Observer Online | 'Down Home' Italian at Mamma Lucia's

Edition of Jan. 25, 2008

'Down Home' Italian at Mamma Lucia's

By Joanna Lewis

Restaurant Critic

The food at Mamma Lucia's restaurant in the North Point Village Center in Reston is called "Down Home Italian Cooking," a description that I found to be very accurate. Their red sauce, or gravy, is especially authentic, and their pizza and lasagna are quite popular. They serve dishes from both Northern and Southern Italy, but I thought the Northern cuisine was not as high quality as the Southern dishes.

Appetizers are limited to five, and the two soups are unremarkable. Their best dish is their pizza, including the New York style (thin crust) and Mamma Special with eight toppings. They also serve two white pizzas, one of which features roasted red peppers, mushrooms and artichokes.

Their lasagna and eggplant Parmesan, some of their most popular Italian dishes, are also quite good. The lasagna was perfect, hot throughout and full of cheeses and a good marinara. It was also a generous serving, providing about enough for a second meal.

Dinner entrees include a side salad and a choice of garlic or regular bread. They serve their garlic bread (sliced white bread that has been run under the broiler with a little marinara) with an incredible olive oil dipping sauce. I recommend that you keep the dipping sauce and ask for the small loaf of regular bread to accompany it. The restaurant usually brings butter with the loaf of white bread.

Mamma Lucia also offers salad entrees and pastas, as well as chicken, veal and seafood entrees, most of which are served over pasta. The Vitello Chesapeake, veal medallions topped with crabmeat and melted mozzarella, tasted as if it contained some imitation crabmeat. Commendable side dishes include spinach in olive oil and garlic and asparagus made the same way. They also serve mixed vegetables in a marinara sauce, meatballs and Italian sausage. I had the sausage sub one day and expected to find whole sausage, but instead was served sliced sausage, which had a different taste, texture and casing than their usual Italian sausage.

Desserts are limited to cannoli, tiramisu, dessert pizza, cheesecake and one daily special. The tiramisu was only slightly sweet as are most Italian desserts, and the dessert pizza is a beautiful dessert choice.

Prices are moderate, with sandwiches starting at $6 and the veal dishes, which are usually the most expensive, averaging $12 at lunch and $19 at dinner. Wines range from $7 to $10 a glass. Monday is pasta night, when customers can order a second pasta entrée for $3.99, and Tuesday is pizza night, when customers can order two large pizzas with the first at full price and second for $1.99. Children are welcome at the restaurant, and many families dine at Mamma Lucia.

When customers first enter Mamma Lucia, they see at the left an open kitchen with counters stacked with several kinds of pizza, calzone and stromboli, as well as a tall mound of small hot Parmesan rolls, which are free samples for customers. To the right is a beautiful bar and straight-ahead are the dining areas, which are well appointed. The restaurant plays jazz at a comfortable decibel level, and the wait staff performs well, being attentive without being intrusive.

For delivery services, call Waiter on the Way at 301-869-0300 or Takeout Taxi at 301-571-0111. There are nine Mamma Lucia restaurants in the area, but the Reston location is currently the only site in Virginia. The restaurant is open from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Monday through Thursday and from 10 a.m. to 11 p.m. Friday and Saturday and noon to 10 p.m. Sunday.