Grotto Pizza — Restaurant in Maryland

Looking forward to our first visit, left disappointed by the experience.

Our Friday evening there started off waiting for a parking spot to open, I hoped being busy was a good sign. Once in Grotto Pizza we were informed to expect a 25 minute wait however, we were offered a table in the bar area by others who were leaving. A waitress cleared then wiped our table, but left it so wet that we could not rest anything on it. So I used their paper napkins to wipe it dry, to my dismay the napkins came up brownish-wet after I wiped off our ‘clean’ table.

The waitress returned to take our order, I explained we were just becoming acquainted with the menu. We ordered a side salad as an appetizer, steak and cheese sub with French Fries, and a large plain Pizza (some take-home), with sodas. Most restaurants offer their sub customer a choice of cheese and ask if they prefer any topping (lettuce or tomato or onion, etc.), we were not asked nor had we noted those are by request. The sub and fries arrived first, the sub consisted of meat and cheese on the sub roll - the absence of toppings was our oversight. The steak was flavorful but we both found bits of bone and/or gristle in the meat. We read the French Fries were recommended by another reviewer, ours were lukewarm and nothing special.

Later the Pizza arrived, this was a swirl pattern of cheese and tomato sauce topping that was tasty. The crust was thin and nicely crisp but ‘white bread’ bland. I usually eat every bite of a Pizza, but here I left the untopped crust not thinking it was worth the calories. As we finished our meal I was wondering about the side salad when that arrived; we asked the waitress return it. We also showed her the parts found in our sub, she offered to adjust that off the bill. As it turned out the salad was credited while the sub remained on the bill, I was content just to get going not caring about the $10 fee for that sub so I paid the bill and tipped our apparently overworked waitress.

Bell Curve comes to mind here, many people were there maybe because this place has a liquor license? Likely not for the food or service. Grotto Pizza’s food and service too are bested by several other pizza places in the area, since we care less about alcohol we likely...

Recently I went to the Grottos restaurant in Columbia, Maryland. I am from Charleston, S.C. and unfortunately due to our youngest daughters severe health problems, we have to travel to Maryland very often for healthcare. We always stay at the Springhill Marriott location and we have always eaten many of our meals at Grottos. The first day that we arrived of course I went to Grottos for dinner. I ask for a to go menu and was told that they have none. They told me to look up the menu on line. I tried to explain to the employee and also the manager that my Daughter was deaf and had very little sight so it would not help her to look at the menu online. The manager said very strongly that he could not possibly let me take a laminated paper menu out of the restaurant for my daughter to use!!! I even offered to leave my driver’s license to ensure that I would bring his paper menu back. Nope! Not going to happen! It was late and I just ordered a pizza. So dissatisfied with the pizza! One of the worst I have had. Guess what? I won’t ever be back!! Grottos lost many meals on my family that week and will never get another one from us in all the times we have to come back. I guess being from Charleston S.C., named friendliest City in the World many times, leads to dissatisfaction and disappointment when you try to explain to a restaurant manager the stress you are under with your disabled daughter and they really just don’t care. Just a little compassion and common sense goes a very very long way! So if you are ever in Columbia or Baltimore Maryland, trust me there are some awesome restaurants to go to. Skip Grouchy...

Went to Grotto's after a tough basketball tournament. Our server was a young lady named Oliva. She seemed nice. I didn't have cash so I put the two team orders on my credit card. I placed Olivia's tip on my credit card for the first order. The second order I did not. I opted to give her cash. Well, I waited for a few at the table and she didn't come back so I went to find her with 20+% tip in cash. Oliva was literally complaining to a coworker about her tips. At the same time another server was trying to help me get Olivia's attention. Oliva didn't hear us. She stormed past me (as I held her cash tip in my hand). I called out to her to let her know that I had been trying to get her attention. She erroneously claimed we gave her 25 buck for a 400 bill. I was offended. Not only was our two bills under 300 b4 tip, I stood there and listened to her complain, when she was wrong. I had every intention of giving Oliva both tips. Oliva needs to learn that tips aren't mandatory. She also needs to learn that you never know who's listening. There is a thing called on and off stage. Customer service is something that doesn't come naturally for all. Oliva made that apparent. We tipped her fully although she messed up our order. We were grateful to her for dealing with a full 11 y/o boys basketball team. She apologized..... and accepted the tip that at that point she...