Cafe La Buca

Many of our friends told us about Café La Buca so we finally visited for the first time. My wife and I really enjoyed our experience at La Buca. Upon arrival we were welcomed by the owner, an italian man, who sat us at our table and explained how things work. There was no menu/​prices but we did have some choice. He started us off with a few appetizers which were all fantastic. We had cheese balls, fresh bread, and some eggplant and zucchini based items. The owner came back and told us that we had a choice between 5 different pastas. We couldn’t decide so he was nice enough to give us half orders of our two favorites — bolognese and gnocchi — these were also great. We read online that prices are very steep so we were shocked when the bill was very reasonable. We will definitely visit again soon and highly recommend!

Apart from Casa de Angelo, this is my favorite Italian place in Pompano. Perhaps since I just moved up her from Miami Beach I’m not offended by the prices? The menu is small, simple, and the ingredients are fresh. The incredible part is the BYOB without the corkage fee. It’s an amazing feature that makes this restaurant that much better.

Amazing all around experience, the service, the food & the ambience. The chef which I think is also the owner was interacting with the customers, super friendly & funny. My niece wanted ice cream they didn’t have any, he went out of his way to get her some. Only thing the place is tiny so it was a tight space. Great value for the price. Will be coming back.

We arrived at 8 for our reservation for 6 (and the baby in the car seat /​stroller). It’s a small family like place so I was a little worried about the stroller fitting and didn’t want to disrupt anyone else’s dinner. The owner Marco asked us to wait 5 minutes and when he came out he said he had arranged a table in the kitchen. At first it sounded crazy but we went with it. It was by far the best dining experience that I’ve had in a seriously long time. The table literally was in the kitchen off to the side of all the action. We felt so special and grateful that he made this accommodation for us. The night turned into amazing dish after dish. We all were blown away by the choices. This is an authentic family style restaurant. Marco filled the evening with stories about his family and the business. We laughed so hard and at some point we just forgot time existed and enjoyed over 3 hours of a fantastic experience. Marco is amazing at what he does and I will 100% be back. Dessert was awesome followed by a bill that seemed too low for all that we had eaten and experienced. I wish I could give them 10 stars!

The food was excellent, the service was good, the ambience was a nice pizzeria. The price was crazy expensive for what it is. Expect to spend about $ 70 per person without drinks. I would love to go back but it was too pricey for what it was. The evening was fun and pleasant until the check came.

Overall this was a pretty good experience.
I did read the reviews before going which stated they are pricey. I expected it to be a little more expensive than average, but was definitely not prepared for the prices.
I went there for lunch, thinking it would be cheaper, but it wasn’t.
I was charged $ 50 for a lunch time pork chop. It was one little chop and some broccoli.
The pasta dish we got with burrata cheese was a little too chewy and now enough cream which you normally would expect with burrata.
The desserts were delicious.
If the price was better, esp for lunch, I would go back

Such an amazing experience. The most authentic, genuine Italian restaurant I have ever been to. Let Marco pick your courses. Trust me, you CAN’T go wrong.

Excellent classic Italian Restaurant.
The Pasta & antipasti are out of this World (AAA+++ Recommended.)
Service is very good, staff is very friendly and polite.
Hours of operation are a bit short and it can be complicated to sit due to the size of the restaurant .
Bottom line is: Go to this place with your eyes closed but try to make a reservation first.

I couldn’t wait to eat here cause I saw that was real Italian.
We started with the eggplant rollatini. There is so much cheese it overpowers the entire dish and you couldn’t taste any of the eggplant whatsoever.
We had the specials including the lobster ravioli which was fabulous and the risotto with beef but it was so heavy so we barely touched it. The pasta on the ravioli was perfection.
Nothing amazing but nothing awful. Service so-​so and the host that sat us kept signing at the top of his lungs at a table in the back. Expected more.

Food as always is good. The no menu concept is nice in a way. Shared some mushrooms and peppers and two small eggplant apps between 4 of us. Had two very good bowls of pasta, again shared between 4 and two deserts. 108.00 seems a a little pricy depsite the quality of food. We’ll be back but not as often as we’d like as a result.

I’ve been to Italy & food is not like this in America or Italy. We are used to the seafood dishes here & there. You don’t know what to expect… but we received the best Italian, authentic, family recipes we had hoped for. Tried getting reservations at this restaurant for over a year & it was more than worth the wait! Thank you for your hospitality & kindness to an amazing food experience. I never give 5 stars to just any restaurant as I am a foodie myself. Bravo!!!

First, the good: The food is delicious. I would never say that it is «just ok». It’s really, really good. It feels like an authentic Italian experience, with the place being tiny and the courses brought out in the proper way: first your vegetable course, followed by your pasta, and then the meat. The chef is friendly and funny. He seems to oversee everything and will even pull pictures off the wall to tell you a story. There is no corkage fee.
The bad: I can’t say this is bad because the food is worth it, but it should be made clear that this is not the Olive Garden… it can get expensive. You are given a choice of a few dishes for each course but you are not told the price. Plan to spend around $ 70 per person. At first it may seem like the portions are small, but remember you will be eating a lot of different dishes while drinking and talking, so you will get full.
When we visited, we went with my husband’s large Italian family and felt very welcome. They took good care of us.

This place has no menu. The owner and server will make recomdations for a four course meal. We shared everything. The 6 of us started off with mozzarella balls in sundried tomatoes, a fried eggplant dish and a Brussels sprout dish… each were delicious. For pasta we has 3 types. clams, mushroom truffle and tomato with burrata… excellent. We then shared 3 protein dishes: lamb chops, rolled stuffed beef and baked fish in salt… again excellent. We finished with lemon cake and 3 cannoli.
It was a great treat eating at this casual, BYO place but be warned that it is pricey.

Best Italian! Small non-​pretentious joint. BYOB. Super authentic. Worth the drive if your coming from Miami. LOVE!

We had no reservations but we’re happy to seat us anyway. Nina our server was friendly and very knowledgeable of all of the Italian dishes that were available as there is no menu. We took her recommendations and ordered a few appetizers, a pizza, clams and linguine and a pasta dish
We were blown away
Sergio who was running the oven even came over to see how we liked our food asking in his Italian accent I said WE LOVE !!!
If you’re in the area you must go they have two seatings one at six and one at eight please make a reservation you can also bring your own wine and if you forget they have their own
Enjoy

Food was fantastic… Service was nice and friendly… What I don’t like is the price :(
For what you get its double what it should cost. Lunch was 80 dollars for two and I left still hungry.

Excellent!!! Excellent!!! Excellent! Very authentic, very traditional, very homey! There is no menu! You sit they serve you eat! Everything is homemade! Loved it. The only down fall is its expensive! But you get what you pay for, good food, High price! I would absolutely recommend a dinner or lunch here for sure!!!

After reading about this place on Unilocal and hearing my friends talk about it, I had to check it out. They take 6pm or 8pm reservations. Reservations are recommended. There is parking in the front of the restaurant. The décor is nice, but nothing overly fancy. Staff was friendly and didn’t rush us on the Thursday night we dined here.
There is no menu so you don’t know the pricing. We had them bring us three appetizers, two pastas, a steak, and an Italian Cheesecake. We also had three bottles of water (NO TAP WATER ALLOWED HERE. YOU HAVE TO BUY THE $ 6 Bottles of water). This cost $ 160 plus tip.
The appetizers available this night: sautéed eggplant, sautéed mushrooms, and zucchini wrapped around three cheeses. They give you rolls to dip up the sauces. My favorite was the zucchini… loved the mixture of cheeses. They all had good flavoring and nothing was salty.
Pastas: gnocchi with marinara and melted mozzarella. The gnocchi is not made with potato here, but instead with ricotta. It was good and fresh tasting.
Mushroom/​truffle pasta: This was made with a wide noodle that was too thick. They make the pasta onsite. This was nothing impressive.
Filet Mignon: Well seasoned and a good cut of beef. It was on top of a portabella mushroom.
Cheesecake: They called it an Italian cheesecake… not with ricotta cheese. I don’t remember what it was made of, but it had a light lemony flavor. It was thicker than a regular cheesecake.
Service was slow and we didn’t feel rushed or annoyed by it. We did have to ask multiple times for more bread and olive oil for the table. They accept multiple credit cards to split the bill.
Overall, the food was good, but I think it was expensive. I didn’t leave stuffed. Portions were not large. Next time I go back, I will try the pizza.

I have been wanting to try Café La Buca for a while since it’s not too far from my house and I seen plenty of wonderful reviews. My friend made 6pm reservations, they had told her there were 2 seatings — at 6pm and 8pm, so I promptly arrived at 6pm, however I did notice that people came in throughout the night and were seated and served right away. I was surprised the restaurant was larger than what I had envisioned, its clean and quaint with cute décor, seating is a bit tight as tables are very close together.
There isn’t a menu, our server explained their serving concept which is family style servings consisting of 3 different appetizers, a choice of 2 pasta dishes and a choice of 2 meat choices (We were a party of 4), prices were never mentioned and we just went with it, they also don’t offer tap water just bottle water (flat or sparkling) which we later found were $ 6 each and you don’t even get real glasses, instead small plastic cups.
The appetizer selection for the night consisted of sautéed eggplant in a tomato sauce, sautéed mushrooms, and 4 small single serving zucchini wrapped around three cheeses (I think mozzarella, Parmesan and ricotta), they were cooked fresh and out of the 3 the zucchini was my favorite, but none of them were outstanding. We were also served a small basket of bread which was more like small pieces of baked pizza crust, I think we only received 5 small pieces for the 4 of us, I also asked our server for olive oil but never got it.
The pasta choices for the night were:
— Pappardelle with mushrooms and truffle
— Gnocchi made from ricotta, rather that potato served with tomato sauce topped with fresh mozzarella and basil
— Pasta with clams
— Pasta with beef bolognese
— Pasta with Pesto
Meat Choices:
— Filet Mignon
— Sliced Steak
— Fish (Forgot what kind)
— Lamb
We went with the Pappardelle with mushrooms and truffle, Gnocchi and 1 Filet Mignon. The Gnocchi arrived first, far from family style, instead it was a very small single serving, it was just ok, I found it to be bland and nothing to rave about. Next the Pappardelle arrived, slightly larger serving than the Gnocchi, the Pappardelle was thick, and again I wasn’t impressed by the dish, it was just ok. Once we finished the pasta the single single filet serving arrived, nice cut, cooked to a medium rare as requested served with a bit of spinach on top and a portabello mushroom on the bottom, it was good, but again nothing impressive worthy of the $ 40 price tag. We ordered 1 piece of cake to share, it had a lemony flavor, it was ok, again nothing special.
Service was friendly when at our table, but not attentive, we had to request bread several times because we kept on waiting, once we received more bread again it was a tiny serving of 4 little bits of bread for the 4 of us to share, I finally received my olive oil after requesting it several times, we weren’t rushed but at the same time it took a while to get someone attention to finally get the check and then again to have them process the check — the process was very slow, it felt like they forgot about our table.
Way overpriced for what it is
Apps: sautéed eggplant in a tomato sauce $ 8, sautéed mushrooms $ 8 and 4 small single servings of zucchini wrapped around three cheeses $ 20
–Pappardelle $ 32
–Gnocchi $ 20
–Filet $ 40
— 1 slice of cake $ 9
Our bill
Servings are small and far from family style, way overpriced for what it is, for the price I would at least expect attentive service. I don’t mind paying if I get something I really enjoy, sorry to say Café La Buca was a let down. They seem to have a loyal base of regular customers, however I don’t see myself returning.
Value — 1 star
Food — 2.5 stars
Service — 2 stars
Ambiance — 3 stars

Mmmmmmm my new favorite place.
Food is amazing. 10 tables and always packed. No menus which is pretty cool. The server comes to your table and chats w you to get a feel for what you would like.
Pasta is a 10
Fish is a 10
Can’t wait to go back