Bucas & Pastas — Restaurant in Edmonton

Despite the two stars, this isn't a bad or negative review. Rather, this is an honest review that reflects the food, prices and service of Bucas and Pastas.

First, the food: very basic, homestyle interpretations of Italian food where you pick your pasta, pick your sauce and it comes with a bun or "garlic bread", served to you cafeteria style. Portion size is decent, but the quality is probably lower than you can achieve at home for less money. The sauces are average, and the meatballs are probably the highlight, but still aren't anything to get excited about. The pastas are pre-cooked and kept in a warming dish behind the counter, and they have the texture of something kept in those conditions. The buns were the low point of the meal, with the regular bun being dried out and from Costco a few days ago I'm guessing, and the "garlic bread" being a small hamburger bun with garlic butter on it. My tortellini was clearly from a package, and my daughter's whole wheat noodles left her disappointed, but said he hat the meatball was good. My other daughter had one of the combos with chicken and noodles, and said it was ok, but she was starving so anything would have been good.

Second, the prices: prices for pastas ranged from 8.95 to 11.95, and dinner specials in the $15 range. Add a meatball for $1.30 per. As restaurants go, this is on the cheap side... But you're getting what you pay for: a large-ish portion of marginal food at low-ish prices. If that's your thing, Bucas and Pastas is great. If you want higher quality and are willing to pay for it, go elsewhere. We paid just over $40 for 3 adults, one soda, no desert including tip.

Service: friendly staff explained what they had on the menu that night behind the sneeze shield. They immediately prepared the food and had each plate on the counter ready for pickup before the next person could finish ordering, so it's lightning fast. They didn't swing by to see how the food was, but at least they waved goodbye when we left.

Condition: definitely late-80's dated homestyle cafeteria decor (hard to describe... Maybe look at the pictures to see what I mean), and the cutlery is self serve from bins. We went in with clean hands so didn't need to use the washroom so I can't comment on that. Tables were clean and drinks come in a can with a single use plastic straw. It's somewhere between homey and homely, but again, if decor is your thing you're probably not eating here.

Summary: basic all the way around, from prices to decor to food to service. It's a niche that obviously works for them, and that...

This place rocks! To really appreciate it, I’m going to try to explain what it is and what it’s not, because I think some of the disappointed reviews are from people who were expecting something different. This restaurant is set up cafeteria-style. You line up, grab a tray, and choose your pasta and sauce. Their pastas are fresh and made in house, as are their sauces. They have a few selections for pasta, including cajun linguini, pasticcio, tortellini, and whole wheat. Sauces include meat sauce, hot Italian sausage sauce and hot creamy mushroom. You can choose a child size bowl, medium bowl or large bowl and can order a whole bowl of pasta, half pasta half salad or 2 types of pasta, so there’s lots of choice. Servers behind the counter are reminiscent of “lunch ladies” as they dole out pasta and sauces behind the counter at the orderer’s request. You can add a drink or salad or dessert (tiramisu or “death by chocolate”), add parmesan, chili flakes, salt or pepper at the counter then you bring your food to whatever table is open. We tried the cajun linguini with hot creamy mushroom sauce and the cajun linguini with meat sauce and hot Italian sausage sauce. We were pleasantly surprised - the pasta was lovely and chewy and perfectly cooked and the hot creamy mushroom sauce was a real standout unlike any sauce I’ve had before. For 11$ it was a lovely meal. I want to be clear about something. I’m Italian. I had a Nonna who made pasta from scratch. I’ve eaten pasta throughout Italy. This isn’t fine dining. You don’t come here for the ambiance or for bragging rights or to claim you had an authentic Italian restaurant or trattoria experience. This is simple, hearty food in a cafeteria-setting for when you want pasta that’s filling and hits the spot for the right price and you want to be able to be in and out in under an hour, even half an hour. I loved our food, because I was given a heads up and I appreciated it for what it was. And if you understand that you’ll probably love...

This is one of Edmonton's the best small pasta restaurant, and one of this city's hidden treasures. This is a family operation that we have been eating at for 15 years. They are by their own genesis already set up for takeouts. Their prices are very reasonable, and their pasta is high quality homemade pasta from a true mom and pop's operation. They typically will have feature pasta's and we just love their pasta sauce. They also have deserts like our favorite "Death by Chocolate". I just love their Meatballs, yum is all I can say because the size of the meatballs are generous, these large meatballs are spiced; but not spiced so as to overpower your taste buds, but just enough spicing to really make a terrific meatball that I am in love with. When you think of pasta, and you live in the West end because of Covid they are not really set up for dine-in right now. We have typically over the years have drove there; due East 2 doors from the Continental Inn liquor store because this restaurant is really geared towards take out. We then would take our pasta order home, which BTW is a healthy sized serving of Pasta and the desert is naturally to die for. If you love Pasta do your self a favor and don't miss out on one of Edmonton's hidden little gems for anybody that is hungry in the West End. The people who run this gem are genuinely warm and welcoming, and man...