Cantina Mamma Lucia

I don’t usually leave reviews bit after seeing the rave reviews of this place, along with the few bad ones sprinkled in.
I travel to the area for business quite often recently and have been trying taking out places. I am originally from the north of Philly and have been missing good east coast Italian food living in Texas. I tried to order last time I was here but was placed on hold for a long time and wound up hanging up. This time the hold was not to long so I ordered the Chicken Alla Valdostona as it seemed slightly lighter than my go to Chicken Parmigiana. I took it to my hotel room to find no utensils were in the bag. I guess I should of asked and improvised. The chicken was bland, slimy and did not taste right at all. The pasta also had no sauce on it. I could only eat a few bites before deciding to just visit the hotel lobbies restaurant. I giving 2 stats due to the cannoli being decent.

This is my ultimate no brainier for pizza/​Italian. Couldn’t ask for a more solid establishment. This is a neighborhood spot with order at the counter service. Pizza wise they offer Ny and Sicilian style by the slice or pie. They also serve pasta, entrees, and subs etc. The $ 10 lunch buffet is on point. I’ve been going there for years along with everyone in a 10 mi radius.

I’ve had the pizza which was decent as well as the buffet. Nothing was truly amazing, but for the price its a good way to get filled up quickly with food that is tasty.

Always fresh and delicious! They know what pasta taste should be like.

Best Italian in the area. Skip the chain restaurants and come here. The food is excellent and this small family owned restaurant has been in business over 25 years!

Overrated. This is not an Italian restaurant. Its a school house cafeteria. Food is garbage and over priced. The restaurant itself looks like a school cafeteria. The wait staff is uninviting. The people who wrote good reviews are people from that neighborhood and want to build the reputation of «there place». Want good Italian food… not here

I came here after searching for a casual Italian restaurant in the area. I ordered the spaghetti and meatballs ($ 10.99), and an additional side of meatballs ($ 3.99 for two), since, well, I just really had a craving for some spaghetti and meatballs.
I ordered carry out, and the restaurant itself is just fine inside and the service was pretty good, but my meal itself was terrible. Although the food was very hot, my spaghetti was the thick, slippery, overly soft kind that you would get at a cafeteria. The sauce was piled on top of the pasta, with two large meatballs on top of that, but the pasta itself was sitting in a pool of saucy water, and I ended up having to drain it myself (probably a good ¹⁄₃ cup of water drained out just by tipping my container). Before draining it, the pasta was just sloshing around in a pool of water and no sauce would stick to it.
The meatballs were definitely good sized, but had a very mushy texture (like they were made from meat that was completely blended in a food processor, rather than formed from ground meat). They also didn’t seem to be seared at all, so there was no crispiness to them. Just squishy meat.
I have to say, after reading all the good reviews and seeing all the options on their website, I was very disappointed with my experience.

The service here has never been an issue. The staff are all very nice and helpful, and they give you a lot of food. They even have a daily lunch buffet, which is a nice competitive touch for the area. Unfortunately, the food just doesn’t taste good. I gave it a few tries to be sure, tasting a variety of options, and everything just tasted too bland and too lazy.
I don’t think the kitchen staff fell down on the job. I don’t blame any employees. It feels like everyone is doing exactly what they have been told. I think this place has probably just been in business for a long time, and the workers are just doing what the complacent owners instruct.
Like good authentic Italian cuisine, American Italian food thrives when it’s simple. Nothing needs to be fancy. Make your own tomato sauce. If you’re already making it, work on it some more because it’s watery, overly acidic, and unseasoned. Make your own pizza dough and breads. It’s just flour, water, yeast, salt, and some olive oil. Make your own pasta. It’s just flour and eggs. These ingredients are cheap, but a little work would make this place unbeatable in the area.
I really wanted to love this place after the way it was described to me by so many old time Maryland natives. I hope it gets better!

If you like real Italian comfort food this is the real deal. We hosted a party for 50 people two nights before my daughter’s wedding. Manager Frank was a pleasure to work with to plan the event and all the staff were very helpful and accommodating the night of the dinner.
We had a fun party in the private room with all our needs met with a nice variety of entrees, salads, drinks and dessert. The salmon al forno, tortellini rose and caprese salad were especially good.
This is located in a strip mall with plenty of parking. The interior is nice, very clean, not fancy. The food is solid, abundant and delicious.

We’ve been meaning to come here for years. The only reason it’s taken so long is because we love thai food and can never resist the neighboring restaurant — «little spice.» But we finally took the plunge and we are now more enlightened diners for it. That’s because cantina mama Lucia is a great family friendly restaurant that’s not expensive and doesn’t try to be anything it’s not which is essentially standard Italian food in a casual setting. Naturally the one issue with standard Italian fare is that it’s entirely too common, kind of boring and unoriginal at times. That’s my main gripe with this kind of cuisine. But hey let’s face facts… If done right, it’s delicious.
We started with the Greek salad which was definitely a surprise as it was far better than the normal version of this salad I’ve had many times before. Plus I respected the fact that they didn’t go overboard with the olives. My wife had the chicken cacciatore and i had the chicken with mozzarella and prosciutto for our entrees. I enjoyed my dish way more than hers because I prefer my chicken pounded and topped with cheese. But both dishes were appetizing and the accompanying garlic bread loosened my belt buckle a tad (in a good way).
The one thing I really didn’t like with mama Lucia is the fact that you pick up your own food when it’s ready. It took me several minute to figure out how I could carry two very hot dishes with garlic bread back to my table by myself. Thankfully one of the girls who works here saw me struggling and offered to help. Otherwise I would have had to make two trips for these very hot plates and someone else could have easily taken the other by accident. And did I mention these plates were piping hot!!! Thankfully we didn’t have to bus our own tables which is a policy at restaurants that I despise. But yeah call me a snob but I prefer someone bringing over the dishes to our table.
Would I come here again? Absolutely. Is there better italian fare out there in the nearby facility? Sure there is, especially vivo which is like a mile south. But like I said mama Lucia is casual italian. Its nothing fancy or out of the ordinary. But it’s convenient, fast, affordable and seemingly consistent and fresh.

I have been eating lunch and dinner frequently at Cantina Mamma Lucia since they first opened over 25 years ago. I used to live nearby, but now live 20 miles away and still go frequently! The food is worth the drive!
I highly recommend the tortellini or ravioli rose, the baked ziti, the chicken, veal or shrimp parmigiana, and don’t forget to check the daily specials!
You won’t find better Italian food outside the Italian section of a big city!

HORRIBLE !!! PISSED !!! The only place in town with a deep dish I order a meat lover deep dish thinking it’s ready be a good… But they give me a New York style for almost $ 30… So I call up thinking they will help me because I come there often and i just spend $ 28 on a pizza that wasn’t worth that the manger tells me i must of asked for a 18’in meat lovers and deep dish does come in that size… BUT I NEVER SAID THAT… I explain I never stated how many inches I wanted I stated what type of pizza I wanted the call ends with him telling me it my fault. Foods good but service I guess has to be earned if you aren’t a regular customer then they don’t care about being respectful or considerate NEVER AGAIN
CHECK EVERYTHING YOU WALK OUT WITH EVEN ON A BUSY FRIDAY NIGHT BACK THE LINE UP IF YOU HAVE TO JUST CHECK EVERYTHING BECAUSE THEY SAY IF YOU LEAVE WITH IT THEN ITS YOUR FAULT
NO DEEP DISH TONIGHT

Unilocal «Illuminati» be like: «Dude, really? A 5 star rating for an Italian strip mall joint in Hanover MD from a Jersey guy?»
YES. Keep Calm and Feel me.
Exhibit A) After a brief explanation and talk, the wonderful lady at the register, (it’s strip mall-​ey in that you order at register and sit and wait for your grub), they acquiesced to provide me with calamari that is NOT fried. Yes, the wonderfully sinful American practice of frying the crap out of a delightful and under-​appreciated sea life form, and giving you marinara with it as if anywhere except in the planet Zoltar and the US, serves it that way; YES… they deviated from this reprehensible practice. Myself, and likely Gollum, «we like our calamari a bit wrigly.» Not really, but nicely and simply sautéed in EVOO, garlic, crushed red pepper, and a bit of white wine. YES. Thank you folks! It was incredibly executed.
Exhibit B) They simply poured me a generous glass of Italian red that said: «We love you and know you had a long day.»
Exhibit C) The antipasto salad, (the way this kid ROLLS with salad), is amazing. «Kitchen sink» does not do it fair justice. They drop the gauntlet on this thing. For the price and what you get, I do not see the ROI for them. But for YOU my dear consumer; you are blessed with very nice accompaniments to anything that resembles a salad at national chains.
If the above is an indication of their paradigm and execution of other gringo friendly American-​Italian fare, you will LOVE it all. I make amazing Lasagne, and avoid trying it anywhere. I may just try theirs.
Thank you Cantina Mamma Lucia for being there for me in my work travels.

If you are still into Italian food, Mamma Lucia can make their food happen for your desire. It’s family own and like every Italian family own restaurants, they pride and love how they make their Italian food style. The town is lucky to have CML located its restaurant in its current location; it could have been locate in Little Italy Baltimore but they chose to serve in the very outskirt of BC. The food is quick and reasonably priced. Customers have an option to leave tips but I would suggest leave tips because you can see how they work hard to make things organized in the restaurant you can eat nicely.

Good amount of food… pretty good selection of pizza, pasta, salads.
We got a cheese pizza, spinach salad which was a pretty large size, n mussel linguini which came with some garlic bread.
Very filling n tasty.
Good parking area n seating.

My mom and I decided to come here for some food and were excited because of the high rating and rave reviews. We came in to find NO ONE there and we were instantly confused on what to do. So I went up to the front. The server seemed unimpressed and preoccupied, not really wanting to help me out. After finding a menu, two blackboards on the left wall.
My mom got the ravioli and I got the baked ziti. We started off with the calamari, seeing as Unilocal offered a $ 5 off coupon. My mom also got 2 glasses of Pinot Grigio while I got a soda. It was self served and so I went to get a diet coke and there was no ice. I went to tell the person who took our order and she said she’d put some in. Thankfully, she actually did get someone to put some ice in the machine. Anyways, the main thing was the food. As I read up on the reviews on Unilocal I became more and more nervous, seeing more recent reviews talking bad about the food.
The calamari was ready and they didn’t serve it, I had to go up and get it. I really didn’t care about that, so I got the calamari and brought it back. The sauce was amazing, like one of my favorites. The calamari, on the other hand, was blank and squishy and just –cringe– I don’t even want to talk about it. Finally, after 10 minutes, our food was up and I went to get it. The food looked decent but the taste was completely different. The ravioli was bland and the ziti tasted like it was a few days old.
Needless to say, I, nor anyone I know, will be coming to this place

Food — 2 stars.
Ambiance — 2 stars.
Service — 0 stars.
The cafeteria like Italian food has good portions but mediocre taste.
Children’s pasta w/​tomato sauce — decent for a 4 year old.
Caprese Salad Appetizer — Basil limp, mozzarella no taste and tomatoes seasoned with salt & pepper. Balsamic — meh.
Baked ziti — meh.
Seafood pasta special — decent.
Service — the brunette lady at the front didn’t seem like she wanted to be at work. She basically never made eye contact. She seemed bored. Just a bad attitude in general. When I asked her about the Unilocal appetizer, she just blinked at me, rang up the appetizer and gave me the ticket for payment.
Not a fan. Won’t be returning.

Everything was delicious, and the service was super fast. The Stromboli was really delicious, and smelled heavenly.
We got dessert to go, too, and the peanut butter fudge pie was delicious

One of our fave spots. Pizza is amazing, meatballs are so good and the lasagna is fantastic. Don’t forget the cannoli’s. I really don’t think I have had anything here that wasn’t good.
They also have some good take home and cook yourself options.
Not so thrilled at the lunch buffet, but I am fine ordering off the main menu.

Not even a mediocre food place. I can’t decide whether this place is a really bad Italian or a really good Mexican restaurant. It is definitely a cantina.
Went here for lunch. Maybe try dinner?.. Or stay away from the pasta? And of course no coke products.
Makes me homesick for some canned spaghetti-​os.
The shrimp scampi needs to be renamed to shrimp scanty. While waiting for my order. This customer walks to the server and shows him the dirty fork. Server growls in his mobster voice… «Then get a different one…» Server didn’t get the point I guess.