Baci Bistro — Restaurant in Oʻahu

It was my birthday and my husband surprised me coming here as we have wanted to try for a while as I read the reviews of authentic Italian food. We are frequent travelers of Bologna, Firenze, Roma, Regione di Toscana and Regione di Veneio.

Let’s say there will not be a return visit.

Food: The bread was stale and just bad. Definitely not fresh.

Carpaccio di manzo was average but overpriced for only 4 slices of thin deli meat portions.

Gnocchi con salsiccia was average but the best tasting item for the night we had but the tomato sauce had too much sugar added. (Not my meal)

Spaghetti tutti mari. (My dish) Horrible and all wrong. No sauce but a watery broth with a hint of tomato, onion and garlic. Overcooked and rubbery seafood. When I got my dish I de-shelled all seafood before trying. I took my first bit which was the pasta and “sauce” and only tasted tomato water. The waitress came over after a few minutes and I asked if I could have more “tomato sauce.” I poured out the watery broth and just thought I just need more sauce. She brings me a tomato sauce that was basically sugar with tomato. Then I started to eat my seafood and it was all rubbery, I couldn’t even chew the squid/mini octopus and spit it out. I keep looking for my waitress and then she never looked over or came back until she saw my husband finished his meal. The food took 15-20 minutes. I wasn’t going to wait for another mediocre meal on my birthday while then my husband watches me eat. I told her of the issue and she asked if I wanted another one. I told her no because my husband was already done eating then she asked if I wanted seafood pasta TO GO. I declined.

Service: The waitress didn’t even ask if we wanted desert and she knew it was my birthday. Then gave us the check and my $36 meal was still on the bill after I obviously didn’t eat the meal outside of tasting. She seemed shocked when we said the meal was still left on the receipt.

The gentleman who brought out the food was very friendly and hospitable. We had a pleasant short conversation about him working he for several years.

Atmosphere: I know we are in Hawaii but this is restaurant gives off, dress up not coming in your beach gear and was very warm to dine in (80 degrees+). Definitely was sweating and regretting dressing up.

I don’t know if all the positive reviews are of people who have never had a true authentic Italian meal or we just got very average and bad items.

I’m not going to gamble with $35 dishes to find out.

And a birthday meal I won’t want...

If you want to eat at Oahu's Best Italian Restaurant, this is it!

We ate at Baci last night. It's better than when Bill owned it! What's better is the servings are more abundant, the recipes have been tweaked to add more interest, and, in the case of my husband's entree, the veal was a better grade of meat than what was previously used. The veal marsala was so much more tender and tasted so much better, we asked our veteran waitress, Pat, whose employment predated Bill, if it was a better grade and she said yes. My pro secco apertif was served in a new modern stylish, slender tall glass that appeared to be a larger serving than the old champagne flutes. There was considerably more home grown tomato bruschetta on top of the toasted bread rounds. My linguine con vongole in clear sauce was a more generous portion than in the past. It was considerably larger than the meager, bland portion I ate two weeks ago at Arancio at Kahala, Honolulu Magazine's Finalist for Best O'ahu Restaurant, 2018 Hale Aina Award Winner and gold winner winner in Best Italian. I really liked the tweaked insalate pere's shaved beet and carrots and my husband liked the artichokes he didn't remember seeing previously in the veal marsala. My husband ordered grappa after the meal. It was one of the cheaper options. He was prepared for moonshine. Instead, it was extremely smooth and served in glass twice as large as the size in which grappa is normally served. My profiteroles were outstanding. If you want to eat at Oahu's best Italian...

We had a pretty good experience dining on Monday night! My husband booked a reservation for my 21st birthday. We also had our 6 month old with us. We sat at the outside lanai. The street traffic was not too bad and the stroller fit comfortably. We ordered the garlic bread and bruschetta for our appetizers. They were pretty good. For our entrees I had vitello alla baci and my husband had the saltimbocca veal. The real highlight of the evening was the dessert! The blood orange panna cotta was AMAZING and the tiramisu was fantastic as well!

The only downside of the evening was that every other table received bread. We were offered bread and we said yes but no one brought it. My husband asked about it as well and someone said they were going to bring it but it never arrived. Maybe because we ordered a lot of bread appetizers lol. We were also not offered wine but we do look young hahahah. I was able to order a Coca Cola about half way through the meal. But looking around at the other tables near us they had their drinks and bread while they ordered their appetizers. We still had a great experience though! To end in a positive note- There was a large party about to go inside with a ton of very young children and the hostess was very kind and offered us a table outside (our baby was sleeping in his car seat) …we were wondering why they offered to move us but realized when they seated the kiddos and we are very...