This is an excellent place to go to get good, simple fare at reasonable prices. It does not say,"Best Italian food on the planet" nor does it try to be upscale. Being a spaghetti connoisseur does not give you to right to blast what is offered any more than it means you can actually make what you like (that would be a gourmet). My wife and I went here early this year looking for dinner shortly after 7 pm, closing time. The owner and his son were trying to close up and go home, but graciously made up a bucket for us to eat. Although I may make my own spaghetti differently, this was very tasty and satisfied our after-hours hunger well. Not sure why some people take the time to rag on the place except to ruin yelp scores. If you have a bad time at a restaurant, do you wait to get home to tell everyone who cannot make a difference, or do you ask the manager why the food was burned, raw or not served timely? I thought so. It says "by the bucket", not premium Italian by a 5 star Michelin chef. I am going back to get 6 meatballs for the price of 5 on Mondays. read more

Do you want spaghetti? Do you want meatballs? Do you want them served in a bucket for a very reasonable price? We went here with zero expectations and were pleasantly surprised. Honestly, we weren't sure it was a real place. It's a no frills menu, executed well. One minor issue was a lack of salt in the pasta. The meatballs were delicious, and next time I think I'll try the meatball sub. read more

By The Bucket - Sign for By The Bucket - Italian Near Me - Payson, Arizona

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Good concept the food is okay tasting. The garlic bread is always good. Friendly staff.

Meatball sub. The bread was nice and soft, the meatballs were super juicy and very filling. The sauce is delicious and all together this sub is out of the world. I recommend this cute Italian place in the heart of Arizona! read more

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Whoa, in my continuing effort to review places. Whoa, whoa and whoa. As Tony the tiger would say Grrrreat. The sause was really great, the meatballs were great, the garlic bread was good. We got the medium, and plenty left over for two more lunches for work. Great idea for camping, or having friends over. GIVE THIS PLACE A CHANCE TO WIN YOUR LOYALTY. read more

We saw this place on the way up to Pinetop and giggled at the name. Buckets of spaghetti? Really? On the way back we were looking for a place to eat and this place came up with good reviews. We figured what the heck and gave it a try. We were pleasantly surprised! Food was good (especially the garlic bread and meatballs... and I'm not usually a meatball fan) and the price was right. We even got 2 meals out of thre small bucket and some meatballs. Great idea! read more

We drove all the way from Chandler to try this spaghetti after watching it on 3TV and absolutely loved it! It's so delicious and the amount of food they give for the price is absolutely fantastic! I highly recommend everyone should try this place when you're in Payson. The price is very very very inexpensive and the food was very delicious! read more

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Full time RV'er, staying in Payson to ride the summer of 2020‍. "By the Bucket" is literally a take-out shack. That being said it is a simple idea focusing on doing 1 thing right. Spaghetti, meatballs, garlic bread. Truly comfort food defined. Plain, simple, and consistently good. The owner is always friendly and focused on making his customers happy, even if they are just passing thru. read more

Best spaghetti meatballs in town! I felt like eating delicious homemade spaghetti. Their meatballs are bomb , you will not regret it. Very nice people too! read more

Have seen the owner buying cheap products from Walmart. Rude. Burnt toast. Just not good.

Quick and very tasty, can't go wrong with spaghetti in a bucket! We stopped and got a medium bucket with 2 meatballs as take-out and wolfed it down in the car on the way back down to Phoenix. Nothing fancy but I wouldn't have it any other way! Everything was piping hot and the kind of delicious that was comforting, like a spaghetti dinner that mom/dad used to make! The owner and his son were very friendly and got our take-out order ready quickly! Still munching on the remaining nice soft garlic bread! Delicious! read more

Seriously this place never disappoints!!! The owner always goes above and beyond and the service is always good. I dont know what it is about this spaghetti but it is so good! The garlic bread is also very yummy and soft. Sometimes we drive to Payson from the valley just to get by the bucket. read more

I love this place! I always call as I'm driving down the mountain from a hike or kayak and order pick up. The cute boy answers and his dad puts together the foods! I love them, definitely get those family vibes here. And what's better then some casual pasta in a bucket? Mmmm don't forget the meatballs!!! Now it's just tradition for us to come by here every time we are in town. read more

I'm a Brooklyn girl in town working on a fire and for days I passed this place in confusion. Spaghetti by the bucket? Well let me tell you, this place can stand up to Italian restaurants in NYC. The sauce, the meatballs, and the bread are fantastic. The price and the amount of food are unbeatable. The fact that they close and reopen everyday was the clue that their food is fresh, which it is. This is a must try! read more

Driving through Payson on our way to the east coast from Phoenix. Stopped here because we didn't want gross fast food and also, I kept seeing it show up in my FB newsfeed from several friends... This Italian girl is seriously impressed! Some of the best meatballs I've ever had (shhh, don't tell my grandma), pasta cooked to perfection and decent sauce. $15 bucks to feed me and the hubby and still had leftovers. We'll be back!!! read more

What an amazing place! Small to-go restaurant that have amazing garlic bread, spaghetti and meatballs. The owner and his son were wonderful! They got busy around 5pm on a Thursday night and started to sold out stuff. That tells me the locals love their food and I got lucky my kids got hungry early. My oldest son is very picky about marinara sauces. Even he finished a big portion of the food. Their sauce is one of the best I've had. Great place, friendly owner, awesome prices and most importantly amazing food! Would definitely come back for more ! read more

If I could give 0 stars I would. The owner is not a very friendly person. The food is mediocre at best. The guy even had a video of himself picking up the pasta with his bare hands on his Facebook page. A former employee informed me they use frozen meatballs and hose water for the noodles. Will not be going back! read more

We came here off a recommendation & ended up finding a bunch of small roaches in our food. It was the worse dining experience of our lives. When we voiced our complaints to the owner Bret he threatened to sue us! I can understand things happen but the way it was handled was uncalled for. I wasn't going to leave this review but after being threatened by the owner I couldn't keep quite. read more

This is surprisingly good spaghetti and meatballs. It's the only thing in the menu. You can get spaghetti, added meatballs and bread that's it but it's well made and has good flavor. It's a pleasure for a quit no work meal read more

I came here with some friends because we heard the place was great. We found multiple tiny roaches in our food, and instead of apologizing for the situation, the owner threatened to sue my friends. Needless to say, we will not return. read more

Tiny hole-in-the-wall shack on the side of the highway that I would have loved to love. Instead it turned out to be a one trick pony who does it in a mediocre fashion that leaves a lot to be desired. Sadly, there isn't any other option for Italian food in this little town anymore, but boiling water with some salt and a box of Barilla from the grocery store will get you a more solid plate than this place. Meatballs are OK, but the owner had strange level of bottled agression behind a thin veil of hospitality. Not sure how else to describe it. Tried once, and that's it for us. read more

After reading a Facebook recommendation in an Arizona camping group, the wife and I decided to stop in on our way to our campsite. You're immediately hit in the nose with the smell of fresh garlic bread when you enter the door of the quaint business, it smells amazing. The menu is simplistic, you order by the amount of people you intend to serve or, order a meatball sandwich. About the meatballs, they are about the size of a pool ball and are fantastic, especially at only $1.50 each. The marinara sauce was exceptional. Rich, robust, hearty are some words that I'd use to describe it. Definitely not a sauce I would expect to be poured over noodles and served out of a bucket. My last statement brings me to the presentation of your order, it's in the name folks! You walk in, place your order and if you ordered spaghetti, you're getting it in a bucket. By the Bucket is definitely worth a try if you're up in the Payson area. Grab up bucket, go to a park or up on the Rim and recreate the Lady&Tramp scene with a special someone. read more

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Horrible sauce the meatballs were hard and lacked flavor. Service was poor to top it off

The concept is awesome. I love spaghetti. Problem is that the sauce doesn't seem homemade... at least it doesn't taste that way. And I have often had undercooked pasta. And the owner is a bit passive aggressive to customers. If you're a small business owner, treat everyone like family or you'll struggle. read more

Reading all the " 5 star " reviews , I just had to go try it (Ahwatukee) ! Well, not sure how all these 5 star reviews are happening because this stuff is just good old plain and ordinary spaghetti and meatballs ...nothing extraordinary about it at all . I can throw some pasta in boing water and heat a jar of Ragu or Paul Newman's sauce faster than I can go get take out from this place .... and at a cost of about 1/ 5 of what they charge . Also , the "jar" sauce that is available at the grocery stores is actually better tasting than the marinara from this place . Yes , this is a fairly new "fast food Italian" concept but frankly nothing special at all .....I don't get it ! read more

We loved it! Drawn by the somewhat odd name and concept, this is truly a place that knows what it does well and sticks with it. Just spaghetti, marinara sauce and meatballs-all delicious! Super reasonable prices for everything. We got the biggest size and our group of four had leftovers the next day. read more

Great concept , expected better pasta .. If you do one thing it needs to be spot on and homemade ! unfortunately we won't be back ..

Best place in the world! A must every time we are in town! Lots of food for a great price, super nice staff!

Great noodles! So famous because of Jaime Ceretta. Wow! Recommend this place! On the way to Payson

This is my go to place when I'm in the mood for comfort food. Love the huge meatballs. Would like to see employees wearing masks doing the pandemic otherwise I would've given five stars. read more

What a great concept! We got spaghetti, extra marinara sauce, meatballs and garlic bread which we enjoyed. We'll definitely stop by when in Payson again. read more

Clever, fun and delicious. Came up North for a hike and saw this place driving by and tried it out. The owner is really friendly and welcoming and introduced himself to us when we ordered our food. The meatballs were really, really good and had a hint of cheesy flavors in it. The spaghetti was thumbs up as well! Planning on going back on our next hike in Payson read more

Yum! What an awesome place. The food was great and we are certainly going to be back. We ordered spaghetti, meatballs and garlic bread. I highly recommend this place. My son even liked the sauce and he is normally a noodles and butter kind of kid. Everyone was nice and Thank you Sam for your great customer service skills. read more

Soooo delicious! I was hesitant to try it because I'm very particular about the taste of my spaghetti. I like Italian style rather than sweet style. This was perfect. Meatballs and bread are good! read more

We saw this place on roadside heading toward the 260 junction. I had the meatball sandwich and it was amazing!! Prices are reasonable on the menu. Only offer spaghetti and meatball sandwich. Owner Brett is a super friendly guy. I will definitely be back. read more

Been to many cities East Coast West Coast and have not found a meatball sandwich that is as good as they have here. With over 20 years in my background I found the food to be clean, delicious, original and so flavor filled. It's good that this place exists. I encourage everyone to grab something here this week! Keep up the good work, clean restaurant, and truly awesome food. read more

Stopped in the other night for the first time!! The owner was so friendly!! The meatballs are to die for!! Highly recommend!! Service and food amazing!! read more

My friends and I stopped here on our way back from a camping trip. We each got a bucket with meatballs and garlic bread. The spaghetti was ABSOLUTELY DELICIOUS! The red sauce was incredibly flavorful and the garlic bread was superb. I will make sure to stop here every time I drive through Payson. Please open a location in Phoenix! read more

BEST homemade meatballs! I love how quick it is and the sauce has really great flavor. We love getting dinner from here and taking it home for a movie night in (or whenever I don't feel like cooking!). Who doesn't love a delicious spaghetti dinner? Definitely give this place a try. You won't be disappointed. Reasonably priced and delicious. read more

Wow. I drove by this once and it stuck in my mind how odd of a concept it was. But I am a huge spaghetti fan and it being one of the foods that is really hard to get on the road, I was thrilled after a long road trip to stop in for dinner. Man working there was so nice and friendly and the environment was warm and welcoming. I got the bambino bucket for one and he threw in a free meatball. And again, WOW. It was so much more food than I was expecting and all of it (sauce, noodles, garlic bread) was so so tasty. I don't even like meat balls that much, but that was definitely one of the best ones I've ever had. A MUST stop. read more