I should have known what I was in for after I had the fried calamari. It was going to be a long night at Buca di Beppo in Worthington, Ohio. In short, way too much salt and way too much garlic and a bit overcooked. Don’t get me wrong, I like a lot of garlic but I don’t care for a lot of salt. It’s about an hour after the meal and I’ve already had about 24 ounces of water and I’m still parched. Can anyone say - TOO MUCH SALT!

I’m not sure why the place was packed. Maybe Americans just love their salt. Not me. So if your blood pressure is low, go to Buca di Beppo. You guys at Buca can have that little ditty for free.

In addition to the calamari, we also started with the bruschetta (I’ve never understood the Italians’ passion for this stuff - at least not from Buca - cold diced tomatoes on bread - big deal?), the artichoke spinach dip and the fresh mozzarella caprese. I enjoyed the mozzarella caprese, at least as much as anyone could enjoy such a dish with your typical blanched, tasteless, autumn tomatoes (they must pick them while they’re still green). If anything, writing this review will improve my spelling. Hey, who knew that mozzarella had 2 z’s and 2 l’s. Or heck, who could spell bruschetta. Make up your mind, is it a ch or an sh or both, sch?!

Of the entrees, we sampled the Chicken Marsala with mushrooms, spaghetti with meatballs, fettucine supremo (with chicken, broccoli and red peppers, tortelloni, and a couple of others. It all kind of ran together at that point. The highlight was the chicken marsala - very tender, not too salty, and very tasty. The spaghetti with meatballs had the same cold tomato garbage on it as did the bruschetta (that’s sch).

Was there anything to wash this salty smorgasbord down? Guess what, Buca had that fine Australian slop called Yellow Tail on the menu at $24 a bottle. Can’t you get this stuff for $7 a bottle at the grocery store. And who drinks this crap anyway? At that point, their wine list credibility had gone to hell with me. Yellow Tail?! Heck, give me some of that crappy jesus juice you call chianti instead.

The danger with these places is to over order - especially when you are in a big group. And, as usual, we did. At least, we got our annual sodium intake requirement out of it.

Hey, can somebody get me a trough of water?

Buca di Beppo Worthington
60 East Wilson Bridge Road
Worthington, OH 43085
614.848.8466

Buca di Beppo Columbus
343 North Front Street
Columbus, OH 43215
614.621.3287

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