Buca di Beppo - Wheeling

Our server, Jose was the best part of our visit. He was absolutely wonderful with our table of kids. He was funny and attentive. Lasagna, chicken Limone and...

Wonderful fun and great food. Our server Megan was beyond great - very attentive, friendly, and fun to engage with. Food was excellent. Can't wait to go...

Amazing! Food was delicious and so great for sharing. The service was wonderful and so fast! Our sons food came out so fast which is great for an impatient...

The restaurant was cold when we went in for late lunch. We had to keep our coats on the whole time. I could see that they had set the room temp to 68° so there was a cold/cool breeze coming out from the vents in the ceiling. We were also given the dinner menu when it was still lunch time. Had to ask for the lunch menu (half priced). Ordered the apple gorgonzola salad, mozzarella garlic bread, rigatoni, and pepperoni pizza. The bread and rigatoni was good, salad was not great, and the pizza was bad. Can't really say whether the service was good or not. She was brisk/unfriendly in the beginning when taking our order, but smiling/friendly after all the food had come out.

We have never been to Buca, and we were surprised to see hundreds of old photos everywhere. Many of them were not appropriate for kids... Anyway, the decor is very rustic, which also has its charm; however, you just can't help and wonder how much dust rests on all of the decor items everywhere. Our server was very nice and attentive. He explained to us that it makes sense to share entrees as they are very big. We ordered the bruschetta, which was served in a very unusual way! It was pretty good, but I'd prefer more garlic than onions in it; also,the tomatoes were pale and didn't have a lot of flavor. The crostinis were tasty, and so was their bread. The cosmo I ordered tasted like cranberry juice only, it was tiny and pricey. For an entree,we ordered a large chicken marsala with green beans,and mashed potatoes. There was enough food for 4 adults,and we even got to pack some leftovers. The chicken was fresh and well-seasoned, but for the first time, we ate a very sweet marsala sauce. If I was to compare the taste of it to anything, I'd say it tasted like teriyaki sauce... it was very different than any other marsala sauces that we've tried over the years. The beans were good,but their ends were brownish and soft. Mashed potatoes were really good, but the restaurant does not usually have them on the menu . It's too bad because they were really tasty,and they truly work well with chicken marsala/limone/pietro,etc. Overall, it's a decent family-style Italian restaurant. However, our kids were clearly disturbed seeing so many nude people in the pictures at Buca. For that reason, I am not sure if we'd be going there again. Still, I recommend checking it out. You definitely don't leave there hungry, that's for sure!