Buca di Beppo

Reviews 4

PE

Perquita

I should have done my research and looked on Yelp before making the decision to celebrate my daughters 17th birthday here. Yesterday (9/6/16), was my first time dining at this establishment. Upon entering the restaurant, the stench of the dirty carpets/floors was a quick turn off and the dusty, cluttered decor. The hostess attempted to seat our party of 5 in a dim lit corner table instead of a booth (as requested per the online reservation). The manager walked by to check on our table, However, the food was not delivered before I had an opportunity to endure this unpleasant dining experience. The overall restaurant was not busy. Therefore, I dont understand why our waitress Brinell was unable to check on us periodically while our food was eaten (hence the reduced tip). Now onto the food, the food was quite mediocre for a restaurant that claims to serve "authentic Italian food." The complimentary bread was stale, and cold. The oil and vinegar served for dipping the bread had a foul off putting taste. The spaghetti and meatballs, was ordered by my daughter (the birthday girl). Only one meatball was served with the dish, the sauce was chunky, however, extremely watery and without any taste (salt was no help either). They did not offer any fresh grated Parmesan Cheese (only the powder stuff). I tasted the dish myself and it was blah. The salad was overdressed, the Fettuccine Alfredo sauce was served hot (at least); however, the sauce was coagulated. The complimentary birthday celebration cake was frozen and inedible. I dont care if it was complimentary or not--it should not be frozen. The variety of drinks (i.e. lemonades) was made with a flavored syrup instead of fresh ingredients such as strawberries, pears, etc not the syrup. I had the strawberry lemonade. The lemonade itself is already sweet-- with the syrup added it makes the drink unbearable--overly sweet. My oldest daughter ordered a Pepsi. It was half Pepsi and seltzer water--urgh gross! The best dish we had was the Chicken Parmesan. The total of our bill was over $110 (to include the scale back tip for the lack thereof of customer service). Bucca was our first choice for an Italian meal as we live 7 minutes away from this location. However, the experience at this restaurant was extremely disappointing and ruined the celebration for my daughter (and family). We should have taken the 30 minute drive to Chevy Chase, MD and dined at Maggianos instead. It wouldve been well worth it! After this experience, I will also remove my mailing address from the E-Club as well. I will NEVER visit this restaurant or other locations again.

MI

Mike Chittenden

Buca di Beppo has been a reliable source of decent Italian food for a number of years. It isnt fancy; it isnt gourmet; but its decent. Sadly, our experience this Mothers Day left a lot to be desired. We had a reservation for 5:00, and unfortunately were running a bit behind. We called the restaurant and let them know we would be about 10-15 minutes late. We arrived and checked in right at 5:15. From there, the night went downhill. The waiting area in the restaurant is small and was packed full of people. The A/C either wasnt working in that room or was set way too warm. We stood and waited 30 minutes for a table. Thats on us, for being late. The rest of the evening was not though. After finally getting seated, we ordered our drinks. The table we were seated at was a folding table big enough for six, that they had crammed two extra seats into. This left little room for the large platters of food that the restaurant serves. We ordered our appetizers as soon as the drinks came and our entrees 10 or so minutes later. The salad appeared about 10 minutes after we ordered our entrees. Some 50 minutes after we first ordered, the waitress reappeared to let us know that the kitchen was extremely backed up and it would be another 10 minutes before our food was ready. By "food," she meant everything we ordered. It all came at once more than an hour after our order was placed. The food was overflowing the table with multiple courses of enormous dishes competing for space with plates, drinks, and silverware, at a table that was already too small for a group of eight people. I wish I could say that was all that was wrong with the evening, but it wasnt. The air conditioning in the room we were in was as bad or worse than in the entry hall (the bar, located between the two areas was well cooled). We heard numerous other tables in our room complaining about the heat, but to no avail. We never received olive oil and vinegar for the bread. We asked for butter, but it wasnt delivered until our third request--after the starving kids at the table had devoured most of the bread. Drink glasses often sent empty, awaiting the waitress to reappear so that a refill could be requested. Several of the plates that were delivered to the table were dirty. Desserts were delivered with too few plates and without silverware. I expect much better for $260. Well look elsewhere in the future for our large group gatherings.

SH

Sharon Swartz

My husband, son and I had 6:00pm reservations at Buca in Kentlands on New Years Day. As we live in Lakelands, we have been to Buca many times, but after our experience yesterday, we will never go again. First, we were seated in the bar in one of the booths. I immediately notice a smell that, while tolerable, made me think that the restaurant is not being cleaned sufficiently. After being seated, we waited quite a while, lets say at least 8 minutes for a server to even acknowledge us. He took our order, brought us water in a timely fashion. My husband had ordered iced tea which he also brought to the table but shouldnt have. The iced tea was the equivalent of slightly colored water and all three of us were surprised by its appearance. When my husband told the waiter that it didnt look good and he would drink water instead, the waiter never apologized for the poor excuse for tea that he served or even acknowledged to us that the tea was poor. We ended up leaving 10 minutes later, after being served only water. We didnt even have silverware on the table. We were also annoyed by two employees who carried on a loud conversation with each other about work. The man busing the table behind us also did nothing to hold down the noise of dishes clanging together. The staff seemed extremely poorly trained. Too bad, we used to enjoy this restaurant that is right around the corner from our house. I will be sharing this experience with as many people as possible.

PS

PSEBULA

Have been going to this location for a few years and I usually enjoy it. Yesterday a friend of mine and I went in for lunch and the service was awful. Seating time was normal but we had to wait nearly 15 minutes until the server came to our table. He went and got bread and drinks and that took him 10 minutes. He came back and took our order. We explained to him when he took our order (which he did not write down) that we wanted separate checks being ready so we could pay and check out fast as we were on our lunch break. Well nearly 30 minutes went by and he was going back and forth and we asked him what was holding things up and he said our food would be there in 3 minutes. 10 minutes go by and we see nothing not even our server. We got up and walked out. Your server a tall African American man with an earring had a listless and disinterested attitude . While we walked out we asked to see the manager as we wanted to complain. We had to wait another 8 minutes and a stocky dark haired man came out from the back and he seemed rather disinterested too. He noted our complaint and promised to make it up to us next time we came. To be honest it looks like your service in your store has gone down hill.