The food here was absolutely delicious. They have a very diverse menu with lots of options and unique dishes. They also have a gluten-free menu complete with rice pasta dishes. I would highly recommend. The food took just a little long to get to our table but it was worth it. read more

My friend and I often frequent the Chevy Chase area every evening after work especially during the warmer months. Last Wednesday, we decided to go to Lia's to enjoy the weather even though it was a little gloomy. We went inside and requested to sit outside. We were seated by the hostess and looked forward to enjoying drinks on the patio, however the server, who was very rude by the way, asked if we were eating. We told her no, but wanted to enjoy drinks which were not on the happy hour menu mind you. She looked at us and said, if you are not ordering a full course dinner, then you can not sit at these tables and walked off. As she walked off, we were both bewildered and the server apparently told the manager who then came over and said no we can't just serve you drinks here. If you would like to wait until the bar clears from the world cup, you can sit inside because all of FIVE pub tables were full. I was rather taken aback because one you could have allowed us to sit there and transfer the tab and two, our drinks would have been well above $100 between the two of us which would go beyond someone ordering an entree and water. We basically took that as you are turning away business and didn't care about the inconvenience as there was really no accommodation. In short, I do not recommend this place as I once did in a previous post because obviously they do not attempt to readily accommodate the patrons or know how in a proper manner as both the server and manager who spoke with us were rather rude and indignant about the situation. read more

Came in at 3 for a late brunch. Looked like the employees that were on duty didn't care for our presence. Was told to order quickly because the lunch was ending while we didn't see our waiter for 10mn finally grabbed another waiter and ordered. For the remainder of the time no one checked up on us. Pretty bad experience. No customer service. read more

Went here for lunch with coworkers. We got there a little before noon which was good because 10 minutes later the restaurant was PACKED; always a good sign. I loved their outdoor seating! Food was good as well -- I got a spinach salad, grilled asparagus as a side and the hibiscus soda. Spinach salad was excellent although I wish they had put more quinoa on it but the salad dressing was delicious. I got the starter size for the spinach and it was kind of small, even for lunch so I would suggest getting the entree size! Can't go wrong with asparagus! And the drink was okay...it was just too sweet for my liking. Overall I liked the food, service and environment! The only reason I gave it 4 star is because I thought it was a bit pricey. read more

All of the food at Lia's is tasty, but I highly recommend their brunch! You'll have a hard time deciding between the amazing options. I will say that the canolli stuffed French toast was way too sweet. But the avocado toast with eggs and crispy potatoes was incredible. The free brunch bread they give you is to die for! Also, get the Nutella crepes to share for dessert. Service is really great too. No complaints. read more

Thanks to everyone at Lia's for making a recent Saturday brunch birthday celebration such a success. Our group of 14 included guests from 8 to almost 80. Each of us found something delicious on the menu. Being seated in the back room was a plus. Our server was attentive but never hurried us. From the moment I called to book the event, I felt that Lia's really appreciated our business. We will return! read more

I took my parents here when they came to visit from out-of-town. They don't typically stray from the major restaurant chains (think Olive Garden and Texas Roadhouse), so I wanted to take them somewhere special for my dad's 50th birthday. We got the crab and spinach dip as an appetizer, and it was one of the greatest things I've ever eaten ever. They gave such a generous portion that the three of us couldn't finish it all. Both of my parents ordered the duck, which was delicious, and I ordered the braised lamb shank, also amazing. I can't wait to go back to try some of the other things on the menu--though I'll definitely be ordering the crab dip again! read more

A very pleasant dining experience, albeit a bit drawn out. Seafood is so so, but beersbare delicious. Great bartenders.

I like this place-- it doesn't drive me to a 5 star review, but I like it. The menu is pretty consistent. I've been here about 6 times and I really don't think I've had the same thing any time. Good food every time and unlike some reviewers I haven't had the same problems with service. I would definitely recommend it to someone in the area, but not a place to travel for. read more

Try the crespelle with a glass of white wine... Awesome combo

The atmosphere in Lia's is comfortably elegant. The menu is expansive, offering Italian favorites and Chef Geoff originals. The key lime cheesecake dessert is superb and the Eggplant Parmesan that comes with the beef medallions is some of the best eggplant I've ever had. Definitely worth going and if you go before 630 on weekdays, you can get 3 courses for $20! read more

I came to Lia's for lunch and had a fantastic experience. The venue is upscale and the service was great. Our server was animated and extremely polite. Our food came out within minutes of ordering and courses never overlapped. On top of that, the manager herself brought us out our apps. She was also very cordial with all the guests, visiting tables, and continuously making the rounds. The food was pretty good. We ordered calamari and it was so good. I know, I know, it's a dish that's hard to mess up, but the quality was so fresh! The calamari was soft and melted like butter. I ordered the sea scallops and those were fresh as well. The only thing that could use some love is the dessert menu. Nothing really appealed to me... and I love dessert. Overall, the restaurant is a bit pricey (around $95 for two people but we ordered a lot) but it was a pleasant first visit. read more

Awesome Happy Hour, drink prices are great and the personal pizzas are phenomenal. Have some good beers on draught...ie goose island...and you can choose up to a 34oz mug too :p Happy hour runs 7 days a week...yes even Sunday:) read more

Lia's has fairly decent food the difficulty is getting in and out of the restaurant quickly. If you only have an hour for lunch forget coming here. I do take advantage of their happy hour but you have to be in the bar area for it. Why not expand it to the outside seating? I'm sure customers would end up ordering more and staying longer instead of leaving to go somewhere with more outdoor seating and happy hour prices. There are many! read more

After years of enjoying Lias, our family went there recently and we were very - surprisingly! - disappointed. Food was ok, but service was terrible, even though the dining room was not packed. We met another family there for dinner. When they arrived to join us, they were not given menus. We had to ask (and ask for kids' menus), but even then not everyone was given a menu. Took forever to get drinks ordered and served, had to ask for bread and then that took too long. 35 minutes in and we hadn't ordered any food yet. Only got to order because we waylaid the server rushing by. We felt completely ignored. I ordered a pasta dish without bacon (am vegetarian), and was told "sure!" Dish came with little pieces of bacon mixed in, but at that point it was too late to try again. Ate it, picking through to remove bacon - hardly enjoyable. read more

I had the Lia's burger it was soooo good and the service was fabulous I would definitely recommend it to anyone looking for a good bite to eat!!! read more

The service was excellent. Joshua in particular. We had 5 different appetizers and they were incredible. I don't normally like Brussel sprouts but these fries ones were divine. Will definitely be going there more often. read more

Food is very good. Salmon is very tasty. They could use a better collection of beer especially for the happy hour. They have the same collection of beer. read more

Had a wonderful meal on a quiet Monday night at Lia's. The brussel sprouts and roasted artichoke appetizers were both quite tasty. My friend's boar bolognese was savory; my mushroom ravioli was naturally milder but satisfyingly complex in both taste and texture. Portions were generous. Our server was friendly, attentive, patient (we were there for quite a while) and gave great advice on wines to pair with our meals. But what put it over the moon were the ricotta donuts: a little crispy on the outside, soooo light on the inside, and the limoncello dipping sauce... well, let's just say there was no waste. Excellent meal in a low key but very inviting room. I will definitely be back! read more

Definitely the best of the Chef Geoff's chain. Most of their food is good to great. Excellent pizzas and entrees. The sunset special is a fair deal at $25 from 4-6:30 for three courses from a select menu. Nice ambiance, decent service. Overall a good experience for simple, tasty American and Italian food, but nothing fancy or overly special. read more

This place is so tasty! The bacon they make is delicious!! yummy! Last time I was there, I felt sort of ignored for a few minutes-- but their new server, Nicole, was so wonderful and totally made up for it. The pepperoni pizza is BOMB! read more

I have lunch at Lias frequently and always like their food. Their salads are the best part. If you're in the area I recommend it, wouldn't drive a long way for it though. read more

Sunday Brunch (about 2pm) meaning that it wasn't crowded on the terrace, where we enjoyed the first really warm day in Washington. To get to the chase and not repeat other's evaluations. Four diners, old friends, retired and Washington savvy. Husband had the crab cakes with poached eggs (served Texas toast and veggies) and I wish I had taken the risk (I am a crab cake snob) ..my little taste was wonderful and of course my husband loved his meal: lucky choice. Our female friend had a big ungarnished (no meat or seafood) main course salad which she described as correct with no special features (it looked overly dressed to me)..so that was fine. Her husband had a very satisfying mushroom omelet. I had a bagel plate that included smoked salmon, capers, marscapone, chopped onions and capers. So so. First the bagel was fairly simple (like I would buy in a frozen food department). The chopped onion, chopped hard-cooked egg and capers made it very difficult to spread these items on the bagel (in addition to the smoked salmon). If I were serving this it seems more useful to, for example, slice the red onion into thin rings that would be easier to top onto the bagel. Oh well. It was okay. I think the dish would have been awesome with a dense grainy dark bread. The servers were prompt, helpful and not intrusive. We had a nice meal overall. Including an inexpensive glass of wine, a Bloody Mary and a $3.95 cup of coffee, our brunch for 4 persons came to $88 before gratuity. Overall we liked the place but may choose different orders next time. read more

I went there last Friday for lunch and had the special, which was the soft shell crab club sandwich. It was pretty good and really filling. Great mid day lunch spot, especially for work lunches. read more

warning *Later yelp* went on October 9 I was looking for a different place for lunch in the Friendship Heights area, and my two lunchmates and I decided this would be good to try. That day was still kind of warm so we sat on the patio for lunch. It was weird, because the patio emptied out almost as soon as we sat down, and it was only about 1 pm. The bread basket they provide has surprisingly good bread with a nice extra virgin olive oil for dipping. I think that was the high point of my meal. I ordered the Lamb Burger - what a mistake. The ground lamb had an overwhelming gamey smell and the promised tzatziki sauce which would have done wonders to alleviate the dryness of the burger was nowhere to be found - huge disappointment for $17. Funnily enough, neither was the waiter to ask him for some - it was like the patio had been abandoned. One of my friends got the Salmon Cakes - another mistake. The salmon was the consistency of tuna from cans - and the only saving grace was the "saffron aioli" otherwise known as yellow mayonnaise. My other friend ordered the Buffalo Mozzarella Grilled Cheese and it was pretty good - but it is pretty freaking hard to mess up a grilled cheese sandwich. She got a soup and a salad with her sandwich, but not worth it in my opinion - the delicate taste of Bufala (correct spelling) mozzarella is lost in the buttery bread and the yellow cheese (couldn't tell if it was American or Cheddar) that also made up the sandwich. If somebody insists on this place, I'll go, otherwise I'll explore the other restaurants in the area. read more

The food is amazing, their service was great and prompt. I went with a big group party of 12. Everything tasted good from sea food to pasta. We really enjoyed our dining pretty much. Thank you read more

I would give it a negative star if I could. Terrible food and ridiculously overpriced. Could've taken the kids to one of those kitschy chain restaurants for better food. Avoid at all costs if you can. Always disappointed by Chef Geoff's restaurants. I don't know why we thought this would be any different. I feel bad for the pig who lost the chop that was served at our table. read more

The twilight dinner is awesome! $20 per person for an appetizer, main course, and dessert. You just have to order before 6:30, I think. I honestly can't believe that this restaurant only has 3 stars on yelp. It's one of my favorite restaurants to come to in the evening when it's nice out and we can sit on the patio. The salmon and risotto, and all of their desserts especially the donuts and tiramisu, are great! Come here for the 3 course twilight deal! read more

Their food is AMAZING. And their happy hour prices from 4-7PM are unbeatable .. Highly recommend it read more

When paying more for dinner, I have greater expectations of the food. Lia's didn't meet those expectations. Service was fair, sprouts were good. Calamari was on par with a good bar. My cod was real good though sauce was bland. The short rib also was real good. But the desserts fell way short. The chocolate cake was nothing special and you couldn't taste the cake. The lemon tart was boring and the lemon sorbet was way too sour. The best part of dessert was the orange slice and pomegranate. The place was busy and hard to have a dinner conversation, even though there wasn't any music. There are better pricey restaurants to visit. read more

Not sure why others are not happy with this place. I've been a number of times with large groups and those can be difficult for a restaurant, but service has always been reasonable (nice staff) and the food has always been quite good. The atmosphere is pleasant and the menu variety is valuable if your group includes eaters with restrictions. Good place for everyday dining and for special events. read more

Went to Lia's last night and will not return - ever. I ordered the braised veal and risotto and it consisted of a few pieces of stringy veal in tomato sauce (no mention of tomato sauce on the menu) in a ton of risotto. The dish was vastly overpriced; but the main problem was its taste - mostly tomato and bland risotto. The only good thing was the service, except they made two mistakes on the bill, needless to say in their favor. read more

I have worked in Friendship Heights for five years and while I like some of the beer specials at Lia's, their service is terrible and after my experience yesterday I will never go there again. Seven of us went there after work in the hopes of sitting outside and enjoying the beautiful weather. Unfortunately, Lia's has only a sliver of stools and bar tables outside from which you can enjoy their happy hour deals. Inside, the bar area was also full. So we asked two employees if we could sit at the outdoor tables reserved for dining and enjoy the happy hour deals. We explained that we would stay longer if we could sit and thus spend more money. They kept repeating "you can only get happy hour specials at these tables" over and over like they didn't understand we realized we were making a special, but reasonable, request. We decided to leave and go to another establishment where we hoped we could sit outside. However, that business didn't yet have its outdoor seating ready. We decided to suck it up and go back to Lia's, where we would sit at the outdoor dining tables and pay normal prices for our booze. However, when we asked the greeter for two outdoor tables he said that they "can't" pull tables together. Sure you "can" we explained--there were plenty of empty tables and they were made of a light metal. But the greeter insisted that they wouldn't do that. So we left and walked one block to Clyde's where there was lots of seating, friendly service, and good drinks. As long as the management at Lia's fails to understand how to run a customer-oriented business I will never go back there. read more

Truly glad there's Lia's which is not too far from where we live and is really a great addition to the neighborhood. Dining al fresco with my kids is a pleasant treat for my family. The traffic on the street didn't bother us at all while we enjoy eating our delicious meal. We can't help but admire the fountain which is an added attraction to the place. All in all, our dining experience is worth the money we spent (which isn't much as we had nothing but praises for Lia's). read more

Definitely not my first time at Lia's. However, this time, I wanted to impress a very important date, and was hoping everything would be perfect. Lia's was all I expected and more. Highly recommend the saffron risotto. Seafoods has never tasted so good as done at Lia's. My date was on a strict diet, but the kitchen staff handled our special requests efficiently and without mistake. Extra grateful to Jeff our server and the rest of the kitchen staff for a job well done. They even accommodated my date's request of a particular dish that wasn't on the menu. We left the restaurant more than satisfied. read more

What could have been an ordinary meal turned great at Lia's. We had Sunday Brunch at Lia's on Mother's Day. Together with the kids, we were treating my wife to brunch. I've gained unwanted pounds recently so I wanted to order something light, but filling, so I had the mushroom omelet. I love it. The wild mushrooms were perfectly cooked garnished with pepper and spinach and some spices, which additionally enhanced the taste even better. My wife's choice was excellent as well. Her salad had a generous amount of rare tuna which was seasoned just right. The kids are happily enjoying their food as well. Service was flawless from start to finish of our great meal. read more

The party we had for our Mom was a great success. Lia's organized it very well. The room was decorated nicely, there were pretty flowers on the tables, the background music was not annoying, and despite the fact that more guests showed up than we expected, Lia's was quick to add more tables and chairs without making too much fuss. The guests had a great time. They complimented the food and the drinks. My mom looked radiant and was the star of the night. Thank you Lia's for the wonderful and fabulous party. read more

Had a business lunch last week at Lia's with a couple of investors. On top of closing the deal, the investors were delighted with the food we had. I also would like to commend the server. Throughout the whole meeting he was quick to provide us with our orders and other requests. He was pleasant to talk to and even gave good food suggestions and drinks. One of the investors, who is here for only a few days, mentioned he is bringing his wife to Lia's the next day. He added, like him, he is sure his wife would love the food at Lia's. read more

We went to Lia's on a recent Friday night with some friends. After a few drinks beforehand, we sat down for our meal in an attrative main dining room - fairly causual with exposed concrete columns and floor, plywood back wall ad contemporary fixtures. Before we even got to the meal, one of the first things we noticed was the poor service. I took forever for our waiter to come greet us at the table, then, when he finally took our drink order. By the time the bottle of wine we ordered arrived, the table next door (seated after us) had ordered drinks and appetizers and recieved both - it took maybe 15 minutes to get a bottle of wine. After that the waiter took our app and entree orders. These came out in a timely manner, but appearances by our waiter after that were few and far between. The meal itself was ok. My risotto balls were just average - a little bland - I'd had better at Talula in Arlington. My pork tenderloin entree was good, very flavorful and the polenta very creamy. Everyone else seemed pleased with their choices, which included salads, the salmon tacos app and pizza. We're considering going back soon to try it again on Sundays when they offer half priced wines. Overall, I'd say Lia's is ok, and could be better if the service was more attentive. read more

This place is pretty gross. I have never found everything a restaurant offer repulsively disgusting. This is the worst place that I have eaten in my entire life. The restaurant is pretty popular since it was fairly packed for a weekday. I found the cuisine to be inedible. The pasta was only cooked for 60 seconds, so it was extreme chewy. The seafood you get in a frozen aisle is a better option than the scallops, clams dish. The plates and silverware had food residue, like do you even wash properly? This place deserves no stars. I highly recommend The Cheesecake Factory or PF Changs as a better option (unfortunately, chain restaurants) than coming here. I had the opportunity to try Chef Geoff's first and had a great experience. Lia's is so bad that I decided not to even dine at an affiliation of the chain. . read more