see it put back the static memories. But this is not a mama Lucia I remembered. I was looking for a quick, good, sleep lunch because I had to get some place for an appointment. Was not so quick and the food was not so inexpensive. However even more time I would definitely come back here because as I said the food was very excellent. As a matter of fact even though I only order a salad and it was a big salad they did treat me to garlic bread with the Italian dipping sauce to go with it. This place has touches of an upscale restaurant, the prices of upscale restaurant, and the food of an upscale Restaurant, but it's still looks...