Bucca Di Beppo in Brea, California - Generic or Authentic Italian Dining?

My friends have all raved about this chain restaurant establishment, so another friend and I decided to try this place out. We got there before prime dinner time and yet there was till a 45 minute wait. Luckily, since there were only 2 of us we got seated fairly quicker than expected.

Immediately when walked into the restaurant, the décor is what grabbed my attention first. The two words I could describe the setting were...gaudy and tacky. There were random pictures and art and statues just thrown together everywhere around the rooms and on the walls. Some of the art were interesting and comical, but some were just obscene. The table we sat at had a photograph of a man completely nude and showed his frontal side. I'm an adult so it was somewhat okay for me to see, but I was surprised what parents might actually think about that sort of thing blatantly displayed for their kids to see? Anyway, to top it off our table looked like it hadn't been thoroughly cleaned from the previous seating.

I would have to say our overall experience continued to go downhill from there. Our waiter was very pushy and kept trying to make us order dishes that we weren't interested in, even after we made it quite clear to him what we only wanted to order. The menu pricing was higher than what I expected. A plate of ravioli (the small portion only) cost $17, which is more than nicer places such as Cheesecake Factory. We order one of those and when we got it, it was just plain ravioli splattered with what tasted like plain tomato sauce, nothing special. Everything else on the menu had fancy Italian descriptions and names, but after we saw the ravioli, we figured that they too were probably noting different. We also ordered some desert (chocolate filled cannolis) and for only 3 bite-size pieces, it cost $10!

This place is definitely geared toward people who have larger groups or are celebrating casual occasions. This is definitely not an ideal place for a date or going for fun. The waitress gave us a $10 coupon, but even with that I'm not sure if my friend and I would ever go back.