Buca di Beppo - Pineville

My husband and I used to love Buca, but the last two times we have gone have been a total let-down. The place just seems to be completely Mis-managed now. This Friday we went about 8pm, and our poor waiter was completely overwhelmed - he basically had an entire room with two large birthday parties going on at once. Not his fault, but my husband and I just got totally lost in the chaos. When our food came it was ok, but the chicken was dry and my husbands meatball had wax paper cooked in it. He bit into it and freaked out a little, but when he realized what it was he was ok. At any rate, our meal for two totaled $75 for just chicken Parmesan and spaghetti and two teas. We could have gone to many more better Italian restaurants for the same price and had a much more enjoyable experience. Won’t likely be back anytime soon.

Always a great experience! The food is always amazing!

I still had to wait to be seated even though I had a reservation. The service wasn’t great since we overheard the servers conversation about who who stay and close to serve us. And the food wasn’t hot just warm enough to eat and it wasn’t seasoned at all. I will not be back.

Our reservation was 6:00. We finally got food at 7:45. According to our waitress they were “backed up in the kitchen”. We had spaghetti and meatballs, how long can that take when I am sure the meatballs and sauce at prepared ahead? The whole place was full of grumpy people with no food. When the food came it was hot and well prepared.

Great experience taking large group (11) of teenagers to dinner. Sat in "Pope Room" with round table was fun. Only negative was 30 minute wait even though we had a reservation. Will go again.

We made a reservation for 6:30pm on Saturday and arrived a few minutes early. We weren't seated until after 7pm. The restaurant had plenty of room but was understaffed. The food and service were good but the wait staff was busy with too many tables.

Amazing food!! We went on Valentine's Day and it was incredibly busy and we waited over an hour to get seated even with reservations. The servers were understandably struggling, but did an amazing job. Overall, fantastic experience and we will definitely be going back!!

Good food and good service great atmosphere

Valentine’s Day

The restaurant was overbooked and it took 45 minutes after our reservation to be seated, there was a shortage of cups and silverware, appetizers did not all come out together and had to request them several times, food came out with frozen cheese on top of hot meatballs, salad arrived at the table after we asked for it and after our main dishes were served. Manager on duty was less than willing to believe us about the cold cheese and did not even apologize for anything that evening. Needless to say not a pleasant dining experience.

The food and service was great!! The waitress was very knowledgeable and she even song baby shark to a table next to us because the toddler was cry. And they stopped right away.

Fabulouso!

This place is designed for “Family Style” dining, meaning that all of the food comes in two sizes; small and large but is sized designed to be shared among the table. Small size is probably sized for three for example. It makes for a fun, sharing, family experience when you and your friends, family, business assoc., church/hobby group want to go out and do something fun.

Noise level? As my wife said, “It’s Italian, it’s gonna be a little loud!”

True, it was but we had no problem hearing normal conversation and it was a packed house.

The food itself? Great! Great red sauce, lasagna is sized for a King and tastes fantastic, pasta dishes were out of this world, and the chocolate cake and cannolis blew us away!

Service? Good, could have been a little better. We didn’t get bread before our meal, as others did; didn’t get plates until after our food arrived but he was very friendly and attentive.

We highly recommend them.

Just ok. Not our best visit to Buca. Service was slow and food was average not great.

We made a reservation and end up eating at the bar because the girl forgot. Also there were many people older over the wait

The service was mediocre; Not great but not bad either. I asked for water without ice and was brought water with ice. The waitress asked if we wanted more bread, we said no thanks, but she brought some anyway. Our table only had one set of silverware, which we didn’t notice until we needed it and didn’t have it. Again, nothing really bad, just not great.

The food however was very good! It is obnoxious that you can’t order a normal sized serving. Everything is “family portions, either 3 or 5 servings. I ordered the prosciutto stuffed chicken which was fantastic! My wife ordered the manicotti which was also very good.

The walls of the restaurant itself are very busy. The decor is very Italian and also somewhat odd at times.

This feels very much like a place that would be great for a large family dinner. Overall a pretty good experience!

We had a great time! Food and service were delicious

Server might have been a little overworked to her defense. But the food was not good tonight which isn’t usually the case. Maybe just a one off situation. Anyway the manager was very gracious and took care of us so I definitely will be back and I have a feeling it’ll be better next time.

Took forever to be seated even though we had a reservation. Other tables that showed up after us were seated before us (about 5 separate tables). Service was extremely slow (had to flag server down for refills). Food was good, but not worth the trouble.

The food was great, service not so much. We had a large party and had to keep asking for items such as refills or food which didn’t make it to the table. At the end, we spent almost an hour trying to get the check correct.

Terrible food and way overpriced. Makes Olive Garden look like Ruth Chris of Italian food.

This is our annual New Years eve go to place. The food is always more than you could ask for and very tasty. The cheesy garlic bread isn't like it used to be so that will be off our list going forward. But the rest was very good.

The server, although pleasant enough when she did talk to us, rarely even looked our way every time she walked by. We had to try to 'grab' her to ask for drink refills. And at the end, we had to ask 2 people to get her so we could get our ticket. We even had to ask a different server for to-go containers. And we got those before she even came back.

The noise level is usually a little elevated and that's expected. Sadly, we had a family right behind us with a very small child that must have been testing their voice. Granted, the parents tried to keep the squealing down, but it was what it was. Can't blame the restaurant on the happy baby. :)

I have been to a lot of Buca di Beppo's around the country. This one wasn't very good.

Terrible service. Slow. It took 45 mins to get appetizer only after asking about it. Then 10seconds after appetizer arrived, our dinner arrived. The Lasagna was burnt and cold. We sent it back. It came back with the burnt part cut off and nuked to heat the outside better. Inside still cold.
Took 10yr daughter to bathroom and found a half naked lady trying to get paper towels out of holder since no paper in stalls. So my daughter was exposed to all this ( front and back naked lady!!!) Obviously we didn’t stay to use the bathroom. When I advised the manager, he laughed and offered to get me toilet paper to take back to bathroom to the naked lady. I declined.
It ruined our anniversary and scarred my daughter for life from going to bathroom alone!

We took the family, including 3 young children. Our waiter was very accommodating , portions are plentiful and tasty. We get a kick out of the "kitsch" on the walls. Lots to laugh about. They have the best eggplant parm around and the apple gorgonzola salad cannot be beat.

I believe they were short staffed. We had a reservation for 7 PM and it seems like everyone else did as well. We had a wheelchair in our party and it was very difficult to find a table that would work. Service was very slow due to being short staffed. Appetizers seemed overcooked but overall food was fair.

Really disappointed with the food quality.

Christmas. Had 5:45 reservation. Didn’t get seated until 7. Waited at bar took bartender 30+ minutes to serve us our first drink. She was rude and very loud. When we were finally seated we were sitting for about 5 minutes and were asked to move to another table so they could accommodate a large party of 17– some of whom were sitting at a long table plus they would use our booth. We moved. Then a different party of 4 were seated at our original booth. The larger party apparently shrunk so they did not need our booth. Then we ordered. Had to request place settings. We ordered a round of drinks which never made it to our table. Overall horrible experience

5pm reservation. Not seated until 6pm with a toddler. $50 menu food cost $90. Waaay overpriced for simple pasta. Price did not include drinks or the the fact our daughters meal didn’t arrive.

Very disappointed about their service during Christmas Day. I made a reservation but still had to wait 1 hour for the table. Then it took 1 hour to get my food and the pasta was cold.

Took 15 minutes to check in as I stood there and got ignored. Then to find out that when we got there they were 30-1hour behind!! What’s the point of making a reservation?!?!?
Terrible service at host stand. She kept answering the phone instead of checking people in. It was a 3-ring circus. She was NOT organized AT ALL.

The restaurant was very busy for the holiday. We were seated an hour past reservation time and it took another 2 hours to eat. There was a staffing and kitchen issue

The food is always excellent. It was very loud, but we were having Christmas lunch and the restaurant was extremely busy that day.

We had a reservation for 6pm. We arrived at 5:45pm and we weren’t seated until 6:45pm. Though our waitress was excellent, between the food coming out cold and the long wait, we were thoroughly disappointed. We will definitely think twice about ever coming here.

The service was extremely slow. Our garlic cheesy bread was cold when it was delivered to us. The server forgot to put in our order for our salad. The entrees were below average for the price. Our dessert was never delivered to our table before we left. The overall experience was very bad and we do not plan to return, ever. We have an Italian restaurant in our area that is a thousand times better than your crappy mismanaged restaurant. You should never overbook your restaurant, especially during the holidays. As we left the restaurant the lobby area was full of dissatisfied customers that had reservations and weren’t being seated on time.

Don’t bother making a reservation here. It means nothing! We had a party of 9 so definitely made a reservation for 7:30 as we know that large of a party is hard to seat. Got there on time only to find that there were already 3 other parties of 10 with reservations waiting almost an hour past their reservation time. If a restaurant takes reservations they should hold your table for your time and not seat walk ins. We ended up
Leaving and going to Olive Garden where we waited only 5 minutes for a table. Terrible experience.

The food was very good, the service was adequate, but poor hosting and management lead to a disappointing experience. When we arrived, guests without a reservation were being told that their wait would be from 45 minutes to 2 hours (one hostess was on the low end and another on the high end). Despite having a reservation, it was more than an hour before we were seated. We had to remind the hostesses that we were there twice because others who came in without a reservation were being seated ahead of us. Once we entered the dining area, we saw that less than 30% of the tables were in use, and a number of them had stacks of plates waiting to be removed. Even after we were seated. It took quite a while for us to be served, although our waiter at least apologized for this. It also took us an extended time to receive our food and our son, who has a milk allergy, was initially brought food prepared with milk products despite our repeated reminders. Luckily we caught this, but it then took a long time for his food to be replaced. Although the food was good, almost everything else about the experience was disappointing.

It took 15 minutes to get water to the table and another 10 to get our drink order. Our entrees were delivered and we had to ask for the salad we ordered. Food was sitting on the table and we still did not have silverware after asking twice. Waitress disappeared completely after salad was delivered. A manager came by to refill our water. A member of our party had to get up and flag down another waitress in order to get our bill. Called the manager after the meal and he was not aware of any issues. No follow up as of yet. We've been to this restaurant at least a half dozen times with no issues. We hope this is an anomaly and will go back due to our past experiences.

Daughters 13th birthday!

This Buca di Beppo is the ONLY Buca in the Carolinas, so if that's where you live (or are visiting) and like Buca's menu/approach to dining, it's really your only option. The problem here is that the experience is so uneven; sometimes it's great, other times it leaves a lot to be desired. This keeps me from recommending it enthusiastically. Our most recent visit is a prime example. When new manager came on the scene, things really got better for a while. The pre-dining "tour" of the kitchen (which includes a table I think can actually be reserved although I've never seen anyone sitting there) was re-introduced. Then, inexplicably that unique little feature got dropped and hasn't been offered on our last few dines. Oddly, even when there were LOTS of empty tables (even empty ROOMS), we were seated in the bar area (along with 2 other couples) where fairly loud conversation between employees (no guests at the bar itself) detracted significantly from the dining experience; diners don't need to hear conversations about staff's personal lives or uncertainty about how to generate a tab when a gift card (from a previous unsatisfactory dining experience!) is used to pay for one's meal. Finally, I found it extremely odd that the price we were (eventually) charged for our meal didn't match the price in the menu we were given! We even pointed this out to our server who didn't seem concerned. These are all things that could -- and should -- be easily fixed. I want to love this Buca di Beppo because I'm mildly addicted to their lasagna but it just feels like its employees aren't committed to providing a quality dining experience on a consistent basis.