Bacaro Venetian Taverna

Good calamari but wasnt as crispy as hoped (It even had the legs which are our favorites). The pasta is okay. The fries were a little boring and lacked flavor despite the parmesean sprinkled on them. It seemed overpriced. Its not terrible food but for spending $ 44 I was hoping for more of a ‘wow’ factor… I’d only come back here for the calamari.

I had not been to Bacaro in a few years and it was one of the few places with reservations available so off we went. Time has not been kind and I know why reservations were available on a few hours notice.
They had a large party in the main room, and quite frankly they should have just closed the restaurant for the evening. They put us at the last table by the kitchen and despite being so «visible» the service was awful and the food cold when delivered. The sound level was so loud due to the party that we could not carry on a conversation.
We waited 15 minutes for our server; the excuse was she was taking a «large» order. That was one of the two times we saw her — the second being the check.
The first thing I noticed was how pared down the menu has become. The calamari appetizer we ordered was bland and rubbery, and COLD. No lemon served with it, and we could not get anyone’s attention to get any. There were three of us and we barely picked at it.
We had to ask for bread, had to continually ask for our water to be refilled and gave up on getting a second round of drinks. Our actual meals were lukewarm — we saw them sit for almost 10 minutes less than 15 feet away from our table under the lamps. The pasta was rubbery in the Farafelle with a bland sauce; the chicken dish was greasy and cold; and the Ravioli dish had a cream sauce that had congealed on the plate. It was disgusting.
On the plus side, the Tiramisu and lobster bisque were both decent. But, never again. Service was beyond awful and the food not much better.
Would I recommend this place — absolutely not!

Pitiful! Luckily, this was two for one coupon so we’re not out too much. The brunch polenta was about three cups of *out of the roll polenta* with a browned/​burned egg atop. Yes «egg». The menu said eggs. Did the cool coffee get a warm up by a passing waitress? What waitress? When Boulder has the real deal at Palma in Louisville or family-​style Pasta Jay’s a block away, why here… I made a tragic mistake in judgement.

After having not dined at Bacaro for a few years we returned with group for an actual sit-​down dinner on a Saturday night. There were 5 of us in our group and it was a busier than average night on the Mall. However, it wasn’t packed at Bacaro, the tables were full but there wasn’t a lengthy wait.
3 of us sat at our table while we waited for the other two guests. We each ordered a drink and also some appetizers. The server returned with two of our drinks but let us know that they were searching their wine cabinets for the 3^rd drink. They weren’t sure where that bottle of wine was. About 10 mins later they return with the wine. We are still waiting on our appetizers and the rest of our party arrives. They order drinks as well and our appetizers begin to arrive.
Kale chips — giant kale leaves baked with very little salt. I was expecting smaller pieces of the leaves for the chips. They could’ve used additional seasoning.
Salumi plate — only the meats arrived and not the cheeses and the server wasn’t sure what meats they were because «they change them up all the time».
Bruschetta — this was a pile of tomatoes seasoned with basil and olive oil with some strips of grilled bread on the side. Some strips were more like blackened bread. They were so thin that you had to strategically place a few pieces of tomato in single file and balance them as you leaned in to take a bite. I don’t mind a deconstructed bruschetta plate, but it’s much easier to put the toppings on the bread when there’s room for said topping.
After asking about our cheese plate, it arrived around the same time that our entrees did. Again, no explanation on the cheeses. There were 4 cheeses, some crackers, and a little bowl of honey. By this time we’d eaten all of the meats even though it would’ve been nice to have had some of the cheeses with them.
Our entrees came out as we ordered except for one arugula salad that never arrived. We weren’t charged for it either, so I guess that’s a bonus. We had to flag our server down to order another round of drinks, but once those were finished we split. There wasn’t any need to prolong the experience by ordering dessert.
In our past experiences, we’ve always sat at the bar and had a great experience. I hope this was just a bad night.

This place has a lot of what I like about Boulder. The atmosphere is comfortable and attractive. Service is great. Its really nice when the weather is nice because they have an upstairs patio! Perfect for happy hour. So for all these reasons I frequent the facility — but I must admit there isn’t anything that I absolutely CRAVE about the experience. One thing I appreciate is that the entire restaurant has a more mature feeling. That is important in Boulder because if the place is attractive to a young crowd you can end up feeling like you are at a fraternity very quickly. Overall, I am a fan.

bloody mary bar! that’s all.

Not the place to visit if you have an appetite.
I ordered the Carbonara and although it was very delicious, I got about a cup of pasta and it didn’t fill me up. I believe I paid about $ 15 for the pasta and it came in a overly large dish (probably to show you how little food you are getting).
Coming here with a group of three guys after working all day caused us to work up an appetite. Unfortunately, we all left hungry. Service was ok, but nothing exceptional.
Although the food tastes delicious, I won’t be coming back again. If the portion size improves I might give it another try but I would avoid this place and go get a real meal somewhere else.

Popped in for a drink and app. The server was attentive. It’s a good spot if you like a quieter setting as it’s a bit farther away from the center of Pearl St. I got the Benevolent Hound (Spirit Hound Gin, CO), tonic and St. Germain. Pretty good. Appetizer was Crudo (salmon with grilled ciabatta). Very tasty.

Last night I was looking for a pasta place that delivered, as Bacaro came up on Unilocal.I had never been there before but looked at their menu online, then ordered the caprese salad, gnocchi, and tiramisu. The delivery was very fast; I think that’s the only compliment I can give. I paid about ten dollars more than I expected — te online menu was priced differently than what I was charged. The caprese was yummy but tiny — about three slices each of tomato and mozzarella. The gnocchi was incredibly bland. The tiramisu was a messy, pudding-​like plop. Very disappointing, especially for $ 50. I will not return.

Arg. I really wanted to like this place. My girlfriend and I came here for my birthday.
Let me just get this off my chest:
We were seated. No one helped us for 15 minutes. Eventually the waiter/​manager came up and apologized for the wait but he was ‘understaffed’ and was trying to coordinate. I understand that, except he only had 10 tables occupied and another waiter was running around in the background.
Then I ordered a ‘local spirit’. He gave me 2 choices and I made my selection. A minute later he comes back, informs me my selection wasn’t available, and had brought me the other choice, which was NOT what I wanted, and was MORE expensive than what I asked for.
Then we ordered our appetizer, a salad to share. This was the only good part about this dinner, it was actually good. Then we waited another 20 minutes after finishing the salad until we found someone to get out waiter.
We ordered the lamb to share for dinner and were excited because it sounded delicious…
Not only did our dinner not get entered into the system, but it took them another 20 minutes to realize we didn’t have any food. Then when it came, 75% of the meat was pure fat.
Ah, i’m frustrated just writing this. Sorry Bacaro, but I’m not coming back.

This place was just weird.
I went with a Groupon and was expecting a romantic, delicious Italian dinner, as Bacaro had been voted OpenTables #1 Voted restaurant in 2010, 2011, and 2012! But, what a lame dinner date it happened to be. The only postives to this whole thing was that we left full and that my date was very gracious about the restaurant choice.
The negatives:
–The décor is so mismatched and chaotic. It’s visually stressful.
–The tables are seated WAY too close together. The staff kept running into my elbow and sliding up against the back of my chair because I had my winter coat hanging off my chair. They don’t have any coat racks either, which would stink for someone with a longer jacket or coat.
–The staff has NO emotion. They are like robots. I think our waitress literally said five words. She would just drop off the food, check, etc without any communication.
–The food was sub-​par at best. I think that we could have made a better tasting meal off of some internet recipes at home. The mushroom bruschetta was so burnt we had to peel strips of the bread off in order to eat it, and the rest of it was tasteless, so it was burnt bread with tasteless toppings. The entrees were just okay. The shrimp was overcooked and chewy while the pancetta was actually perfectly crisp. However, the flavor combinations had no spark. That’s why I said I think I could’ve made better at home– there was no life in this meal or anything interesting. Then we got the almond and pear tart for dessert. While the caramel sauce was good the gelato had a very weird taste– almost like chemicals. Which does not surprise me about this place.
— Also their bread «is only by request?» Never heard of this. We had to very awkwardly ask for some sliced bread to go with our meals. And we only knew they had it because the bus boy handed it out to a table near us.
Overall, it was just «icky.» I’m astounded that they received an OpenTable award, especially in Boulder. Save your money and head to one of the many better choices on Pearl street.

My husband and I made reservations for dinner and because there wasn’t a table ready for us at that time, they brought in a table and chair from outside and seated us there. It was literally freezing outside, so our bums were VERY cold! Thankfully, the table next to us cleared out shortly so we could switch out the chairs.
Our server was fine, although she didn’t smile once the entire time we were there.
I ordered the Bistecca di Agnello which comes with sweet potato gnocchi and arugula. Instead, mine came with regular gnocchi and spinach. It was still really delicious, but I can get gnocchi anywhere… sweet potato gnocchi is something I don’t see often, so I was excited to try it.
We loved the food and liked the rest enough to give it a shot again.

Our trip was somewhere between «meh» and «disappointing.»
The food– We started with the beets with smoked ricotta and the crab cake. We really loved the beets, but didn’t really appreciate the tomato under the crab cake (which was great) making the whole dish soggy. We got the ravioli and salami pizza to split. The ravioli was nothing to write home about– The filling and butternut squash didn’t seem to be seasoned very well/​at all, other than there being some whole sage leaves on the plate. The pasta of the ravioli was also pretty chewy. The pizza crust was nice and crispy, but overall the pizza wasn’t anything to write home about. It also seemed to be lacking the «spicy oil» mentioned in the description.
The drinks were really good– We both got mixed drinks, and they were nice and strong.
Which brings us to the service– Our waitress was barely a notch above surly. We were halfway through our appetizers when she abruptly asked if we wanted bread. We said sure, and it arrived about 10 minutes later, after we were finished with the appetizers. The waitress that brought us our drinks was sloshing mine all the way to the table because she had filled the glass too much, and then spilled my husbands drink on our appetizers and his shoes. She brought back a towel to mop up the table, but didn’t seem to care at all that our beets were swimming in whiskey. Honestly, it seemed like she might’ve been sampling the beverages herself.
We weren’t expecting the restaurant to be packed on a Sunday evening– But it would’ve been nice if the music had been turned up a little bit to compensate for the quiet. Or if someone would’ve re-​pressed «play» when the cd stopped.
Overall– There seems to be a little room for improvement with the food, and a lot of improvement needed with service.

This is another review that I don’t want to write, because I HATE sharing secrets.
But here’s the deal with Bacaro: At night, it’s a crowded, sweaty, kinda gross, undergrad-​y brodeo. Seriously, if there’s music blaring and a line, don’t even bother.
But during the day, it’s my favourite Sooper Sekrit happy hour spot. There’s a new chef and a new menu (probably for the best, the old menu was Cheesecake Factory sized levels of impossible), and the HH menu is affordable and interesting. As of late, it hasn’t been that crowded (which is great, I love not waiting for the roof deck), but if people start realizing that it’s awesome and cheap and delicious and not crowded, I expect that will change.
Service can sometimes be a little slow (in my experience, that’s more a result of the place being huge and people being busy), but it’s always attentive.
Also: their house white wine sangria is dangerous. In the best ways possible.

Bacaro gets my eternal gratitude just for being open on Super Bowl Sunday (aka my birthday, which is far more important than Super Bowl Sunday). Seriously, I didn’t know the city of Boulder took football so seriously. I’m quite positive that Bacaro was the only open restaurant that wasn’t a) a fast casual chain, b) a sports bar and grill, c) a coffee shop, or d) The Cheesecake Factory.
Actually, I’m surprised I never went to Bacaro when I was in college. The menu is incredibly appealing, with loads of food options for happy hour including more than one eggplant dish, a variety of antipasti small plates and a plethora of pizzas. The white wine that was on HH special was a Chilean Sauv Blanc and it was very crisp and refreshing. Once you muddle through the extensive HH menu, the dinner menu is awaiting with items like burrata salad (which we ordered) and ravioli filled with asparagus over a pool of butternut squash purée (which we also ordered). It was seriously hard to decide.
Our server was knowledgable and attentive and even let me pick a complimentary birthday dessert (I went for the pear tart). Prices were decent: a HH small plate, salad, pasta entrée and two glasses of wine came to about $ 40. The pasta dish wasn’t huge, but who needs huge with all of the small plate options?
The food wasn’t OMG-​wow, but it certainly hit the spot and wasn’t overly heavy for Italian. Could have used more other «stuff» with the burrata salad (it was mainly a wad of burrata with grilled bread and the vegetables promised were more of a relish). The raviolis were good as well, but certainly not flavors I couldn’t replicate at home (even though I have no patience/​desire to make my own ravioli, so thank for making it for me Bacaro).
It was a nice dinner though, and I’m bummed I didn’t get to this place sooner. HH would have been very welcome for my college-​age wallet.

Not bad.
I was here for New Years Eve with a friend to enjoy their covered/​heated rooftop patio. The space is nice, if a little small. Luckily, there wasn’t a big crowd and moving room was good.
There’s a bar downstairs and one upstairs on the patio as well, so points for having 2 bars to help handle crowds. I have to give it up to the bartenders for being so attentive-​they helped me out within a minute each time I walked up, even in a deep crowd. Nice.
The drinks here, sadly, ain’t the cheapest and they’re pretty small for what you’re paying. Throw in the fact that it’s 85% ice and you’re paying $ 4 for a gin and tonic that should be worth maybe $ 2. That’s my one big grudge about this place.
And another very small grudge specific to NYE… no countdown! The whole bar missed the arrival of the new year because they didn’t have one going. That kinda sucked.

This was a great spot for our 35^th CU-​Sewall Hall freshman college dorm reunion. We’d had one here in 2011, as well.
Great food and service, and a terrific terrace room upstairs.

Who knew there was such a great restaurant hidden in plain view on Pearl Street? I live in Denver but have walked past Bacaro every time I’ve been in Boulder and never stopped in before.
My husband and I went the night before the Bolder Boulder on memorial day and it was awesome! The food was fantastic, the service was great and the price for food and wine during happy hour was unbelievable. We plan to drive to Boulder to go back here for dinner sometime.

Sadly, this atmospheric Italian restaurant has been on the slide the last few years.
The last time I succeed in guiding the whole fam to Bacaro, we had un-​wonderful food. Memorably so… I still hear about it. *sigh*

I decided to try Bacaro out for happy hour since I’d heard extremely mixed reviews. That way, if it sucks, oh well, I only spent $ 10 and not $ 30!
It did not suck (yay!). Though we were pretty much the only people there at first, our server was extremely friendly and nice, yet managed not to hover over us, her only customers.
I ordered the salmon pizza (smoked salmon, onions, capers, baby greens and horseradish cream) and a virgin peach bellini for a total of $ 9. Our pizzas took ages to come out — why, I’m not sure, since there was no way they were cooking anything else in there — and in the meantime I was able to sip on the peach bellini, which was so small it would have been more appropriate to view through a magnifying glass and pick up with a robot hand. Imagine maybe two shot glasses full of seltzer water with two drops of peach juice painstakingly dripped in there out of an eyedropper. For $ 3. Imagine this, and then make your own decision about Bacaro’s happy hour drinks.
By the time our pizzas arrived I was a bit annoyed, but my pizza saved me. It was the same type as we had at Marco’s — thin, crunchy crust with all the toppings sort of floating around on top like a salad. The difference here was that the horseradish cream and heavy salmon slices managed to hold everything down and stick it to the crust so it didn’t just slide off everywhere.
The way the ingredients were combined and sized worked perfectly for me; nothing was overwhelming (not even the bread!). I’d categorize it as gourmet bagel ‘n’ lox.
Overall — I’d go back again for happy hour and skip drinks. No complaints here about a $ 6 dinner pizza.