I would like to start off by saying that besides the food being delicious Aldo our waiter was terrific, very attentive and on point. Derek the gentleman that takes pictures was outgoing and professional, he gave us a picture complimentary for my daughters 6th birthday. Thank you Buca Di Beppo family. read more

Returned for a birthday gathering. The food and service was much better than our past experience. We had the pear gorgonzola salad, caesar salad, baked ziti, fettucini alfredo, lasagna, prosciutto stuffed chicken and cheese pizza. The dishes were excellent! I especially enjoyed the salads and the lasagna. We also had the huge sundae for dessert. Overall a majority of the food was delicious. I would recommend all of the food items we ordered, with exception to the cheese pizza. The pizza was more like flat pizza bread topped with pizza sauce and light cheese...underwhelming. Robert, our waiter, was excellent! We were a party of 20 and he was consistently able to serve us our meal and fill our requests (more napkins, plates, water, etc). Thank you Robert!! I realize Bucca isnt authentic Italian. Nonetheless I enjoyed the "americanized" version and the unique ambiance. read more

Buca di Beppo Italian Restaurant - The Pope Room - Italian Near Me - Brea, California

I know I know, this place is a chain, but it's pretty darn good. I've been there before and they must of improved their menu because I don't remember the food being so tasty. The tomato sauce on the pizza was amazing. Put a little black pepper and hot pepper flakes and BAM!! Also the pasta dish we ordered was pretty good. Maybe we just ordered the right things. The service was also great. We sat in the bar seating area and the bartender was our waiter. He was very attentive and helpful with suggestions. read more

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Average Italian restaurant. A step above Olive Garden, however. Do not be alarmed at the prices because the entree's are good for 2 or 3 people to share that business. The pizza's are thin and flavorful. I guess it's a good place to pass small events such as "Thank God I'm Fat" Day or "I don't want to work tomorrow" day and many others. Oh, and please do ask for lemon in your water because their water is filtered straight through their asses and into your cup. Enjoy! read more

Love the food here. Family style dining. Large portions. Great atmosphere, decor, and employees. We had dinner there last night. Ordered the large portion of spaghetti and meatballs, Caesars salad, Brussel sprouts with prosciutto, and garlic bread for a party of 5. The food was delicious, with enough left over to take home. Mathew, our waiter was great. He was funny, friendly, attentive, and very personable. Great dining experience. read more

I cannot believe they charge $35 for this small piece of lasagna! They told me it would be enough to feed 4 people. Do yourself a favor and go to Maggianos. Tastes better, you get more meat and twice as much lasagna. read more

Buca di Beppo Italian Restaurant - Italian Near Me - Brea, California

Went with a large group after a softball tournament. The food was great and our waitress Kathy was terrific. Great service and super friendly especially since we had a large party. Great place to go for groups and families. read more

I was thinking if I should give 2 or 3 stars. Large portions. The Chicken Marsala was too sweet. The Seafood Linguini was ok. We enjoyed the Tiramisu. I dont know the other locations in LA, but Buca Di Beppo in Seattle is much better though. read more

We came here for dinner for the second time lately. We love the food! The waitress was very friendly, and helpful! Her name was Kathy. Hard worker and especially for an older gal! We will be back! I think next time we will go to another location, this one in Brea is very old, and is looking a bit run down. It would be nice to see them do some refreshing on the entire place! read more

Celebrating my daughters 16th birthdays. Ashley, our server, was accommodating and helpful in suggestions. The chicken carbonara was a perfect for our group of teens. read more

I love how they give you a tour of the restaurant. It's kinda like Disneyland with a tour guide and everything. The food is fantastic, the drinks are really good too. I love how it's family style portions so everyone can share. It is a little over priced for what you get so be prepared to spend some money. read more

This is definitely one of the best chain Italian restaurants around! When you walking around inside (even the bathroom), you'll notice all the quirky but interesting photos that make up the Italian culture. And before you get seated, you'll walk through the kitchen, where there is a table especially reserved for those that want to eat in the kitchen! Most of the dishes are family portions, so bring lots of family or friends to get the most variety. My family favorite are the spaghetti with meat sauce, chicken saltimbocca, chicken and veal parmigiana.The Pizzas are very good too (they are thin, Sicilian style)! If you not filled yet, try their spumoni ice cream or other tasty desserts. If you're giving one star to this, what would you give Olive Garden? Give it a try and I guarantee it you won't regret it! read more

Probably #1 on my Italian restaurants! Not only is the pasta AMAZING, the servers here are super nice! My server, Josh, was so welcoming despite our massive party of 52, plus his positivity & smiles throughout the night really helped lift the mood! read more

Tiramisu to go. $10.79 RUM-ilicious for SURE. I am the first to say that I want to taste RUM in my tiramisu...but this... seemed like they forgot espresso =[ I think the rum was a generous amount and it would have been perfect if they had soaked it in rum once. and then again in espresso. it's too overpowering as is. and the espresso would have given it more dimension. this was like eating a strong kahlua the marscapone layer is pretty thick but it's good. getting it to-go means a cut down in size but it was still too much for 5 ppl. i think 6-7 would have been perfect. overall: good but it's missing an element. best tiramisu yet? FAIL. read more

I wish I was a bigger fan of Buca. I just feel like the prices are too expensive and I don't really like the family style plates... it is kind of a problem when you are trying to cater to multiple people. I also wish they served soup. We ordered a small spaghetti and salad for 3 people and I was still hungry. The next time, we had 4 people and ordered: mozarella and tomatos and a large pasta (chicken carbonara) and we were stuffed. Here are my thoughts on this location specifically. Service is good. Bring a warm coat- it is always freezing inside (hence my soup desire)! One tip is to do a reservation online (or open table) because they sometimes have a long wait. read more

The atmosphere of the restaurant is great, but that's about it. I only dine here for large family gatherings when other family members have chosen where to eat. I'd never come on my own. If you're looking for a good Italian dinner (or even a DECENT Italian dinner), you can do MUCH better elsewhere. Garlic dishes tend to have giant, misshapen slivers of garlic, pasta dishes taste like frozen entrees from the supermarket, and the Chicken Parmesan probably ranks the lowest on my list of quality for similar dishes at other restaurants. If you've never been to Buca di Beppo, by all means, go once: you'll have fun. Just don't set your standards too high. read more

Fast and amazing service! Always recommend to make reservation. Great for big parties.

We arrive approximately 30 min before my OpenTable reservation. The Hostess was very pleasant and said about 10 minutes or so to seat our party of 9. As we were waiting they seated about 4 double digit parties, the Yelp 3 stars and service complaints were all I could think about. It was about 12 minutes or so and we were good to go. Seating was one long table, perfect for our group of Adults/Kids. The waiter was on us in about 1 minute taking our drink and appetizer order. He came back around once before we were ready to order the main dishes and maybe 5 minutes later returned to take that order. Drinks, appetizers, main dish, refills, desert, coffee, ALL without a hiccup. I thought hard about the 5 stars, so what could they improve? The facility could use a ceiling to floor scrub down. It is impossible to over clean a restaurant!!! read more

First off let me take you through the whole experience and you can decide for yourself. As you walk in they take you through the kitchen which is on your way to your table. Then they take you through several rooms that you could have requested including one that had a large table with a creepy looking bust of the pope in the center. There is so much stuff on the ceiling and walls its as if your grandma came back from a trip and literally bought everything from every souvenir shop in Italy. There were odd pictures and odd-looking decorations such as a cat with lipstick and tattoos as well as pope pictures. And of course, there are plenty of artifacts that resemble ads for various Italian products. The tablecloth had that classic red and white checkered pattern and all pizzas are placed on top of a large can of tomatoes. Of course, you also have to have the wine bottles on the ceiling. There are no tables for two in this place as this is a place to come for large gatherings. When someone is celebrating their birthday, they bring out a candelabra instead of a cake and you blow out the candles of the candelabra. All of the items on the menu are for more than one person so the idea is that you order several plates and share with your group. Then you add a bottle of wine (or two) in the mix and you got yourself a party. You can even document the even with a cameraman that comes by to take your picture and mounts it on nice paper with a nice paper frame. Clearly this is a place to come for the experience, attentive service and not necessarily the food itself. If that is your goal and you have money to burn than this place is for you and stop reading at this point. If you do care about the quality of the food then this place is most definitely not for you and avoid this place like the plague. Previous reviewers have gotten sick and others have also had bad experiences with this food and quite frankly I am not surprised. At least two entrees I had to send back because they were overcooked. Even the couple behind us sent back an entrée as well. The manager was clearly used to comping people's food. Not a good sign. What we did not take back were the very basic entrees like the spaghetti, the pizza, the baked ziti and lasagna. But you can clearly tell nothing was freshly made as the pasta was probably sitting in a steam bath for several hours and the tomato sauce was probably sitting in a pot all day. Now let's talk about the prices. I wouldn't mind so much about the food if the prices weren't so high. Since this restaurant was located so close to the Brea mall I actually had the thought of heading over there and getting something from Sbarro's since I probably would have gotten a better meal for far less money. The small pizza that they claim is for 3 people is $20. The baked ziti they claim is for 3 people is $30. Many of the other items are over $30 for just a small portion that they claim is supposed to be for 3 people. If you are a family of 4 you could find yourself easily spending $75 just on food. Now the difficulty for me was the rating for this place. I had a very bad meal but one star may be a little harsh given this place is more about the experience rather than the food. But having bad food certainly will give you a bad experience no matter how fancy the place is or how nice the servers are. So I finally settled on two stars. read more

Portions are big, but a little bit pricey. We usually order catering for small functions or family get-togethers. Always love the Fettuccine Alfredo, can't go wrong with that! read more

I was coming to Bucca for many years... and I made a reservation days before for this special day... Valentines Day... when I get the restaurant the server said ... sorry because pase already 20 minutes ... the table it's not available..! I asked if we can wait... they said no ...!!! It's unbelievable... not reservations because was late 20 minutes... Never back again..!! poor customer service..!! read more

We just celebrated my nieces 13th birthday here with 24 of our family members. Matthew, our Waiter, did an AWESOME job tending to everyone and he did it solo! We were really impressed by him as he was so friendly and attentive for such a large group. Great food, great service, great day! Thank you Matthew! read more

There was a long wait when I visited this particular Buca Di Beppo, but it was well worth it. The food was great. I almost never order desert but had to try the Tiramisu. I highly recommend it! The portion to cost ratio is about right. The food is good and tastes like it was just made, not microwaved or frozen (yes, I'm looking at you Olive Garden). To top it all off, we had a terrific waiter. I'm usually very picky with my waiters, and have to say that was the best I've had in a while. He was friendly and funny enough but not intrusive or annoying. He was totally attentive and never let my drink run dry. It was a great experience and I'm definitely coming back. read more

Experience-wise, it's definitely up there with its crazy decor and atmosphere. Food-wise, I am less impressed the more I go. Sure the portions are large, but the prices are still slightly on the high side. It's really nothing to write home about, as even the popular Olive Garden is much superior to the quality of this. Definitely worth a visit. read more

Great place for pasta! Their dishes can be able to feed about 2-4 depending on your appetite. The pasta was really really good. One of the best Italian places I've had. read more

Review based on catering/take out order. I arrived way early for my order, and had some last minute additions and coupons (you know, THAT customer). They handled it well! The customer service from Jessica and Nick was outstanding.. They treated me like a king. Very polite and helpful and friendly. Wouldn't even let me carry my own food to the car. The food was exactly what we ordered, a good amount, and came with extra sauces and condiments, and was excellent! Food was a big hit for our party. Even sat at the bar and had a beer while i waited for the order. Bartender was friendly and cool too (sorry I didn't catch his name), and Jessica came to find me when my order was ready. In and out hassle free. Can't wait til the next shindig. Coming back here. Get the prosciutto stuffed chicken! read more

I don't know what it is about this location, but there always seems to be a problem. Last time we had to fight our server over splitting a check and this time we had to fight to use a coupon on each check. This kind of customer service makes us never want to return. Kind of ironic that they call you family here then treat their customers like this! read more

Came here for a party. We were early. Hostess asked how many in your party. I said I'm not the host, how would I know how many??? Then she asked me " how many have arrived". I said again, why are you asking me that, it's not my party And I don't have the guest list. She then proceeded to tell me like that we couldn't be seated because 1/2 if the guests hadn't arrived. I asked if there was someplace we could have a glass of wine while we were waiting. Her response rather curtly was "around the corner". Jeeze thanks so much. Forget this place. Mismanagement and no one cares. This joint is a circus with no thought or courtesy for the customer. I will never come here again. Take your business elsewhere. They don't care and they honestly don't deserve your business. You'll be damn sorry if you come here read more

o.k. Can we admit that when it comes to good Italian food...that Buca di Beppo fails...big time? What they don't fail in is: Being a pretty good place to go to for last minute catered-style company-lunches. Having decent prices. And, pretty good customer service. I've never been or ever will be a fan of theme restaurants who tries to sell the public on the idea that they are having a great time and are actually eating good food. But, hey...Buca was there for what I needed them for. That's about it. read more

Not the best Italian food, but edible. I mean, as a first generation Italian, I only eat here once in a blue moon. Anyone who knows me, knows I don't do Italian, only because I am Italian and cook Italian. But, I bought a Groupon and my family likes the pizza here. The dishes are actually not that bad, however, the ambiance is tacky as f***, and that is not our thing. But, if you have small kids that are loud, as I do, by all means, go..... It will be OK! Pizza is good, thin crust, but good. Calamari is good as well, however, mozzarella sticks are OK, my son was greatly disappointed, but hey, you can't always have it all. Best part of dinner besides my Martini, complimentary family pic! Salut!.... To one hell of a good life!!! read more

Buca di Beppo Italian Restaurant - Complimentary pic - Italian Near Me - Brea, California

So I went to Buca di Beppo for the first time in my life ever I had this very accommodating waitress and her name was Evee, she was very helpful and assisted me and selecting A delicious Pasta dish called spicy chicken rigatoni it came out fresh fast and hot. I was very pleased with the meal she had suggested for me to consume. And somehow even though I was so full she still talked me into getting a delicious dessert of tiramisu. Definitely going to come back to this establishment. read more

Oh Yelpers, I was so scared of this Buca when I read all the discouraging reviews. I was even tempted to make reservations at the Garden Grove Buca instead. In this case, GG Buca was too out of the way - so reservations at Brea it is! I made reservations for 9 on Sunday at 6:30pm - celebrating my baby cousin's 12th birthday :) :) :) he loves loves Italian and my fam loves family style! When we arrived ~6:10pm, there were hordes of people waiting outside and inside the restaurant! "OMG, we are going to wait an HOUR" was going through my head. I checked in with the hostess and we were seated in 10 minutes! Reservations = life savior. The hostess was very friendly and walked us through the kitchen where the Kitchen Table is ... I'm glad I special requested "No Kitchen Table, Please" bc baby cousin's 12th bday would have been a bummer if we had to see all the waiters/waitress flying around, not to mention the other group of guests that would stare at us as they were taking their tour of the kitchen. Our order: Sm Bruschetta (free app coupon used) --Plain, ok - simple tomato-y satisfaction with a hint of balsamic vinegar... enough to curb our hunger - though I would like to get the Calamari next time! Prosciutto Stuffed Mushrooms --CREAMY and meaty goodness. Everyone loved this app except BF who hates all fungus. Nicely sized mushrooms stuffed with a cheesy prosciutto filling on top of pesto cream sauce (also yummy on the complimentary bread!) Sm Spaghetti and Meatballs --I LOVE their simple spaghetti and meatballs. Very simple, minimal flavors and with a little salt and pepper, it is fantastic IMO. My uncle really enjoyed this dish so kudos to him! :) Sm Fettuccine Supremo --This was WAY too creamy and rich for me - I had a hard time finishing it. However, Bday boy LOVES any type of Alfredo and this was his #1 choice! OMG, he inhaled his portion. His younger brother, Baby Cousin #2 was avoiding everyone as he was shoving his portion into his mouth as fast as he could. This was a top fave for many in the group - I could tell since it was the first dish to be empty! TONS of fettuccine with lots of creamy, Parmesan goodness, chicken, red bell peppers, broccoli. Sm. Fettuccine Linguine Di Mare --So we had our beef, our chicken, and now we need seafood! Spicy red clam sauce was not that spicy :( However, this was a nice change from the other proteins and carbs we had - intense seafood flavor due to the mussels, clams, calamari and shrimp. Sm Chicken Parmigiana --Very Yummy though some in our group believed Olive Garden's was much better. It was a nice compliment to the Spaghetti and Meatballs. Chocolate Vesuvio --OMG my chocolate craving was finally sated. It was a HUGE brownie slice with a scoop of Vanilla Bean gelato on both sides. Drizzled with caramel and chocolate sauce... a bunch of us were in dessert heaven. Next time we are most definitely trying the cheesecake! Birthday Cupcake :D --It was basically a huge funfetti muffin with vanilla frosting and sprinkles. Thanks Buca! Service was OK - a tad slow at times, but we were celebrating a bday, relaxing, and going with the flow. The waiter was awesome at the end about baby cousin's bday! Total bill was ~130 with tip. Grat wasn't included. That's a pretty reasonable meal considering we stuffed our fat faces with all those carbs and still had a little bit of leftovers! Everyone left satisfied with the meal - baby cousin got tons of new clothes and the first time buca goers loved the new experience! YAY, birthday success! read more

A Slow Buca Buca Di Beppo is pretty much the same no matter where you go. The decoration is always superfluous; you get a ton of stuff to look at on the walls. It makes it look busier than it really is, but I suppose the restaurant really wants you to have an 'authentic' experience. As if just by putting a bunch of decoration on the walls will teleport you to a new country. Anyways Yelpers, I would give one suggestion to everyone. Come to this restaurant in a large group! Trust me on this one. Experiencing a bit of every dish as family style is the way to eat at this restaurant. You just do not want to be stuck with the same taste throughout your meal because the portions here can get big. I suggest eating with at least 5 people and up. The food here is overall good, and you can easily read the descriptions to get your ideal dish. My group ate the calamari & salad as appetizers, ordered 2 pizzas, and 3 other entrees. The Chicken Pesto Pizza was superb! The Supremo Pizza was "eh, not so great". The Baked Rigatoni, Proscuitto Chicken, and oven roasted salmon were delicious! A word of warning however, is if you are not patient this place is not for you. The service here is substandard. You'll easily wait 10 minutes just to get a to-go box (which I did). So, arrive here with an appetite, a good group of friends, and have conversation picked out because you may find yourself waiting a bit longer than you'd like. The food - good. The service - slow. Overall 3 stars. read more

Service is pretty bad, food a little better. Service: Not horrible, but far from great. Waiters seem to dislike their job. Food: Pretty bland :/ All in all a waste of money and time. read more

Okay, I love pasta and pizza and I love Buca. Do I think this is as good as it gets? No, but it's pretty darn awesome. My favorite pasta here thus far as been the spicy chicken rigatoni which, contrary to the title, is not really spicy. I can't even eat hot cheetos so that kind of tells you where it is on the heat spectrum. The calamari is definitely something worth trying. It is probably one of the most well seasoned calamaris I've ever tried, even beating out places in San Francisco and Monterey Bay. Texture is great, the sauce is great, and it's a pretty big portion. Speaking of which, all the portions are huge...so make sure you share! The service is here is pretty good, it's comparable to the one in Pasadena and I've never had a problem at either location. I just wish the bread was hot when it came out. read more

The environment at Buca is always great, whether you have a small party or really large group. The food is consistently delicious, and the service is warm and friendly. We were served by Kathy tonight and she was extremely attentive and truly one of the best! read more

I'm mainly writing this now because I can't leave anytype of feedback at their website. Nothing. Nada. There is no way to contact corporate. I'm so sick of your restaurant and all the crap you send to me. I can't even contact your corporate office from the contact link on your home page. Everytime you send me a coupon it now says it can't be used with a gift card but your webpage says it's treated like cash. I'm going to start going back to the OLIVE GARDEN. I used to go to your Brea store 5 to 6 times a year but the service became so mediocre that I haven't been there in almost a year. Now I got a gift card from my kids and can't use it with a coupon. Addendum.... I went there on Thursday Oct 25 with my 50% off all pasta dishes coupon. Actually it was 50% off only the pasta they wanted me to eat. Conveniently they were out of Lasagna at 7:45 pm. That's what I mainly went for. I used my gift card for drinks and split the ticket so I could use my coupon. The food I did eat was just ok as we tried two of the new dishes off a special pasta menu. Tortellini Blanca and some sage(supposedly) flavored meat dish with a long name. The quattro al forno was good as usual. The fried calamari was tender and hot. the drinks still need more alcohol. I had some tiki rum punch with cranberry juice. Nice combination. The service was impeccable. I wish I payed attention the the waitress' name but she talked softer than I could hear. Maybe there is a new manager? What's up with no lasagna considering it's a popular dish and the place wasn't super busy? It still might be a while until I go back. read more

Pizza was great and the service was even better. Kathy was super nice and very accommodating. She kept track of all 17 peoples orders. She was also extremely professional. I wish I could leave a bigger tip but I cant so I'm leaving a review. read more

Great service our server was Kathy she was so attentive great smile and personality Kathy thank you so much we will return read more

Humorous posters and quirky old advertisements covered the walls and the vaulted ceiling of the little room we were seated in. But hey, if their is a dull moment with your guest just point out something and talk about that. There's plenty to look at. The waiter mentioned family style portions and how a Buca "small" serves up to three people. I'm sure he was talking about the pasta... right? We ordered the pizza and it came out a lot smaller than anticipated. And of course, it was devoured. Glad we had the spicy calamari as an appetizer. Covered with a spicy sauce, minced garlic and banana peppers galore it is definitely a must. The service was alright. Our waiter was nice but seemed more attentive to other guests. Is it because I used a coupon? $10 off I might add. Ahhh... yes I think so. read more