buca di beppo italian restaurant

hard to find, but worth the search. i've only been there once so perhaps my rating is premature, but i enjoyed my visit. we were a large group (more than 20) , which the staff handled superbly. drink orders were taken and delivered efficiently and had no problem splitting the tickets by individual or small group. i never had to ask to have my drink refilled, but we did need to ask for more bread once.

now on to the food. dinner entrees are served family style with a small and large to choose from. since we were there in the early afternoon, the lunch menu was available which is individual portions. i ordered the chicken cannelloni, as cannelloni is the dish by which i judge allitalianrestaurants, and it was excellent. i hadn't known it was chicken i would have sworn it wasitaliansaugage, but without the grease. it was exactly what i expect when i order cannelloni. i've read some of the other reviews that complained about the family style portions not feeding enough and i don't know what they are talking about. it appeared that everyone in our party had plenty to eat since most of them needed boxes for leftovers.

speaking of portion size, the deserts are also enormous and clearly intended to be shared. i did not order one myself, but i did sample the red velvet cake and tiramisu that others ordered. the cake was good, but the tiramisu was heavenly. and you get about a quart of it! beware of the cocoa powder sprinkled on top though. if you inhale as you take a bite, you're likely to aspirate some.

the one on the plaza is in a basement of sorts and is easy to miss. it is also quite a labyrinth to navigate. the decor is a bit busy, but interesting, except for the bathroom. i thought the men's room decor was kind of disturbing. nothing obscene, but kind of crude and not the sort of thing i care to see.

overall, i highly recommend giving this place a try. it's worth fighting plaza traffic and parking, but don't use the rest room unless you really have to.

a nice place to indulge. not much to offer for low calorie, low fat or non-pasta dishes ... but it's the place to go for family styleitalianmeals. take the whole family or a group of friends and sample a variety.

its a chain. it’s basic. but it’s good basic, as much as i hate to admit that. but if you’re going to spend money onitalianfood in las vegas, look around a bit.

buca di beppo - plaza kc. i ate here last friday night with some friends for the first time. i was initially surprised that i hadn’t been here before being as i live on the plaza and frequent the majority of the restaurants fairly regularly. needless to say, i wasn’t missing much. though i didn’t have an issue with the food (it was all very good), my main concern was with our waitress.

after reviewing the menu (which is hard to follow as it is, with all theitalianjargon), i asked the waitress if they offered any tortellini dishes. her response was “no, tortellini is too american for us

poor service ruins whole dining experience. my family and i first visited this location on august 4, 2012. my husband made a reservation for a table for 4 at 7:00pm. we arrived early and sent our two teen boys in ahead of us as they move faster than we do and we noticed a line forming so we wanted to make sure we got a table instead of a booth. my sons were seated and asked if we could switch from the booth they were seating us at to a table since i'm a bigger girl and booths tend to be uncomfortable for me. they were told no. my husband and i walked in about 2 minutes after the boys had been seated and again asked if we could switch to the table across from our booth, it sat 4 as did the booth so we figured it was no big deal and since we requested a table when we made our reservation. we were told that it would be checked into (don't know if it ever was but neither us nor the server brought it up again). we put in our drink order and the server returned with the drinks and bread. she poured olive oil and balsamic into a bowl without a word and disappeared. when she returned she took our order and we asked for a new plate of olive oil since none of us like balsamic very well. she didn't bring us a new plate till the food came out. we also had no plates to put our bread on. we ordered an appetizer, two entrees and a side for 4 of us to share.
the food came out before the app. we again had to wait for dinner plates while our food was getting cold in front of us. then when our side finally arrived it was over cooked (my husband had ordered theitaliansausage and peppers to share with my son but it had been cooked into leather as though it had been microwaved). i asked our server for extra napkins and she never brought them, she was also very slow/inattentive on bringing drink refills. our entrees were chicken carbonara (very good), lasagna (pretty mediocre) and for the app we got the trio. the trio was disappointing for the cost, two huge slabs of overly fried mozzarella, only 4 stuffed mushrooms and what seemed like a pound of "shredded" deep fried calamari, totally not worth the $20 price tag.
when my husband complained that the sausage was over cooked our server looked dumbstruck, stood there for a second and then walked away while mumbling something that sounded like "go get my manager", the manager came and was very nice and took the sausage off the bill. our server left the bill but it was the manager that bagged up our leftovers, the server came back and took our credit card and we were finally able to pay & leave.
also as a side note the table we asked to have was empty till about 15 minutes before we left. we overheard the 4 women talking about how they were so happy they were able to get a table after a brief wait, i assumed that meant they had no reservation and that there had been no reason we couldn't have been seated there.
my husband and i have both worked in restaurants as servers, cooks and management so we tend to be more patient than the average diner but we also have very reasonable expectations and they were far from met on this visit. honestly i've been to buca in several cities and this was by far the worst experience i'd ever had. i genuinely hoped it was a fluke.
i posted a review on yelp about our experience and received emails from both the assistant general manager and another manager. they explained to me that they were disappointed that we had had a bad experience but that it was not the norm for them. they sent me a $50 gift certificate and many apologies.
my husband and i decided to use our gift card on october 7th, 2012 as we would again be in the area running errands (roseville is about 45-60 mins from our home). once again we called and made a reservation for a table for two at 7:45. we walked in a couple of minutes late but it seemed to be no big deal as the place appeared half empty, mind you it was almost 8pm on a sunday night so this wasn’t unexpected.
after some confusion as to where to put us we were seated at a booth/table and given our menus. it took 10-15 for our waiter to stop at our table just to get our drink order. he came empty handed, no bread. we had already had more than enough time to choose our food so we ordered drinks, an appetizer and our entrees all at once and presented him with our gift certificate at the same time as per the “instructions” on the card.
our waiter brought our drinks but still no bread. about 15-20 minutes later our appetizer arrived via a different waiter. while we were eating the app, my husband finished his drink but no one ever came refill it. mind you we still had not received any bread, all the tables around us had bread but we did not. approximately 25 minutes after the app had been delivered my husband’s entrée arrived. he had ordered a salad as an entrée with a side of spaghetti marinara. only the salad arrived, again via a different waiter. may i add that at this point we had been seated for 40-45 minutes, had already run out of one drink and still had no bread. we hadn’t seen our actual waiter in at least 30 minutes. our waiter finally swung by our table to get a refill for my husband, i quickly asked him for bread and how much longer would it be before my entrée arrived. i was told that he thought it would be out soon.
when our waiter finally brought us bread it was cold. i again asked about my entrée. he again told me that it would be out soon. i told my husband to stop waiting for my entrée (he was politely waiting to start eating until i also had my food) since my food was “on its way”. by the time my husband had finished his salad/entrée my food had still not arrived so when i saw our waiter walking through the room i signaled him and requested that my food and my husband’s side of spaghetti be wrapped up “to go” because i had a long ride ahead of me and i had already been in the restaurant over an hour. i was hungry and tired, it was time to leave. the waiter was all apologies again but i was past the point of listening to excuses and just wanted to go home. it took another 10 minutes for us to get our bag of boxed up food, though he was kind enough to bring our bill as well. he then walked away without waiting for our payment. upon checking the bill we realized he had not applied the $50 gift cert. to it. my husband stood up to go find the waiter to fix the bill and i went to go sit in the car. the bill was adjusted and we went home.
this was honestly the first time in my life that i walked out of a restaurant without having eaten a single bite of my entrée. this was also the first time in mine or my husband’s lives that we did not tip the waiter….we always tip and almost always tip very generously. to say that i was disappointed that the service was horrible yet a second time would be a gross understatement.

gotta go again. buca di beppo is a great place to enjoy some gooditalianfood. the family style of serving works very well for them to reel customers inn and it works well for the customer because, unless you are a glutton or took your twelve kids to the restaurant, you will end up taking food home. we had (in two visits) salads, a couple of pasta dishes and a pizza. all of these meals were very tasty and very very filling. at buca di beppo you get your money's worth and extra to take home.

planet buca, still awesome!. buca is owned now by planet hollywood if you didn't know. buca di beppo means "joe's basement". what would that mean to people in vegas, as they don't have basements? in any case the concept is your over your favorite uncles house say in new york or new jersey. the food is not authenticitalianand they admit that. it's "immigrate:italian" as they describe it. i've been visiting buca's across american for years. i'm glad ph didn't change much of anything during the owner swap. the portions and amazing food are what our family visits for. we can share a small salad and two dishes, use a coupon and leave with awesome leftovers. we enjoy the chicken marsala, but be warned it's very sweet. i love the spaghetti with meatballs. the meatballs are as big as softballs and full of garlic. what an awesome way to spend a sunday evening together with the family!

update: price increase and uneven quality. i felt compelled to write this follow-up because i just experienced a double-whammy: (1) a price increase (granted, just a few dollars, but see #2), and (2) a dish that was not prepared up to standard.

re the dish, it was my favorite spicy rigatoni. a few nights ago, i ordered it and was looking forward to the delicious spicy rosa sauce, al dente rigatone, and peas mixed throughout the dish. well, i didn't get any of that. the sauce wasn't spicy and seemed light in terms of what it usually is, the rigatone was dry, probalby overcooked, and the peas were non-existent. very disappointed.

i will give buca another try, but considering the recent price increase, i think they should pay more attention to quality.


-----20 jan, 2012-----

buca's spicy chicken rigatoni made me a convert!. i was not a fan of bucca in the past. i didn't enjoy the noisy atmosphere and giant portions of what i thought was just ok (read: meh) italian-american food, but now that i've tired buca's spicy chicken rigatoni, i'm a convert!

the dish is made with a "rosa" sauce--it's like a creamy tomato sauce with red pepper, fresh strips of chicken, peas,and rigatoni cooked perfectly. the sauce truly makes the dish. the portion is huge!

i admit that i mostly get take-out, and a small spicy chicken rigatoni is enough for 2 or 3 meals. great value.

buca's friendly staff gets my vote too.


-----20 aug, 2009-----

big portions, mediocre food. i reluctantly dined here twice--once to celebrate a friend's birthday and another time because a college kid who i used to tutor invited me. i wouldn't go as far as to say that the food was bad, but honesty i like authentic, realitalianfood, not italian-american, but the food prepared the way native italians eat it in italy. that is what i'm used to, so therefore buca di beppo just isn't my cup of tea.

to be fair, portions are quite large and i would recommend the restaurant for families. on the whole, they put too much garlic in the pasta dishes for my taste (and again, that isn't the way food is prepared in italy), i guess it is ok if you like italian-american food and care more about the quantity than the quality of food. i prefer otheritalianrestaurants (tosca, al tiramisu, and sorriso, for example).

good but nothing out of the ordinary. note: the food served here is family style- the dishes are meant to serve anywhere from 3 people on up to more. with that being said, the food is good- nothing out of the ordinary and definitely not anything you can't make in your own kitchen at home. pretty average. someone comes over to your table and offers to take your picture for a "free postcard"- and later comes over and tries to sell you two copies of the picture for $20. kind of odd but we did it since it was our honeymoon. again, its a good place to go if your cravingitalianbut don't go out of your way to come here.

love it!!!!. i am amazed at the amount of bad reviews for buca. our family loves it!!! my favorite dishes are the stuffed mushrooms (don't let the delicious pesto cream sauce go to waste, dip your bread in it), lasagna, and the caprese salad. we have been going here for 3-4 years and have never had a bad experience. i can't believe people are comparing it to olive garden (yuk). bravo is much more expensive than buca. and macaroni grill is another favorite of mine. the experience of eating at buca beats all the otheritalianchains hands down.

americaniseditaliancafe. when you walk in, you can see it is set up like anitalianhard rock café, by that i mean the old b&w pictures of the original owners with famous singers, movies stars, etc. i believe there are a number of establishments. our waitress was full on, providing information on menu items, the best deals, etc. the food was very enjoyable. would come back next time i visit vegas.

for a chainitalianrestaurant i suggest brio or bravo over this one. the food is plentiful though expensive and really rather mediocre. there are better chains-i suggested brio or bravo but macaroni grill is even much better than buca di beppo. it does have a fun atmosphere. after going several times, i wouldn't waste my money there again.

the worst. we went with a group a few years ago. the food was mediocre and family style fare did not work. high prices and we came away with eating very little. this place really turned me off toitalianfood