Rustic Oven

The food here is VERY fresh and taste delicious… nice ambiance and it has a romantic feel to it… great customer service.

We have been enjoying this authentic italian food for many years. It is by far my favorite restaurant in Maryland. Since Mamma left (the original owner) there were small transition differences however the new owner has made huge improvements. The food is exactly the same but the service is a thousand times better. The new owner is open to suggestions and is almost always present to receive feedback.
Sadly this restaurant has closed. Another excellent private establishment in a not so good location loses the battle.

My boyfriend and I have been going to the Rustic Oven for a little over a year now, and we both LOVE it!
Where do I begin? The food, is reasonable and always beyond excellent. Even when we stop in for just a couple of drink at the bar, they bring us bread (the most delicious, hot, fluffy, wonderful bread ever) and two great dipping oils. The pizza is wonderful, pasta is excellent, ravoli is sensational. Honestly, we have had most of the things on the menu and have yet to come across something we don’t love.
The service. I cannot begin to tell you how huge customer service is. It is the back bone of a company and why customers keep coming back. They get an A+ here. Whenever we walk in, even if it has been a little while since we have been there, we are welcomed and treated like family. We get hugs, hand shakes, and genuine happiness from the staff to see us. From the hostess, to the wait staff, the bartender, all the way to Magnus the owner (who is ALWAYS there doing just as much as every other employee).
This really is a wonderful little gem hidden in the corner of a small shopping plaza. It is more than worth your while to give them a try. I promise, you will not be disappointed.

We dined here a few days ago after reading some positive sounding reviews on here. I’ve gotta say that I’m surprised how far off the reviews were to our experience. We went in expecting a small, Italian restaurant with traditional fare.
The restaurant is a small, and slightly hard to find, corner restaurant in a strip mall. It is well staffed by friendly wait staff and hostesses. We had no complaints about the service at all. Service was quick, friendly and efficient. That’s about all you can ask for. Unfortunately, the food didn’t follow suit with the staff.
I ordered the chicken parmigiano which any self-​respecting Italian restaurant can get done right. My wife ordered fettuccine alfredo, another typical staple. Our food came out in 5 minutes (not an exaggeration) which was my first clue there was a problem. You can cook fresh pasta that quickly, but you certainly can’t cook chicken that fast. After taking my first bite of the chicken and the pasta, I knew what happened. The chicken was prepared ahead of time. A slice of cheese was put on it when I ordered and it was tossed in the microwave. The pasta was pre-​cooked and simply reheated for my order. My wife’s pasta was cooked properly, but the dish lacked enough alfredo sauce which tasted premade, not from scratch.
Unfortunately, you can get more authentic and fresh cooked Italian fare from the big name chain. We probably won’t wind up going back.

I’ve only ordered for take out here, but I have enjoyed the manicotti enough to order it a few times. I am not fond of the sourdough garlic bread, and they don’t include a side salad which one has come to expect at competitors.
All in all, it’s still very good food. One day, I will summon up the desire to sit and eat with real people sitting around me while they eat their own food.
Nah. My place has my stuff. So, still working on it.

Rustic Oven has catered two of my events and I am sure to use them again. Superior service and crafted tasty foods sure to please everyone.
Dine there for a great experience too. Here’s a tip: sit on the large patio and enjoy the special recipe Sangria with a Quatro Pizza.

Wonderful mom and pop restaurant. Phenomenal food and service! Highly reccommend!

I have only eaten at the Rustic Oven once; however, I got their chicken Alfredo pizza and was very impressed. The service were so-​so but this pizza was so good that can be overlooked.

This is a great casual little Italian restaurant. It is not the trendy gourmet pricey Italian that seems to pop up more often, it is just straight up Italian food cooked well. Nothing special, just good.
I haven’t been there since the owners changed, but always found the service friendly and efficient. Pizza is good. Eggplant Parm is great. Specials have been very good.
It always seemed a bit plain inside to me and they could probably spice it up a bit and market themselves better. Being tucked at the far end of the shopping center I think affects their traffic a bit.
Pizzas are good, but know that I have made the same mistake there as Lisa B. and got the «Margharita» when I really just wanted a traditional pizza. The menu is confusing as you read «tomatoes, fresh mozz, & basil» and think that’s the pie you want. It isn’t. :) Just tell them you want a normal pie with shredded mozz… it is hidden on the menu somewhere.

Went way before dinner rush on Saturday, had excellent, attentive service, good food. Wife thought prices were higher than expected, but I thought the portion sizes corresponded to price, Desserts were great!

Where’s the beef? I mean CHEESE. I ordered the Margharita pizza and it came with crust, light tomato sauce and quarter size dollops of cheese (maybe 2 – 3 per slice). And that’s what it tasted like, bread and sauce. When I order a pizza, I want cheese! I’m giving it a three stars because my kids liked their spaghetti and meatball and free strawberry/​kiwi ices (for kids). I wasn’t asked if I wanted dessert, so I’ll take that hint, thank you.

This place is a complete fail, not even a near miss. I have absolutely no idea how it gets such high ratings. Overpriced and food so poor that it can only be made worse by abysmal service, which it is.
My wife and I tried this restaurant many years ago when it first opened and swore we would never, ever return. Even comping us our meal to make up for the terrible service wasn’t enough because the food was so poor.
Nevertheless we finally caved in and tried it again earlier this year. We figured things certainly must have improved for them to have stayed in business for all these years, right? Wrong! We were (understandably) the only patrons in the place with the exception of one guy sitting at the bar, and our waitress was a surly old gal with cigarette breath. My ravioli tasted like it had just come out of a Chef Boyardee can, and my wife’s seafood pasta was bland with just a few scrawny little shrimp for garnish.
We dine out at least 3 – 4 times a week and would have liked for this place to be better, because coming from Boyds it is a very convenient location. How they have stayed in business when the much better Café Mileto went under is a complete mystery. I guess some people have a taste for Spaghetti-​Os.

Love this homey Italian place. New ownership spent months with «mama» before taking over to make sure food was delicious. Pizzas and pastas are wonderful. Meatballs are beyond any you’ve ever had. Service has improved. We’ve been back twice since it changed over and we’ll be back again.

Have been in the area lately so have stopped in for lunch the past few weeks. Some of the appetizers are only so-​so (the bruschetta was soggy) but the calamari was wonderful, the pizza really good, and other entrees yum. Pretty much stick to the red sauce dishes. You can get a really good meal here and at lunch the service is great.

First time coming here last night! Ladies and gents… Wednesday is the day to go to the ‘Rustic Oven’! ½ price ALL their bottles of wines! Do I really need to continue and talk about the food?
I will. Our waitress was super friendly and very very helpful. The food was very delicious and everything came out as ordered and on time (not that we’re picky). I got the Fettuccine Chicken Alfredo and my g/​f got a Pesto Pasta. Both were very good! So…2 bottles of wine later.hehe. We enjoyed ourselves. I think this might be our new Wednesday spot. Very friendly and very romantic.

Is it me? Did we smell? Did we somehow offend the Rustic Oven gods?
After reading some great reviews by fellow Unilocalers, we decided to come to the Rustic Oven for dinner on a Friday night. We arrived a little after 7:30. The bar was pretty packed, the dining room half full… and the hostess so confused over what her job is (besides standing there looking cute), that after 5 minutes (where the hostess just ran around like a chicken with her head cut off — yet not really *doing* anything) that a server took pity and told the hostess that she was taking us to a table.
Upon which, we were completely ignored. We sat at our table, played on our phones, read through the menu at least a dozen times, and got into a discussion over the situation in Japan… and still… nothing. No one to check on us. No one to bring us water. No one to take our order.
After we started looking around the room to see if we could catch the eye of *any* server (and seriously debating just leaving), the busser that was cleaning off a table next to us, finally noticed our futile glances and asked if we’ve been helped. He then goes dashing off for a server — but when he comes back to the table he’s cleaning, he doesn’t bring us water, nor tell us if someone is coming.
Just as I was about to reach for my coat and purse, our server shows up. I’ll give that she was perky and friendly, but she doesn’t give us a word of apology for making us wait, and instead just asks for our orders.
We ordered the antipasto rustico (the appetizer sampler platter), my husband ordered the veal marsala and I order the linguine frutti di mare. Soon, our appetizers come out and I will say that it was quite delicious. I was a little confused as to why there was only one bruchetta on the platter (since this sampler was meant for at least 2), but it was delicious. The calamari was not overcooked and the batter was light. The tomato and mozzarella was great — I would have liked a little more basil on it, but otherwise, it was delicious.
As we were finishing up our appetizer, our entrees came out. Although the sauce for my linguine (a white wine sauce) was a little too light for me (you could barely taste the wine or garlic — it was almost all butter), the seafood was cooked perfectly, as was the pasta. My husband enjoyed his veal.
While we were eating, other tables started to fill up around us and we noticed that they all got bread baskets, and from the «nom nom nom» sounds we heard, the bread was probably pretty delicious! Since we were nearly done with our meal — and we definitely don’t need more carbs, we didn’t say anything — but I would think that considering that we were ignored for so long, that we could have at least gotten some bread?
Eh.
Overall the food was pretty good and not bad for the price point. The atmosphere is definitely homey and casual — lots of families with small children. However the service was awful. Besides being ignore in the beginning of our meal, we didn’t get much attention from our server throughout our meal. She brought our food out, but never checked to see if we needed more water, or wine (and considering what drinkers we are, she could have made a KILLING off of us).
We got more attention from the bartender as we were leaving the attention then we did from the rest of the staff the whole evening.
I *may* be enticed to come back. Eventually. If someone else is paying. And I’m in the mood to be ignored.

Wow, I was so unhappy to find how terrible the food was here. It was just bland bland bland. The bruschetta had tasteless, slightly soggy bread complete with diced tomatoes and about 10 tiny little diced pieces of mozzarella. If I wanted to have tomatoes and bread with a hint of basil, I wouldn’t pay $ 6.
The pollo marsala — also incredibly bland. I could have made it better myself!
The only thing that was ok was the spaghetti — would not recommend coming here — unless maybe you need a bland low sodium diet for health reasons.

Solid neighborhood spot… If I lived in the neighborhood, I could see this being a go-​to Italian restaurant… due to casual atmosphere, friendly service and good typical Italian fare at fair prices.
Having said that, I don’t live nearby, and wouldn’t drive out of my way to eat at Rustic Oven (just to offer a little perspective).
What I did think stood out as better than «A-​OK» was the bread basket. It was warm bread, that had almost a cake-​like consistency. Imagine savory, pesto, pound cake. Ok, that may not sound good, but you’ll have to trust me that it was. Truthfully, if I’d left after my beer and the bread, I’d probably give this place 4 – 5 stars.

Came here at the recommendation of a friend. We got the vegetarian pizza (I forget the name). It was cheeseless, but I did not miss the cheese one bit. This is crazy because I’m a cheese lover, through and through. It was absolutely delicious with all the fresh veggies and basil.
Our server was super friendly and attentive without being clinging and annoying. The perfect balance. :-)

I live across the street from Rustic Oven, and I should take advantage of it more! It is pricey, but worth it. To be able to go out to a «nice» dinner without getting in my car is something I don’t appreciate enough. :)
This is not a fancy restaurant; it is a casual, homey, wonderful mom and pop place in a small strip mall, and provides the perfect atmosphere for relaxing with a great meal and a glass of wine.
I haven’t had anything here that I have not thoroughly enjoyed and wished for more of, including the bread and olive oil at the beginning of the meal. The non-​pasta dishes come with a side of spaghetti with tomato sauce, and that simple dish might be my favorite thing here! I don’t know how they make their sauce but I think it is the best marinara I’ve ever had. No joke. The last time I was there I had ravioli in a saffron sauce that was exquisite.
Highly highly recommend for a casual relaxed wonderful treat.