Buona Forchetta - San Marcos — Restaurant in San Marcos

MOUTHSATIONAL ! My wife and I have been just itching to make it over to this newest location of Buona Forchetta..because their food is sensational and our friend Marco ( manager from Buona Forchetta Encinitas ) is running the show. On Friday we did it ! After leaving our wheels in the multi level public parking garage ( 90 minutes free ) nearby we walked over here just before 1pm. The restaurant looks really great with a huge covered outdoor patio and a similar space for indoor dining. We ran into our friend Marco almost immediately who was so happy to see us ( when we found out many months ago that Marco would be the manager of this new location we said we would come by to support him ). I had a quick walk around inside and thought dining on the patio would be the right choice on a fairly hot day. We sat on cute bar stools at high rise community table. Within seconds a friendly server named Reilly brought us menus, a large carafe of iced water and filled glasses of iced water. There was a cooling fan directly overhead which made things more comfortable. In case you don't know this site used to be Prep Kitchen who mysteriously went down the gurgler overnight pre-covid. I am sure though that the lovely covered outdoor patio was added by Buona Forchetta....smart move in these challenging times. I checked out the beer list and eventually decided on a 1 pint can of Protector Hazy IPA 6% abv ( it is a sub brand of Modern Times ). My ice cold can of Protector Hazy IPA and a tall chilled glass arrived courtesy of Reilly....it tasted very good ! Britney the server for our table arrived to take our lunch order. We like to share lunch most of the time so my wife ordered her fav Alessandro Gourmet ( white ) Pizza ( Provola, sausage, prosciutto cotto, porcini ). So that meant I got to choose the pasta dish which I did....Pappardelle Amatriciana ( Organic tomatoes, guanciale, onions, pecorino cheese ). I explained to our helpful server Britnee that we like to share our lunch orders together so can both meals come out together. We seldom get to San Marcos..in fact we dropped our Trek eBikes off at the Trek Bicycle North County a few minutes earlier and planned to have lunch here while our bikes were serviced. While sitting at our table enjoying my ice cold hazy IPA I was literally amazed at the volume of customers rolling in here for lunch..it is a bit out of the way. That says a lot about the excellent food quality and top service to me ! And indeed our fabulous looking lunch orders arrived together courtesy of food runner Garrett. We asked for some fresh grated Parmigiano and Marco the manager took care of that. We hit the Alessandro Gourmet Pizza first and let me tell you....it was cooked to absolute perfection by pizza chef Antonio. THE BEST PIZZA WE HAVE HAD THIS YEAR ! It was GONE IN 60 SECONDS ! Not to be outdone the pasta dish I chose Pappardelle Amatriciana tasted beyond sensational...perfect texture and rich flavor all over ( thank you pasta chef Marco ). In the meantime I had finished my ice cold beer and was now enjoying a tall glass of chilled Prosecco. Now we know they have nice stuff like Gelato, Panna Cotta, Tiramisu, Cannoli , Chocolate Mousse & more for DESSERT but we are always looking for something new to try. To our incredible surprise Marco the manager brought us out a dessert unlike any dessert we have ever seen....it looked amazingly beautiful ! And what was it you might ask....a classic Italian delight called Millefoglie ( delicate puff pastry layered with Chantilly Cream & Blackberries ). My wife and I actually thought we were eating the wings of Angels.....it tasted HEAVENLY ! We hung around a little while and chatted with the staff who made us feel like royalty with their wonderful service. PUT THIS AMAZING RESTAURANT ON YOUR...

I have eaten at Buona Forchetta four times. Each of the four experiences were wildly different.

On the first experience, my wife and her friends went and brought me take-out. The food was exceptional. I got one of their pizzas. It was cooked beautifully, and tasted great.

On my second experience, my wife and I picked up food for our five year anniversary. I brought the food home, and it was okay. Certainly not at good as our first experience. I got a pizza with arugula on it, and my wife got the a pepperoni pizza with mushrooms. Her food was great, mine gave me light food poisoning. It was kind of a shock because we enjoyed their food so much. We considered if I had maybe gotten sick from something that I had previous that day, so we went on with our lives.

On the third time that we had it, we got take out again, but we sat on the grass right outside by the ice cream shop. I got the calzone with fennel. My wife got the same pizza she had previously gotten. It was amazing. One of the best meals I have had in San Marcos. We did wait some time in-between this experience and our previous one because of the potential of food poisoning coming from the restaurant. All seemed good though! We got my son a cheese pizza and he liked it too.

Finally, on our fourth and final visit, my wife went here for our first date night in about two years. I ordered the calzone again, and my wife stuck to her previous order. The service was okay, but extremely slow. It took almost forty-five minutes to get our food after we ordered. This was my first time actually sitting down at the restaurant, so I figured it was just busy. Looking around, while waiting for our food, I noticed that other people had ordered, consumed their meals, and were preparing to leave even before we got our food. After sometime, I asked the waiter where our food was. Although he didn't mention it, it was extremely obvious that he had forgotten our order. Which is fine! My wife and I were patient, and we were having a nice conversation. After a couple more minutes, our food finally came out. My wife's food was completely fine, tasted great (we were sharing), but my calzone was entirely uncooked. The dough of the calzone was still raw. I took two bites before I asked the waiter to take it back. I never do stuff like that, as you can tell from my history, I never write reviews. After about twenty more minutes, they bring me another calzone. The waiter apologized for it being undercooked, and said, "That happens sometimes when it gets busy." I started eating my food, and my wife had some too. We noticed the outside of the calzone was completely burnt, which makes sense, since they were probably rushing it. However, when we took a single bite out of the center, I noticed that it was completely raw... again. Without even asking for another, because we had my wife's parent's babysitting, I asked for a box and the check. I paid. We left. I threw my food directly into the nearest trashcan. (I just wanted to avoid conflict, and I didn't want to leave with a calzone with one bite taken out of it.)

Anyway, our fourth experience made me think about the second time that I had it. I probably got food poisoning from their undercooked food on the second trip. I will never be going back to Buona Forchetta because of this, and I would strongly caution anyone from going there on a "busy" night for fear that you might receive undercooked food that will make you sick. I think this is truly a shame because the restaurant is somewhat nice besides the whole will make you...

Overall, based on my experience, I can't recommend Buona Forchatta's San Marcos location (I've yet to try the other locations).

I came in as a single diner around 5pm on a Tuesday and was promptly seated in a corner (next to a cement support beam) whereby it took about 10 minutes to be given water and greeted by the waiter (maybe they just didn't like my ugly face, who knows). They weren't busy, at least not by the looks of it, though they did just open so I give the staff the benefit of the doubt there.

The food on the other hand (in my opinion) missed the mark quite significantly. I ordered an aranciata (basically an Italian orange soda), polipo salad, and a pizza (the Regina Margherita). When the aranciata came out the can was dented, while it was probably fine to drink, I have a food safety quirk about drinking from dented cans so I decided not to drink it (heh, don't take a microbiology class it'll make you paranoid like me). Then the pizza came out, which was somehow both burnt and wet (a conundrum wrapped in a paradox, a feat worthy of an award in itself), not soggy but completely soaked to the point where the pizza was flaccid and impossible to pick up by hand, as if it handn't had enough time in the oven, the flavor profile was okay, far from the the best but it still ranks above Chuck-e-Cheese pizza in my book. I took two bites of the pizza and decided it wasn't entirely worth the calories. Almost having forgotten about the salad, and preparing to pay, it came out. In the waiter's defense he did apologize profusely and informed me that the salad was indeed supposed to come out first. The salad looked amazing (I wish I had taken a photo) but unfortunately looks can be deceiving. The octopus had a chewy over-cooked texture and the potatoes seemed raw which was off-putting, I think I only had 4 bites and asked for a box so as not to offend. The food sat undisturbed in my fridge for several days and was eventually discarded.

There are so many good reviews here that I might give it another shot. I also wouldn't let one bad review from someone that is very picky about Italian food determine where you go to eat, this is just my experience and would suggest, if you have the money (there are less expensive pizza places in town), and are curious, to experience it...