[Sally II]

I wonder what the Italians think of Buca de Bepo. There was only one dish I ever liked at the Olive Garden. It was some chichen fettuchini with some kind of spinach and (I think) cheese sause. Yummm. They stopped serving it, and I stopped going. I did like their salads though. As for the menu, we'll the majority of Italian restaurants, even the little places, are usually not much better... spagetti, lasagna, fettucini alfredo, etc. All over-over priced and not much better than staying at home and cracking open a $2 jar of Ragu. Don't get me wrong though, I do enjoy Italian food. But Olive Garden is just one of a million middle class Italian joints.

[stands2reason]

Yep, the Italian and Mexican chains will always overprice their food. They are both the cheapest of cuisines to cook, especially Mexican. Nobody should be paying 10$ a plate for beans and rice!

[Remole]

Buca di Beppo: a phantasmagoric collection of framed photos and posters. That's the good part. The bad part is anything that they bring to your table to eat. The sauce is vinagery, the cheese is far too rich and plentiful, the pasta is overcooked. And the wine is just as bad as a OG. But the place is packed all the time. Go figure.

[Khurkris]

I have liked Buca de Beppo 2x's at 2 different places. A step up from Olive Garden...but still not classic trattoria grub. Oh...I'm not Italiano...but I eat a lot.

[droberts]

Think Italian restaurants in the U.S. are only exist in such plentitude becuase there are a lot of Americans who consider themselves Italian and it's easy to make a big markup on pasta (which is dirt cheap wholesale) and the few spiced ingredients that end up being the 'sauce'. In the good Italian restaurants throughout Europe (especially, of course, those in Italy), the food resembles nothing like what you find in their U.S. equivalents (although that can be had too). For one thing an upmarket Italian restaurant will never server pasta or pizza (especially pizza, unless it's made as it is made in Naples where it was invented - thin crust, mozzarrella made from the milk of the water buffalo and light toppings not the slidge you get in the U.S.).

[Clemenza]

Buca de Bepo is up there with Maggiano's Little Italy as one of the better chain restaurants (although the only two Maggiano's I have seen have been in Chicago and Boca Raton). Still, nothing beats mom's cooking, or the old school red sauce places in NY/NJ or the new school Italian places in Manhattan for my money.