I give this place a good review. It was just my husband and myself. He had the lasagna and thought it was pretty good and he is hard to please. I had the lemon chicken which was good but I wish the chicken portion was larger. The pasta was fresh, more lemon sauce was needed. The coffee was weak and no small spoon was provided. We just had this large spoon for pasta twirling. The menu I had was sticky and not clear well. They let us order from the lunch menu which allowed us to order our individual selection otherwise your option are small or large. The small feeds 3 people. Yikes! read more

I LOVE this place. The service amazing and so was the atmosphere. I've been there multiple times and always had a good experience. The Apple Gorgonzola salad is the best and is a must try. read more

My boyfriend and I first tried Buca di Beppo in Las Vegas so I was thrilled to know that IL has them too! It's about 45 min from us but worth it! The portions are a great sharing size and for a moderate price. For an appetizer we get the Caprese and it's very fresh and delicious, leaves your mouth watering for more. For dinner we get the infamous spicy chicken rigatoni, oh my, the flavor is sizzling! leaves your tongue tingly and just enough spice! make sure you have your drink handy! and the Margherita pizza, is also heaven sent, the sauce is just perfect! and having it to take home is always a highlight. Highly recommended. read more

I've been here a few times, but my recent trip on a Friday at lunchtime had the nice surprise of having individual lunch portions to order. Because of this, I was finally able to try the Eggplant Parm and it was fantastic! Probably the best I've had. Thinly sliced and breaded. Yum! My husband got the manicotti which was delicious. Other meals I've had in the past were good, but this one took the cake! Decent kid choices, but I'm surprised the kid drink wasn't included in the meal price as most other restaurants do. This place is family friendly, but the pace of the meal is always so slow. I don't know if they do that on purpose, but a 2 hour meal with 2 kids is a little much (would even be a little long without the kids as we mostly are eating before other plans such as the movies, etc). My kids like coming here though and like the food. read more

First time there, decor was interesting and plenty to look at. Food was good, nothing incredible. The veal parm was tough, spicy chicken rigatoni was good. Our server sucked, fake smile, wasn't even good enough to check on us before our food got to the table. We had to ask for plates. Seemed like either she just didn't want to be there or be bothered with doing her job. Oh she did smile when she brought the check. Sorry lady, the food was good but not good enough to deal with terrible service. Plenty of other places to go where they are happy to see you. read more

Three of us went.....29.99 for a chicken dish...3 breasts.....nothing else...everything cost extra except the bread and water!....now that's $10 a chicken breast....is it made of gold? Salad for 3 was $16...any other Italian place gives you soup or salad and an entree for $20 or less..I think this place is highway robbery and will not return.....besides the chicken dish was nothing special as l. The waiter was great though. read more

We've gone to Buca about 5 times in the last 10 years and we've always loved it. Tonight the food was not good. My Spaghetti and meatballs were bland. They only serve marinara when you get spaghetti & meatballs. They should offer meat or marinara sauce like other restaurants! The marinara tasted like a can of crushed tomatoes with a little lemon juice. Tasted like it had no spices, sugar or oil! The Tiramisu was waxy and very dense not light and fluffy. Tasted like they used Crisco in it. The house salad also lacked flavor. I put Olive Garden dressing on it when I ate the leftovers later on. My husbands Shrimp Fettuccine was bland too. He was disappointed. The garlic bread was great. Waiter was great also. read more

Rating a two star for service, not food. Food was good, and service through the meal was okay. However, when the check came we experienced poor communication. We had been given an incorrect check which we did not notice. We thought the credit card was going to be charged $68, when he came to the table, it had been charged $107. The issue was, our waiter never said anything to us until we questioned it. Then they voided the transaction, and we had to ask for that receipt too. The manager did not care this had happened either. Will not be going back. read more

Went here for dinner Sunday night and the food was amazing! Their bruschetta is the best I've ever had and the pasta was great as well. The portions that they give you are generous too so we had leftovers to take home afterwards. read more

Worst dining experience ever, where do I begin? I went with my family on the Saturday after Thanksgiving, the place was packed so we waited about 45 minutes which wasn't a problem however we had to wait in a cramped entrance which is the pathway to the kitchen which also doubles for the take out area.....so you end up with waiters walking through the waiting area with both food and even dirty plates (gross!) as you wait to be seated. I can't even imagine that this is allowed by the health department. Once we were seated you could barely have a conversation because the noise level in the room we were in was so loud. The service was friendly but not very good. It took an hour for us to get our food which was not very good. We had just mediocre pasta and a rubbery chicken dish which was suppose to be family style but it just looked like an average portion at any other good Italian restaurant, The caprese salad had some tasteless tomatoes in it and looked like a serving for one. We had to ask for plates that were dirty when we got them, had to ask for forks which arrived after we needed them. What a total waste of time and money. Skip this place, if you want an Italian meal you'd be better off staying home and opening a can of Chef Boyardee at least that would be better! read more

We had such great experience here! We came from outlet shopping in Aurora. Boy, were we hungry! Our server, Stephen, was super-nice and gave us some really awesome recommendations. The macaroni Rosa was no longer on the menu so I went with the spicy chicken rigatoni. So good!!!! I always love dining here mostly for the family size portions perfect to load up on carbs the day before running a race. Besides that, I love the fun "Italian" paraphinalia, black and white classic pics of Sofia Loren and Pavarotti on the wall. The ladies room has some funny decorations too!! Love the food, atmosphere and service here! Never a dissapointment. read more

My family and I went to the Lombard location to celebrate a birthday. We had reservations for 6 adults/5 children all under 10! @ 7pm, but waited a bit to get our table cleared. While waiting, we stood in a very crowded spot near the kitchen. The waiting staff kept walking through with hot plates and almost dropped one on a customer...MAJOR LIABILITY!! When we got seated, we had to be careful not to bump the people behind us...the chairs were so close to each other. Maybe i'm being petty, but I like room when i'm eating! The waitress was nice, but very forgetful. She didn't provide us with extra napkins or bread and forgot my husban's beer until almost the end of his dinner. We ordered the calamari and bruschetta for starters. The bruschetta was ok, but the calamari was a bit too rubbery and greasy. Our entrees were the Chicken satambulca, rigatoni, gorgonzola salad and lasagna. I didn't care much for the rigatoni or the chicken. The lasagna was good! My favorite was the salad...also the most expensive of our choices. Overall, it's a good place to take children. it's not too loud, bathrooms were clean, restaurant was clean and it is very family friendly.But, I wouldn't go back by choice. The place was more of a "wanna be" Maggiano's, but lacked the maggiano's quality in food. read more

Made a dinner reservation for 7:30 for 4, but apparently a lot of others did as well. Expected a little wait due to it being valentines day. Actually it was about a 25-30 minute wait. When we left there were as many people waiting as when we arrived but we had seen numerous empty tables on the way out. Either a kitchen issue kept them from seating more people or they weren't good at managing their tables. Overall the food was very good. Service was great once seated and we had a very relaxing dinner. I will definitely try this resteraunt again and hope they have their reservation system in better order. The prosciutto chicken was delicious as was the specialty salad. Order the small portions as they are generous read more

We had our High School get together and the service, waiters/waitress were all part of the success, can't forget the FOOD, which was outstanding! We had a blast, atmosphere was so comfortable we didn't want to leave! We're going back again this year. Thank You Buca for making our reunion the best! read more

Was extremely disappointed in both food and service other evening. The veal strips were like leather-- very hard to even cut, let alone eat. We mentioned that to the waiter, who laughingly replied, "Well, you never know what you will get when you order veal." Really? Could he not even have mentioned it to the cook, manager, someone, instead of just ignoring the remark? Very disappointing food (including the grossly over-oiled salad, in addition to not being offered a mere second mini-loaf of bread) and very cold, ineffective service. We had been there before and were satisfied with food/service, but this occasion guarantees our not returning. read more

We went there last week to use a gift card I received at Christmas. There were 5 of us and we were looking forward to a great meal. Chris,our server,was outstanding. However, the food quality was just below Olive Garden. For what we paid, I could have gone to Olive Garden twice for better food. I'll never go back. read more

I really wanted to give more than three stars because the quality of food is top notch and the portions are sizeable, for the most part. But prices are way up there even for the lunch menu. The 6-count stuffed mushrooms appetizer, for example, costs more than $12. I miss Pompeii. :( read more

first time visit in scottsdale az. service and food was awful! contacted buca and they sent a gift certificate. tried the lombard il location. thank goodness i had the certificate. mediocre service and food was just awful and bland. portions are iffy for 3 depending on dish. for a chain maggianos is much better food, service, and price. wont go back to buca read more

One of those has been places that maybe worked okay before, but doesn't quite work now. Add to the fact that their competition is asthetically classier and more authentic, doesn't aid in Buca di Beppo's plea. That they creatively upsell customers down the river with a lunch bill indicative of a renowned chef in the kitchen and cloth tablecloths on the tables, their system isn't working for me. The chicken parmigana was good - not the best I've had, not the worst. However, $19.99 for 2 chicken breasts is kind of high, especially when our waiter pushed an order of spaghetti, which would be another $14.99 tacked on to that. Mind you, this is LUNCH! We opted for the side of spaghetti marinara for $7 - which at the competition would be $12.99 - $15.99 for both the meat and the pasta. Perhaps if the place were beautifully appointed, the crying babies were dining familystyle elsewhere, the place made foodie's happy, alcohol was consumed, I could see spending well over $50 for 2 people for lunch. However, that's not the case here. There are too many places in the area that offer diners so much more for so much less. If looking for familystyle italian, Maggiano's does it many moons better and you won't be upsold with needless extras. read more

The food was pretty good. The service was probably one of the worst I've ever experienced. He took forever to get anything. I asked for bread literally 5 times and finally got it after we were done with our meal. He also got our order wrong, somehow I knew that was going to happen. It's as if he decided he was going to be the worst a waiter can be that day. He nailed it. read more

this is a fantastic place to eat. great environment , really good food and out standing staff. i wanna give a shout out to Kiana my sever for the night, she did a fabulous job. she had a great personality and was on top of everything. The manager Troy was out and about over watching and making sure everything was okay at the tables. My first time coming here was a success and i highly recommend this place for the fantastic and huge amount of food. read more

Okay, before I go further, our food was great. It is too bad that the overall experience beyond the food brought this down to a one-star rating. Upon entering on a Sunday eve, we were asked if we had a reservation. The hostess seemed annoyed that we did not, despite having more than enough room for us and us being seated immediately. Our waiter moved from doing his duty of trying to upsell us into larger portions and add-ons to visibly annoyed that we were not interested. "So you are only having the entrée and salad?" was said in surprise. This made me and my guest feel somewhat inadequate. So now we were unwelcomed and inadequate and we had not been served. After another employee handed us our entrée over a wall ( not brought to our tableside ) we were then ignored. No water or drink checks until we were finished with the entrée. After the unkempt Ladies restroom visit, we knew another visit was not going to happen. read more

Buca Di Beppo is a fun type of restaurant that serves average Italian food. Growing up Italian, I've had a lot of pasta and such in my life (much to my chagrin when I hit puberty!) and I think I'm a pretty good judge of Italian fare. It used to surprise me when I'd go out with friends(non-Italian) to a so-so Italian restaurant and they would simply go ballistic about the sauce or the lasagna. They'd act like it was a huge treat to have homemade Italian food. "Can it be," I'd ask myself, "that other families don't eat this on a regular basis? Don't their moms cook this stuff all the time?" For even my most culinary challenged relative knew how to make a decent gravy (that's really what Italians call it, not sauce!) without having to consult a recipe. So, sorry to go off on a tangent, but Buca simply serves an okay gravy and an okay array of pastas and such. What it does offer is fun- how can you beat sitting in the Pope room for dinner? Great place to go with a big group or to celebrate an occasion - but if you want real high quality Italian food, stick to the small local joints! read more

Took my family of boys for a celebratory lunch. Spicy chicken rigatoni, chicken parmigiana, shrimp Diavolo, spaghetti & Meatballs were a big hit with all of them, and these are men who i can not get to agree on food & are never full. The other big hit was our Server Allison (Ally) who kept us laughing the whole time. (Family style indeed, i think we just added a new member to our clan.) great flavors, fabulous service! read more

This place is nasty! Ordered takeout salad and they gave me wrong one. I called them when I got home and took 2 days for manager to call back and then told me they would send a gift card for the trouble. Guess what, it never came! The staff is rude and the food is not worth the money. I just rec'd coupons in circular today went in garbage where this restaurant should go! read more

Abysmal service. They tack on an 18% service charge for large groups (making our bill over $900). There is absolutely no incentive for the wait staff to be helpful. And they weren't. The head server was especially haughty. I received a survey regarding my experience there. I conveyed my poor experience in the survey and never heard back from them. So... I guess either the surveys go unread or the fact that our experience was less than stellar didn't matter. Poor management and overly salty food. read more

Came here for my manager's retirement party. The food was excellent. The service was great. The server was very friendly and checked on us often. We had family style chicken parm, spagetti and meatballs, salad, italian sausage, bruschetta. We sat in the pope room which was totally awesome. If you come her please reserve this room! It's a circle table with the popes head in the middle. No complaints!! This will be our go to for future parties!! read more

We go there almost every other week. Their food is always very good. Most times you have to wait to get a table especially on the weekends. But it is worth the wait. Chisele, one of the servers, is exceptionally good. She is very attentive and great at what she does. We always ask to be seated in her area. read more

I used to really like this place, but after going last year for my birthday, it left a bad taste in my mouth (literally and figuratively). We were going out for my birthday on a Saturday night, so I made sure to make a reservation for the six of us (mom, dad, husband, sister, bro in law) and we got there about ten minutes early, mainly because my dad was freaking out about being there on time and worried they'd give our table away if we weren't there, so it wasn't really a big deal that we had to wait for our table. Well, at 7:30, when our reservation was for 7:00, we began to get antsy; we even tossed around the idea of going someplace else, but on a Saturday night at 7:30, we'd just have to wait some more. So we waited. And waited. And waited some more. Finally at about 7:45 we got our table. Our server was very harried and rather unfocused and even though we all knew exactly what we wanted (we DID have almost an hour to study the menu, after all...), he only brought us our waters and left. Later he came back for our drink orders and before he could escape again, we wanted to put in our food orders, too. But it was not to be, because my mom had a question about what kind of gin they had, and rather than listen to her say if they had x she'd take that, but if not, well was fine, he went off to check what the gin was. Ten minutes later, he was back for our orders, but unfortunately no drinks were in hand. At least we had water.... Fast forward to finally get our food orders in and get our food (and I noticed at this point, when we finally got our food, that the restaurant was decidedly quieter and noticeably emptier.. good Lord, how long were we there??). Six people at the table, four dishes to share, only one person happy with what they ordered. And it wasn't the birthday girl. The pasta was not cooked right (it seemed both over and under cooked at the same time.. how is that possible?) and the chicken had a very funky taste to it. And not a good funky, like "funky Chicken" funky, but a bad funky, like "gosh I hope this doesn't give me salmonella" funky. How sad I was. At the end of the meal, our server came around to ask about dessert, but by this time we all just wanted to go, so he unceremoniously handed us the check, even though evidence of the presence of a birthday girl was obvious (you know, "the birthday girl will have a corona," type thing). No free slice of birthday cake with all the servers singing loudly? WTF? This is a loud Italian restaurant! Where is my loud Italian birthday song?! For frick's sake, they do it at Olive Garden! ... Maybe I'll just go there next year. Happy Birthday to me... read more

I actually haven't been since a friend's birthday 3 or 4 years ago and for some reason I had it on the same scale as Olive Garden (not good). So, when we took my dad for his birthday I was quite happy with the meal. It's a loud, boisterous Italian restaurant, makes it fun, they've got crazy pictures up everywhere... many on the r-rated side, so blindfold your kids. Our server was on speed or something, trying to get through the order and missing some key notes... like dressing on the side, but he fixed it asap. But honestly skipped the mixed green salad, since ours was literally just a bowl of lettuce. We got a pizza which was pretty good, but I still think their pastas are great. Get the spicy chicken rigatoni, it's got a nice kick (or as I say White Man spicy), so it's not too hot. The eggplant parmesan was really good too. They have a great house red... Ciao, so make sure to get a glass or carafe. Didn't get any dessert, but one of these days I will go for that Colossal Brownie Sundae... one of these days. read more

You feel like you are in someone's grandmas basement with junk all over. outdated and is crying for Gordon Ramsey's kitchen nightmares. The food is good if you are a party of 5 or more. read more

I don't know what has happened to this chain. There used to be one by my office downtown but it closed some time ago. This was my first trip in to Bucca since then, and I had not been in this location in probably 3 years. Came here for a b-day lunch. I had no clue the menu had changed drastically and it was ONLY family style now. No single serve portions. Ok, so that meant mom and I had to agree on an entree to share or have too much food and spend WAY too much for lunch. We got cheesy garlic bread and cannelloni. 4 cannelloni for $19??? Really? And the garlic bread was now like torn pieces of bread - little cubes - WHO wants to eat bread like that other than birds or toddlers? There were honestly 4 tables being waited on by 3 different waiters. We were rushed out of there like they needed the table. If they had moved that fast downtown I could have had lunch there more often. We were SO rushed out that the waiter came to clear plates from the table and took the entree plate that my mom just took the last cannelloni from while she still had the serving spoon in her hand! She had intended to scoop up some of the sauce left on the plate but she was just left holding the spoon!!! The food is really very mediocre and crazy overpriced. The service was horrible. Bad choice for my b-day lunch. Sorry to see this place going downhill as I used to kind of like it. Sent comment to company and never got a replyl. Guess they don't care about bad service/bad food. read more

I wish I had something good to say about this restaurant. I made a reservation for my 24th birthdays 3 weeks in advance for a party of 6. We arrived on time for the reservation and were greeted by the unfriendly and unprofessional Katlyn. She did not give us a time for how long we would be seated. We waited 40 minutes before we decided to leave. During our 40 minute wait Katlyn dropped multiple f bomb and was slurring very offensive language about her coworkers who she called "Fucking retarded" which to anyone especially someone with mental disabilities is extremely inappropriate. The last straw was when a party of 62, yes 6-2, with a later reservation were seated in front of us! We went to the Olive Garden up the street and had great meal. read more

Very impressed with the food here. Ordered the spaghetti and it was outstanding. The bread was delicious as well. Entire family loved it. Will definitely be returning. read more

It really saddens me to have to write this review. I've been going to this place for years, and it just seems to have gotten worse and worse recently. Today I had such a bad experience I don't think I'll ever be back. Food was fine, although overpriced. The service was awful. I ordered a drink that they had a picture of on the menu. It didn't look anything like the picture, literally just a completely different color and with none of the garnishes listed in the description. The drink was still okay (not worth the ten dollars charged) so I bit my tongue and drank it. I ordered a second, different drink next. They informed me they didn't have the main ingredient to make it. I asked if they could make something similar she said yes but then brought me out a drink that wasn't even close to what I had ordered. I figured they might discount it since it had none of the ingredients listed but they still tried to charge me ten dollars for the drink. I explained to her my issue when the check came, and she told me there was nothing she could do. I asked to speak to a manager and suddenly she could take 5 dollars off. Honestly I am not one to complain but I just really am tired of spending so much money to be disappointed here. I would recommend finding another, cheaper place where the experience will be worth it. read more

Awful, awful, awful. First and last time for me. Waiter was crazy annoying, trying to be funny. Worst of all, my meat ball was not thoroughly cooked (hope I don't get sick). He tried to tell me that the meat balls are cooked in sauce and that was why it was red and mushy inside. Um, I cook. I know raw meatballs from ones COOKED in sauce. Think the pasta was way over cooked too. Probably could have done better with a jar of Barilla pasta sauce. read more

The service was good, but the food and drinks were very bad. We were in a very large group and order family style dishes so we got the chance to try 5 or 6 different dishes...ALL WERE VERY BLAND. Poor excuse for Italian food, red and white sauces tasted like they were straight out of a can. Also the drinks were SUPER weak. Hope this helps, go somewhere else read more

I went there because of $20 off coupon. So obviously I can tell the quality of service I received was different from the other tables. The water we got did not have a straw :( the waiter never asked how everything was !!! Disappointed about the service but the food was good. read more

I had the worst time at this restaurant. Me and my wife went for a nice dinner and had the worst service. Waitress gave us attitude for re ordering another drink. When you get bad service it makes you want to leave the restaurant. Will be hard for me to ever go back. Food was ok but the service turned us off. Please don't go to the Lombard location. read more

Disappointed! We made reservations for 630 and was 20 min late due to a snow storm and traffic. Upon arrival the receptionist told me they canceled our reservations because it's a policy after 30 min. I told her kindly that we still have over 5 min before the policy applies. So she rudely said she will seat soon. Half an hour later, we were finally seated. After our meal, a check was given to us even though we had plans to share a dessert. Disappointed we decided not to have dessert and to never recommend this restaurant to our family and friend. The food was great, but the service was horrible. We even over heard a few people murmuring something like "keep an eye on that table". We are dressed in our Sunday's best apparel, young professionals who carry themselves well, but yet felt looked down upon...was it maybe because we didn't look like everyone else?!?! #teacher #nurse #army #filipino #Americans! read more