La Buca

This place automatically charges you a 20% tip when you order take-out. That's what I like to call THEFT. Never heard of a restaurant that does such a thing. This happened this year (2024.) When asked about it, they didn't have an answer. Actions like this will ultimately lead them in trouble.
Apr 7th, 2024

I have been coming here for years. Short rib ravioli always hits. The service is always up and down, today started out mid, but our service was taken over by a server named Brittany, absolutely excellent recommendations and stellar quick service. Would come back just for her.
Feb 18th, 2024

Feb 15th, 2024

What a lovely place! The staff were super friendly, the atmosphere was really nice and the food was good!
Feb 3rd, 2024

As a 20 year veteran restaurant worker I'm giving you, the customer, a WARNING: There are red flags everywhere at this place They automatically add a 20% gratuity to takeout orders without notice!! They upcharge EVERYTHING!! The food is careless. Above all, they have absolutely NO respect for the customer!! I hate leaving negative reviews but do it when it's necessary and this is one of those times. RANT INCOMING: I was looking for a new Italian place to try and this spot came up on the Portland subreddit. I placed an order for an appetizer, two main pasta dishes and two kids meals. I live in Cedar Hills, about 20 minutes away. When I got there he ran my card and handed me the signature copies with the check. He then said (AFTER running my card) that they automatically added gratuity to all pickup orders. At least he told me I guess... To my shock it was a standard 20%!!! FOR PICKUP!! I understand the need to do this at the height of the pandemic when literally no one was going out to eat and servers needed to pay rent. But now?! It's March of 2024, we're WAY past that point. My bill for those items was over NINETY DOLLARS. I left with food in hand and pretty upset. Unnecessarily added gratuity aside, there seemed to be an upcharge for everything! The kids alfredo had a base cost of $9 and with added Chicken cost of $6. SO this is just cream, butter and parm with maybe 3-4oz of chicken for FIFTEEN DOLLARS. It gets worse as my son ordered Penne with Pesto (no protein mind you) off the kids menu and for just noodles and sauce it was ALSO FOURTEEN DOLLARS - they charged me $5 for pesto! It was such a small amount of food that it fit in the SMALL common brown-box/paper takeout container (like the smaller size at New Seasons). A mile down the street I almost turned back to ask for a refund but since I had small children at home that were hungry so I decided to count it as a loss. I've worked in the restaurant industry most of my adult life and I find this money grab tactic to be abhorrent and downright disrespectful to the customer. I've worked in all parts of the house: line cook to server to bartender to general manager in very well known and respected restaurants in both Philadelphia and Brooklyn, NYC. I understand restaurant life. I live in burbs but still within city limits and sometimes drive into the city for better food. My point is that I drove 40 minutes round trip to get food from your restaurant and you're going to charge me almost $20 on top of the food order for putting 5 items in a bag?! I would have absolutely tipped but you're not serving me, I'm not taking up real estate at your establishment, I took up MAYBE five minutes of your time. You did NOTHING for me other than put 5 boxes in a single brown paper bag. Is that worth a few bucks or more depending on the size of the order, absolutely!! I am a notorious OVER tipper with my history in the service industry. BUT to charge me close to TWENTY DOLLARS to pick up a standard family takeout order is 100% BONKERS. As a server if I got a twenty dollar tip on a takeout order I would have been ecstatic and maybe even comp the customer an appetizer or something!! I was so happy with $5!! This was a MONEY GRAB, possibly even illegal and just a shady, greedy policy used by the front of the house. I'm sorry but I won't be back. The food was just C-tier Americanized Italian anyway. Such a shame Everything mentioned is a red flag of a failing restaurant. Theyre cutting corners. Stay away!
Mar 29th, 2024