I still think about my meal at La Buca even though its been over a year. When i think of a dining experience, I think of how it relates to the one meal i had at La Buca. Hopefully will be able to go back some day. read more

Had a really great time here a couple weeks ago. Service was great and the food wonderful. Great value for money! I had the pumpkin ravioli and the halibut special. Was pleased with both dishes. They didn't have the tuscan white bean and pancetta soup that we came for on the menu that night. Our wine glasses were kept full and our server's suggestions were right on the mark. Loved the food and the service, will definitely be back! read more

Our family of four really enjoyed the intimate family atmosphere at la buca Italian restaurant. Felt like we were in Tuscany! The short ribs were tasty! So was the light salad! The desserts are amazing too! The waiter was very attentive and helpful to make our experience lovely. read more

Such a lovely little Italian restaurant. It was recommended to us by friends. We are very happy we went yesterday. The food is delicious, the chef creates the menu based on what ingredients are available fresh from the season, really great service and ambience. Definitely one to check out! read more

Good food -but painfully high decibel level. I'd been wanting to try La Buca for a while, their sister restaurant Pied a Terre is one of my favourites, and I enjoyed the now closed L'altro Buca. Like Pied a Terre , La Buca is a small restaurant. Unfortunately unlike its sister, La Buca attracted a crowd more suitable to Earls or Moxie's. Adjoining tables were loud and seemed more interested in getting drunk than the food. As a result out table of 4 had to practically scream to hear each other. Its been a long time since I was so turned off a restaurant by volume! Its a shame because the food is good. My Angus striploin was perfectly cooked. My fellow diners seemed happy with their meals, though the ravioli portion seemed a bit stingy. Service was attentive and friendly. Despite the good food, I won't go back. There's too many other good restaurants in Vancouver where the decibel level isn't ear-splitting. read more

Great neighborhood jam. Great Italian food. The service is personal and very attentive. What more could you ask for?

Sorry no stars. But had to put one to submit the review. Used to be such a great neighbourhood restaurant. Had the worst dining experience ever here just recently. 50% of the restaurant taken by one loud, obnoxious group. It was like a frat house keg party. Staff did nothing to keep the peace. Many patrons leaving were furious, I was only one of them. read more

So far my favourite Italian fare food. Portions are decent. Atmosphere and dining space is nice and cozy. Waiters are friendly and knowledgeable. Everything I've tried here was simply delicious. I never had a dish here that I didn't like. Every month they have a new fresh sheet. Would recommend making a reservation for this place as it is quite small. My friend had the grilled sole with prawns special. I had the Manzo (beef tenderloin). The Carpaccio di capesante salad was delicious (fresh scallops with housemade duck prosciutto, citrus and radish salad, truffle vinaigrette ). read more

This place has consistently good food and is a true gem!!!! The linguine vongole (excuse my spelling) is the best thing I've ever had. The rigatoni is also to die for!! Bruschetta is really fresh and the pasta is perfectly al dente. Highly recommended. read more

I have a love/hate relationship with this place. I love the fact that everything, and I mean everything, is absolutely delicious. I hate the fact that every time I've been here I've been one step away from taking off my shirt. It's cramped, it's hot, and the airflow is, at best, comparable to a long haul AirTransat flight to Mexico. BUT, if it came down to melting like The Wicked Witch of the West and tasting their Pasta Vongole one last time, I would choose the latter. read more

Had a lovely pre-Christmas dinner here with 2 friends. Ambience is cozy and warm. Food was very good and in the right sized portions - no loading the plates with too much food! Had their special Buca Fizz - lovely cocktail. Really lovely spot to visit and so nice it is in a quiet neighbourhood location. I would definitely recommend. read more

Another great meal at La Buca. The winter menu is available for more rich and hearty options, but some of the classics are still available. The tuna starter had an unbelievable mixture of flavours that worked very well together. The bone-in veal chop was incredibly tender and was server with a few gnocchi, fresh vegetables in a red wine sauce. It was amazing. The only let down was the famous panna cotta. It is usually a hands down winner, but it seemed to lack the more liquidity texture of the past. Still good, but not the usual. Still the best Italian in the area... read more

3 things about la buca: 1. great place for la famiglia style dinner. 2. fantastic service. 3. too much food. really. i hurt after and it doesn't make me happy. yes, i know it's my fault. but i'd take a little less food for a little lower prices. read more

Me and my husband went here for dine out and I have to say we were both super disappointed. We were expecting alot more from this restaurant after reading all the reviews. The waiter was friendly but the food was average and the portions were small. They gave us dry flavourless bread sticks to start so right from the get go it was a let down. read more

I absolutely love La Buca and it's my all time favourite Italian restaurant. It's definitely a hidden gem tucked in a residential neighbourhood making it super easy to miss. Every single person I have brought to La Buca always fall in love with the delicious food and non pretentious atmosphere. I can not leave La Buca without ordering their Spaghetti alle vongole and panna cotta. They also serve family style group dinners where the Chef will create a multi-course dinner for your dinner party. I've had the pleasure of trying that twice and it was excellent everytime. read more

Great little neighbourhood restaurant. It's small so make resos. The food choices are often interesting and tasty.

My wife and I went in for dinner last night, our first time at La Buca. This small 32 seater of a restaurant is what the experience of comfort Italian cuisine should be, unpretentious, simple and letting fresh ingredients speak for themselves. The sausage starter with chantrelle mushrooms was exactly what was called for on a cold, rainy Vancouver night. The rabbit main course was magnificently prepared. The service was exceptional and wine list was full of value selections. Bottom line, if you like Italian, make a reservation right now. read more

This review I hope outlines 2 things about this restaurant: 1. How disappointing the meal was that we had a La Bucca on Saturday March 8th 2. How not to treat your customers after you offer to make ammends for the poor experience With all the new wonderful options opening up in town I hope this write up gives you reason to spend your money elsewhere. Part 1: We did not complain the evening of as we were celebrating a specialy occasion with 2 friends of ours and did not want to spoil the mood or have it seem like we wanted any form of compensation. However, I did write to inform management that they should take a look at the issues and mitigate this for future guests. I clearly stated in my email "Please don't take this as just an unhappy write up and a customer wanting to vent as that is not the intent." Here is the email to them "We started the evening with the Chefs tasting menu and when asked what was on the menu we were told "I can't tell you". i understand the menu is for the chef to decide, but in all other cases of tasting menu's we are at least given an idea of what to expect. Even at Tojo's that is supposed to shrouded in mystery. I doubt any person paying $60 per head ever wants to hear "I can't tell you". We let that slide with the expectation that the food would offset the poor response to the question. That ended up not the case. Here are the issues with the food. Plate 1: Lamb was tough Plate 2: Excellent, but it's seafood pasta, I hate to think any higher end Italian restaurant cannot deliver a near perfect seafood pasta Plate 3: Rizoto, very salty Plate 4: Fish nicely done Plate 5: Everything in the bouillabaisse was over cooked and tough Now for the real issue. The restaurant has a sewage smell. This is unacceptable and somewhat concerning. As a customer you can imagine that we are wanting to know what could be the cause of this. Needless to say we all felt very nautious by the end of the meal. Please inform us what this smell is originating from to keep our minds at ease." Part 2: Here was the follow up response "Hi J, sorry to hear about your experience Saturday night and thanks for taking the time to send feedback, always appreciated. The first I have heard of an 'odour' in the space and will certainly look into. If there is any chance of you letting me send you a gift card, would love to do so. We do try and maintain certain standards and would like the opportunity to set this straight." We did not expect any form of compensation but by virture of them offering the gesture this would infact promtp us to try one of thier other locations. Well 4 months and 2 reminder emails later. No gift card or explanation as to why. I typically do not write reviews, but in this case I think there are options for you to spend your money elsewhere. From a customer experience stand point, you pay well to be treated well and at a minimum to eat well :) read more

Came here for dinner recently with a friend, loved the intimate atmosphere. It wasn't too loud, despite the tables being close together and I didn't feel like I was yelling in order to talk to my friend. We tried a variety of courses, but we loved the braised beef and the fish the most. They also made one of the best consommés I've ever had. The waiter was attentive, but not hovering and I thought he managed all of the tables beautifully. The only feedback I could give that in the dark it was not immediately obvious where the restaurant was, but maybe that is part of its charm! read more

La Buca has been our our list of places to try for years, finally made a reservation after seeing yet another VanMag award. Fantastic food, the clam risotto was by far the best I've ever had, excellent wine suggestions, the Negroni with blood orange was sublime. The prawns were cooked to perfection, even the cappuccinos were lovely. If I have to find fault, yes the room is a bit cold when people come and go, with the room as small as it is it's understandable however. Addressing what some other reviewers faulted: personally I was not bothered by the unremarkable cutlery, though I understand how that could ruin an evening. Also, the comments about switcheroo horsemeat and not having a proper bar are both untrue. read more

La Buca is the the much smaller cousin of the space West of Denman down town. As other reviewers have indicated the room is small and you are very closely seated to other diners. The room can get noisy if it is full, but it has a nice look and pleasing ambience. . The food choices were excellent, and expertly prepared. Everyone at the table raved about all appetisers and they were well prepared and delcious. The table chose 2 pastas to share with the group as middle courses that were perfeclty cooked and executed. One was a stuffed pasta, and the other was a seafood tossed plain pastat. ]I had lamb as my main and every element from the sauce reduction, to the vegetables to the lamb itself was excellent. The dessert was fine, but limited, as they had sold out of a couple of items, so choices were sparce. One gripe, is that the single glass wine offerings of wine are very limited and pricey. At our table we had a bottle, and two diners who wanted single glasses. The wine list was tough, as the lower priced ones were unfortunately out of stock so we were forced into a much more expensive bottle than we really wanted. At $15.00 per single glass this could really push up the cost of a meal. I attribute it to arriving later on a busy night and the risks of a really intimate small restaurant. If you stick to Pasta and starters this restaurant can offer very good qualtiy and overall reasonable value. I have spent much more money and many other restaurants in Vancouver and been underwhelmed. La Buca was excellent overall, and the food and service were excellent. . read more

I love the idea of an intimate, up-scale neighbourhood restaurant, but I've been disappointed with La Buca almost every time. The noise level is insufferable, impossible to converse with the tables so jammed together. Also this last time we were seated near the kitchen, which, surprisingly, meant we were chilled to the bone by the draft. As for the food: I found the tortellini frankly boring though my partner's agnolotti was marvellous. As for desserts, pannacotta was wonderful, but the chocolate dessert was so-so. Although when the memory dims, I'm tempted to go back, I will resist the temptation in the future. read more

Fresh pasta, great service and amazing desserts in a quaint setting. Not sure what else you need

3rd time here and likely my last. 2nd time going for family style the other night and left dissappinted. Everything was very tasty, appies starting at salad, arancini balls and burata were all amazing. Pastas were very buttery and sat quite heavy, but tasty. The fish dish was incredibly buttery and even heavier than the pastas. The icing on the cake was the beef dish. I felt like we should have sent it back because it left a terrible taste in your mouth and a very nice dinner. The beef was beyong chewy. You had to saw and saw and saw away at it before you could eat and chew forever at it. One of the serves saw me struggling with it but never came to ask how it was. Half the plate was left uneaten and it was a terrible way to end the night for the rest of our group who had never been there. Polenta cake was ok and the doughnuts tasted like raw dough smothered in rich thick chocolate. Definitely a last visit. read more

The physical restaurant and the high prices would make me take a pass on returning here. We were 5 women and the plain wood tables didn't even match height-wise. Cutlery was run of the mill. Temp was either very warm or freezing when the fan cut in. Noise level meant I couldn't hear my friend who sat 1 seat away. As for the food, it was divine. Scallops appy was delicious and melt in your mouth qualities. Beet salad was OK but nothing too special. Didn't have a main. Cheese cake was smooth, more like a custard than cheese. 3 dishes. No tea available. Imagine a restaurant that has no tea. Italians drink tea. What gives? At least they didn't charge me for hot water, although its on the menu for $1.75. Not much choice for vegetarians as there was meat with most dishes as a sauce or main item. So, I'd have to say its not my kind of restaurant. My friend said she's glad she ate something before joining us, as she would have been hungry cause she didn't have an over-priced main. read more

I live only a few blocks away from the restaurant and it is has been on our 'must go to' for years. Finally went after hearing such rave reviews. Made a call on a Thursday night and was able to get in at 7:15pm with no wait at all. Sadly, we weren't blown away. Started out with a nightly special of a shredded duck on top of friend cheese appetizer. The cheese was yummy but duck under seasoned and very bland and stringy. Also ordered the proscuitto and melon salad which was good but not too exciting. I like my salads to be cold and this wasn't. I had the veal shortribs which were recommended and again, under seasoned (had to ask for salt). Mashed potatoes were very thin and running all over the plate with no flavour and the sauce was also thin. It was kind of a big runny mess. For $31 I wasn't overly impressed. Also had the seafood risotto and it was not cooked property. Not creamy at all and hard like big rice kernels. Tiny pieces of seafood...I kind of expected to see big prawns (or at least 1) and lobster but only tiny little unidentifiable pieces. Not much flavour either. Again underwhelming. Service was fantastic though, cute room and great neighbour hood location. I wonder if it was just an off night but afraid to say that we won't be back. read more

This used to be one of my favourite restaurants until yesterday December 6, 2013 when I ordered pasta with wild game only to find out after I ate a few bites that the wild game was actually horse meat. I inquired when horse meat became wild game? Makes me question what other ingredients might be questionable at this establishment. read more

Have been here several times. Very crowded. Tables too close. Very noisy. We really love Italian food but this was not a good example of it. The meals were fair and the service was fair. There are better ones around town. read more

Very good pasta - rich in flavor and it's texture, the pasta texture is very chewy. Really enjoyed the beef tartare if that is on the special menu. Highly recommended! read more