I've been to Buca several times and have never been impressed with the food. The atmosphere is fun but a restaurant needs to have more than a fun atmosphere. The food is less than average. Our most recent visit was for a large group of people and we were put at a booth with a round table pushed up against it, with the end leaf of the table slanting down, making it very difficult for the two people sitting at the end to eat. (me)
Our waitress was unfriendly and all business. No personality at all. The whole time i felt like we were just an pain in the ass for her.
Now on to the food. We ordered a caesar salad which i could not even eat because the whole thing tasted like fish. I'm ok with a slight anchovy flavor but this was un-eatable. Apparently the dish comes with anchovies standard or on the side. I guess there is no getting around the nasty fish taste, even if you ask for no anchovies at all. The other dishes we ordered were the macaroni rosa, manicotti, and chicken marsala. The macaroni rosa was only slightly warm and lacked flavor. I've had pink sauces before and this was no where close to them. (Maggianos has a great vodka tomato cream sauce) The manicotti was probably the best of the worst but really...how can you mess up manicotti. It's a noodle with ricotta cheese in it. The chicken marsala looked so good with huge mushrooms and a rich sauce. I took one bite and was done. The sauce was so overwhelmingly sweet that i though it was a desert.
The only reason i went was to see some family out of town and the decision was out of my hands. I thought, what the hell, I give it another shot. Buca Di Beppo. Yet another disappointment.