ESCA. — Restaurant in Budapest

We went here a little after Christmas, when the tasting menu was the only option. We came away fairly disappointed.

It seemed like the restaurant was winging it with a B-team in charge. Plating was basic, food was uninspired and for the price we paid, very underwhelming. Amuse bouche was caviar and cream on potato chip that happened to be overcooked. The dinner included a consommé and a soup - as back-to-back courses. Good, but two soups? The “Foie Gras” was a dense, cold terrine with one medium-sized bun shared between two people. The meat course was venison with mashed potato, both competently done, but so, so uninspired.

I am honestly surprised tonight’s dinner was so different from the reviews here. It might well be that the restaurant had an off day. I hope that was it. Because the alternative is that the holiday tasting menu was a cynical way to take advantage of...

Don't ruin your day going there. Especially never bring you friends there if you dont want to wander around in the search of another place. The choice of natural wines is really good (well it is not the only place in Budapest). Food in general is ok (they are trying to get even tasting menu) but the chance that you will enjoy it is close to zero because of the owners attitude. Probably failed to have samething there for the last 3 or 5 times. Today for example, sat on the table and only then recieved: "oh, we will have some private event somewhere at the evening, so no food for you". Well, cool, but that was the reason we went to you place and you had no info in instagram or website that today you dont serve food. Other times there were similar rubbish reasons. So, better to search to more...

Great evening with friends. We were five people, and ordered 4 bottles. One by one we would go downstairs and talk with the sellers to find a wine that was to our liking paired with some food.

Not one wine did disappoint, they were all of very high quality and some rare finds. Pricing was reasonable for the quality. The evening was around 35€ per person (4 bottles, 4 rounds of shared plates).

I found the controlled chaos wine in my wine bar back home for 90 euros, we paid 25 with corkage which shows they don‘t overcharge at tabla (but they do in Zurich apparently lol).

The food was delicious with one standing out: the rhubarb ceviche was amazing and one of a kind! I bought seven bottles to take back home for...