Cafe Escadrille — Restaurant in Burlington

We wanted to seat at the patio so the host said it’ll be 20mins wait, if we want we can go to the bar and have a drink while waiting, so we did. Then we got seated at the patio, our server Elizabeth took 10 minutes to come see us. But it’s okay we have our drinks already. She told us about their specials for that night, and we asked for water. She came back to bring bread and took our order but forgot our water. We ordered escargot and fried oysters (one of their specials that evening) for our appetizers and the rack of lamb medium and the filet mignon with Alaskan crab legs medium rare. She actually didn’t ask us how we wanted our food to be cook we realized that when she left to put the order in so my boyfriend had to go find her and tell her how we wanted our main courses to be cooked. We waited for descent amount of time for our appetizers then found a hair on our escargot so we let her know and she went to tell to her manager. The manager who came said sorry but not even in apologetic tone and not even having eye contact with us. He just said sorry for the that do you want me to make you new one or ? (But he was looking at different direction while talking to us) so they Made us new one. Then while having our appetizers Elizabeth brought our salads that we wanted to be with our main courses but that’s fine, and finally our water. So we are done with our appetizers. After an hour of waiting for our main courses she came and told us that 5 more minutes for our food because the rack of lamb takes a long time to cook. Wow! An hour for medium rack of lamb ? Really? So 5 minutes passed and no food. The table next to us didn’t get good service or actually they didn’t get service at all so they went to complain and the lady manager came and us them to stay with different server but they insisted to leave. They told us that they’ve been waiting for more than an hour to get service from the same server that we have. So then that 5 mins became 15 minutes my boyfriend decided to go and talk to a manager then there’s this manager who came to us and give us gift card and told us that they took the escargot off the bill because we waited for so long for it. He wasn’t even aware that it has hair on it that’s why we asked for new one. So we appreciate that they took off that on the bill but hello! There was hair on it. We didn’t have time to enjoy and take our time to eat our main courses because we have our dog waiting at home we didn’t get our meal until 9:20 not to mention we didn’t have the crackers for the crabs and she didn’t refill our water not even once, then we couldn’t find her again to ask to pack our food so we asked other waitress to help us for our food and for the bill. Our anniversary night was ruined! And our server never came back to our table until we left. That was...

I have heard for years how great this place was and maybe it's just that: "was". Zagats gives it great reviews: I would describe it as "mediocre" at best. The menu is Continental Cuisine, but we found it to be a strange collection of miss matched items that didn't really belong together. Sushi on the same menu as Chateaubriand? Weird. We had a reservation, arrived 15 minutes early and waited for 30 minutes for a table for two. We were brought waters quicly by our server, who promply took off to another table. We didn't see her again for 20 minutes because she she bussing her other tables. We were about ready to leave when she returned to take our order, which we were ready to give in full, but took off straight away after we gave an appetizer, not giving us a chance to order wine or entrees. She came back for our entree order about 15 minutes later. We ordered wine and our entrees. She returned a few minutes later asking us which wine we ordered and had us point it out in the menu because she could not find it. Our appetizer came a few minutes later and we were encouraged by it as it was very good. Our wine arrived when we were almost done with the first course. It seem to take a while for our entrees to come, but I was not timimg them. I ordered the Veal Catherine with linguine. The Madeira sauce has no flavor, the pasta was over cooked, the shellfish was chewy, and the veal, well, just bland. My wifes filet was tender and juicy, but had little flavor, as did the rest of her meal of stuffed shrimp and garlic mashed potatoes: all had little to no flavor. Dessert was tasty. We had the bread pudding with pumpkin ice cream. The bill came to $130 for two, which isn't too bad, but for the slow service, small portions, and bland food, it is. Now maybe you the reader are thinking we are smokers and have no taste buds, but we are not. We never use salt on our meals and both had to last night. I, as it so happens, am a Cullinary Institute Of America trained Professional Chef who has been in the business for 30 years. If I were the Executive Chef here, I would be mortified and embarrassed that another chef rated my food like I just did. I get that maybe they want to try to cut out the salt for those patrons who are sensitive to it, and I likewise cook with the attitude that you can always add little more, but never remove it once it's in the sauce, but our meals had no...

I had a good not great experience eating here.

Our waiter was friendly and professional and even gave us a heads up that the sushi would take long because of a large sushi platter in front of us.

The sushi was average and does not compare to the local competition one iota. But then again, this is not a sushi restaurant.

For my entree I had the seafood fettuccini alfredo. I was skeptical of a dish of pasta costing over $40, but once I saw the amount of lobster and other shellfish meat in the bowl I was relieved. The lobsters claws caused me to face my own mortality for a few minutes. Aren't we all just scavenging the bottom of the ocean until being stuck in a cage for some time until death? Is the lobster more free after death than in the cage, although still in the ocean? Is the lobster's own bad will bouncing around my body and through my intestines as I write this, have I become the lobster in the cage? Am I the lobster in the pot? Am I here because I stuck in the cage?

Anyway, I was disappointed to learn only while ordering that the dish did not come with a side. It is advertised on the menu that all entrees come with your choice of one side. If the seafood fettuccini alfredo does not come with a side you must disclose this ahead of time. I do not even want to think about the amount of customers that have been deceived by this shady business tactic.

I loved the atmosphere in this place. I felt like I was transported back to 1974 and my name was Tony Luigi Gambino. In other words, the demographic that seems to patron this establishment is older and more Italian than the average of the population. Not that there's anything wrong with that, but if you are a kid looking for the hip spot to eat this is not that nor is it trying to be.

My largest grievance that I am knocking a star off for is that the duration of my three course meal was close to four hours. The sushi taking twenty minutes longer is a not big deal and frankly added twenty extra minutes to that total. If my measurements are correct, by far the most time was spent waiting after everyone had finished their entrees. The time from everyone being done eating their entree to the time the plates were taken away was over forty five minutes.

I would eat here again although it would not be my first choice for eating out at a...