Buca di Beppo

Dinner was at Buca di Beppo, an Italian family-style restaurant. We went there to celebrate Chris's birthday, and there were about 15 people in all. It's a pretty neat place, since you are allowed to walk through part of the kitchen, there's a window to watch pizzas being made, and there's a special "pope table" with a bust of the Pope himself on it! We kinda split into a 6 and a 9 unintentionally, as they put tables together to accommodate our party. Our six ordered the mozzarella garlic bread and the mozzarella caprese (tomato-mozzarella-basil) as appetizers, and the spicy arrabbiata pizza (sausage, pepperoni, onions, gorgonzola, provolone, mozzarella), quattro al forno (cheese manicotti, chicken cannelloni , baked ravioli, and sausage stuffed shells), and the prosciutto stuffed chicken (in pesto cream sauce) as entrees. The other table had the same pizza, lasagna, baked rigatoni, and a bunch of stuff I couldn't identify.

Everyone enjoyed the bread, and the caprese was pretty standard. The pizza was enjoyed by most everyone, although I wasn't the biggest fan (too much sauce and sausage for me, plus the crust was plain). I tried the stuffed shells (and that's how I found out they had sausage in them), then traded them to Jonathan for his baked ravioli. It was pretty standard... could have had more mozzarella on top to balance the ricotta inside. I wanted to try the cannelloni but it didn't happen. The prosciutto chicken was really very good - it had mozzarella inside too - and I wish I had room for more! A few of us tried the lasagna from the other table, and it was the thickest pasta dish I have ever seen! We made a to-go box (that probably weighed 5 pounds!) but it ended up being sacrificed since we didn't go back to the hotel immediately afterward.