Buca di Beppo Italian Restaurant at 90 Yorktown Mall Drive, Lombard, Illinois.

This weekend we visited your location in Lombard, Illinois. It was our first time in a while due to multiple previous instances where we felt service was lacking. On one previous instance, the server seemed to feel the need to repeatedly harass me about what was “wrong” because I’m simply just a quiet person. He wouldn’t let go of it. It was our anniversary and all I wanted was a nice dinner to enjoy together but the server would not leave me alone. The second instance, we waited 10+ minutes for anyone to serve us. The person who served us didn’t seem to even know if they were to be our server, and we had just decided a moment before that we had waited long enough and wanted to leave. This most recent instance, we again waited 7 minutes before anyone came to us. The person who came wasn’t our server but offered to get our bread and drinks, and have our server come. When he came back instead of our server, we figured he was going to be our server now so we said we were ready to order. He shot back that he wasn’t. We asked if we should go tell the people at the front that our server never came and he responded with a confrontational tone and stance. We were ready to leave, he didn’t want us to but was not speaking in a professional manner at all. At one point he also said “you look upset” to me, which though I was annoyed, yes, I wasn’t “upset” - I am sick at the moment and my sinuses are making my eyes water. He looked at me as if I was going to cry or something, getting way too personal. We brought most of these concerns to the people at the front, explaining that we always seem to have some issue when we visit and that we like the food but can’t seem to get timely or friendly service. They asked at some point in the interaction if we had, had a reservation, as if that weighs on how long we were waiting at our table at all? The manager seemed to voice that the person who came to our table who wasn’t our server has had problems before, and it sounded like they have had issues with people not being tended to in a timely manner either. We explained we hadn’t even gotten our drinks yet and asked if we could sit in an area we seem to get better service in (a more open area where we don’t seem to get forgotten), it’s near the bar and he joked that it’s because it’s near the bar. Not humored. We asked if there would be anything they could compensate for our troubles and the manager had an extremely passive aggressive response stating “now see I was trying to see if this is where this was going. We will decide that after your meal.” Excuse me? No, we weren’t trying to pull something or even leading into voicing our frustrations with that in mind. They clearly need to know their service is sub-par if this has happened three times. He said he would give us his best server, but honestly, ALL servers should be able to provide a quality, timely experience. We left with a lack of desire to ever return again because everyone is always passive aggressive, getting too personal, or being outright rude. As we left, all the staff at the front said “have a great day!” In the most sarcastic manner. We will NOT be back, but thought you should know that these people don’t know how to run a restaurant. They had to look at the computer to know who our server was even supposed to be. So clearly no one told the server we were there at all. That is a problem and I don’t doubt we are the only ones who sit there forgotten for minutes at a time and basically get no sincere apology or understanding of our frustration.

I will say, that we do like their food. But we just want to enjoy our experience or it’s just not worth going. Our favorites are the manicotti and ravioli. I do wish they at least offered single salads, as not everyone in a group or couple is going to want salad or even the same salad. The only meal we did not enjoy was the spaghetti with meatballs. Not a very tasty dish, the meatballs tasted like unseasoned meatloaf.

Unfortunately their service does them in when it comes to ratings.