Timpano Italian Chophouse

«Steaks, Chops, Pasta» on the building out front needs to be replaced by one word…“Mussels.“
Best mussels in town, and they are actually an appetizer served on a hot skillet. Great smokey taste!
The tomato olive oil that they give you with the bread is delicious. The bread/​olive oil and an order of mussels makes for a great meal.
The steaks are pretty chewy. We’ve ordered them a few times thinking they’ll get better. Nope. Stick with the mussels.

Attended another group event, and was really looking forward to trying something different — I had the salmon last time, and it was amazing!
I decided to order the top sirloin this time, which I like cooked medium. As you can see, it was served a little rare. I should’ve gotten the salmon…

The food is good. The service is even better. I usually sit in the bar area. The servers are great. The weight staff are all the best. I love it here!

I have been here several times and I think the food and service are top notch! I have never been disappointed and will return.

Yeah, not a fan. I don’t know how this place is still around. Not the worst I’ve had but not even good enough for a fourth star. Granted this review is like a year late and maybe they’ve changed things but I doubt it.

Been here once for lunch and once for dinner.
Got a sandwich for lunch and it felt like most of it was just cheese… Wasn’t a big fan.
I got the marsala chicken with pasta for dinner and didn’t realize the portion was so huge! It was definitely bigger than the lunch portions my friends and I ordered the first time we came here. The marsala chicken was great, and the rest of my party was satisfied with their orders, too.
Service was good – nothing extraordinary, but still good.
Place is beautiful. Nice ambiance.

Talk about amazing! Amazing drinks, starters, entrees, and dessert. The service was also personable as well as excellent. We had the deconstructed bruschetta to start– it offered an array of spreads, balsamic vinaigrette tossed tomatoes, and mozzarella cheese that resembled the consistency of cottage cheese (and of course bread). For my entrée I ordered a shrimp fettuccine that was accompanied by spinach, crumbled goat cheese, and a spicy rose sauce– this was amazeballs. James P had a pork chop with a brandy/​peppercorn sauce; it was extremely tender and melt in your mouth good. To finish it all up we picked the skillet cookie which was yummy. We don’t travel out to Bethesda/​Rockville much, but when we do we’ll probably come back here.

I’ve frequented Timpanos countless times and i must say that the food and service is consistently on point. This is the go to place for roasted mussels… they are sooooooo tasty. Allen is an awesome bartender. The drinks are well made and we’ll balanced. You’ll get freshly pressed juice if your drink calls for it. Luckily I’ve had the pleasure of being their for a few live band performances and they do not dissappoint. I’m so happy to have a place to go to where there’s no wavering in the type of experience I’d receive.

Still waiting for table service… come on guys, this is our first visit. In at 8:12 for a 8:15 reservation, seating was told of 10 minutes, someone took a drink order for ua at the bar while we wait, drink never arrived. 20 minutes later we go to the bar where she was actually attentive to the customer. 32 minutes into waiting to be seated, I approached and inquired at the guest service stand. «Oh, I remember you… it was a computer thing, you know»… so we’re now seated at 8:42…it’s now 8:56 and we don’t know who our waiter is, thristy for water, getting sleepy for a Sunday night, and seriously considering writing this place off.

We love this place,
We usually sit at the bar
Excellent service
And they have the best tasting mussels in town

Had late dinner here last night with 5 others and here are the highlights:
–John the server was on point and polite the entire time. Was very accommodating and pleasant. Truly felt like an appreciated customer.
–the grilled mussels that were recommended by other reviewers were DIVINE. Salty, garlicky, yummy goodness. It comes with a delicious soft bread although it has no sauce for dipping, which didn’t matter because it had great texture on its own.
–calamari was great. The dish itself had spicy peppers battered and fried as well so if you like spicy, this dish will be a great pick. We dipped it into the sauce they give you for the bread and couldn’t stop until it was all gone.
–spinach with garlic flakes side dish. If you love garlic and need some greens in your life, this is perfect.
–bone in ribeye ordered medium rare, came pink in center and was perfectly seasoned. No complaints at all. It was big enough to split between two people with sides and appetizers.
–sea scallop add on was well seasoned and cooked perfectly. On point.
–free glass of wine for check in. Always a plus.
It is a bit pricey but it’s just that kind of restaurant. Nice décor, plenty of parking. I would definitely come back!

The restaurant atmosphere is classy and upscale. I love love love their tiramisu and mussels

Lots of parking in the plaza, less than half hour wait to be seated for dinner. Service is impeccable, but I wish the food were more consistent. Table rolls were slightly warm, cocktails trend sweet. Temp on the ribeye was good, but the brandy peppercorn sauce was a little underwhelming. Meatballs were dense and too liberally peppered, dominating the soft short-​cut pasta. I loved the sweet cream polenta, but wish they hadn’t been so conservative on the veal jus. Wedge salad was okay, herbed potatoes wedges a little boring and not super crispy beneath reasonable seasoning. Tuscan egg was cooked nicely, and there was a nice sear on the jumbo lump crab cakes without too much filler. I might come back to try the veal & wild mushroom rigatoni, sea scallops, and watercress/​arugula or portabello/​spinach salads.
Revisit: osso bucco is fork tender, over cheesy risotto. Tons of flavor in the side of mushrooms. Amazing service and wine recommendations from John W.

The BEST thing about this place was the server. She genuinely tried to ensure that we had a good experience, which just wasn’t the case.
We wanted steak — about $ 35+/pp independent of ANY side — but opted for chicken (Parmesan and masala) after receiving a lackluster appetizer (the calamari), which was over cooked and thus extremely rubbery. No accommodation was made on our bill for a clearly half-​eaten portion we complained about. Both chicken dishes were dry and/​or flavorless. The additional pasta ordered was also disappointingly bland and overcooked. At an Italian establishment, I’d hope this would be your strong suit!
The bread was wonderful. The sauce they gave you with it flavorful, but EVERYTHING we ate was too salty.
Sad. We would not go back.

We first went to Timpano’s for dessert, had a killer bread pudding in the bar area. We looked through the menu and decided we would HAVE to come back for a meal sometime. It’s a nice large dining room, and, not gonna lie, the chophouse selections are a little pricey, but it’s a nice place.
Back for dinner, I started with a blue cheese wedge salad, I don’t usually like blue cheese, but this salad was very fresh and good. I went with the clam pasta and probably had the best clams I’ve ever had; just bursting with flavor. Lacy had the chicken piccatta (tender and delicious) with a side of polenta, all of the food very good. The bread and olive oil was pretty decent too.
We did share a bottle of wine, wow, WAAAY overpriced. Get water or tea and drink wine went you get home. It just made our bill so much higher, not too happy with that.
Our desserts were delicious though, a seasonal apple crème brûlée, and chocolate cake. I’ll have to go back for a steak sometime.

The Titanic is sinking. Let me do you a favor, go to your grocery’s freezer section and take home Italian, guaranteed it will taste better.
Pasta at Timpano’s tastes like it was part of the discovery table at the nursery school touch tank before swirling it in a metal bowl with watered down sauce.

Visited Timpano in Rockville for a company event. Our dinner was in the Frank Sinatra room which was roomy and easy for us to negotiate. The appetizers were delicious and the server’s were attentive. Many of us did have trouble locating the plates for the buffet style appetizers and there was no coat room. They staff also did not set up a tray/​station that we could use to put our used plates and silverware on. Small and forgivable errors but detractors from the overall experience.
The food was delicious and plentiful. They also offer a vast wine selection that even delighted our wine aficionados. I thoroughly enjoyed the scallops over polenta with asparagus and a lobster cream sauce and everyone seemed to great enjoy our meals. The desserts are marvelous, the crème brûlée was sublime. The chocolate cake was good but they serve a large hunk that could easily be split among three people. I ordered the skillet chocolate chip cookie with ice cream and chocolate sauce and found it to be simply, meh. The cookie was undercooked and flavorless and the ice cream seemed to be of very poor quality at least it was not as creamy as I tend to prefer and receive from Hagan Daaz.
Overall, this was a good dining experience.

The food was delicious and the service was great, but the restaurant itself was not very accommodating for any necessary substitutions and the menu did not explain the dishes well.
A bit over priced, but their bruschetta is delicious; has apricots, spiced tomato and cheese! I liked the unique dipping sauce they served with the table bread; it was a sun dried tomato dip, different than most italian restaurants that serve simply an oil and herb base. The food’s display is impeccable.
They did not have any whole wheat or gluten free options available, but menu’s explanation of the pine nut and spinach dish I ordered seemed like a healthy alternative. It did not even mention what type of cheese would be part of the dish (causing me to think that there was no cheese on the dish), however what I was served had no hint of pine nuts, a tiny sprinkling of spinach, and heavily filled with ricotta cheese. While the dish was tasty, it was not at all what I was expecting. The clams my mom ordered, she said were overly salty and not cooked top of the line for such an expensive dish.
The owner came over to our table at the end and asked how everything was going, and our waitress was very attentive, making the overall experience a positive one.

So delicious!
Saturday afternoon after a morning of shopping and beauty, two ladies want to relax and drink a glass of wine. Asked Unilocal for Saturday happy hours… looking pretty grim… what is that??? Timpanos is giving you a FREE glass of house wine when you check in??? BINGO!!!
Andrew the bartender was very sweet. Said we could have a house wine each as long as we each ordered an entrée, sandwich or salad with a protein. Not a problem! Cabernet sauvignon for me and Merlot for my Vegan friend.
I haven’t been here for a few years and the menu had changed. They still have the hot plate mussels, but I am dining with a vegan so not tonight. The have a trio where you pick a protein (filet, chicken, salmon, beef sliders), a veggie (broccolini, portabello, eggplant rollatini or caesar salad) and a starch (spaghettini, garlic mashed potatoes, fries or wedges of potatoes).
We were creative in sharing and chose the filet (a little pinker than the requested medium rare) which was so tender I could cut it with a butter knife, salmon (more medium well than medium rare but still so juicy and tender and delicious!!!), mashed potatoes (not very garlicky but buttery), broccolini (which was covered with grilled sliced garlic… at least 2 cloves), spaghettini and portebello (cubed and in a delicious sauce). All this for $ 15.50 each.
Added a chopped salad for $ 10.50 and Andrew was nice enough to split it in two bowls… AND he put the blue cheese on the side because he knew one of us was vegan!!! Bonus for me because I had double blue cheese! Yay!
Even though we were stuffed (Andrew forgot to bring us bread and we forgot to ask… we sat at the bar as it was the middle of the day on Saturday and the dinner crowd had not shown up yet), I decided to order a slice of Tiramisu ($ 9). This is a monster slice!!! Yummy soaked lady fingers between layers of marscapone but wait… there is a chocolate layer on top! I ate ¹⁄₃ and took the rest home. It was so rich, that I was able to split it again. Seriously, a great deal.
Almost $ 40 for 2 glasses of wine, 2 plates of food, a large salad and a giant slice of Tiramisu. This has to be the best deal going. As the wine at Timpano’s run $ 7 to $ 9 for house wine, don’t forget to add that to the check when you leave your tip.

I’ve been up and down Rockville Pike for the past 20 years of my life, never once stopping into Timpanos because 1) Houston’s used to be across the street and that was the preferred celebratory restaurant of choice and 2) the «Italian chophouse» confused me. What kind of Italian chops are you talking about here? Sounds like a mobster slaughterhouse.
Well, I’m in my mid twenties now and it’s about time I grew a pair and ventured into this mystery land of food. I strayed away from the meat, clearly still not feeling to confident about this chophouse concept. I selected the mussels and the Quattro formaggi flatbread as my weapons of choice, and I was pretty pleased with both.
The mussel appetizer is THE dish to get here. You pretty much won’t see a table without one. They come to you smoking hot on a cast iron skillet, heavily seasoned with salt, and finished with a healthy squeeze of lemon at your table. It’s a dry cooking method, so there’s no broth to soak up with crusty bread. The portion is pretty much the size of a full entrée mussel order from Mussel Bar — it’s that massive! Some of the mussels are small, but the quantity that fills the pan more than makes up for it. The freshness of the mussels is not top rate, but hey, it’s 3 hours after my meal as I write this review and I’m still alive.
The flatbread was extra extra extra cheesy, as to be expected when it’s called «Quattro formaggi». It’s hard to go wrong with pesto and cheese. For a couple minutes, I was blissfully unaware of my lactose intolerance and indulged in my flatbread, occasionally dipping it in the dipping sauce that comes with the starter basket of rolls for extra flavor.
The venue is massive, making it a good place for large parties or company events. The restaurant tries its best to create a formal atmosphere, but it seems to almost try so hard that it becomes a bit awkward (I know how that feels x_​o).