Escondite Union — Restaurant in Montreal

Having visited the Escondite in Old Montreal numerous times, my family and I were eager to experience the same ambiance and service at the Union location. However, our experience was far from our expectations.

Upon our arrival at 5:30 PM, the restaurant had just opened and was relatively empty. Despite this, we were quickly informed that children were not allowed to dine inside at any time and were seated at the patio.

The most shocking part of our visit was the lack of courtesy extended to us by the wait staff, who seemed indifferent to our presence. Upon inquiring if a quesadilla or any kid-friendly option was available or possible for my 13 year-old, we were dismissively told, “Um, yeah … so we don’t cater to kids.”

The unfriendly and dismissive attitude, especially in such an empty establishment, was both surprising and disappointing. We left feeling as if our departure was a relief to the staff, simply because we had our kids with us. It should be noted that our kids are 11 and 13. Kids yes, but far from crying babies or curious toddlers.

Our intent was to enjoy a fun, casual evening with tapas and tacos. We took our family instead, to The Keg, later in the night, with absolutely no issue.

As mentioned, The Old Montreal location has always been a delight and a Montreal stop for my wife and I. However, this experience at the Union location has cast a shadow over our impression of Escondite as a whole.

We understand that every establishment has its vibe, and perhaps Escondite Union is not geared towards families, but this was a 5:30 PM dinner reservation, not a busy bar at 10 PM. The inhospitable attitude coupled with the dismal patio setting left us feeling unwelcome.

Based on this experience, it’s hard to imagine returning to any Escondite location anytime soon. I hope that management makes the necessary improvements to ensure a more welcoming and inclusive atmosphere for...

Escondite is a good place for tacos if you're planning on getting multiple plates and making it more of a "tapas" thing.

I had the chance to try this highly buzzed about restaurant 9 months ago. We were a group of 15 and made a reservation about 2 weeks before. They still managed to squeeze us into a tiny space that fit about 10 people usually. It was a very hot summer day and their AC was deficient for some reason so let me tell you we weren't extremely happy about that. The overall atmosphere of the restaurant is very dark with beautiful paintings on the wall and some cool decorations around the bar, as well as in the bathroom. Yet again, everything feels squeezed and tight.

The waitress was very nice and listening, she helped me with my choice since everything has cilantro in it and I cannot eat that. She was very patient, too bad I can't remember her name.

The food is good. When you ask for spicy, it comes extremely spicy so be careful! The portions aren't very generous for the price, had to order churros at the end to feel like I had eaten enough. My friend and I split the "ensalade de mangos" as an appetizer, and then we had the "Al Pastor" and the "Baja" tacos but it still left us hungry.

The drinks are delicious. I would definitely recommend the mojito del' king to share with friends.

Finally, the service was quick! We were a big group and after we ordered it took about 7-8 minutes to get our appetizers and not even 10 minutes later to...

Always busy - you can only make reservations for groups bigger than 6 for lunch (dinner is a must for RSVP - went with friends at 5:30pm without RSVP and we were not given a table). But the food is well priced although lunch has smaller selection VS dinner. It's a bit tight but food is worth it because it's delicious!

Edit September 2017: food still good but bumping off a star for service. I've been here twice in the past month and didn't get served for a while. The most recent time was for a friend's bday (rsvped for 8:30) and our orders were completely messed up. For some reason, one of the taco orders my husband and I had ended up with our friend, and when our server (who was so rude we couldn't even communicate with him properly - he told us if we had a problem, talk to the manager, and ignored us for the remainder of the night) found out the issue and reordered one of the tacos, he didn't check on us and the reorder came so late we cancelled it. Overall we were really disappointed with the service, because we love the food. The owner was there that night and helped to fix the situation (thanks!) but my opinion is that it shouldn't have boiled down to that. The server was so rude and commented that he was "going to lose my job anyways". Who says that??

Despite this experience, it's not going to stop me from going because I've had good service from the other bartenders and waiters. The food is always good and never...