Brigantine Seafood — Restaurant in Escondido

We have lived close by for 14 years and have eaten here maybe 5 or 6 times. Every time we go here I have hopes that we will have a tasty dinner and that our last experience was just an oddity. Wrong. Each time it gets worse and overpriced. First the hostess took us to worst table in house. It was one of those little tables with two chair's. I think the only one there..supposed to be reserved for a single person. But, I know it will also be passed off when it's going to get busy and they want larger table for 4 to save for more than two people. I asked for a booth or larger table..she checked and moved us promptly. We asked the waitress for the crab appt. and didn't get it. The house salad served now is just that mixed salad you get at the grocery store with some nuts and cranberries tossed on it..and it's warm lettuce. I ordered the special salmon dinner because I wanted wild caught salmon. It came with garlic mashed potatoes and asparagus. The salmon was steamed and plain. My husband ordered the rib eye steak with bake potato, skewed scallops. My salmon was plain steamed sitting a top a very small portion of runny flat mashed potatoes and 4 asparagus. My husbands huge baked potato looked good so I asked for a piece of it since my potatoes were so unappealing. First bite of his baked potato was stone cold...who eats a cold baked potato. Our bill was $89 since we didn't get our crab cake..by the way. I asked, how many cakes, she replied, it is one (1) crab cake $15.00..we were intending to split it before our salads came. I looked at the rather large man across from us and I knew if he ordered what I did...he was going to leave very hungry. I think most people go here for happy hour. They need to be happy to eat this food. It makes me wonder....how in the world this place gets the business it does...don't people know what good food tastes like and how it should be presented. I was a waitress and gourmet food server in Las Vegas for over 20 years..I know what's happening! Well, I left hungry and pissed. We could have eaten anywhere for their prices and had a delicious meal. I've eaten in a lot of dinner houses along the coastal area for about the same price range. The food was much fresher and tastier. Sorry we got stuck here for dinner just because we didn't take the drive to..any other fish house would have been better. The only thing I would eat here would be the fish taco's..which I have not had. I think from what I have seen that they are the best value, flavor and portion for your money..no wonder you can't get in the place when it's taco tuesday...and you have to eat outside in the patio area. I have ordered their fish and chips..two small pieces of fish and lousy chips, because we didn't want to eat outside that day for the special. Left hungry again! I think we are done with this...

Update After Mr. Limon took the time to reach out and apologize for the initial lack of service and explained the difficulties they have faced over the recent months, I took him up on his request to give them another shot.

This time it was only me and my wife, just in case the service was a repeat experience. We also didn’t give anyone a heads up we were going to ensure it was an accurate representation of their service. Sooo, how did it go?

First off, the food was excellent and I have to recommend the Brussels sprouts and swordfish tacos to anyone who goes with the fondue a very close second to those two. The entrees were also well prepared and delicious. We were happy with the food on our first visit, but extremely delighted on this visit.

Now, as for the service. . . It was a night and day comparison to the first visit. Our waitress was very personable and attentive. Our orders were taken promptly, drinks brought out and refilled quickly, and we actually enjoyed some light conversation with her. The service was what one would expect from a restaurant such as the Brigantine.

We will definitely be back, especially if they focus on keeping employees like our recent waitress and training those like our first.

• Original Review* Decided to take advantage of a break in the heat and took my in-laws and family out for dinner. We were seated on the patio which was actually rather pleasant. Unfortunately, that was the end of what was pleasant about the experience. Although the food was rather delayed coming out, it was understandable for a Friday night.

What wasn’t acceptable was never being checked on for refills, completing ignoring our request for refills and condiments once we did see our waitress, and still having to gather everyone’s glasses to have the bartender refill our drinks and then carry them back out after getting thru most of our meals with no assistance from our waitress. Luckily, I spotted where the condiments were stored and managed to at least grab what we had requested earlier in order to finish off our meals with something to drink and appropriate condiments.

To end the experience off on the same wrong note, we had to finally ask another waiter if we could please get our bill after waiting endlessly for our waitress to check up on us. When we did get the bill there was no apology or effort in the slightest to right the lack of service

I guess next time we are craving seafood and self service I can always try Rubios, where at least you expect to serve yourself .

I will say the swordfish tacos were really good, just not good enough to get rid of the bad taste of the...

My fiancé and I decided to try out Brigantine Seafood after months of driving by it and reading all the great reviews online. We both love oysters so this was a no brainer to try out as locals. Unfortunately, the online reviews definitely led us astray. To make it easy to read, I'll list the positives and negatives:

Positive - Atmosphere and Decor Drinks Waitress was nice

Negative - The bread was not that good. Not sure if it was supposed to be served . Reason I say this is because some parts were warm and other parts cold. The oysters were below average. There were only two options (unusual for an oyster bar). We bought a dozen. When they served them, the waiter (who wasn't our main server) didn't even bother to identify them. One of the half dozen was completely inedible so we didn't eat them all after taste testing. The other half dozen which we did enjoy, we speculated that they were Blue Points. We asked the waitress (our main server) to confirm if they were Blue Points and she said they were. So, out of excitement, we ordered another half dozen. When the order came out, they delivered us the oysters which were inedible from the first order. Worst part is, as I write this review, I still don't know the name of that oyster. The entre was also subpar. I ordered the grits and shrimp. The grits was delicious. It was very creamy and had great flavor. However, the ham, bacon and shrimp were overcooked. Some of the pieces were so tough I had to stop chewing. I actually left the 4 jumbo shrimps untouched on the plate. My fiancé got the sand dabs meal. Her broccolini tasted good but that's the extent of it. The white fish lacked flavor and the risotto was serviceable.

Summary - We are definitely not going back. Sitting at a 4.5/5 stars, I sort of see the appeal for a certain demographic but nonetheless, I'm still dumbfounded by the high reviews for...