Buona — Restaurant in Darien

I'm giving the Darien location 3stars. I should give it 1star, but I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE Buona Beef & frequent the Bolingbrook location alot. I was raised on the first Buona Beef that was in Berwyn when I lived there as a kid 45 years ago. All their salads are great, & my family also loves the pizza & side pasta salad. I order my food online & pick it up at the drive thru. The last 3 times my order was wrong. 1st time, I ordered a beef baptized & a pasta salad. I like it juicy & wet. Got home to eat it & it was bone dry & the pasta salad barely had any dressing & the pasta was very bland. I thought, ok, someone just wasn't paying attention. The other stuff I ordered was fine. 2nd time I ordered online, I got the same thing as I did the last. I put in the instruction field, beef baptized: please make sure it's really juicy. Got home, there's barely any juice on the bread. There's nothing worse than a dry beef sandwich when you ask for it really juicy & baptized! Pasta salad tasted much better, though. I was still unhappy but at least the pasta salad tasted good. 3rd time, my order was wrong AGAIN. I ordered a beef/sausage combo baptized & really juicy in the instruction field. They forgot the sausage AND it was dry AGAIN! I couldn't believe it! I was furious! I live in Romeoville & wasn't about to drive back to Darien to get my order fixed. I called the manager in Darien & they sent me an email certificate to use on my next order. I did appreciate that & she was very sorry for the problems I've had in the past. I usually go to the Buona in Bolingbrook, which is fantastic by the way (never had a problem at the Bolingbrook location), but my brother lives in Westmont & I always stop at the Darien Buona on my way home. Today I was at my brother's & I stopped at the Darien Buona. My nephew got his buffalo chicken salad, which he loves & 2 pasta side salads. Both pasta salads were not good. Very bland AGAIN! I didn't order my beef combo. I didn't want to be disappointed again. I went to Taco Bell. But I was disappointed becuz the pasta salad wasn't good. I don't know what's wrong with the Darien location. I probably won't be going back there again but I might try one more time, if I'm desperate. The way things cost nowadays, it sucks when you get home & your order is wrong or doesn't taste good. At least the manager apologized & gave me a certificate to use on my next order at any Buona location. That helped take the sting out of a mistake! Some restaurants won't do that for customers. They make you come back & return your order. Thanks Buonavalonto family, for many years of fantastic beef sandwiches & now fantastic pizza. I've had a few hiccups with the Darien store, but lately, it's hard to...

DARIEN BUONA BEWARE If you have a gluten allergy, do not go to Darien’s Buona! Today I ordered one of their gluten free pizzas, and my order was mixed up with a regular pizza. As I have never ordered the pizza before, I had no clue what it was supposed to look like. It wasn’t until I was 75% done with it that they come up to me and explain what happened. Thankfully I have a gluten intolerance, so I’ll just be stuck with a stomach ache for a few days, but imagine if I had celiac. This careless mistake could have sent me into a medical episode. I made sure to talk to the manager about this, and I got nothing but an “Oh, I’m sorry” showing no remorse. I fully understand the stress that food service involves, a mistake like this could have cost someone their life. I was offered absolutely nothing for my trouble, and I sure doubt that the managers will be by my side holding my hand at the toilet the next few days when my body tries to digest the dough (yes you can laugh).

I will be emailing them and pushing for a refund because this is absurd (and legitimately life threatening) and is not being handled as seriously as...

NOT SAFE FOR FOOD ALLERGIES MAJOR FOOD SAFETY CONCERNS

My 2 year old toddler with a severe anaphylactic egg allergy ordered chicken fingers which claimed to be Egg Free. After noticing that the crispy chicken on the adult menu was not listed egg free, we got suspicious and called the store when we got home before letting him eat it.

The employee we talked to told us that they were the same chicken, despite allergens listed as different. He also told us that they DO contain Egg, which is not disclosed on the allergen menu. I’m thankful my wife caught this and convinced me to double check, as it could have ended up in an ER visit at minimum and injury or death for my toddler at worst.

I later followed up with an email asking them to make the update but have gotten absolutely no response. This is a major food safety concern and unfortunately there have probably already been injuries that have resulted from kids unknowingly consuming food allergens they can’t have.

Unbelievable that of all places, they neglect to get right the KIDS...