Buca di Beppo

03/08/09

An Italian Feedbag

by bobberdobber

If you're in the mood to stuff your face with piles and piles of not particularly great food, Buca is your place. It's loud, fun (if you like loud) and always busy. The food is, well, average. Grocery store deli counter average. Shopping mall food court average. They should hand out pheasant feathers as you leave average. We started with a Caesar salad. Not an anchovy or a hint of egg or garlic to be found. Just a bowl of lettuce tossed with a bland, commercial dressing and covered with some sort of parmesan-like cheese. If you can't get a Caesar right, things aren't looking good for the rest of the meal. The Bruschetta was a greasy, uninteresting mess, and the first of the dishes to arrive with Buca's signature shredded basil garnish (I'm fairly certain this is created using one of those crosscut paper shredders you can buy at most office supplies). The Caprese was horrible, but it's wintertime so we knew what we were getting into. It's my suspicion Buca's summer Caprese is about the same. The Ravioli Al Pomodoro featured a huge pile of slightly overcooked ravioli covered with a bland, uninspired marinara. (Why marinara and not pomodoro? That's the way Buca rocks it, baby.) Next was the Gnocchi Al Telefono. A huge pile of chewy little gnocchi, covered in a vague, slightly sweet cream sauce and garnished with more basil from the paper shredder. The Linguine Frutti di Mare was the best dish we had, with a huge pile of slightly overcooked pasta, covered in clams, grease, garlic, more grease, shrimp and calamari, more grease and surrounded by mussels. And did I mention grease? All in all, an extremely huge pile of very, very average food. And it comes with screaming. Lots of screaming. Birthday people having more fun than you can possibly imagine and screaming like drunken fratboys. Fun.

Chef Marco White once said, "We're in the business of selling fun, a night out. Food and wine are just a byproduct." Believe the chef. Buca is proof.

• Pros: Huge piles of food at reasonable prices. Decent service.
• Cons: If you think this is great Italian, you've never had great Italian. Noisy. Frathouse noisy.

08/31/07

Check out the bar

by srobinson

After many visits to Buca de Beppo in Minneapolis and suffering through the long, sometimes miscalcutated, wait times we decided to try eating at the bar. This is the way to go at this place. We have had two different bartenders and we can't decide who we enjoy having serve us more, both are fantastic! More personality in these two than the rest of the staff combined. Food is always what we expect, red sauce done well. Try the Quatro al Forno for the best variety. We will be back often.

04/29/07

Delicious!

by annikan42

Having been to Italy, I was not expecting authentic Italian food, nor was I dissappointed that Buca doesn't serve authentic Italian. However, the food is delicious! I took some friends who were visiting me from out of town to Buca last night, and every single one of us loved it. When we first walked in the restaurant, we all noticed the amazing smelling food. The food lived up to that smell! The pizza (although really greasy) was yummy, as was the garlic bread, fettucinne, quatro al forno, and chocolate cake! The only thing that was so-so was the caesar salad. The portions are also huge - I have enough leftovers for a few days of meals. I will definitely be returning!