If you want a reliable expression of Chicago's Italian beef tradition, Buona Beef delivers with consistency. This is the classic build: thinly sliced roast beef, properly seasoned, layered into fresh bread, and supported by a well-developed jus that actually carries flavor--not just salt and water. The balance matters, and Buona gets that right more often than not. Order it baptized--fully dipped after assembly. That's not a flourish; it's the correct configuration. The bread absorbs the jus, the beef relaxes, and the entire sandwich becomes cohesive rather than component parts. Hot giardiniera is not optional--it's essential. The acidity, heat, and oil cut through the richness of the beef and complete the system. This isn't an artisanal one-off or a nostalgia-only institution. It's a scalable operation that still respects the mechanics of what makes an Italian beef sandwich work. And that, frankly, is harder to maintain than it looks. read more

Don't get me wrong, the Italian beef here is fabulous. However, in some of their other items they keep letting us down. They have a Chicken and Avocado protein bowl that's served over spinach instead of lettuce. Twice now they have served it steaming hot! Hot spinach is simply wilted and almost disgusting. Perhaps they need to rethink their quality control on some of these items. read more

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The place is always busy but the food comes out pretty quickly. I split a veggie version of the beef sandwich and my son got the regular beef in a gluten free pita. Cheese fries and a chocolate milk shake. The veggie beef sandwich is really good and taste almost like the real version but not exactly. The sauce was not salty and the giardiniera was spiced perfectly. The cheese fries really crispy and the cheese was creamy and tasty. The chocolate milk shake came out immediately! It was very good! I would highly recommend. The place was busy like normal and seemed like everyone was enjoying their food. The people that work here are so great and the manager was able to answer my questions surrounding allergies. Overall, great food, service, and company. Will be back here again. read more

Best Italian beef, hands down. I tried a few other popular ones and can say Buona has mastered the trifecta: juicy beef, supportive but not cut-the-roof-of-your-mouth bread, and the most flavorful giardiniera. I had it a few times to be certain Some of the other purveyors had beef that was too dry and flavorless or soggy bread and giariniera that looked better than it tasted. The staff was always friendly (especially at the Rainbow Cone station) and there's plenty of seating. Clean and well lit, easy for anyone - families, individuals, couples, and/or folks with mobility challenges. Will return on each trip to Chicago! read more

Buona - Buona Beef - Burgers Near Me - Kildeer, Illinois

This location in Lake Zurich just opened up about a month ago, we've ordered take out 3 times since they opened and they have delivered great food and service every time. We are frequent customers of Buona Beef, used to go to the hoffman estate's location a lot when we lived near that location. We were so glad to find out they were opening up a new location further north. This location is special because it has a Rainbow Cone attached to the restaurant, where you can get ice cream and drinks too. We typically order hot dogs, burgers, Italian beef or their pizza and salads. You can't really go wrong with any of their options, I haven't had anything I didn't enjoy. I've been impressed by their service at this location, as a newly opened location, the speed of service, quality of food, and most importantly getting our take out orders correct every time so far. I can't tell you how many times we've ordered pick up at a fast food or a restaurant in the past year where the order was incorrect or missing items. If you've never tried Buona Beef, I'd highly recommend it. Great food all around! read more

Buona - a box and a drink on a counter - Burgers Near Me - Kildeer, Illinois

Excellent service and food again. Consistently good. Very clean. Friendly workers. Parking is more than ample. A good experience all around and there is a military veteran discount for the asking. read more

Hot dog and beef are good. What gives it only 2 stars is the cleanliness. The bathroom was so dirty. Toilet paper on the floor and hanging out of the toilet! Tables not clean. One salt shaker for the whole place that was almost empty. I hope the manager reads this. read more

"Baptized" beef was somewhat dipped in gravy. Not at all as I expected. We waited 45 minutes for our food to be prepared. No need to return and I have deleted the app. read more

Had a burger save it for tmw tried half was good . Think I'm going for the main attraction and get back in line. I think this is the third day they are open . Pretty good turn out Mary was excellent good service read more

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Solid fast food location with a variety of food options and nice adult drinks. The beer was great. The place was clean when we went and had e Pugh seating options with crowds moving through relatively quickly. There is a connected ice cream shop - Rainbow cone so you can kill 2 birds with one stone and feel like you went to two places. They support local schools which is a plus. read more

We love coming here. The Italian sausage and peppers and the Italian beef are always great and the fries. However, one great frustration is every time on your drive-through after I've said the whole order- the person then says, can you repeat that? It's every time and it's not the person. It must be something to do with the headset or something, but it is quite frustrating. And I'm sure it's frustrating to the employee also. read more

This is my favorite Italian beef in the city after Al's. Dipped is perfect - baptized will fall apart. Chicken tenders are also great - I was surprised to see that the rest of the menu stands up well. read more

An item was left out of my order the other night. Things happen it's not a big deal, just wanted to shout out that the people there went out of their way to apologize and offer solutions to this very minor inconvenience. Thank you for the help. I will keep coming back. read more

We ordered food to go through the drive through. This was a mistake.items were wrong and missing ingredients. Italian Beef Bowl with hot giardeneira came as a bowl covered in green peppers which overpowered the beef. No giardeneira. Instead of a plain side salad with dressing on the side, we received a salad with red crunchy things, chicken and other interesting but less than desired ingredients. The person taking the order came across as impatient and muffled. In hindsight, we should have asked her to repeat the order back to us but it was busy.unfortunately, this is not the first time our order was incorrect. It happened on an online delivery app too. With the price of takeout these days, this Buona Beef must do better. read more

Consistent and great food for a fast food place. Love the chicken chop salad and everything on the menu

This Buona Beef location just opened and is definitely a must stop. The beef sandwich was on point, the service was quick and friendly. Plenty of employees, including a trainer were on site ensuring that everything flowed smoothly and from what I witnessed, it did. A spacious dining room including a high top bar table to sit at allowed me a great view of the tv and a little view of the kitchen that showed the hussle behind the scene. Smiles were plenty and the music was great even playing one of my favorite songs. The attached Rainbow Cone offers many hard to resist options and helps to make me want to come back that much sooner. Don't forget to be a part of the rewards program. I'll definitely be seeing you all again soon! read more

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Asked for a banana milkshake they ran out of Bananas for the SECOND TIME!!! There's a jewel and target not far from here they can go get bananas from there read more

Had dinner tonight at Buona in St Charles . Ordered a large meatball sandwich extra marinara sauce, regular size beef w/side of hot pepper oil only, can't have the peppers, and 1 reg FF and 1 onion rings, 2 waters. When they brought it to the table the beef was so oily it was dripping from the paper onto the table, they also gave my husband a 6" meatball no extra sauce! Went and told the mgr (which was very rude!! ) she didn't offer to correct my beef and said I'll give you a meatball and an extra pc of bread! I said, just make a new sandwich RIGHT! Spent $30 for what, aggravation and rudeness! There were only 3 other ppl in the dining area, not like it was jammed -- these young kids don't listen! And that manager is a poor example of leadership and accommodating customers!!! read more

1st time ordering a pizza from Buona( typically have dipped Italian beef sandwich).It was delicious!! It was ready in 20 minutes. Picked up at drive thru. Fresh Italian sausage and mushroom. Crust was perfect . I downloaded the app so I also received a discoúnt. I usually order from Lou Malnatis or Giordanos , but this was outstanding and the price made it even better. BRAVO! read more

The beef and bun were great, as usual but they are REALLY skimping on the beef lately They always have someone cleaning ghe eating area and staf are friendly They used to be the beed destination, but i now prefer Portillos. Beefs have twice the beef as Buona read more

This is my go too for beef sandwiches now. I prefer to order on line only because I'm a terrible ordered so it's easier for me to choose my selections especially in regard to HOW I like my beef. But man is it good and consistent!! I've also tried the pasta and it's very good too. read more

Had dinner here after visiting the Brookfield Zoo Dec 23rd at night. As a party of 4 we couldn't decide where we wanted to dine, but after 2 places that we couldn't agree on, we all wanted Buona Beef. Everyone agreed that the other hotdog beef sandwich place had gone down hill since going corporate so they were a no go. This place was super clean and the order taker was very friendly. After a short wait we received our food and every item was great. The bathrooms were very clean and the hand dryer attached to the side of the sink was unique and I have not seen another one like it. Will visit again read more

Buona - Receipt - Burgers Near Me - Kildeer, Illinois

OK, here's a thought. As you hire new employees perhaps, you should train them how to work without a server. My husband and myself looked forward to having lunch in your Mount Prospect Bona. However, when we got there, the young lady told us the server was down. I explained to her why couldn't she recite the order to the COOK take the key open the drawer make change service our food and we'd be on our way. So you mean to tell me that you are so dedicated to a system you can no longer produce food or money exchanges. You really should rethink what to do in a situation where you have to manually do an operation. Totally dissatisfied. This is our future? read more

I'm a huge Buona Beef fan! Their burgers are amazing, have a great combo sausage and beef sandwich, and service is always friendly and reliable. A huge bonus is they have a tasty gluten free pita to swap out for bread. read more

Great food. As good as Portillo's. I love the juice dipping options. Fries are good. Staff is Friendly

You had one fricken job. How do you bag a chicen chopped salad when the label clearly says "dressing", we proceed to get home and there's no dressing. That's about as bad as getting a burger without a burger. AND the original beef sandwich was dipped. If I wanted dipped, I would've asked for dipped. Absolutely terrible. Who's running this place anyway? read more

Great little fast-casual Italian Beef joint. Happy with their sandwich and also their pickup experience. I'll be happy to go back.

The food was delicious and good! The food came out quickly which was nice! And the service was good, too! They put on songs too! read more

Buona - Burgers Near Me - Kildeer, Illinois

The Italian beef, baptized with giardiniera, is adequate. The double dog with celery salt, tomatoes, sports peppers, relish and pickle was dry and uninspired. Buona beef was a brilliant mainstay of my youth. Now, not-so-much. read more

This is an okay place to go. I don't eat Italian beef so I ordered the crispy chicken and it was good. Chairs, floors and door handles were sticky so that leads me to believe it is not a clean place. The music is too loud and I looked around and it appears the age range dining there were 30's to 70's so they should play classic rock to Indy rock but at a lower level. I won't eat in there again. read more

Great customer service. Neece was the best!!! Very helpful and knowledgeable. Food was great as well.

Good beef Ice cream Service is speed Family with kids atmosphere Haven't not tried other cuisine read more

Dave Pacheco, the store manager, is very unprofessional. I paid $15.00 for a chicken Caesar salad and it came without chicken. He made me send him a pic by email and he responded by saying he doesn't believe I didn't get chicken! I requested a refund and he refused. read more

Buona - clearly shows I ordered chicken - Burgers Near Me - Kildeer, Illinois

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I ordered a strawberry avocado side salad and the avocado was missing. Can we get some QA? read more

Buona - receipt - Burgers Near Me - Kildeer, Illinois

Best Italian Beef around. The new Buona on East Riverside in Loves Park is our new favorite. Finally an Italian Beef Sandwich with flavor! Also loving the Rainbow ice cream. read more

We had the pleasure of having dinner at the newest Buona in Kildeer. The atmosphere of this new location is so bright and festive. The hospitality is unparalleled. It's neat that this location has a Rainbow Cone attached. It dawned on my during this visit that the quality of the food is certainly on par with any sit down restaurant- maybe better. It's nice that food is cooked to order and delivered to your table. I think the ingredients are excellent. Everything we ordered tasted fresh and hot with lots of flavor. The beef is what they're known for, but the menu is really expansive. Can't go wrong here -especially with a Rainbow Cone creatiion for dessert! Best, Mark read more

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I haven't been to a Buona beef in years, I used to love it because, unlike portillos, it was a real beef stand, not a fast food joint That has all changed now. I went to this new location in Kildeere and was disappointed The beef was half the size they used to be, and they changed the steak fries to crinkled fries that tasted like the frozen ones you get at the grocery store. It's basically now a fast food joint read more

Order a beef and a Chicago style hotdog. Hotdog was very good, but the beef reminded me of Arby's roast beef. Some of it was actually inedible. Portillo's beef is better, and that's saying a lot considering how much they've gone downhill since they got new ownership. read more

The best Buona Beef! We co have been to quite a few and started with the one on Oak Park Avenue. This is by far the best. Have tried the beef -very flavorful, the fries were probably the best I have ever had. We even ordered the sausage pizza to take home and try....it was delicious! To top it off Rainbow Cone - tried this when I was a little girl living on the South Side Try it -you will not be disappointed read more

Today I had an amazing experience at Buona Beef on North Avenue in Oak Park. The young man who helped me (Kali - excuse me if I mispelled his name) let me know that I could get my beef sandwich with my reward points. While that doesn't sound like a major deal it was to me. I have been going to that location for years and not once has anyone every told me I could redeem the points at the drive thru. He made the experience so much better today. Thank you. Really appreciated it. read more