925 Blossom Hill Rd #1529
San Jose, CA
95123
(408)226-1444
We went to Buca Di Beppo in Oakridge mall in San Jose, for goodbye party for our Co-worker (We'll miss you Nikki). If you never been to a Buca, its an Italian family style restaurant with large portions. They do offer smaller portions now, but it's a better deal to go with a large group of people. Inside the restaurant, the art decor is a bit overstated. There is large collections of photographs of Italians and Italian culture thrown up against the walls in no particular rhyme or reason. There were about 14 of us, so we had a pretty decent size party. We were seated promptly, though there were some stragglers arriving later. The restaurant was pretty pack with almost all tables taken.
After waiting for some time, our waiter finally came and took our order. We ordered decided to start with fried calamari, bruschetta, prosciutto stuffed mushrooms, and apple gorgonzola salad.
The fried calamari was excellent. It was crispy but not overly done. Calamari tends to get chewy if you over cook them and these were not. It had a side of tomato dipping sauce with crushed red peppers that complemented well with the calamari.
The apple gorgonzola salad was great as well. It was crisp and the sweetness of the apples balance well with the lite vinaigrette. The salad was accented with dried cranberries and gorgonzola cheese that provide both nice texture and flavor.
I didn't get to try the prosciutto stuffed mushrooms. I had wish our server had told us there were only 5 mushroom per single order. You would think that seeing how many people we had at our table we would've gotten a warning of the small portions. Usually Buca is pretty generous with their portions, but not this time
After the appetizers, we ordered four main entrees, baked ravioli with meat sauce, shrimp fra diavolo, chianti braised short ribs, and linguine frutti di mare.
The baked ravioli with meat sauce was okay at best. It was cheesed filled with a heavy meat sauce around it. I found the cheese to be a bit land and the meat sauce a bit overpowering. I think the ravioli was a bit oversized and that's why the balance of flavor could not be maintain.
*note: I had to delete the ravioli picture because it was not clear.
The braised short ribs was excellent. They were both soft and tender, infact you could cut it with a fork. Since it was braised in chianti, the beef had the robust flavor that you would expect. The sauce was made from the braising liquid and was both rich and flavorful. Definitely a must try if you never had it before.
The Shrimp Fra diavolo, was extremely good. The spicy rosa sauce tasted like rich creamy pizza sauce. The shrimp was well prepared and not over cooked. This dish was so popular that you can see from the picture that most of it was gone before it reached me.
Lastly, the linguine frutti di mare, my usual stand by favorite failed me this time. We had to wait extremely long for this dish. By the time it came out, I found it a bit over seasoned. The sauce was too salt and too briny. Some times Buca would have a seasonal baked linguine frutti di mare with light white wine sauce instead the tomato sauce. I like that version than the one we got that night.
The service was quite poor that night. It was no fault of our waitress, she did the best she could. Unfortunately she was overwhelmed with no help from the other staff. Too often we were left to ourselves. My friend even complained to the management but to no avail.
Final Thoughts: Good place for family style Italian meals.
Food: 3 1/2 stars
Service : 1 star
Price: Average to decent, depends on how many people dine with you.
Overall: 3 stars
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