Bufalina Pizza — Restaurant in Austin

Update: Bufalina continues to excel across the board: food, service, and wine. In all of our visits (12+), I think there's been just a couple service mistakes, and they were minor. The food continues to be stellar. You come here for the pizza, obviously, but the pastas on the appetizer list are excellent, the salads are always interesting yet satisfying and refreshing, and the desserts are good too. Only thing we haven't reordered is the meat board. It's fine, but that's not what we come here for. Still one of my 2 fav restaurants in Austin.

Original:

Excellent pizza, great service, outstanding wine list, and a nice atmosphere--maybe my favorite restaurant in Austin right now, I've been 4 times so far. Biggest drawback? It's popular, and the wait can be long.

The pizza: this is the best of its style (neapolitan) in Austin, hands down. I've tried 'em all except the Tallegio (unfortunately for me, I hate tallegio cheese), and they're all delicious, and very enjoyable. Favorite? Probably the nduja, in part for the surprise of discovering that the onion pizza is so awesome.

Appetizers: Have tried most of the them (though it rotates), and enjoyed most everything. The meats and cheeses on each of the samplers are good quality, and well selected, the housemade mozza is excellent, and the salads are usually delightful. One exception: the bibb salad was transcendent the first time we ordered it, with a light, tangy creamy dressing (creme fraiche?) that perfectly complemented the lettuce and radish. But on a second try, the dressing was off: it just had a flat, mild stink, like a one-dimensional cheese.

Wine list: There's not many (any?) places in Austin with such a devotion to honest, real, largely natural wine. If you don't know what I mean by this, you could do a lot worse than drinking your way through Bufalina's list as an introduction to wines that are delicious, go well with food, and speak of the place and of the people from whence they came. Only complaint so far: some of their whites should actually be served closer to cellar temp than fridge--but this is digging deep to find something to complain about in a wine list that's totally stellar.

Also - the ice cream is excellent. Order...

I don’t generally leave negative reviews. As someone who works in food service and serves and bartends in downtown Austin, I understand restaurants can have off nights. However, I was very disappointed in the service I received at Bufalina.

I Visited Bufalina on Thursday for an evening dinner. The restaurant was nice, good atmosphere, nice host and quick seating. However, when the server approached she was very unfriendly and seemed to regard us with annoyance. It was earlier in the evening, still a few hours from close, so it was not related to a late walk-in. We asked a brief question about pizza sizing and were met with frustration (she seemed rushed though there were only 3 other tables seated).

We ordered quickly, and after that did not see much of her for the rest of dinner. The manager ran our pizza and dropped it on the table without a word or greeting (odd). The order was also incorrect. She turned and walked away before we could inform her of this. I looked for a server or another manager in an attempt to let them know we were missing parts of what we ordered, but there was no one in sight.

I will say, the pizza was good. We enjoyed it.

A different manager eventually came by to clear our plates. Again, not a word, not a greeting, not a “how was everything.” Just a silent clear and she was gone. The server eventually came back by to bring our bill. Turns out we received our food the way it was rung in, signaling a server error rather than a kitchen or runner error.

All in all I was a little taken aback. There was a coldness to the service, no friendliness, no greeting. The only warmth we received was from the host.

I get that people can have off nights. Industry workers are humans and have their own lives and experiences, so I do understand that aspect of it first-hand. We were very kind and understanding, but I do think that there exists a bare minimum in hospitality, and this was not met. Management is also held to a higher standard, and it was shocking that they had no understanding of a correct...

This place used to be somewhere I took EVERYONE who visited or lives in Austin. The happy hour is 50% off bottles of wine & pizza which is fantastic but you need to get there at 4pm sharp to eat before it ends at 530pm. Even full prices it is still worth it. The best caesar salad in Austin by far & the wood fire pizza is chefs kiss & innovative with flavors. The tomato jam is also superb and all the pizzas are amazing. The wine list is also all natural wines & incredibly well done. The unfortunate reason my review has gone from 5 stars to 3 is the service. It is by far the WORST service in Austin & I have eaten here at least 25 times and it is always the same. One time the host told my party they were “not comfortable telling us” when asked how many parties were in front of us as it was an hour wait, even though we were seated ten minutes later and there were no parties ahead of us. Just strange as that is your job (former host here) The servers tend to be cold & seem annoyed when you ask for anything & unlike most of Austin will not casually chat with you whatsoever, very conveyer belt. My recommendation is going in when you have a crappy day & let the food uplift you but the service will at least not make your day worse. Wish the management would ask the team to provide real authentic Austin service instead of New York we’re too cool for you service. Once the service improves, this review would go back to 5 stars. Also would like to note that bufalina due up north has great service so go...