The Highest Rated Independent Pizza Place in the United States is in Maryland, and Pizza isn’t Even on the Menu!

The highest-rated independent pizza place in America, according to a new findings from OnDeck is located right here in Montgomery County, Maryland… and pizza isn’t on the menu. Z&Z Manoushe Bakery (1111 Nelson St. in Rockville) specializes in manoushe- a flatbread consisting of a simple yeasted dough which can have a variety of different toppings. It may look like pizza… but the flavor and experience is entirely different.

On Deck used Yelp.com to retrieve publicly available ratings and review numbers for 149,099 independent restaurants within the most populated cities in every state and across the following categories of cuisine served: pizza, vegan, burgers, breakfast and international cuisine (e.g., Chinese food). Z&Z came in first in the entire country under the pizza category.

Z&Z Manoushe Bakery, owned and operated by the Dubbaneh family, opened in the exact location their grandfather opened a deli in 1982- the store that was home to Slice of Rockville for 11 years. Since September 2021, the restaurant has specialized in manoushe. The Dubbaneh family has told us that they look to “share the extreme generosity and hospitality that exists in Arab food culture with the local community.” and in addition to the high Yelp ratings, even national food websites like bon appetit, have noticed- including Z&Z in a “50 Best New Restaurants 2022” list.

More about Z&Z: When Fuzzy, the grandfather of the Dubbaneh family that owns and operates Z&Z, immigrated to the United States in 1979, he worked some odd jobs including sweeping Dunkin’ Donuts overnight. By 1982 he had saved up enough money to buy the upcoming Z&Z location. It started as a deli, then became Chicken Delight, and finally Chicken Tonight. Fuzzy ran the restaurant until 1992. His son, Dave, took over until 2006 before selling it to new ownership, where the business remained open until 2009. One of the current owners, Johnny Dubbaneh, told us his uncle Dave would always talk about getting back into that location. Now, they have.

Z&Z has been around for a few years now. They’ve always been hesitant to open a brick and mortar location, but were looking and decided to email the owner of Slice of Rockville to see if she was interested in selling. It just so happened that she had recently listed it and even previously went to contract prior to a deal falling through. Z&Z will be an expanded version of what they’ve been doing in farmer’s markets- offering food their grandparents ate and grew up on.

 

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