| National chain serving family sized portions |
Reviewer: Jason
Total Reviews: 992
Reviewed: 4/10/2004
Rating: 8
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I cant think of a better way to celebrate a birthday dinner with friends and a good family style meal. Its hard to believe this is a national chain because Buca di Beppos can serve authentic Italian dinners. I would highly recommend going with a group of friends as the dish portions are enormous...if you dont believe me, try ordering the Chicken Cacciatore "7 pounds of love". The atmosphere is fun and lively with walls decorated with famous Italian people and retro style ads. Kind of like a Italian "Friday" Restaurant chain?
Tonight we ordered; Green Salad, Garlic bread, Penne Cardinale, Raviolis, and Margherita. I'll give you a 3 word review for each dish.
Green salad - Salad is Salad
Garlic Bread - Large Sauceless Pizza
Penne Cardinale - Easy to Overeat
Raviolis - Cheesy Pasta Squares
Margherita - Gluttony Pizza Alert
Huge portions, good food, and excellent prices, Buca di Beppo is a place not worth missing. If you plan on visiting Buca di Beppos, try to book one of the 9 specialty rooms like the Pope Room and Kitchen.
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Reviewer: Terry
Total Reviews: 724
Reviewed: 4/14/2004
Rating: 8
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Its actually hard for me to find REALLY good Italian restaurants. Buca's is one of the better ones. Unfortunately it seems like they favor quantity over quality in most cases. And presentation is key here. The prsentation is VERY well done, the quantity is VERY well done. The food quality is good, but not great. BDB is great to go to with a bunch of folks as you can split dishes (served family style) and come out with a fairly small individual cost. Overall, there are some decent veggie dishes here and the cheese pizza is not bad (not mind-blowing, but decent).
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Reviewer: Michael
Total Reviews: 40
Reviewed: 9/13/2004
Rating: 8.5
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Buca di Beppo is my favorite place to go for a birthday dinner. The place has a lot of character. Tons of Italian art and pictures on the walls. The best dish in my opinion is the CHICKEN CACCIATORE, AKA seven pounds of love. I have tried various other things on the menu like th GREEN BEANS, MARGHERITA PIZZA, SPAGHETTI MEAT SAUCE, and SHRIMP SCAMPI. All are very authentic tasting Italian dishes. All menu items are served family style, so plan on bring home left overs from this place. Also be sure to compliment the meal with The Buag House Chiante. Last but not least if you have any room order the Tiramiso, it is fantastic. 8.5 stars
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Reviewer: ne00
Total Reviews: 165
Reviewed: 8/17/2005
Rating: 9
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Make sure you have reservations before you go. Call ahead before you head out or you could end up waiting all night! My friend once forgot to call ahead and we waited over 3 hours before we got seated. Reserving in advance will get you seated quickly.
I've been to both the Palo Alto Buca and the Campbell Buca. The service and food quality are pretty much the same. It's rare you find the same good service and same authentic tasting dishes at two locations. Usually something always is a miss from one.
This place is ALL ABOUT THE CARBS! If you plan to eat here, come in a large group so you can sample everything. Everything here is family style and the portions are HUGE! It's easy to over order for a crowd of 8. The last time I went with a group of 12 friends and we ended up over ordering. Order the small dish sizes, as there are plenty to go around.
Do not eat in advance. Starve yourself before you come here as you will easily fill up fast. If you can manage, save room for dessert, as there's plenty to choose from and the portions are large enough to be shared amount 4 or 5 people.
My recommendations:
Skip the Antipasti. Why? They offer you free bread anyways. Bread will just fill you up and you will not have room for the main course.
Skip the Insalate. Why? Salad is just a salad, nothing special. You can get your greens anywhere else.
The pizzas here are huge, order the Buca small version. There's plenty to go around even for a small size. The crust is thin and chewy if that's what you prefer. They have a special rolled up pizza that's not on the menu. Order in advance when calling in for the reservation as they only prepare it in advance.
Favorites:
Chicken Cacciatore Moist juicy roasted chicken with creamy mashed potatoes.
Chicken Marsala with fresh mushrooms.
Spaghetti with meatballs (the size of softballs).
If that's not enough for you, there are even side dishes to choose from.
Save room for dessert!
Service here is above par even when it's crowded. |
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Reviewer: Grace
Total Reviews: 42
Reviewed: 11/3/2005
Rating: 7.5
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Buca di beppo is definitely an excellent bite for your buck. The prices are inexpensive, and you can order bucca small or bucca large depending on how many people are in your party. Everything is served family style, which is good because you can try more food.
I've tried the pasta sampler, fruitti de mar, the ravioli, spaghetti, and more. They are all very good, although the marinara sauce tastes the same for everything that they use. The pasta sampler tasted good, however it only seemed like we had one kind of filed pasta in different shapes. I believe there were 4-5 different stuffed pastas, and the only difference I could tell between them other than the shape is one had all cheese, and one had spicy meat in it. Other than that, they all came in the same plate with the same sauce around it.
The seafood pastas are very good, offering a hearty heap of seafood, cooked delicately. The only downside that I could find was that in many of their pasta dishes, they put in chili flakes, kind of like what you shake on a pizza. As I mention, I'm not very fond of spicy food, and throughout my dinner, I thought that my food was too spicy and I had to drink more water than usual, and I felt bloated after my meal from drinking too much instead of full of food coma.
Other than that, the environment is nice. The restaurant (i've been to several locations) have good decoration, the waitstaff is friendly and helpful, they make good suggestions and help you figure out what sizes you need for your food.
Downsides are that many of the items taste the same. Chili flakes sprinkled in the food, and not specified on the menu, so you can't ask for them not to add it in. Their garlic bread (cheese bread?) was a big grease sponge. It was not soft, and it came in this big round lump and it was shaped like a bread pie, and if you didn't eat it immediately it got cold and hard. I had trouble cutting it, and I didn't want a big wedge of it. When I was finishing off the leftovers, this bread was very gross.
Nevertheless, I would still go eat with a big group of people as it's good for big parties, and inexpensive dining in what feels like what ought to be an expensive restaurant. |
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Reviewer: pyunnyhana
Total Reviews: 44
Reviewed: 2/1/2006
Rating: 9
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Ive been to the Oakridge location over ten times, but this visit was for my sisters 14th birthday, and we had a reservation at 6:30 with a party of 21. We probably waited around ten minutes before seating, and had already planned out our menu to give the waiter an easier time (the place was packed). Our menu:
2 Lg. Frutti Di Mare
1 Lg. Macaroni rosa
1 Lg Cesar Salad
4 Lg. Calamaris
1 Lg Caprese
1 sm. Pepperoni pizza
1 Lg. Chicken Marsala
1 Lg Lemon Chicken
2 Lg Bruschetta
2 Tiramisu bowls
2 Cannoli (3 each dish)
Needless to say, we had a large tray and 6 take out boxes of leftovers by the end of the night (my family arent big eaters). I was full after the appetizers. Total was about $260 not including tax.
Service is pretty good. Not as personable as Olive Garden, but consistent. Considering that we had 5 or 6 kids running around their feet, they waited the crowded room like it was easy. Drinks are very large so refills arent that necessary. At the end the waiters got the entire room to sing happy birthday to my sister.
Bottom line: Bring at least two other friends with you, and share drinks because they refill. Also, try not to overestimate your appetite. You'll go home with a lot of leftovers. Buca is definitely my favorite restaurant.
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Reviewer: Stevetacular
Total Reviews: 25
Reviewed: 9/16/2006
Rating: 8
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My friends and I went to the Oakridge location of Buca di Beppo mainly because my friend wanted to have Frutti Di Mare, and half the group hadn't been there before (me being one of them). A few restaurants down BJ's was totally packed and the wait for a party of 7 was going to be an hour to 1h15m, but on the other hand there was practically no wait for Buca di Beppo (Well it was a little early for dinner at around 6-ish).
They took us through the kitchen and such and brought us to our tables, and I noticed the walls were cluttered with a lot of pictures, and the first thought that came to mind was, 'How many pictures of naked people must they line these walls with.' (and boy was the bathroom a picture fiesta as well). The pictures were all pretty funny though.
The waiter we had was extremely friendly, and he seemed quite attentive. Our orders were all large orders of:
- Calamari ($14)
- Chicken Marsala ($24?)
- Frutti Di Mare ($26)
- Pizza Con Pollo ($20)
The prices I put were just estimates, but I believe they're pretty accurate. The first thing to come out was the calamari appetizer and one of my other friends said aloud what I was thinking, 'We paid $14 for this?'. It's not the calamari was bad it was in-fact quite good. The dipping sauce that came with it had a nice kick to it. However, $14 for an at best medium sized plate of calamari seemed a bit steep. We requested some bread from the waiter, and as impressive at it looked it tasted like generic white bread. We got balsamic vinegar and olive oil as dipping sauces, but I just used the sauce for the calamari appetizer instead (seeing as how my friend made a mess out of one of the dishes we placed the dipping sauces in).
The next thing to come out were the Chicken Marsala and the Frutti Di Mare. With the Chicken Marsala again my friend said aloud what I thought, 'We paid $24 for this?'. It was basically a plate of four pieces of chicken (medium sized I would say) with a syrupy sauce and mushrooms. The chicken breast was like a normal chicken breast except the sauce was FAR too sweet for anyone's liking. Okay, so the Chicken Marsala (at least for my group) was a bust. The Frutti Di Mare however, was THE BEST thing we ordered. This dish truly was family sized seeing as how the menu said family sized would feed 4 - 6 people, but this thing fed 7 people very well. The pasta was nice and firm, the seafood was fine, and the sauce was good. All in all I would have rathered ordered two orders of Frutti Di Mare over the Chicken Marsala. Last to come out was the Pizza Con Pollo. It's hard to say whether this choice was good or bad, but I'm going to lean towards good. The crust was extremely thin, the chicken was nice, but the olives...were a bit overpowering. I mean when I want a pizza I want all the flavors to blend and not just have one ingredient overpower the entire pizza.
Our bill came out to a little over $90, and we left full. I probably would have given Buca Di Beppo probably a 9 or higher if we had ordered Lasagna instead of the Chicken Marsala, and maybe their sampler appetizer over the calamari. I have a feeling that we will return if BJ's keeps making us wait ridiculous amounts of time.
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