Rock Creek Mazza

The place is in a good location, but the food is nothing to really remember. As a matter of fact, I really dont remember how good it was. Nothing to really remember.

Food: Overpriced is the first thing that comes to mind. If I recall correctly, no entrée was under $ 19. The first courses ranged from $ 9 to $ 16/​$ 18. Fortunately, the portions were just right. The chicken consommé was gingery and soothing, but I would order the crab cake next time. Despite its extraordinary price, the crab cake looked moist and was set atop a generous portion of dressed cucumber, hearts of palm and avocado. The salads looked very fresh. I had the rockfish with red quinoa and parsnip cream for an entrée. The whole dish was underseasoned. The grapefruit demiglace on and around the fish didn’t taste like anything really. They didn’t have the quince crisp when I was there, but the chocolate molten cake was decent. The cake itself was very soft and a little gooey; unfort, the «bittersweet caramel sauce» didn’t taste like caramel, nor did it strike me as bittersweet.
In sum, Rock Creek’s food was bland and unsatisfying. I wish I had better things to say given the restaurant’s admirable mission of serving healthy food in moderation. But in the words of Emeril, RC’s chef needs to take it up a notch! and learn how to use herbs and spices to make up for the absence of butter and cream in his/​her dishes. Note: The restaurant does not use cream or butter in any of its savory dishes.
Service: Our waitress was attentive, perhaps overly so. The place wasn’t busy, but she felt the need to return to our table every 5 minutes to check in.
Atmosphere: Totally hokie (fake tree in the middle of the restaurant) and definitely true to its furniture store roots (at least I heard the space was formerly occupied by a furniture retailer). The place felt and looked like a dining hall in a retirement community — everything was beige, except for the white table cloths, and the room was brightly lit.

The restaurant has a nice, classy atmosphere but not overly so. Friends and I sat next to the windows overlooking Friendship Heights and enjoyed a nice sunset. I really liked that the food is locally grown and sustainable and that the menu includes a detailed nutrition chart of every item.
I would recommend coming in here for a drink or glass of wine, perhaps before a movie, but not for the food. The portions are awfully small and you will leave hungry.
Example, my friend ordered the butternut squash ravioli from the appetizer menu and received THREE pieces at a whopping $ 12.
Save your money and go somewhere else.

Very vegetarian, very healthy, very loud, many tables next to the movie –plex. Nice bar. Clean restrooms. Nice staff. Pricey for what you get. Good for small parties. Each entrée has its caloric value noted on the menu. Good wine list. Try it, you may love it, hate it.

I’ve been to the one in Bethesda, so I wanted to try this one out.
The best feature is the list of nutritional information with every menu. It’s really helpful — and, honestly, surprising.
The dishes are fresh and interesting. I swear, I could have eaten every appetizer on the menu.
The ambiance is really pleasant and calming.
I had the roasted hearts of palms, which were amazing. I liked my beet salad, but I was a bit disappointed because the beet salad at the Bethesda location had more beets and less greens. The cinnamon ice cream is AMAZING.
Definitely a good place for a nice meal!

I have the secret on this restaurant but you gotta drop some money. Trust me it’s well worth it so make sure you take someone special. Make sure Cory is the chef before you go and ask for his tasting menu. Be prepared to spend three hours of absolutely blissful eating.

Totally a place for the «ladies that lunch» and now they don’t even have to think about their food choices.
Mom took me here and failed to mention the «mindful eating» premise of the place (totally intentional). Basically no entrée is over 500 calories, but PLEASE, do not let that scare you away, the food was very good, starting with the whole grain bread and eggplant spread (they serve no butter). The fresh mozz/​tomato/​roasted eggplant first course was very good, I enjoyed it better than the one with the goat cheese & exotic mushrooms. Additionally, my veggie pita was great and my friend enjoyed her pasta dish. Only the dessert I would say needed improvement, I got the chocolate molton cake and was not happy with the texture. I don’t know if the 500 cal limit was inhibiting it. If so, they need to make it smaller and improve it.
Loved the floor to ceiling windows. Service needs improvement.

Healthy upscale dining. Nothing like a lunch with people from work on the company account :) I had the restaurant week lunch menu. Buffalo mozzarella, roasted eggplant, and heirloom tomatoes with a balsamic dressing was a great simple healthy starter. For the main course I had Atlantic salmon over a mixed green salad. Again simple, clean, and light course. For dessert, I had a taste sized peach tart with allspice ice cream and a almond fudge cake. My co-​workers got a jumbo lump crab cake, which was said to be amazing. The bison burger also loved delicious and juicy. The restaurant wasn’t very crowded so the service was very attentive. The manager came over and spoke a couple of words with us (probably to sweet talk our company to come back). Definitely a great place to eat if you are looking for lighter and healthier fare.

I waver between 4 and 5 stars– but I can’t figure out why so I’ll just give it 5. The décor was fascinating with a tree in the middle of the room. The atmosphere inside was enchanting and is probably super romantic when the sun goes down. Our candle kept going out though which was distracting — but funny.
I enjoyed the eggplant «butter» (no butter in it!) with the bread and was very impressed that they did not use any dairy products at all in anything we ate (except for the cheese for dessert). I had the chicken and ironically it was the most calorific thing on the menu but I would eat it again! Man that was good stuff. And I didn’t feel like I needed to be rolled out afterwards. It was an excellent meal.
The place in Bethesda had water pipes leaking so we ended up in Friendship heights… and I’m really glad we did!

I love to eat out (obvi) so when I’m eating in I tend to watch my caloric intake fairly carefully so I don’t blow up like a balloon. I’ve always wished I could know exactly how much I was taking in when I’m eating out and I don’t have the handy nutrition facts at hand, so when I discovered that this was the case at Rock Creek I headed right over.
It was certainly a bit odd to walk into a «healthy» restaurant environment through a movie theater wafting with the smell of popcorn, however once the doors closed behind us I pretty much forgot where we were. I really love the enormous tree in the middle of the restaurant and gazing out of the third floor windows, but other than that I wouldn’t say I was too impressed by the ambiance or décor.
The one thing that absolutely sets this restaurant apart from any other is the ability to know exactly how much you consume in your entire meal from the piece of bread they serve as your seated, to your glass of wine, down to the tiny bites of dessert that wrap up the meal. The emphasis on local organic ingredients is also a major plus in my book– more DC restaurants need to start following this lead. I would highly recommend any of the fresh vegetable starters and all of the fish dishes. Each of the entrees are prepared in an extremely light fashion, although not to forsake the tender juicy flavors. Although I wouldn’t say the desserts blew me over, I really enjoyed the ability to choose a «bite» or taste of each– because who doesn’t often find themselves in the situation of craving 4 different options on a dessert menu!
A few folks have commented on the price and I would agree that my bill was larger than expected, however when you factor in the extra time they are taking to have each piece of the meal nutritionally analyzed, and that they are using local organic ingredients, I think it’s worth a few extra bucks. A great healthy option for a dinner out that won’t leave you hungry.

Three friends and I dined at Rock Creek for the first time last night. We were going to see Sex and the City and were pretty excited that the restaurant was offering ½ priced cosmopolitans with your ticket stub. I don’t usually like cosmos, but these were really good — maybe they used fresh fruit juice, maybe I was just caught up in the moment, not really sure.
The restaurant has a great atmosphere — clean lines, a live tree in the center of the dining room, and great light coming from the glass wall overlooking Wisconsin Avenue. Service was friendly, if not a tad slow.
The food didn’t leave a great impression. My friends and I had been eagerly anticipating our meal as we are really into healthy and fresh food. It wasn’t BAD, it just wasn’t anything that wowed us. The bread served with eggplant spread was flavorless. My bibb salad was not any better than the pay-​by-​weight salad bar I had at lunch that day. The ravioli was cold and left me still hungry.
Dessert was confusing — you order by the bite. We all ordered as many bites as we could because we were all still hungry. I had the lemon lavender cake. It was alright. One of my friends had grounds in their lukewarm coffee.
I don’t think I would try it again at dinner. I might give it another go at lunch just because I think the concept is great and the staff so very nice.

I really believe DC needs more restaurants like this place, ones that promote «mindful eating.» This place (as well as its sister restaurant in Bethesda) lists the nutritional content of each dish. It’s refreshing to have this type of info at nice places besides the chains that list them on their website.
Now to the review…
The décor is quite beautiful and soothing. You can easily forget a movie theater is right outside. We had an early dinner and there wasn’t too many people in the restaurant yet. We didn’t have reservations, so were put in the «bar area» at a table. We had to make a movie, and the server was told this, so I don’t know if our quick in-​and-​out dining experience and lack of being «served» was due to our original comments. First, we had 3 or so different waiters. The one who took our order didn’t even offer any of the night’s specials – because she didn’t know what they were (um, ask someone).
Food: I’m a very healthy eater and was so excited to dig in. I like my food clean so I wasn’t going to miss any of the butter, cream or oil. We started off with a scallop appetizer. This was $ 16 and there were maybe 5 very small scallops onto of some purée. The few mushrooms that came with it were very nice, but I was not impressed with this dish. It was small (and who doesn’t want those big-​ass scallops) and was definitely not worth the price. Next I ordered a tenderloin and my companion had the seared tuna. My steak was dry and it didn’t come with any sauce to make it more appetizing. I’ve made steak at home before that has no added fat and was much tastier than this. My parter’s tuna was good but nothing out of this world. We then had the peanut butter chocolate bite. It really is a bite, but it was good. I’m a small girl and I left not very satisfied.
I’m wondering if I ordered the wrong food. This place has a nice atmosphere and I’m sure some of their dishes are quite tasty. My recommendation would be to order those «bad for you» dishes and enjoy their healthful interpretations. This place is also not cheap, so bring a thick wallet if you plan to eat here and see a show.

RC Mazza has totally different menu, chef and ambience compared to RC bethesda. I can’t say which one is better but both have healthy-​food concept (more like low-​fat, least additives and local ingredient concept).
The best bet here for money and feeling good after the meal would be Amish chicken dish, bison burger (brunch or lunch), venison and squash soup (if you don’t like buttery squash soup). RCM does have good steak dish but this isn’t the place for big chunk of steak you can get at other steak-​restaurant.
For Desserts, it’s not low-​calorie version, but they give you small portion so that you won’t feel too guilty about eating one.
Oh. if you go for brunch (even dinner, you need to ask), try the fig-​jam coming with your bread. It’s very tasty. Lemon bread is also good even if you are on low-​carb diet:)
RCM offers tea from Teaism. Ice cream or frozen yogurts are all made at RCM (not from other suppliers) so if you want some home-​made frozen sweets, you can try them but those taste pretty similar to other brands you see at other grocery stores like haagen daz or Ben and jerry.
Because of location, the servers expect good tips (got some inside info) like most other high-​end restaurants, Just FYI.
Oh. by the way, RCM won’t serve you Butter, even if you want some for your bread. It is anti-​butter spot!

I’ve been to their other location on Elm Street in Bethesda several occasions, but this weekend was my first trip to this location. My first thought was that it was big and beautiful, but at a loss of the intimacy that the Elm Street location offers. It was quiet inside, and the giant fake tree in the middle was impressive and pretty, providing a very lovely dining ambiance, but it just isn’t as cozy as Rock Creek Bethesda.
The service was perfect. Very prompt and pleasant without being overbearing-​they definitely win points from me for that!
The food (which is pretty much the most important part, right?) was delicious and healthy. They provide nutritional information for most items on their menu, although last week, all the salads were new and did not have the nutritional information available yet.
I had their yukon gold potato gnocchi as an appetizer, they were able to make it for me without any ham, and it was delicious. For my entrée, I had the Amish Chicken with Quince, and my dining companion had the Whole Wheat Pappardelle with Golden Chanterelles. Both were delicious (we shared tastes of each). The chicken was very crispy and a reasonable portion size, and the accompanying crushed sweet potatoes were very tasty, too. The whole wheat pasta had a nice sauce and the chanterelle mushrooms were cooked perfectly.
For dessert, they offer one or two full-​sized desserts (still smaller than most restaurants due to being a healthy portion), as well as an option to get «bites» of various things. I chose to get three bites. The first, their linzer torte, did not look like my mental picture of a linzer torte, but it tasted right and was very delicious. My second bite, the chocolate and peanut butter crunch, had a wonderful texture to it and was equally delicious. Very chocolatey! Lastly, I had the lemon goat cheese cake bit, which tasted like a normal cheesecake, but had a lot less fat in it!
Parking is available in the lot below the Mazza Galleria, and Rock Creek validates for up to two hours. It is also easily metro accessible from the Friendship Heights stop on the Red Line.

I was really looking forward to brunch at Rock Creek Mazza. I went with a group of 11 apres –church. When we made reservations we’d been asked to choose from several options for a $ 25 prix fixe meal. We ended up with three entrees and two starters to choose from.
What does it take to get a cup of coffee at this place, you ask? Well, it takes several requests to a waiter, and several more to ask for milk and sugar. After 45 minutes, I asked the management what up? That seemed to get things moving.
I had the Caesar salad with white anchovies which was terrific. Plus an omelet with mushrooms, which was not terrific. Not bad, just seriously underspiced. And overpriced. Not a winning combo.
One slice of terrific warm bread was served with a lovely chutney. Having just the one slice instead of the typical bread bowl served in most restaurants made me savor it even more. I truly like Rock Creek’s rational approach to portion size.
What I didn’t like: the $ 40 I ended up paying for what was basically coffee, salad and an omelet. (Gratuity included since we were such a large group.) I could have had a similar meal at the Tastee Diner for $ 10!
Before leaving, I told the manager about the slow and inconsistent service which left us all scrambling to get out the door literally minutes before our parking validation ran out (hey, parking isn’t cheap here!). He reminded me that our reservation was from 1 p.m.-3 p.m., and that validation was good for only two hours. Which I knew. Which was kind of the point. He basically told me that we broke the rules by bringing two more people than we reserved for.
Most restaurants can roll with that. Rock Creek couldn’t that day. No apology was forthcoming. In fact, I found myself apologizing to him.
Go figure.
Given the price, and the buzz, I expected better service, and better food. An apology, instead of a lecture, might have salvaged things.
UPDATE: I just got off the phone with Chris Cherkis, events manager, who read my original review and wrote to apologize. His taking the time to read and respond to this review is impressive. As was his apology. And the fact that he did not request that I update or change this review in any way.
As I said above, an apology goes a long way. I’ve upped Rock Creek’s rating, because everyone has an off day, and apparently the day I was there was one of their’s. If you have a big group, work with Chris. He wasn’t able to be there the day we went, but he’s a standup guy who wants to make good on the restaurant’s promises. And had he been there, I’m sure we would have a much different experience.

I am going to go ahead with 5 stars here. I am really torn between 4 and 5 stars.
Food– Excellent. This is definitely 5 stars. The gnocchi was fantastic! The pear salad was yummy as well. The molten cake was the best I have had. It seemed everyone else loved there food as well.
All of the food is fresh and served in proper (small) portions. The last page of the menu includes nutritional information if you want it.
Service– Service was good. When we asked for something, we seemed to get it in a timely manner. However, it seemed like long stretches between courses and between visits from our server. We were there over 2 hours and most of that was waiting. Of course, the point is mindful eating, so I guess slowing down and enjoying the meal and company of friends is key here.
It was a little odd to enter the restaurant through the lobby of the movie theater. I guess that isn’t the restaurant’s issue necessarily, but it did give me a strange first impression.
Check out Rock Creek. Just leave yourself plenty of time.

I’m very surprised that there is no other review on Rock Creek Mazza until now! There’s another location on Elm St. in Bethesda as well that I was totally unaware of! From the reviews I’ve seen on Unilocal,it’s equally as good!
Rock Creek is a fairly new restaurant that specializes in serving «normal» portions of fairly healthy to healthy fare made with fresh local organic products. To help you out, they provide all the nutritional information on everything on the menu to help you decide what you can indulge yourself with! The name says it all as for the ambience… a huge fake tree (but very realistic) graces the center of the dining area. Very comforting and cozy.
I had a the Grilled Beef Striploin served atop Whipped New Potatoes and patty-​pan Squash and Grape Tomatoes on the side. Cooked perfectly to order (medium rare), the pre-​sliced sirloin nearly melted in my mouth. The squash and mash were perfect compliments to the beef. Homemade grain bread was offered from the beginning and often throughout the evening.
Dessert was excellent. Although I only had a bite, the Molten Chocolate Cake is as close to heaven as you can get! There’s also a selection of house-​made ice cream and sorbets. I tried a sesame seed ice cream because I’ve never heard of such a thing! If they have when you go, try it out!
Service was very good. Although it seemed like the time between food servings seemed to be a bit more lengthy than I prefer, everything was spot once it was served.
One final note… the server noticed that a few birthday presents were opened at the table after drinks were served and without anyone ever mentioning a thing about birthdays, a candle was put in my ice cream at dessert. It was a very nice way to end the evening and totally unexpected. Rock Creek rocks!