Buca Di Beppo Italian Restaurant

Centrally located near University Drive, in Palo Alto, this was a quaint but strange Italian Restaurant. We entered the restaurant, through the kitchen, into a wonderfully decorated nostalgic restaurant. We had quite a large party, so we ordered a variety of dishes to eat. The fried calamari was to DIE for!! The Alfredo and Brussel sprouts salad, were a little dry, but all of the other dishes were tasty.

This place has gone downhill from its glory days. I happened to notice the time it took for our salad (a salad!) to arrive: one hour exactly. By the time we were done with the tasteless pasta, we had been in the restaurant for 2:30 hours. Terrible service. The pasta Alfredo was simply tasteless. The sauce was basically milk with flour. The salad was pretty good, tho.

I ordered this past Saturday for a 50th Bday Party (for 20+ guests) and could not be happier with the food, pricing and service. From end-to-end, Rich worked with me to customize the menu, meet my budget and ensure that the food arrived timely and warm. I had never eaten at Buca but went with it because the bday boy wanted Italian food and several friends recommended it to me but, recognizing it is a chain restaurant, I had some reservations. After eating the food and receiving rave reviews from the guests (who all went back for seconds), I can confirm the food was delicious. Based on this experience, I recommend Buca without reservation and, without a doubt, plan to order from Buca for future events. I do recommend working with Rich directly as his attention to detail is unparalleled. Despite that he is very clearly busy, he made me feel like my event was the most important thing on his plate and over-delivered on my very high expectations. A+

FOOD POISONING. It was my second time dining in Buca di Beppo in Palo alto. I went there this previous Thursday around lunchtime with my friend (05/20/2021). We decided to order a small size lasagna since it we both like to eat good. The food seemed fine but the nightmare was about to start. About one hour later of leaving the restaurant I had a really strong headache and I took some medication. 3 hours later, while I was driving, I started sweating and to feel very nauseous, about 15 min later I had to vomit while driving, horrible experience. Later that night , I had náuseas again and around midnight I had a really strong fever of more than 102F and belly pain. Since I was able to recognize the symptoms of food poisoning, I chose to stay home and rehydrate. In the next morning (yesterday), I woke up with more fever and super weak. Today, it’s been 3 days and I’m haven’t been able to eat so far because my stomach won’t take it. Not to mention, my friend who was dining with me, was feeling dizzy the whole day after eating. Luckily, he didn’t get sick as me. I would recommend the restaurant before this experience, but after that, If you don’t want to end up in hospital, don’t even think about going there. Hopefully the management starts to pay more attention to their food quality and freshness.

Very cool place and decore! The set up when you first walk in is a little different and actually feels like You are entering the restaurant backwards because the main door in Leads you through the kitchen before you meet with a host or hostess. Once you sign in to get your table you are lead up stairs to where the actual restaurant is and you are immediately emersed in what feels like an old time Italian restaurant. You can hear Frank Sinatra and other old classics playing in the background and lots of family style seating everywhere. Do not come if you are alone! This is definitely a family style restaurant and the portions are large. I went on a date night and because there was just 2 of us we ended up bringing a lot of food home. Worked out well for delicious leftovers. Would definitely recommend this place based on location, décor, and most of all the delicious food.