Buca di Beppo Italian Restaurant

It was a Friday night when my family and I Walked into Buca di beppo. There was six of us that night all with empty stomachs. Upon walking into the restaurant, it feels like your entering at the wrong door. Because you walk straight into the kitchen while waiting for a table; which is very unique and I loved it. After being seated the smell throughout the restaurant was very pleasing and made me excited for what my taste buds were about to encounter. The lighting was very soft and romantic. The walls busy with tons of pictures. The service was so friendly as soon as we walked in. We were greeted very nicely and the staff always had a bright smile on there face. Our waitress was very down to earth and such a sweet lady. She found ways to connect with each and every table she served. Buca is a family serve style restaurant which was a great way for friends and family to catch up. We first ordered some calamari, it was really tasty. Cooked just right the red dipping sauce completed the appetizer very well. With a sister that is gluten free she didn’t have much options on the menu so we ordered a nice large Apple salad and it was a crowed pleaser for sure. The Apple salad was fantastic the cranberries and apples and blue cheese and vinaigrette complement each other very nicely. The large salad was huge six of us could barely finish it. Then next can all the delicious entrees. My favorite would be the spicy chicken pasta. It was very creamy with a small hint of spicy to it. Next we had the spaghetti and meatballs. The meatballs very big and really filling. The spaghetti had very little sauce, which was very disappointing. Another one of my favorites was the Chicken parmesan it’s a must have. It had nice breading and a great tomato sauce with excellent cheese that tops it all off. The one thing that was not amazing was the garlic bread. It was okay, really fluffy and had little to no garlic taste. The broccoli was very watery, wasn’t cooked all the way and had little flavor at all. Throughout the meal our waitress did forget a couple small dishes that we did order, which could have been why the broccoli and bread weren’t the best. This meal was very expensive and had only a few mistakes.

Buca di Beppo is much more than your typical restaurant. Walking into Buca di Beppo is like walking into an Italian getaway. Once you walk through the doors of Buca di Beppo, there are friendly hosts waiting to greet you with a kind smile. The staff at Buca di Beppo makes it their top priority to satisfy their guests and make sure they leave with a positive experience. The atmosphere of the Buca di Beppo is an electric vintage setting. There are pictures all over the walls that can catch any person’s attention who walks in. One of the rooms has wine bottles all over the ceiling, which is such a cool feature. These additions to Buca di Beppo make eating and your experience so much more enjoyable. Buca di Beppo also attracts large parties and banquets with their large rooms. Another great feature of Buca di Beppo is the food. Buca di Beppo is based on family style portions. This is great for large parties and people who would like to try a variety of things on the menu. When I last visited Buca di Beppo, I ordered a small pasta dish and was able to share it with three people and had more than enough food to eat. The food has always been wonderful and tasteful every time I have visited Buca di Beppo. One of my favorite dishes to get at Buca di Beppo is the «baked ziti». It’s one of the best I have had in a long time. They also have very good cheese manicotti. Not only are their lunch and dinner options amazing, but they also have great dessert. Their cheesecake and colossal brownie sundae are to die for! I would recommend Buca di Beppo for anyone who is looking for a fun and great place to eat. I love going to Buca di Beppo and can’t wait to go back again very soon! I encourage everyone to try it because once you go, you’ll never want to leave (:

Went to dinner with a small group of 4 on a Saturday night and thank goodness we made reservations! We were not seated until 30+ minutes after our reservation time, however there was a cheerleading and dance competition in Indy this weekend and they were overly packed and we were told before making the reservation they would be busy. Not much space for waiting for reservations as the hallway was tiny and full of people. They were not taking walk-​ins at all during the main dinner time. Basically make reservations!
Once seated our waitress was amazing! Even though she was excessively busy she was quick to take our order and make sure we were taken care of. I have gone to this Buca one other time with much faster service and no wait with a reservation so I think they were just busy this weekend! Highly recommend the cheesy bread and baked ziti! Family style portions providing more than enough food for everyone! Bread is served with oil and vinegar which is amazing! Great dessert options too and fun atmosphere!
This place also makes accommodations for large groups even when they are packed! Love bucas and will definitely return in the future!

Obviously reservations mean nothing here! We had 8:15 reservations. We walked away hungry and upset at 8:48. Staff was completely rude the entire time. Not sure how this place stays open. Worst display of customer service I’ve ever experienced.

We recently threw a surprise party for my boss’s birthday. Service was excellent from the booking right down to the party night. Destiny and Stephanie were super flexible and helpful in booking our event and making our budget work for the event. When researching party locations in downtown Indy it became very clear that Buca had the most bang for our buck!
Great family friendly party atmosphere. Food is served family style so there is plenty to go around and enough for to-​go boxes. Only complaint is our servers weren’t the quickest on refills, but great with our party and even offered to take group photos.
I’ll certainly use them again for future large parties and recommend to others!

Great place to eat, we ordered the trio appetizer. Marinara sauce was very good, you could feel the tomatoes in it. The Décor is magnificent bravo!!! The service was fast and friendly.

Food is okay the two times that I’ve been here, expensive even as a family style serving. I could easily make these huge portions at home for a quarter of the cost, it’s just nice to not have to cook or clean up.
Quite a cool Italian atmosphere.
Service is good! They can’t split checks, but we brought cash since it was a big group of people. Make reservations and check in early because there were a loooooot of people lined up to eat here.

I have not been here for years, and nothing has changed, except that you can now get single servings. This is not necessarily bad or good. We had a party of six and they were accommodating in getting us a round table, which makes it much easier to talk. Our server, Rico, was great! Very friendly and attentive. We ordered garlic bread for the table, which was just average. I had a side of spaghetti Marinara ($ 7.99), which was good. My wife had Linguini with olive oil and parmesan cheese ($ 14.99 for a small that serves two.) It was cold when served but tasted okay. Pay attention to the menu when it says that a small order is for two. Get a side order if you want a smaller portion. It will still be a lot. The rest of the party enjoyed their food.

I used to eat here all of the time, every time I would eat here it continued to go down hill. Tonight I ate here with a rather large party and was very disappointed. All of the food was cold once we received it, and half of our party did not even receive dessert. I was very disappointed in «my uncles basement.» It used to be one of my favorite places. I would now rather eat fazzoli’s than her.

I don’t usually give 1 star reviews, but I feel like in the case of this restaurant, I have to.
We made dinner reservations for 7:45 PM for a party of 11. We get there, they say they have our reservation, but they’re running a little slow. Okay, no big deal. At around 8:00 we get our table and sit down.
About twenty minutes pass before we see our waitress, but again, no real big deal — gave us time to read the menu, we were there for a graduation dinner so we were talking about that. We all order drinks and our food at the same time since we’d read everything by this point — two other tables are so loud we can’t hear each other speak, but don’t really blame the restaurant for that.
Now the problems kind of start. The waitress comes by and brings us our waters around 30 minutes AFTER we ordered our drinks. Our ordered drinks are still not ready, we’re told. For our table of 11 people, she brings 9 waters. I ask her for more waters, she says she’s taking care of it.
Another 15 minutes pass, she comes by and gives us our plates and silverware — 9 plates, 8 sets of silverware for a table of 11. I asked her if she knew what was going on with the water, she said that we never orderd 11 waters only 9 waters. I told her we’d asked for water for the table, which had 11 people. She says she’ll take care of it.
Comes back 15 minutes later, brings one water. I let her know that we still don’t have silverware and plates for everything and still a water short. Meanwhile, two of the appetizers have come out, but none of the drinks we ordered are there yet. She gets kind of exasperated and asks us why we need more, I tell her we have 11 people so we need 11 plates and 11 sets of silverware. She gets them about 5 minutes later.
At this point, we’ve been waiting for over an hour with no drinks, two of us with no water. Our drinks finally arrive well after two of the appetizers are gone (the rest never showed up). It’s about 9:15 at this point. We have our drinks, not wanting to push our luck, we just wait for the food. At around 10:00, the manager comes out and apologizes for the food not being out yet and that he’ll take care of it — this felt practiced and something I get the impression they deal with quite often.
Finally our meals arrive at 10:00 — 2 hours after we ordered — but it’s not all our meals. About 6 dishes arrive, the other five are nowhere to be found. Waitress comes by and explains it’s not her fault, that the kitchen is backed up. At this point, surrounding tables have come in, eaten their entire meal, and left, so it can’t be an issue of the kitchen being slow.
Turns out, two of our meals — pizzas — were never made. They tell us they’re out of mozzarella cheese so can’t make those, but they can make a standard cheese pizza instead, but they’re going to comp us those pizzas for our waiting. Nobody is thrilled, but we take it. About 30 minutes later, the pizzas finally arrive. The manager comes out and explains to us that the kitchen was slow, he’s sorry, and that they’re comping our bill $ 80, which I appreciate the gesture.
Nobody is really hungry and we’re all tired at this point as we’ve been at the restaurant nearly 3 hours at this stage, so we box things up, get our checks — only one of the checks has anything comped on it. So we have to flag down our waitress for the millionth time and get that resolved. When it gets back, it’s not the $ 80 we were told, but closer to $ 50. At this stage, we’ve already had issues with: Getting seated, getting silverware, getting plates, getting water, getting drinks, getting food, and getting our bills, all at seperate times so we just pay and leave
I can’t recommend against this place enough. They were totally unprofessional in blaming each other for the issues, and for a dinner reservation at 7:45, we didn’t get out until 11:15 — and we only had one drink (refills for the water came once about 2 hours in). The food quality itself was mediocre — plain pasta with cheese melted over it for the baked zita, a bland pizza.
I would honestly never come here again.

Great Italian restaurant downtown. The family style of eating allows everyone to pick and choose to taste multiple dishes. It’s a very large restaurant and has a great atmosphere. I got the spicy rigatoni which was absolutely incredible. Great spot for a nice afternoon lunch in the city.

Prices are too expensive and while the food is ‘okay’, not worth the price. Come on, when a few pieces of garlic bread is $ 13, and fettuccine Alfredo (plain) is $ 16??? Decorations inside, while ‘Italian-​themed’, are too many, too busy and over-​whelming. Looks cluttered and dirty.
Waiter very nice though.

We absolutely LOVE this place! Every time we come to Indy we come here. Jose has served us many times and he has never disappointed us. He is wonderful! We met the new chef Michael and was amazed he remembered our names. The food here tastes like real Italian. In fact, even my 9 yr old will eat it. He is very picky about his Italian food. If it doesn’t taste like my homemade dishes he won’t eat it. The drinks are great too. I ordered a lemon drop martini and was not disappointed. The food is served family style so everyone can enjoy dif things. If you order the dessert ice cream, warning! It’s huge!!!

Came here as a group of 8 (4 adults and 4 kids) with reservations for 6:45. Entering the restaurant was a little odd as the main entrance takes you through a long tiled hallway and past the kitchen to the maitre’d stand. I actually walked halfway down the hall with kids in tow and then turned around and went back out to the street because I thought we came in through the service entrance. I’ve only been to one other Buca Di Beppos before and the rest of the restaurant was pretty similar. Low ceilings, dark walls and tons of stuff on the wall, most notably a high number of Sophia Lauren pics.
Anyway, we were seated right away and our server took our orders for drinks. We went ahead and put food orders in for the kids with our drinks to avoid a potential hungry, cranky kid problem.
The drinks were fine, though it was odd that my wife’s first two choices were already sold out (at 7pm?) but she’s not too choosey about that stuff. The kids’ food was fine and ended up being enjoyed by both the adults and the kids as our food order was significantly delayed… To the point where the kids were finished with their food and were ready to leave. So we ended up canceling the grown ups’ orders and getting our check. Kind of a bummer, but the serving sizes are so big, the kids’ food ended up being enough for everyone.
Our server and the manager apologized profusely, saying the kitchen was inundated with a large volume of orders all at the same time. Indeed, the kitchen did look very busy as we navigated our way out of the restaurant…

A great, fun place to eat! I would have given them 5 stars, but the procedure to check in with our reservation was extremely confusing. Thankfully, I’m the size of a truck and just pushed past the line to get to the lady with the reservation book.
The food was great! My wife and I got the classic spaghetti and meatballs with a Caesar salad and fried mozzarella. The marinara was amazing with the perfect amount of zing!
Our server was excited and attentive. The manager, Leo, stopped by and listened to our criticisms and praise.
Overall, it was a great place to eat!

Went here to get a bite to eat while visiting the Indy area. Food here is served family style which may shock some folks. Don’t let the looks of this place scare you, not only is the food good, but the atmosphere and nostalgia is worth the trip. Everything we had was very tasty and full of flavor. This is a nice place to take a group, but if you are looking for a quiet place to have a meal, not the place to go. The place is very busy and bustling with activity.
If you come to the Indy area and like Italian food give this place a try !!

I have determined Buca isn’t worth my time or money. After a second rather disappointing visit to this «authentic Italian» restaurant for dinner, I think I would rather just go to Olive Garden if I’m going to pick a chain Italian for my dining choice (if that tells you anything).
The first was just with my husband for a nice dinner out. I will hand it to them that the décor, while it is kitschy and a little over done, does make Buca seem cozy and friendly. Their cuisine however is lacking in what I would consider real Italian flair. I am a big seafood fan, especially mussels prepared with linguine, and was looking forward to trying their version. The mussels came with very little marinara and they were quite chewy (as if someone had left them under the lamp too long in the window.) Now, I will say that our server was kind enough to not charge us for this and offered to get me something else to compensate. This made me feel like giving them at least one more try.
Last night was round 2 dining with the Buca crew at their downtown location. I was with a much larger group in town for a convention, but we did have reservations. We were seated promptly and our servers seemed attentive. Unfortunately the bar and kitchen staff just didn’t have it together. We waited a whole hour for our drinks to come to the table, and the bar-​tending crew couldn’t just admit they didn’t have the ingredients to create the frozen drinks we had asked for. When our food finally arrived (AFTER two other tables who were sat after us got their food first!), the entrees were just okay. The fettuccine alfredo needed some serious pepper to spice it up and the calamari was so overcooked, I couldn’t tell if the tentacles were actually squid or dead spiders. Very disappointing indeed.
To be fair, our waiter seemed like he was trying his best while under pressure… apologizing for the delays and trying to check on our orders as often as he could. But, the rest of the kitchen staff needs to seriously pull it together if they’re ever going to want me to visit this establishment again. In addition, they could have given us some kind of discount for waiting so long for our food AND drinks.
My suggestion… if you want family style Italian, it’s worth shelling out just a little more for Maggiano’s up by the Fashion Mall. The ambiance is better, the food is ALWAYS stellar, and the drinks keep coming… ON TIME!!!

Went with a group of co-​workers for lunch and the portion sizes are *huge*!!
Way more than any of us could eat.
The Chicken Parmesana was amazing but felt my pasta was a bit over cooked.
Service was fair and I’d go back as I see the value for the price!

First off our waiter, Thomas was great! He was full of humor and class :) It’s always great to have a good laugh at dinner. Our waiter attended to all of our needs! A+ dude!
We used a free coupon for a small alfredo pasta. It was good and the serving size was perfect for my boyfriend and I. The garlic bread was so-​so, not much flavor. I suggest using olive oil with it. Thomas asked us if we wanted some so of course we said yes!
The atmosphere was great. We went at 4:30 so it was rather quiet.

I decided to join a group of people after an event at Monument Circle. The leader chose this restaurant because of the vicinity and that they take a reservation.
Before going, I looked at the online menu and there were only two entrees I would be interested in trying. As I was on their website, I noticed that I could sign up for their e-​club. Within 12 hours, I received a coupon for 1 of 3 proposed dishes. I chose the plain Fettuccine Alfredo ($ 17.99 value). Beware that only one coupon per table.
It was unusual to SEE the kitchen before the host station. The walls were too covered with décor. They have a lot of divided rooms that you can get lost returning from the restroom. The walkway to the restroom was slippery.
The dishes were in sharable portions of 2 or 4. This ordering make it extremely hard for a group of people who all paid separately. Bad move on the owner!!!
I needed to cut thoroughly the complimentary bread as it was mostly cut (down to the crust). Go buy a loaf of bread and see how it is cut!
This pasta dish was dry. We got added the cost of the chicken but there were lots of noodles that hid the small portions of chicken. As I was preparing my take-​home container, I noticed that the sauce was in the bottom of the bowl but still not a lot of sauce.
I noticed that we received someone else’s bill.
The only thing I can somewhat say positively about this experience is that possible the e-​club free pasta (but who want just a huge bowl of dry noodles without a meat). Because I was with a group and it was «easier» on splitting the bill evenly, that I almost paid for the «free» pasta.
A TV dinner was much better than my EXPENSIVE experience here.