Buca di Beppo Italian Restaurant

Had our Thanksgiving dinner here this year. We had a choice of either their Italian menu or the Thanksgiving feast. We chose the Thanksgiving offering. It was a ton of food and we had enough to take leftovers home. Definitely worth going to for a holiday meal, when you don’t want to cook.

Bit overpriced but my family and I enjoyed the food. Large portion of food — they state feeds 2 – 3 people, etc. Small pizza feeds 2 – 3, but I eat it myself although it’s a tad bid more than I would normally eat. Join their email list and they will send you coupons that makes the price easier to swallow.

Buca’s shtick is that they have an eccentrically decorated restaurant and they serve dinners with family sized portions. Kitschy picture frames and Christmas lights adorn the walls by the hundreds. They’ve got the checkered plastic table cloths, the Italian-​American music playing in the background and the olive oil and bread combo, except they add balsamic vinegar to it. All-​in-​all a stereotypical Italian-​American dining experience.
We’ve been to this Buca about 10 times, so right away you should know we don’t hate it. We also don’t love it. This particular location was curiously chosen as it’s directly across the street from a well-​established and popular Olive Garden. As a result, and probably for other reasons as well, this Buca is usually fairly empty during the week. That has its pros and cons.
For this particular visit, we were seated in the «Frank Sinatra» room, along with the only other two parties in the restaurant. Well, let’s just say this room was… intimate. The music appeared to be off in this room or at least turned down very low. That’s only a good thing if you enjoy your dining experience being so quiet that you can hear the children at the next table smacking their lips and licking their fingers as they enjoy their pizza. Or that you might as well include the other tables in the room in your conversation because you can hear every word that everyone is saying.
The servers are usually friendly and attentive here, and this visit was no exception. The waitress claimed that the food is made-​from-​scratch which I find a bit hard to believe, but it’s certainly possible. We’ve always found the food to be «good enough» but nothing to write home about. It’s on par with the Olive Garden’s reheated frozen meals.
The big difference with Olive Garden and other Italian-​themed chains is that Buca serves everything in small or large family sized portions for dinner and has priced accordingly. I think they would be more successful if they just served individual portions all day, but what do I know? I only eat in their empty restaurant on occasion. I don’t operate a multi-​million dollar restaurant chain.
With all that said, a party of 2 – 4 can expect to pay significantly more to eat here than at other chains. Small entrees start at $ 20 (that feed two people) but they come with no sides or salad. So you generally order two entrees for two people, which ends up being a lot of food, but that you can then take home. Without drinks, desert, salad, tip or tax you an expect to pay $ 40 – 50 for two entrees. With alcohol, salad and desert it’s not inconceivable for a couple to spend $ 100. As such, we don’t eat here unless we have a decent coupon.
You can get a «free small entrée» coupon by signing up for their e-​mail list. Make sure you do that the day before you want to go as they don’t send it instantly. After that you will often get e-​mailed $ 10 off coupons or you can find them in the newspaper coupon sections.
All in all not bad place to eat if you don’t mind sharing entrees and paying more for it. At least during the week you’re not very likely to encounter a wait. It probably makes more sense to eat here with a larger party, where you can share a few entrees amongst the group. If you have a party of 16 you can sit at the Pope table!

Parking lot was EMPTY at 530 pm on a Friday. Which is never a great sign. We walked in – dark, low ceilings and VERY VERY TACKY décor! Almost like a cross over of Chuck E Cheese and Applebees! Weird!
Food is served family style! We ordered chicken parm and a side of pasta. The chicken parm was nearly 30 bucks and the side of pasta 8 bucks!
Service was slow — resturant still remained very empty during our meal. Loud italian music played over the speakers — and kept fading up and down volume wise! Quite bizzare!
Food was good and decent — pricing was a bit high! Cocktails were weak and VERY expensive — I mean, 8 bucks for a small cocktail glass of Jack & Coke? Hmmm. Seems over priced.
Food was MORE AUTHENTIC than Olivd Garden. Thats the only thing that saved this review — but still didnt feel that we got a good value vs. price.
May or maynot be back! Make itlaian food at home!

The food was good but the prices were extremely high. We ordered an appetizer, small pizza, baked ziti lunch, small lemon chicken, and a kids meal (which didn’t come with a drink) and our bill was $ 90! I even got a water to drink and my husband got a soda. We were so shocked. We eat out often and at higher end restaurants and don’t even spend that much money. My husband’s meal was just pasta. no chicken. And the small lemon chicken dish had 3 pieces of chicken. All in all the food was definitely not worth that price.

Wow. Where do I start. The décor is trashy. And dark. It was hard to read our menus and the freaking Christmas tree lights up in March were not sufficient overhead lighting. When we ordered I got the Gorgonzola Apple salad and prosciutto stuffed chicken. The salad was so oily and tart I couldn’t eat it and the chicken was both burnt and dry. The house bread was stale and not especially tasty. When they came to clear our course the hostess trailed her clothing in our oil plate from the bread. GROSS. also the waitress couldn’t have wanted to be there less. Don’t bother.

If you have never tried a buca, it’s a must we have had buca in numerous different states and everyone was amazing. Family style eating which means large portions. If you like hot &spicy ou this is it. So give it a try you won’t be disappointed!

I often eat alone, this is a great place to do so at the bar. Becca is a great bartender and has remembered my favorite wine from my first visit. Even if she’s busy she makes sure she says hello and tries to strike up a conversation, knowing I’m alone. I’ve never had a bad experience. The rest of the staff are super friendly as well, especially Slade. Highly recommend, and I don’t typically like chain restaurants.

Loosing your belt. Large portions of food, and plenty to take home. Great place to take a group of people. Sever was very friendly and did a great job.

Great food. Big portions. EXTREMELY expensive. You share everything family style at the table which is fun. Obviously depending on your family, it can be difficult to get everyone to agree on what to eat. Inappropriate paintings ALL over the place. I understand male genitalia can be art, however there is no need to have pictures of penises and males peeing everywhere in the males bathroom.

Pros:
Atmosphere
Food
Service
Music
Cons:
Just one particular server
My family & I LOVE this place. We come here all of the time. The food is outstanding, the servers are excellent, the music is relaxing, the pictures & «basement» feel are unique, and the wine selection is top notch. I really can’t say a bad thing about Buca. I find it funny that the Olive Garden across the street always has a line, when they could have a seat in Buca right away. Buca is so much better than anything Olive Garden could offer.
We only have an issue with one server there, but we know who it is & request not to be seated at their table.
One last final touch on this review, We’re not catholic or Italian, but the POPE table is AMAZiNG!!!

Food is good but was overpriced for the amount I got. The décor is dated and dusty. The staff is very friendly. Chicken Marsala is $ 26 and was just 3 pieces of chicken with no sides or pasta. Not really able to serve 4 people with that as advertised.

Very nice location. The servers and front desk are wonderful and make you feel right at home. I am only giving 1 star because a restaurant is as good as its management and I feel that this location is lacking in that department. Manager by the name of garret is not only rude to his employees but down right demeaning. I work in the hospitality industry as well and will no longer be supporting this location because of this. I’ve seen servers walk away from him upset and scared and that is not the kind of environment I want to support. I love this company but I will not be returning. That is not the way to run the store. I would rather have my food late than see a person hate their job so much over one mistake.

love this place I come here every Christmas Day with my family it’s a tradition, the décor is my favorite part to be honest, they have amazing pictures and statues and fountains all over the place it’s awesome. The food is good we normally start off with a salad and hot/​cold antipasto platter (fried calamari, stuffed mushrooms, mozzarella tomato, assorted cheeses and meats.) Than a variety of things for the main corse, we just cover the basis (pasta, 2 different meats, 2 sides) short ribs are good we always get that. It’s family style and there are anywhere from 5 – 8 of us, we get some wine and the server takes care of the portions. Definitely go here if you in the area with your family!

Gosh, I hate this place! Went here one with two other people. Not my thing, AT ALL! I just want to order what I want. I could not stand the atmosphere either. I’m not Catholic, and felt weird sitting at the «Pope table.» I’m not Italian either and when I went there the Italian theme was just overwhelming! This was about ten years ago, and I have never been back.

BUCA DI DISSAPOINTO
Ive been to buca before about 10 years ago. It was great! Loved the place and would continue to go at that point. But never hot a chance to go back. Unfortunately we decided to go back today… and this visit single handedly made me create a Unilocal account…
To start off all the plates were sticky and dirty mine had crumbs on it. It looked like they were the original plates from when they opened because they were beat up looking too. Then we didnt get any bread so we asked for some and she gave us a small basket of bread for 9 people! There wasnt even enough tiny slices for each one of us to get a peice so we asked for more and again only gave us a little bit.
We then order 2 small family salads which were the most sad looking salads i have ever seen. The lettuce was brown and pinkish like it went bad. And they put 2 olives, 2 pepperoncis, and a few onion circles on it. I couldnt belive they charged us for salad to begin with and then they serve us that??? I wish i took pictures but they did indeed charge us about $ 25 for them. Mcdonalds has better salads then this semi expensive italian restaurant. Whats wrong with that picture?
Not one of the 9 people in our party was happy with the food. The chicken marsala tasted exactly like general tso chicken!!! I swear! It tasted nothing like any chicken marsala ive ever tasted. I could have saved the money and ordered happy garden. Calamari was gross, stuffed chicken tasted like it was frozen, and the ziti i didnt try but the people who ordered it didnt want any more after a few bites… the only thing that was ok was the cheese ravioli which is dissapointing…
I never complain but i feel i should warn people about wasting their money on that place. Its amazing how they turned a great place into the worst italian restaurant in 10 years… its sad but ill never go there again. SORRY ABOUT THE BOOK BUT THIS IS THE SHORT VERSION OF THE STORY…

This is a family entrée concept so everyone in the group must agree on that specific food to order.
We had the chicken parm and it was fatty. Not a good quality chicken. I enjoy Olive Garden across the street much better with more of a selection and better prices.
This place is unique in the setup and walking tour past the kitchen but the quality of food I had with the prices on the higher side you can count on that I will not be back.

I love the family dinner style.
We ordered three dishes. The salmon was really good, and I also liked the apple walnut salad. Our third dish was the chicken pasta, which wasn’t too amazing, it was only okay.
The only downside was that because the portion was large, even for the smaller size, the price was still a little high. I’d prefer smaller portions for a lesser price.

First time visiting one after attempting to for over 2 years and I was very impressed.
First off the décor of this place is really cool with ton’s of pictures and the dimly lit atmosphere. Upon arriving we were given a quick tour of the kitchen and walk through the place which reminded me of being in the Goodfella’s movie! Now onto the food.
Started off with the garlic bread appetizer with melted mozzarella on it. tasty as could be. Being new to the place me and my friend went with each of are own bowl of pasta going against the one bowl feed’s two. Fettuccine Alfredo with Shrimp on her side with Spicy Chicken Rigatoni on my side. Both were really good especially the Spicy Chicken Rigatoni which was perfect, nice kick to it and the pea’s add a touch of taste to it. Take home for sure it was and boy what a great lunch the next day.
Service was outstanding, are server was excellent and upon paying are bill I vowed to return again when I’m up in the area. Def my favorite Italian chain restaurant now. Olive Garden, Bertucci’s, Maggiano’s you name it have there pro’s but this place definitely beat’s them out in quality, quantity and the unique atmosphere. you could spend hours in here looking at all the pictures!
4 star’s all day long no matter what!

I’ve been here several times and have been impressed with the service and food. Hailing from a restaurant city, I had low expectations for this chain. However, I’ve been pleasantly surprised each visit.
The food has flavor, unlike Olive Garden across the street, servers are always genuinely friendly, and portions and prices are well-​aligned.