Buon Appetito

I ate McDonald’s for the first time in years, the night I came here for dinner. The «salad» consisted of lettuce and dressing, and it was the best part of the meal. We had a reservation, waited 30 minutes to order and then another 50 for our food. When it arrived, my veal francaise was so soggy the breading fell off before I could get it from the plate to my mouth. The marinara sauce on the accompanying pasta was boring, bland and watery. My husband had carbonara with grilled chicken, which was so overcooked, dry and tough he couldn’t eat it. We sent both dishes back and refused the offer for something else.
Our friend ordered the seabass special which appeared marginally more edible, so he ate it. We were hungry, after all. He barfed when he got home.
Sad to say, the service and atmosphere weren’t any better than the food.

If the interior was fancier this would be winning ‘Best Of’ awards. Food is amazing, especially the garlic bread. BYOB is great and let’s you spend more on the entrees and good desserts. Definitely try this hole in the wall.

This used to be one of my favorite restaurants, would go there a lot as a favorite place for fantastic Italian, but sorry to say, it is not great anymore.
Went in on a Saturday night, after calling in at 2PM for a reservation and expecting that there would not be an opening, yet I was surprised to get a table. That was the highlight of my night.
Arrive at the restaurant, and I had not been in a couple of years (had little free time to go out), and we are shown to our table, the booth seat had a large rip in it that was covered with tape. OK, I understand times are tough, they do not have the funds to fix booths, I gave them a pass. We ordered the Garlic Bread, not so great, and the cheap plastic glasses they had on the table reminded me of a really bad 1970s pizza restaurant. The glasses of water were already filled when we got to the table, so the ice was melted and the water not cold, very lazy.
Still was willing to overlook this as I was excited to get Giabotto, a dish of pasta consisting of sausage, veal and chicken, which has always been excellent. Gave waitress the order and she tells me they no longer have veal in the dish, as it is too expensive. WTF? Serve smaller portions or raise the price of the meal, more than half the dish is pasta!
Meal was not great, and the tell tale signs of a restaurant in trouble is cutting back on the food, not fixing up the place and easy reservations. To top it off, the chef has gotten really lazy, as they used to make an in house dessert from mascarpone, but they no longer make and instead served frozen desserts, and mine was still frozen in middle. Would have rather wasted the extra calories at Friendlys.
I really did not want to write this review, but the whole way home my wife kept asking me about my thoughts, and she said her meal was nothing to write home about and she would not bother traveling to West Hartford to Canton for the marginal dining experience.
Shame that a place that was so good has gone down so much. Must be West Hartford Center and Blue Back taking away potential customers.

As a lifelong customer of Buono Appetito and the food since the Hot Tomatos days, I am sad to give a negative review. What happened to us the other night should be out there. We went to the restaurant with the expectation of great food and a good time, but were met with disappointment. We arrived promptly at a few minutes before 7pm on Friday night expecting to wait as the restaurant is usually packed. To our surprise, only about 25% of the tabl s were filled. We were promptly seated and we were greeted by the only waitress working all of the tables. Unusual for a Friday. We put in our order and ordered some garlic bread. About 25 minutes later we received the bread with apologies from the waitress. She advised that due to the light reservations, there was only one waitress and one chef. Most everyone already had their meals and no one else showed up after us. About 30 minutes later, an inordinate wait for the meals, we politely asked our waitress what was causing the delay. She again advised that there was only one cook and the meal would be there soon. We queried her several times over the next hour an a half about our food and got the same answer. Just as we were getting up to leave, our food arrived at the two hour mark. My wife now had to leave and take her meal to go due to an obligation. My friend went to speak to the owner about the totally unacceptable two hour delay and ask if some sort of conciliatory gesture could be made. The owner summarily brushed him off and said, «Maybe next time when you come back, we’ll see». This caused my friend to advise the owner, who he claimed was a friend, that he wouldn’t be back and neither will I. You don’t force your customers to suffer because you are too greedy to serve them in an acceptable manner. Also, you don’t treat friends like that either. Now everyone that asks me where to eat in Canton will be advised to avoid the horrid service at Buono Appetito, waiting two hours for a meal is totally unacceptable and zero attention from the owner compounds the negative experience. Maybe that’s why only 25% of the restaurant was filled on a Friday night?

Though I would love to keep this a secret I can’t. This is one of our favorite places for a nice meal in a casual setting. Grab a bottle of your favorite wine or beer and hit the fantastic little spot. The food is always yummy with fresh pastas, exciting specials and lots of garlic. Prepare to eat yourself comatose because you won’t be able to stop! Make sure to enjoy the fresh cheesey garlic bread and the house dressing on your salad. Tonight we split the tricolored tortellini and it was amazing, but after years of eating here I can’t say there is a bad dish on the menu. It’s a charming little spot to enjoy so make sure to check it out. Weekends are busy so beware, now shhhh it’s a secret.

This is our go to place. Whenever we are faced with a night that just got freed up and we’re trying to decide on dinner, Buon Appetito is it. It’s small. The service is sometimes inconsistent. The place has drop ceilings and sometimes the music playing is just weird. BUT, it’s worth every penny, and just go in with an open mind and an appetite. The food is UH-​MAY-​ZING. We are wine freaks and have a lot of our own, so it’s great to be able to bring in a couple of bottles of wine, and the corkage fee is only $ 2.00 per person per bottle. The meals are not cheap, BUT the pasta dishes are enormous and I get two meals out of them every time. Bring the rest home for lunch during the week. Giobatto is amazing. Rigatoni Romano is my favorite. Eggplant mascarpone is fantastic. You can’t go wrong with ANYTHING on the menu. Our favorite appetizer is the eggplant rollantini, and we love the fried mozzarella. Give it a try.

Another outstanding meal here with Susan. I have yet to be disappointed in fact, I have yet to be underwhelmed! All the meals I’ve had here were wonderful. No complaints.

The food is delicious here. Decided to write a review because I was surprised by the mixed reviews.
I have eaten here several times, everything was great. Notable dishes were a special with scallops in a vodka cream sauce and the eggplant mascarpone. The sea scallops were cooked perfectly but the sauce was out of this world. The eggplant mascarpone is truly a flavorful delight. Crispy medallions of eggplant, perfectly cooked pasta in marinara and dollops of delicious cheese. The bread and salad are great too. The byob makes up for the lacking décor.

I was shocked by such a low rating! I have only ever heard amazing things.
This place was charming, reminded me of a little Italian place on a side street In NYC. Sure, its not updated but I wasnt going for the décor.
The food from the garlic bread to the meal was delicious and enough to bring for lunch the next day. BYOB was a nice touch so you can have a gourmet meal without breaking the bank. We will be back!

We were here on a Friday night with reservations. The place was almost empty yet the waitress had called to see where we were when we were 5 minutes late. That set the tone for the service. The specials seemed very pricey so we ordered from the regular menu. The portions were large and the quality of everyone’s food was great. Their garlic bread is great but I agree with others that it is a stingy portion when not complimentary. A small salad served with the entrée is just lip service to that course. Overall, I would eat there again but would expect the same reactions to a few issues they could easily fix.

Been going to B.A. for close to 10 years, although less often in recent years due to business of life, kids’ activities, etc.
First off, the décor & ambiance is not why you come. It’s festive & reminiscent of Boston’s north end (cramped, loud, chef 12′ away in half-​open kitchen). Prices haven’t changed in 10 years and it’s BYOB, so they’re not gouging you to redecorate.
Food is really good, slanted northern Italian, but don’t expect authentic. Giobatto, Sachiatinni (sp? pasta pockets stuffed w/​Gorgonzola), and eggplant mascarpone are all awesome. Some might stick ‘fusion’ on the label, but I just think it’s flavorful, varied, and chefs are willing to change anything you want, sub one meat for another, add whatever.
Lastly, the desserts are terrific: Cheesecakes, tarts, and if u luv chocolate, the choc. mascarpone cake is ridiculous

We love, love, love this place. Their food is phenomenal, portions are very large. You really get more than you pay for. The lemoncello cake was the best cake ever!!! Quite amazing and last but not least, their service was wonderful. I highly recommend this place!

4 dinner reservations later and I think I can safely say that once you get past the charm of a new restaurant, this place is not special.
I don’t mind that it is tiny or that you have to trip over people and pump into customers as you wait for your table but the wait staff is horrible. They will let you stand there without saying hello or welcoming you or even asking if you have a reservation. When you do get seated, you will be asking yourself if the server hates you or maybe just hates their life.
They will even let you stand there with open tables ready to sit you because they are trying to serve the customers they have seated and waiting service.
I have had 4 meals there and there was one memorable, 2 forgettable and the last one was bad. Sea scallops that had been frozen to the point they were old and discolored.
If your a wino then maybe it is a deal to bring your own and not be overcharged for the experience but if your not a wino then you will over pay for just eating.
Moving on.

Byob the place is dated in it’s décor and they had way too few servers. They went through ignoring us totally then being fully attentive and asking how it was every 5 seconds. The appetizer was good and so was the garlic bread. My veal Marsalis was drowned in sauces but otherwise was good. I do feel the need to come back and try something else before giving a higher review.

Great Italian food! Best garlic bread around! The marinara sauce is delicious and has a different taste but is very good. The house garlic dressing for the side salad you get with your meal is so good as well! Fast service too!

Very disappointing. The place was FILTHY, the décor was from 1970 and the food was a huge let down. Don’t waste your time… or money.

My order was wrong after our 45+ minute wait for dinner, then I was served salmon in a deep puddle of pasta water. The fish was undercooked, the pasta was good, sauce was good on pasta. Others in my party found food okay, service was poor, restaurant itself is shabby. They offer only one type of dressing– creamy garlic or oil & vinegar– salad is really just plain lettuce, nothing else. Garlic bread is too garlicky, far too small for 4, server should have suggested a double order but was clearly not up to that level of awareness.
It’s nice to be able to bring your own wine but that isn’t enough to make any if us return.

I loved my experience here. The food was amazing– I got a chicken ceaser salad and it was great, hubby got the chicken gorgonzolla and I was amazed. I’ve never had such tasty italian food.
Also, the place is SMALL. But that doesn’t detract from the atmosphere, scenery, and food. I recommend this restaurant to everyone!

Fantastic! Dinners
Portion sizes all required a doggie bag.
Fresh seafood, polite staff and a great cozy atmosphere.
Not a lamb eater but Jeff said it was cooked perfectly and had the correct taste.
Again not into fish either, but it was very good and I would order it.
The Mediterranean seafood dish was similar to a fry Di ablo but I think it was better.
Chicken Marsala dish was huge and so good.
So returning ASAP

Wow– my 100^th review !!
I’m puzzled by some of the negative reviews that criticized the service and interior of this very good restaurant. We had a very nice dinner experience tonight. We were greeted promptly and heard our pleasant server rattle off what must have been ten dinner specials. In truth, it was far too much to remember, a menu insert would have been better. We tried some of their signature garlic bread and it was every bit as good as we had expected. It was fresh, with fabulous texture, still warm, and chock full of rustic garlicky goodness.
Our entrees were 1) Rosa Cavatappi with shrimp — very well done and a nice portion, and an entrée whose name I neglected to write down, foolishly thinking they would have a website I could look at for reference, but — no they have no website. I had a spinach fettucine in a spicy sauce with tomatoes, mushrooms, sausage and chicken. The chicken was fabulous– moist and tender and outstanding. So often in these sort of dishes, the chicken is a little tough or overcooked– this was cooked to perfection. THe grated cheese was served tableside –off of a block of cheese and a grater– nice touch.
Dinner totalled $ 47 and we took half of it home for another day. It was a very satisfying meal, good value, good service, nice atmosphere. The only mis-​step I could fault them on was the unattractive tower of aluminum take-​out dishes stacked on a kitchen counter in full view of the dining room patrons. There has to be a smarter place to store them.