Home          
     
 

By-Th-Bucket (Seafood cuisine)  $$$$

 8.5
JaT Rating

4565 Stevens Creek Blvd, Santa Clara, 95117  (Directions)


408-248-6244


Website  Menu  vCard

            
Long standing seafood joint amid a bunch of car dealerships in Santa Clara.


Reviewer: Terry
Total Reviews: 730
Reviewed: 11/20/2004
Rating: 8.5
My photo gallery 		Made a trip to By-Th-Bucket (By The Bucket) with family to sample the place out. It was a little weird, location-wise, since it is located amongst car dealerships on Stevens Creek Blvd, but was not hard to find. On a Saturday night, it was absolutely packed. The parking lot was full to capacity and I had to park way down by the Acura dealership. Quite a trek!

Thankfully we had seating inside and we cruised up to our table. I found the place to be nicely decorated inside, with artfully placed wine bottles throughout the establishment tying the ambiance together with dimmed lighting.

After being there for 5 minutes, I started to overheat. This place was HOT. In addition to that, the waiters tended to be VERY slow in servicing customers. I think for a jumping Saturday night, they needed to hire a bunch more wait-staff to care for the customers. When I'm paying $30+dish, I would like prompt service and good temperature control.

For appetizer, we got the spinachcrab dip with bread. The bread here was quite tasty and this dip really added to the flavor, very rich and filling - so be careful not to fill up on too much bread and dip. Anyway, I order my dish, a Seafood Alfredo and it arrives fairly quickly. After the requisite photos, I dig in. The dish was crammed with seafood and the thick alfredo sauce. VERY flavorful. I could only finish about half of it due to the richness of the dish and the fact that I had munched on the breaddip appetizer beforehand. Next time, I will probably skip the appetizer and go straight for the main dish only. The food here was definitely worthy of the price, so no complaints there.

I think By-Th-Bucket would be a great place to bring a group of people to enjoy some good seafood dishes (they have quite a large menu) but if you are looking for a quiet place to spend with your loved-one or family you may be better off finding another venue. The food, though, will not fail to satisfy.
 
8.25
Agent Rating


Reviewer: Fuzz313
Total Reviews: 10
Reviewed: 2/17/2007
Rating: 7.5
My photo gallery		 Holding down the fort on Steven's Creek is the venerable By-Th-Bucket. Italian Seafood & Pasta fare in the middle of Auto Row. I wonder how many sales people have met up for happy hour after closing record deals. 'Dude, you hooked that guy and got him with all the extras!' 'Yeah, I worked him for the past three hours, using his wife and kids for leverage.' 'Well I guess, I'm pickin' up the next round.' After a day of working the car buying crowd, you'd want a share the war stories too. Why not in place serving up Itallian classics.

Inside is a charming place with a refrigerated display case for fish on the go. Sports memorabilia adorn the walls. Casually dressed folks can hob nob with the well dressed crowd.

After a 45 minute wait, my friend and I got table. A scan of the menu covered the basics: Appetizers, pasta, pizza, and entrees. After a couple glasses of wine and some dense and chewy sourdough, we began with our orders. We started with a sampler platter (my bad, I forgot what it was called) that consisted of buffalo chicken bites, crab cakes, seared ahi tuna, and slaw. It was ok. The crab cakes were on the dry side and the tuna didn't have much taste. The chicken was obviously something frozen and then heated up to complete the dish. It really depended on the slaw and the accompanying dipping sauces to wake it up. Repeat order? Sure, if you're hungry. My friend had the seafood pasta. Good stuff. Linguine pasta heaped squid, scallops, and muscles, bound by a decadent cream sauce. I sampled some of the squid (tentacles) and it was cooked just right. My order was the chicken picata. Pounded chicken breast, grilled flat with rice and lemon caper cream sauce. It was ok. Chicken was a little dry and the rice was mushy. It came with obligatory mixed vegetables with the yellow squash. Not my favorite type of mixed veggies. The sauce was missing the lemon flavor and the capers didn't do enough to wake it up.

Bill came to around 70. The visit could have been an off night for them. I've had the pasta in previous visits and found it to be done really well. Service for this visit was a little stretched, but attentive.

Take a break from the dealerships and test drive your taste buds instead.


 


Reviewer: wchane
Total Reviews: 144
Reviewed: 8/31/2006
Rating: 9
My photo gallery		 I've been a regular patron to this restaurant for years, and for years they have offered great food, service with a smile, and prompt beverage refills.

I say stick to the pasta and seafood dishes, they seem to do those the best. The only time where I regretted my entree was when I ordered some half chicken on mash thing on the menu - not good. True to its name, the amount of food is astonishing, I rarely ever see anyone finish their meal. It's usually not enough to take home or box it up and eat it for lunch the next day.

One note - The quality has gone down a bit over the years, however it is still overall very good. Make a rsvp if possible, this place fills up quick.
 
Disclaimer
User submitted quickies (help)

Login to write a quickie.

montyburnz ate...

What dish did you eat?

“The food is pretty good, but they don't justify the high prices.”

2/26/2007 5:55:06 PM

luvaraair ate...

Pesto Chicken Fettucine.

“Excellent food. Enough pasta for me for 2 meals. Service can be slow at times.”

11/7/2006 12:36:24 PM