Trattoria Osteria Buca Manzoni

If you want a nonna to cook your meal and serve it in her kitchen, this is the right place for you. You could literally taste the love imbued in the preparation of the dishes. We had the fried dough with lard crescentine and a mixed platter of Emiglia Romana cheeses, mortadella, and prosciutto. Then we shared platters of fresh pasta with Bolognese ragu, ricotta ravioli with porcini and light gnocchi. Wash it all down with the excellent sangiovese wine. If that wasn't enough, I had an espresso with tiramisu and panna cotta. That was a lovely lunch and will return for more!

We had a wonderfully delicious meal here! Amazing flavors carefully crafted by the chef in this family owned and operated trattoria. Large portions and the most friendly table service we could expect! Our first meal in Bologna was memorable! Thank you!

A hidden gem! Delicious food and very polite, accommodating staff! We had the most amazing veal and the platter of cold cuts and cheeses comes with these deliciously hot fried buns. The rice cake was also spot on! Definitely check them out!

Traditional trattoria in the heart of Bologna. We were recommended this restaurant by a local person and it did not disappoint. I had the most beautiful "green" lasagne here, worth the visit alone. My fiancé had the tagliatelle ragu. Our starters were sooo big, we would have shared one if we had known how big they were going to be! Our server was amazing, she had better English than us (!!) and was able to explain many wines on the menu. A wonderful first dinner in Bologna.

We came here for a dinner without reservation. Ordered a lasagna and tagliata di manzo, lasagna was delicious, but meat was spectacular. For a dessert, we ate a tiramisu and tenerina con mascarpone, both were amazing. All together around 60 euros, but high quality food 🍷

Very welcoming, warm atmosphere in the centre of the city. Traditional and bolognese food. All in one was a nice experience especially the ham plate with Hot Crescentine bread

Food is so delicious and the price is affordable.

We've been to Bologna many times and walked past Trattoria Osteria Buca Manzoni and we are now wondering why we haven't been in before. The food was great, lovely flavours. Service was great and the overall atmosphere was brilliant. The weather outside went from lovely to very, very wet but the staff continued to keep people fed and happy in a very very bad situation, well done.

We spent 5 nights in Bologna, and this was our dinner spot on our first and last nights Wifey started us off with charcuterie, which was a huge portion of meats and cheeses, accompanied by perfect pickled veggies (a bit agrodolce). More than half went home with us, as we were saving ourselves for the next courses. The roasted veggies were fine. The menu was a bit light on vegetables, but we were here in late winter. Sliced beef with "baked potatoes" is perfectly grilled ribeye with fluffy roasted rosemary potatoes. The potato gnocchi was gloriusly fluffy and chewy (our girls call it "pillow pasta"). The bolognese was wonderful! There may be witchcraft involved in this recipe. Highly recommend this place. We went back, since it was so good, as well as very well priced. We didn't see any other Americans either time we went. The staff was welcoming, and other diners were friendly. Fun nights!

Tried it for dinner. My main dish was so bland, it was like something they give you in the hospital when you are on the bland diet. Veal "meatloaf" was barely seasoned and comes without any sauce or toppings. Pureed potatoes needed salt and butter. Spouse's gnocchi was okay. Not terrible, but not great. Sorry to say it wasn't a happy dinner in Bologna, a food-centric city.

The food and service started out great then rapidly went down hill. When they brought the incorrect first course they barely apologized for the error. It then took 30 minutes for the posta we'd ordered to cone out and when it did it was under cooked. I'm a chef and author of an Italian cookbook - I'm keenly aware of what al dente pasta is and this was not that! When we let them know they wanted to tell us that's just the way the chef makes their spaghetti. Clearly a defensive stance for a sub par dish. We skipped this and went on to the next course which then took another 30 minutes to get to the table. They never offered another cocktail or apologized during that time or anytime after. Good food is an important part of a meal and service is an equally important part - especially in fine dinning. That was the real disappointment was with this restaurant. I would NOT return here.

We came here as a recommendation from a tour guide we had the previous day. His recommendation did not disappoint! This place was pretty large and we saw a lot of tourists coming in (including ourselves) which we usually try to avoid but we knew our tour guide recommended this place for a reason. Meat platter (5/5): absolutely get the house meat platter if you can. It comes with a large assortment and quantity of sliced meats in which you eat with the crescentines (5/5) and pickled veggies that came with it. The crescentines were so warm and perfectly doughy, it worked amazingly with the meats and pickled veggies Breaded Veal with prosciutto (4/5): very decadent and heavy dish as it also comes with a thick cream sauce. It was very delicious and well cooked but a little too heavy to eat during lunch time Tagliatelle with asparagus (spring special) (3/5): this was good but nothing super exciting about this dish. Overall this was a good experience for lunch time and I'd recommend coming here!

We had the best single dish or our entire trip here. Stinco di Maiale con Patate. A pork shank slow roasted to perfection. The flesh fell off the bone and it was just the tiniest bit dry which increased the richness of the taste. The roasted potatoes were an excellent side. Carpone Malvoti Prosecco. Crisp and dry. €25 Il Montecino Barbera 2017. Smooth. €27 Lasagne Verdi. Soft noodles in a bechamel sauce with cheese and a small amount of meat. Delicious. The Stinco. Chocolate cake with mascarpone. Wow! Coffee and brandy. + Wi-Fi + Service was friendly and helpful from our Italian waitress of Filipino descent. I love globalization. + Tablecloths + Cloth napkins + Hefty flatware: Pinti, Italy. + Music was gentle jazz. - English menu. €98.50 for dinner for two.

A decent option, with good service, especially for walk ins and even if you are solo. I sat outside facing the street so I could entertain myself watching life roll by. I started with the spuma di mortadella con crostini di pane (mortadella mousse with croutons). I had been a huge mortadella fan this whole trip but this dish was just overkill, especially for just one person. If you are a group, give it a try. For my main, I tried the lasagne verdi alla bolognese (green bolognese lasagna). the lasagna was good, perhaps better than most back home in the USA. Still, it was slightly dry and I was expecting a bit more, since this was the alleged culinary capital of Italy. I paired with a house red wine. I think you could probably do better here in Bologna, but do your research. If all else fails, this place will suffice.

But for the lack of ambiance, I would give this place five stars, on account of the bollito misto. Our hotel clerk/concierge Christine sent us here after her first two choices were unavailable, We didn't expect much, the place was too brightly lit and we were handed one of those tourist menus written in five languages. But the wine by the glass was excellent. A shared antipasto of thinly sliced galantine of chicken with egg approximated the most delicious deli chicken you had, the mayonnaise that accompanied it tasted homemade. Even better were the primi piatti, tortellini for me, and fettucini with ragu for the missus. I followed this up with a killer bollito misto, beef, what I thought was tongue, chicken and what was identified as "pig head." The beef, tongue, and pig head were outstanding. The sauce was salsa verde, not mostarda di cremona. They gave me bowls of mashed potatoes and cabbage with the bollito, both were quite good. My wife's cotoletta alla bolognese was an enormous schnitzel with a light cream sauce, beautifully prepared, as was her side of spinaci. No room for dessert on this meal.

It's really close to the major thoroughfares, but it feels kind of removed from the hustle, which I do not prefer. The food is just so so, but the service is done very well. Their staff are pros, but their food is pretty bland. It will be a while before I go back.