Mamma Lucia of Bethesda — Restaurant in Maryland

Well this was a review I was hoping to never leave. Let me first preface this, by saying I have given myself a night to calm down before writing this, because an angry review is never fair to anyone. I have been a patron of Mamma Lucia's for going on 20 years now, When I was younger we would go there (the rockville location) for my birthday, and my sister even catered late night pizza to her wedding back in 2016. Starting about a year and a half ago, I noticed a sharp slide in quality, and last night was the final straw. When I called in, I spoke to (I believe the manager), I put my order in, and when he asked for a phone number I gave them the one we have on record, to make things easier for them. He then said my wife's name, and I said, yes, this is my wifes number that you have on record. The manager then proceeded to say he would refer to me as (wifes name*) for the remainder of the call, which he did, which I ignored, and we tipped 20% as we always do. All of these things I could happily ignore, however then it came to the food. We ordered two orders of wings, two salads, and garlic bread (which the owner insisted they had). The Wings were burnt to a crisp, and half the them were broken, and clearly mushy bruised meat previous to cooking. The salads were both sitting in a pool of water, and the garlic bread was just their normal bread with paprika on it. We threw the food out and on a whim I pulled the receipt out of the trash to see if garlic bread was on it. Taking a look at the receipt we were charged for 'garlic knots' which I actually would have been an appropriate step up from the soggy mess we received. Mind you the manager that took my order insisted that they had garlic bread, and that it was different from the normal bread that is given. I decided to call the manager back to see what was going on. I politely and calmly explained that every Item was bad, and that I have never seen anything like this in the 20 years or so of eating their food. Instead of apologizing, or giving any avenue of correction the manager says, "wings, salad and bread? I don't see how any of this can be messed up" and then I reminded him of the conversation we had about garlic bread, to which he replied that their garlic bread is their paprika bread, even though we had had the exact opposite conversation on the phone not an hour previously, he then sarcastically stated that he would send me out more bread to which I refused, and told him I didn't want anything, but to let him know that this quality of food should not be acceptable to a manager. I am not sure if the manager was having a bad day, or possibly on drugs, however this is just not the type of service that should...

I have been a fan of Mama Lucia's from their bethesda beginnings. Their food was wonderful way back then and it's still good. I don't think I've ever been disappointed by dining at their Bethesda establishment. What i DO miss most is Chris, their former manager. We were regulars back then, ate there at least once a week, and Chris would always acknowledge us one way or another. Sometimes, it was a glass of wine, sometimes a dessert and, always, a big hello with a special greeting. If we had to wait for a table there was always a glass of wine for us while we waited. He knew his patrons, he knew how to treat the regulars and he truly knew how to make them want to return.

For me, a native Philadelphian always in search of really good pizza, Mama's fits the bill. I've heard some say they don't put enough sauce on their pizza but, as i tell everyone who says that, all you have to do is ask for "extra" sauce and problem solved.

With an occasional exception, I've always found Mama's wait staff to be accommodating and friendly. If the kitchen is "backed up," they let you know and are apologetic. Every once in awhile, there may be a slip up but hey, nobody's PREFECT. ;-)

I highly recommend a visit to Mama's and, by all means, bring Papa. ;-)

P.S. We also enjoy an occasional home delivery of their delicious food. I don't know how they do it but it always arrives nice and hot and just as...

Friday night looking for a place to eat in Bethesda and we decided on Mamma Lucia because my friend who lives here orders out from there a lot. Big mistake!! Wish i could give them zero stars! She had never dined in only used take out. We arrived at about 8:45 and ordered. So far everything was going well and about an hour later we were wondering where our food was so we called the waitress to the table she said OMG I forgot to put the order in. I don’t know how this happened and she went to the front and told her manager, Jeff, I f—-ed up and I forgot to place their order. She came back was remorseful for a minute then went back to the front and Jeff never not once came to our table to apologize for the mishap or to even pick up the check. He stayed behind the register the whole time. She then said she would pay for our meal and Jeff said that was nice. We were like when you mess up you don’t tell the employee that’s nice and never address the customers we were spending a lot of money that evening and the whole thing was a mess. Makes me wonder if it was because we were the only black folks dining in the restaurant? Still didn’t matter that their customer service SUCKED! I will never go there again and my friend who lives here and ordered frequently will never go there again either! If you are looking for good customer service, this is not the...