Caruso's Grocery - Pike & Rose

I was excited about trying this place with my family. Am disappointed because the food was not as expected. Not sure if I will try again.

It was amazing. This place is a go to for my family. We have a hard time finding something we like as much. The service is amazing and the food is top notch.

We came to Caruso’s Grocery for my wife’s birthday dinner and left completely let down. Despite a 6 p.m. reservation through OpenTable and the restaurant not being particularly busy, we waited far too long just to be acknowledged. I had to grab our own silverware, and we weren’t even given four cups of water for the four of us.

Our waiter was friendly but extremely forgetful—he missed multiple items, brought out dishes we didn’t order, and explained it was because they didn’t have what we had ordered. He said he just “took the initiative.” That’s not how it works.

I also quietly asked him to do something small to mark my wife’s birthday. He promised he would—and then completely forgot. Nothing was done.

And to top it off, even though we had a reservation, OpenTable later marked us as a no-show—so it seems the host didn’t check us in properly either.

The food was mediocre and overpriced for what it was. Service was the biggest issue by far. We were hoping for a special night out and instead left frustrated and disappointed.

This is a Maryland-based location of the restaurant that is on Capitol Hill in Washington. The restaurant is located on the edge of the Pike and Rose area in Rockville. It is easy to locate and there is ample, paid parking in garages quite nearby. There is also free parking in a small shopping center right across the street, if you can locate a space

We were there on a Sunday and the parking garages were free.

The food is Italian. I considered it average for thus type of food. I had veal parmigiana and my husband had eggplant rollitini. Both were tasty but not so that made them outstanding.

Service was very good. Our server was quite patient and attentive.

We ate at 5:30pm and it was not crowded. It did become busy. The noise level was not bad. It was easy for our party of 4 to easily converse and hear each other.

The styling of the restaurant was much as you would expect the decor of an Italian restaurant-red, lots of framed photos on the wall, etc.

We had a great experience. When we walked in, we had a reservation and was seated immediately. I wasn't happy with our seats so they happily switched us and we kept our waitress, Agu, who was amazing! She was super sweet and knowledgeable. She also gave us complimentary champagne for our anniversary and some kind of lemon shot at the end. It was delicious! I ordered the Alfredo with chicken and my fiance ordered the chicken parmesan. They were both delicious!! I would definitely come back here because we just had an overall great experience.
Parking: We were able to get 2 hours free parking across the street.

Great eggplant rollatini

The semolina dusted calamari was so good, it had a great taste of flavor and the sauce was good as well.

Get your drinks made by Rodrigo!

We celebrated my Stepmother's 80th Birthday here. She organized the event herself. There were about 20-25 people in attendance. The food, the service and the atmosphere were great!
Would definitely eat here again!

We had a wonderful experience here for our first anniversary, they really made it memorable. Please ask for Raul. He was fantastic and beyond accommodating. Will definitely be back. Thank you!

The food was amazing, but the wait for service was long.

The food was really very good - casual Italian, nothing fancy, but well done! Service was also really good.
Restaurant itself has decent decor, but booths are a little too tight and it's kind of dark inside. Also, noise level in dining room was high once it filled up and it became very difficult for us to converse.
Hoping the outdoor construction is done soon so that outdoor dining will be available once spring comes along!

This is a great place. We have a dinner during a weekday. The staff was extremely professional, courteous and accommodating to our needs. The foods is just fantastic. We order the Burrata salt as an entry, different pasta dishes and chicken parmiggiano, and Tiramisú and the Blood Orange Creme Brûlée for dessert. Everything was outstanding. The prize is within the range of restaurants in the area.

the service is really bad. in the 2 times i’ve been here i’ve had to ask for plates to be taken away, ask for water to be refilled and long waits in between check in’s. regarding the food, in the 2 times i’ve been here the food has given me diarrhea. i think they put too much heavy cream in their pasta or there is too much cheese in the mozzarella in carroza. lastly the price. for 24-28 for a pasta i don’t think it’s worth it. the pasta lacks flavor and is a small portion. in my opinion olazzo is way better place than here, and knowing that is 7 mins away i don’t see any reason to come here. unless i want overpriced pasta, bad service and diarrhea.

The food and drinks are delicious. The ambiance is nice, but a bit noisy. The service was good but check-in staff at the front of the restaurant were very anal retentive about getting our party seated. We had a reservation but because some of the people in our party were running late, the restaurant staff didn’t want to sit us down until everyone was present which was a bit awkward. We could have been ordering drinks in the meantime, but there were no accommodations.