Kelly the Culinarian: Food find: Buca di Beppo

Wednesday, December 12, 2007

Food find: Buca di Beppo

Another post about lasts! To celebrate the fact that most of my class was graduating, we had a class dinner last week at Buca di Beppo. While there are a few of these in Illinois, I had never been to one of these family-style Italian eateries.

So let's start with the drinks -- one of the specialties they were offering is a raspberry lemon drop martini -- isn't it pretty? It was a sweet cocktail, but not overwhelmingly so. I also liked the little punch of tartness from the lemon juice.

They served a standard iceburg salad to everyone along with garlic bread made in a pie plate. It was very garlicly but not as buttery as I had hoped. Oh well -- it was at least browned and toasty. It was the day it snowed in D.C., so I was happy to have something hot out of the oven.

So for the first family dish, my table went with spaghetti. It was a marinara meat sauce that was what I look for in a tomato-based sauce -- not too sweet, smooth texture and enough meat to keep me full. Also, the pasta was well cooked -- not too al dente.

Next, we had chicken Parmesan -- it was so awesome. The chicken was tender, the breading crusty and the cheese perfectly melted. There was just a bit of sauce on top, so nothing got soggy.

Finally, my favorite part. A strawberry cheesecake. It was so tasty and smooth, but I wish there would have been more strawberry sauce.

The only bad thing I have to say about this place is that my friend had hair on her plate -- ick. A little unclean. But then again, I won't be going to this particular location in Dupont Circle again anytime soon.

6 comments:

yammylicious said...

lovely strawberry cheesecake.. =) uh.. hair!! hate tat turn mii down.. =)
xmas jus around the corner.. prepared to cook something on xmas eve?

Tracy Tan said...

i had italian yesterday night to celebrate my birthday! can't go wrong with italian food :)

Dagny said...

I've never been to the location in San Francisco but I've heard that it's not bad. And that cocktail looks delicious.

daphne said...

what hearty food!

Hal said...

We had a Buca in Cincinnati, and we went there for my father-in-laws birthday a few years ago. It's a neat experience, because not many restaurants serve you family-style. However, my biggest complaint was that it is a very commercial operation, and a very popular one, so the noise level can be something to get past.

I don't remember a whole lot about the food, which probably means it was adequate. And, because it was family-style service, it's unlikely that I'll be going there again for a long time (because most of the time when I go out to eat, it's just my wife and me).

And, "Hi." I've been checking out your blog since around Thanksgiving. Hope to stick around a bit. Take care!

Unknown said...

*wipes the drool from her chin*

And I've already HAD lunch!