Buca di Beppo Italian Restaurant

Never coming again! We came for a friend’s birthday and where treated very poor when we brought up the fact that we had the $ 20 promotional birthday gift for his birthday. The waiter/​shift supervisor got really nasty about using the gift and separating the checks for one person. The food was not good, overpriced for what you get! Learned my lesson the hard way not to eat at this place!

Ambience is very pleasant. All of the portions are sized for 2 or more which makes it great for family, friends and sharing! Fun for all, makes anyone come together, and plenty of love in the food

Literally just left this place five minutes. Had a bad experience all around and will not be coming back. Made reservations 2 weeks ago for a group of 20 people at 7pm, but was told upon arrival our reservations were for 7:40pm. Later on in the middle of dinner, one of us find a large spot of mold in our bread and promptly bring it to the attention of the waiter, who tells us that he will tell his manager. His manager comes to our table to argue with us that it is not mold, and that a blue cake was stored next to the bread in the kitchen, which caused the discolored bread. After further arguing he said he would take down our personal information just in case any of us became hospitalized from eating the bread, and then left without as much as an apology for the incident. We even asked how the mold got in between two slices of bread from a cake, but we were ignored. Later on we split the check, which was $ 415, and noticed we were overcharged an additional $ 280 on our credit cards leaving us with a bill of almost $ 600. We brought this to the attention of the same manager and we were just told that our bill will be corrected, and he left without any apology again. We will not be returning here ever again and I would not recommend this place to anyone.

Dirty place mat. Dirty silverware. Dirty oil plate for the bread. The chicken in the Chicken Alfredo had no flavor and was chewy in a bad way.

Great for large parties, call in advance and make reservations or seating may be limited.
Quality of food isn’t spectacular but it’s great for large quantity and better than what you’ll find vs. Olive Garden. And great for takeout for large parties.
I would recommend:
Fried calamari
Penne Vodka (add spice)
Spicy chicken rigatoni
Don’t order any of their cocktails. Overly sweet!

Tried this place 10 years ago, didn’t love it. Came back again tonight and still wasn’t impressed. The waitress was very rude, and didn’t look like she was happy to be there. Food was given in nice portions and present well, but did not taste like an upscale Italian place should. The inside is not clean and gives a very enclosed/​old feeling with the photos and odd walls. If you are looking for a nice Italian place to go out for a nice evening, look elsewhere.

I really liked this super Italian themed restaurant! Their food is pretty typical, but the scenery makes it way different than other Italian restaurants. Most importantly though, their desert menu is AMAZING!

Don’t go there. If I could I wouldn’t give any stars. Food was cold, dishes was swamped in cheese (not real cheese).
We Will never come back.

Went for a birthday last week, this place probably has the worst service ever. Our waiter, Deana should probably think about something other than service. Took 40 min just to get water, no refills were offered. Took over 2 hours to get a small pizza and never once came to ask how our food was. When she actually brought bread out after an hour it was so hard &cold, disgusting. I wouldn’t recommend this place based on the tasteless food but especially for the absolute horrible service I received. She had every excuse for not getting our food and drinks out. I’ll stick to olive garden from now on.

Came for the make your own pasta dish — ordered a small b/​w the 2 of us, and it was enough for 4 meals. We had rosa sauce, mushrooms, artichokes, sun dried tomatoes, prosecution, and garlic. Really superb. With the $ 15 off coupon, the whole meal (or rather, 4 meals), totaled out at $ 5. As always, enjoyed the ambiance!

We came for our company christmas party luncheon and I was excited since I havent been back here in about 10 years. Boy how the times change. Well actually the old random pitcures havent. The food and service have cratered from what I remember. The waitress seemed like we were inconveniencing her by living that day. The food was very disappointing. The salads were bland, the pasta sauces were way to SWEET! Thats a tragedy. I cant stand when sauces are overly sweetened. The sweetness goes for the pasta with meat sauce, fettucini alfredo, chicken marinara, as chicken marsala. Each new bite I took I was still just as disappointed. But come dessert, thats where they got the sweetness right. Typically a canolli isnt as sweet as these, but Ill approve of it this time. Thats why Buca gets 2 stars.

Have been here twice, once my choice and once with work mates. Neither time was a good experience. Servers were super friendly but the wait and the meal was terrible. There was a family style Italian restaurant that did this much better, but this is about on par with cafeteria quality of food (with apologies to cafeterias). Won’t be back.

As my family dined again at Buca last night, we wondered why we didn’t go here more often… The portions where huge and the service was exceptional. Eli was prompt and made sure we were happy with our meals.
On that Thursday night, there were quite a bit a people, but we were seated in a cozy corner with little noise. We ordered the frutti de mare and the make your own pasta. Each were the small size, but it was enough to feed my family. We even walked away with leftovers.
The Frutti de mare had a good portion of seafood and just the right touch of tomato sauce. The pasta was light and delicious. Our custom made pasta comprised of linguine, Alfredo and chicken. The sauce was a bit creamy for me, but the chicken wasn’t dry. Along with tasty pasta, you also get free bread, so that’s always a win.
We’ll be coming back again for sure!

I never had a restaraunt lead us to our table through the kitchen. This is probably something they think is cool but we were offended by the lack of taste.
Speaking of the lack of taste, everything from the Caesar salad to the spaghetti was flavorless. They tried to make up for this with large portion sizes but that does not work in Houston because there is far to much good competition.
We will not return.

Came here on a Saturday night with a group of 11 friends. Luckily we made reservations beforehand because this place was packed at 6:15pm on a Saturday night.
This chain Italian restaurant is huge! Tons of little private dining room alcoves, which luckily is where we were seated as it was loud and crowded throughout the restaurant.
The menu is geared for sharing family style which is perfect for a large group outing and that’s why we primarily chose this place.
Food: Bland and unmemorable. The best dishes were our first courses– the Apple Gorgonzola salad, mozzarella caprese, and fried calamari were generically good. The entrees however were awful. The Spicy Chicken Rigatoni was «spiced» but not «spicy» if that makes any sense. It also had about 6 small pieces of dry chicken so only about half the table were able to sample the chicken. We also had the Shrimp Florentine pasta dish which was made with garlic butter sauce– this was utterly tasteless. There was absolutely no flavor to the dish. I literally sprinkled on a ton of Parmesan cheese and when that didn’t work I added a ton of salt on top of that to give this dish some flavor. Needless to say we did not even attempt to try out the dessert here.
Service: Painfully slooww! 2 glasses of wine we ordered took 30 minutes to arrive regardless of the 3 reminders we made to our waitress about it. The entrees took another 30 minutes to come out after we finished our first courses. And it wasn’t even like it was worth the wait for what the food tasted like. Luckily the waitress was apologetic about our valid complaints and informed her superior who comped us the 2 glasses of wine and the Shrimp Florentine pasta (hence the 2 star review). Regardless of this, I doubt you will find me back here.
P. S. Thank you to the wait staff who were patient with my rowdy friends.

Went with my boyfriend for a Sunday lunch. Our hostess was abrupt. Our waiter was decent but neglected refilling our iced teas.
We ordered the eggplant parmesan and the seafood linguine. …forgot the name they used but it has shrimp, mussels, clams and squid.
The eggplant parmesan was good.
The seafood linguine was bland… basically no flavor.
We had the tiramisu for dessert and it had too much mascarpone and not enough lady fingers dipped in expresso.
Probably won’t go back.
:-(

I only ever go to Buca when it’s with my boyfriend and his parents. When it comes Buca, I’m not really a fan… I prefer the gnocchi and black linguine dishes. Or in other words, real Italian… But I must say I do crave Americanized Italian… Anyway we came here on a Wednesday night, I felt like we were the only ones there… But there were other guests in the maze of tables somewhere… Anyway besides that.
Our server was Elvis, I only remember because my bf’s dad really liked saying his name. Lol! I find Elvis really awkward… Although he did provide us good service, just forgot to apply our 20% discount.
As for the food, my bf and I shared the small lasagna ($ 19.99). At first I thought it was okay. Later on I noticed it’s mushy!!! And I thought it was just the tomatoes, but the top layer of noodles was mushy! I had to stop eating because it was grossing me out. I was kinda full on their good bread anyway.
My bf’s parents ordered the small chicken carbonara ($ 21.99), with a side of extra sauce. It was very good. I liked it way better than the lasagna! The carbonara had prosciutto and peas in the sauce! We had left overs and I finished it the next day!
For dessert we always share the tiramisu ($ 10.95?). I personally don’t like it much because there’s not a lot of expresso in the lady fingers… Overall the experience wasn’t too bad. I just wouldn’t come here if it’s just my bf and I since it’s family style and we need a big family to eat with.

Elvis was AWESOME!!! FANTASTIC server!!!
My son am I got the trio appetizer and shared the spaghetti and HUGE meatballs!!! COULD NOT HAVE BEEN BETTER!!!
The quantities are HUGE so be careful!!! My son ordered some Alfredo to add to the marinara. OUTSTANDING suggestion, Son!!! This place is a winner!!! LOVE, LOVE, LOVE the food and décor!!! When back in Houston, we WILL BE BACK!!!

This. Place. Is. Confusing. If it’s your first time here, you’ll most likely be guided through the kitchen and go through several different turns before getting to your table. Kind of weird. Their décor is a bit. Too much for it. It makes me feel a little antsy, just because everything is so cluttered! But enough about that. My parents & I came here on a Saturday afternoon to celebrate an early Mother’s Day Lunch. We ordered several dishes, with the intention of bringing them home. They offer small (2+ people) or large (4+ sizes). It is very recommended that you order family-​style, since the portions are large, and you’ll probably get tired of eating the same thing. In addition to your meal, they bring you bread (that isn’t hot, isn’t toasted, it’s just literally bread) and olive oil + balsamic vinegar.
Calamari: ⁵⁄₅. This was pretty good, or maybe I was just really hungry. I loved their marinara sauce! They put crushed red peppers in it to make it a bit spicy. Their calamari also had the right amount of crunch & chewiness to it. You could tell it was cooked well.
Mixed Green Salad: ³⁄₅. They put A LOT of dressing. I would recommend ordering the dressing on the side. Even when mixing the salad, you could hear how saturated each piece of lettuce was. Kind of off-​putting.
Roasted Garlic Mashed Potatoes: ⁴⁄₅. I expected this to be WOW amazing due to a couple of other’s reviews, but these were just okay. The garlic flavor is slightly there, but it just reminded me of instant mashed potatoes.
Green Beans: ⁴⁄₅. These are cooked al dente, so it has a crunch to it! Squeeze lemon juice on it, and it has a citrusy kick!
Linguine Frutti di Mare: ⁴⁄₅. This dish is pretty awesome because they give you A LOT of seafood, and they don’t unnnecessary drench the pasta in sauce. I just thought the pasta tasted a bit off or weird to me. It had a strange aftertaste.
Chicken Saltimbocca: ⁵⁄₅. Omg, YES. This chicken was the bomb dot com. The chicken was cooked perfectly, and soft enough to cut with just your fork. The prosciutto flavor complements the chicken so well. It has the right amount of saltiness from the prosciutto and capers. The lemon butter sauce… Seriously DROOL. Lemon butter is one of my guilty pleasures, and this dish seriously made the whole lunch.
You definitely pay for the experience coming here, but it’s not something that I would suggest for a simple dinner. My DEFINITE recommendations are the calamari & chicken saltimbocca (which are both buca favorites! No wonder!)

This place is big… and set up like a maze, but the old world style Italian décor makes for a nice ambiance. It is easy to get lost finding the bathrooms or even back to the front!
Make a reservation because it gets packed for peak dinner hours.
I’ve been here a few times and only once had iffy service. I always leave beyond stuffed! Everything is family style, each small dish is enough for 3 people. Everything I’ve tried I liked… the hard part is deciding what you want, and then everyone in your party agreeing on everything to order.
They have a parking lot and valet.
Bring your appetite!