Buca di Beppo Italian Restaurant — Restaurant in Mesa

This was the least enjoyable time at Buca di Beppo in the 15 years I’ve come here.

The meal started out great actually, but went downhill from there. A mainstay for me that I must get every single time is the antipasto salad, and it did not disappoint. Wish I’d just stopped there and got some bread to go with the salad and called that a dinner. That salad has always maintained high quality over the years, but it’s also now $23, and that’s a good $10 more than it was just a few years ago which seems excessive to me, but inflation, inflation, they all say.

We shared two entrees between the 2 of us. The fettuccini Alfredo was VERY dry and I felt like I needed extra sauce on the side which is not how that dish should ever work.

The second item was the stuffed cheese raviolis with meat sauce, which was the better entrée of the two, but they too were ultimately just ok. Above average but definitely not great.

Neither entree justified the $30+ per plate at all.

Now on what disappointed me the most…

Our waitress never brought us the appetizer bread with the olive oil and balsamic vinegar which is always complimentary. We asked for bread mid-meal thinking she’d bring that item. Instead she brings back garlic bread which they wanted to charge about $10 for. The bread did not look nearly as appetizing as the complimentary bread brought in the past. When we said we thought the bread was complimentary, she said, “Oh yeah, we have that, too.” 🤷🏼‍♂️

Well… why not offer that right when first seated? So we rejected the bread and the extra $ at that point because we were too full to pay for bread that wouldn’t keep if brought home as leftovers. Really wish she’d offered us the bread once freely offered.

And the second VERY disappointing thing was when we took the $18 hit and bought what is normally the most outstanding dessert on the menu: the tiramisu. Please note just a few years ago this item was $10 and was a steal at that price. I didn’t even mind paying $18 this time for the item, had it been equally as good as in the countless times at Buca in the past. We asked for a to-go box as we weren’t able to eat at the time because we were way too full!

Got home and this was NOT the tiramisu I promised my friend was worth the entire trip to Buca! First, it used to be always circular in shape, but now was in a rectangle shaped box. I wish that was the extent of the differences from years past. But there was NO espresso soaked ladyfingers whatsoever. None! Tiramisu’s known for being an espresso, coffee-esque flavored Italian cream item. Yet NO espresso whatsoever! It was ALL cream, very saccharine. Far too sweet. And the cream flavor only works with tiramisu when it’s offset by the bite of espresso and the chocolate drizzle or chocolate mousse-like topping that makes the dessert pop.

My friend and I were both SO disappointed. I truly got the sense that we came at too late an hour (about 9:30 pm on a Thursday, I believe) and that there must not have been any “in-house” tiramisu to speak of, so we were given some knockoff dessert made offsite which clearly wasn’t close to meeting the normal standards. Tiramisu specifically from Buca has always been my favorite dessert ever of all-time. It was incredibly subpar and unsatisfying.

I wanted to leave this review in hopes someone from my favorite Italian restaurant will take note of these issues and try to save what used to be a HQ place to binge on Italian food.

I’ll still leave a 3⭐️review here since this is the only time I’ve been let down by Buca since coming here, and I’m not done giving them more chances, but it was more like a low 2⭐️. And it would’ve barely got the 2⭐️if this was my first experience at Buca. I do have history here to think back on and I hope BdB returns to the quality of old. My friend was less enthused and didn’t understand my insistence on trying out my favorite Italian restaurant. But she also hadn’t ate here before.

Still… $130 for sodas, a salad, two barely average quality entrées and that lackluster and unsatisfactory tiramisu, sure...

My boyfriend and I are new-ish to the Chandler area and like to try out new foods in the surrounding cities. Buca di Beppo was recommended to my boyfriend through a coworker, as it is her favorite Italian spot. He said she was GUSHING about how delicious their food was and how large their portions were. So being that Italian is one of my faves we gave it, a go. And boy was she right!! Upon walking through the front door, we were greeted by a friendly face of a woman named Linda who proved several laughs with her spunky and fun personality and fantastic customer service. Once my boyfriend provided that it was our first time in the the restaurant, she immediately offered to give a tour, which is awesome, because I love taking in the atmosphere of places and hearing the stories that come with. It was so neat that they had a special booth located in the kitchen for a special chef service. I had only ever seen one in the movies, but it was cool to be able to see one in person! After our little impromptu tour, we were sat in our spot and given a moment to go over our choices from the menu. I was a little surprised at the prices, as they seemed a little much, but where isn't, anymore, when you go out to eat, right? I also reminded myself of my BF's coworker's words, that the portions were HUGE. And by the end of our experience we both agreed it was TOTALLY worth it. We were greeted by our server, at this point, Terri. She was a lovely and sweet woman who made sure we had what we needed and offered more restaurant and microbrewery recommendations, in the area, that I'm excited to check out. I ordered a bottle of Modelo, my typical go-to, for a beer, and she made a recommendation for the Sam Adams Seasonal, Cold Snap. She brought out a couple of tasters for us and we found out that we enjoyed the brew and ordered that instead. We ended up ordering an appetizer of the Mozzarella bites, the Pesto Prosciutto Stuffed Chicken Dinner and the Lunch portion of Penne with Marinara sauce, which both Linda and Terri insisted was all made in house! As we waited on our food, we drank in our surroundings, as there is plenty to look at. Once our appetizer arrived, very promptly, I might add, my mouth started to water. There were about 8-9 decent-sized Mozzarella bites served with a side of marinara dipping sauce. They were soooo tasty and the marinara was absolutely delicious! We devoured every single bite. Our main course arrived not too long afterward and even though we were getting full from the yummy dinner bread we were served before our app and the now cleared appetizer plate, we chose to split one of the three large-sized Chicken breasts and a scoop or two of the pasta. This food turned out to be one of my favorite Italian spots in the Phoenix area! I would absolutely recommend this to anyone visiting or any locals looking to find a regular spot. The food was to die for, the service was top-notch, and I would also like to add that I was pleasantly surprised at how clean and non-dusty all of the picture frames, that I could see, were. Great work and...

Once a great family friendly eating establishment, Now a sad dismal restaurant with horrible service and management with the worst attitude I have ever encountered in a customer service oriented business. We had made reservations 3 weeks in advance for a baby shower. When we got there there was no hostess at the front to greet anyone. We sat in the front lobby for 15 minutes before anyone even came up to the front hostess stand to greet anyone in the lobby. It was apparent that the poor hostess was running around trying to do too many things and they did not have enough staff for their reception area. We finally got seated in chairs that were beyond wobbly and felt ready to collapse at any moment. Our waitress took our drink order and was quick to return with the teas and water. A simple cocktail of 2 ingredients took 20 mins from the bar. The rest of the drinks came in plastic to go cups because they had ran out of glasses. Apparently they were short on dishwashers as well that night. Our server never said anything when we ordered too much food. Appetizers came out with the food. Our server was asked to refill drinks twice and she never did. I cleared off all the dirty dishes. When asked for to go boxes Our server just pointed at where they were for us to go get them and she walked off! When I asked for change she pointed out that there was no gratuity added... I had to go find her to get us change. She told me I was going to have to wait for awhile for change and was irritated with me. I asked for a manager. A man came from the kitchen in a chef coat saying he was the manager. When I questioned him he got snippy and made snide comments to us up until the point we were getting in our car to leave about him not being the manager and just a cook to be a smart aleck. The server came back with my change and wouldn't hand it to me. Just threw it on the counter. THIS WAS MY GOD DAUGHTER'S FIRST BABY SHOWER! It was supposed to be a happy joyous occasion. Not rude service and surely not me working doing the servers job! Or a manager being a prick! Hey GM of this location your guy here that claims to be your 2nd in command, your right hand that you depend on. We weren't the only customers that were unhappy leaving that night complaining about the service. Ask your hostess Gabby. She was your only saving grace and the only friendly person you have hired in this establishment. We run FB groups and will make sure that our 7.5k followers in Mesa know how awful and inept your servers and management are. Ps we especially appreciated your staff hanging out outside placing bets on how long we would wait for our change while your server screwed around to see if we would just give up waiting for it and leave... yeah part of our group was outside listening to them while out back talking trash. Stellar...