I have taken my extended family to this location twice. The first time it was terrific; great service and food was way above average.
The next trip was a nightmare. Service was beyond bad. I had to get up and find someone to get balsamic vinegar, drinking water, tea refills. We had to set dirty appetizer dishes on an unused chair to make room for the main course. The stuffed shells (my favorite from previous trip) tasted like they had the wrong proportion of ingredients -- like someone didn't follow the recipe). The meatballs were cool in the inside, and the veal parmagiana was dry and tasteless. The caprese salad was good, but we had to wait for almost 10 minutes for side plates and vinegar. By the time we started eating it, the main dishes started to arrive. The pizza wasn't even up to Buca standards -- it seemed to have about half the cheese that I have had at other Bucas.
All in all a great disappointment. Finally, I have been in the food services business before, so I wrote a polite, but honest evaluation and quietly provided some feedback to the manager. Her response was to offer to be my personal hostess for a future visit. I almost laughed; I saw most of these issues as managerial, and would not likely give her another chance at ruining a meal for me and my friends. I certainly don't expect to be comp'd for an expensive meal like this one, but if it were me, I would have probably offered the customer a bottle of wire, a dessert or at the very least a gift card.
This is one restaurant that won't get a return visit.
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