Escala K-town — Restaurant in Los Angeles

The only reason I would ever recommend this place is if you want somewhere to go get drunk for a Sunday Brunch. The bottomless mimosas are cool but the food is not. I've been here several times (mostly on Sundays) and the food, in my opinion is horrible. If you don't like runny egg or if you are looking for more traditional "brunch" options this IS NOT THE PLACE FOR you. On Sundays they have a very limited menu which does not include any basic brunch foods worth ordering. When I've gone on Sundays, I ordered the fried chicken wings, which is very expensive and doesn't even come with fries. I've had better fried chicken from my east coast ghetto Asia carry-out place, I used to frequent as a kid, and at least those wings came with fries and was less expensive. The brunch menu definitely needs a complete overhaul because the Sunday brunch environment is actual really great with the live DJ and cheerful atmosphere; but again; I only go for the mimosas because I don't enjoy the food and the limited menu options. The service is subpar at best. EVERYTIME I've been, the food for everyone never arrives at the table at the same time. I've waited up to 20 minutes for my food after my date's food was brought to the table. By the time my food did arrive, my date was done with theirs. The drinks that we order from the bar always come after the food arrives. I recently decided to visit this place during the week so that I could experience the regular menu ( to see if the regular options are better than the limited Sunday menu. The overall menu, I'd give a 5 out of 10. Again the options are very particular and lacking simplicity. I ordered a Southwest salad with chicken from the regular menu on my last visit (during the week). The salad was actually good BUT the chicken was SO SALTY I could NOT finish it. And again our food did not arrive at the table together, I had to wait 10 minutes after my date's food was dropped off to get mine. And the drinks were not delivered until after that. The restaurant was NOT busy AT ALL so there was no reasonable reason for the delay. We also did not stay long. We visited around 5Pm just after the sun had set and the temperature outside was in the high 50s and chilly. The restaurant had every sliding door and window completely open, with no regard to it being winter time, making the temperature completely uncomfortable to sit inside the restaurant. We would have ordered more drinks after finishing our food, but it was just too cold to stay. This place has the potential to be one of the best brunch spots in LA but the food is definitely holding it back. Again, if you are not going to just get drunk on a Sunday for brunch, I wouldn't recommend this place. And if you are going on a Sunday for mimosas, eat beforehand because the expensive wings that I have ordered (which don't come with fries) are not fulfilling at all. There is great opportunity for this place but the management needs to make some serious changes, including not having EVERY door/ window open to the restaurant in the winter time. We left and went somewhere warmer for drinks. I will probably never go back during the week because the full menu of food options did not particularly pique my interests either. I will just continue to eat a good Breakfast/ brunch at home and just come for the bottomless mimosas. If the food were better, I'd definitely visit more, because again, I do like the atmosphere of the restaurant.

Dear Management,

Add regular food to you LIMITED brunch menu, and I can guarantee you would see a huge increase in your food sales. Make the restaurant comfortable to sit in on chilly evening and guests might actually spend more money at the...

The food was good but was way overpriced for the smaller than expected portions. To start, I got the LaMula to drink which is just a Moscow mule with passion fruit infused alcohol. It was pretty good but it was $12 for a small copper mug. My friend got something I forgot the name of but was pretty much a pina colada, also $12. For appetizers, we got the street corn and empanadas. Corn was ok but the portion was about one corn on the cob cut into 3 pieces. I forgot the price on this one. We got one of each of the 2 kinds of empanadas ($3 each). The beef and potato one was great but the kimchi fried rice one was bland. They were small too. What made it better was the sauces that came with it. There was a kimchi aioli and a spicy chimichurri. Bomb. However, the appetizers came after we got our entrees. Also, three different people came to take our orders, literally, which was confusing because we didn't know who our server was. Their communication could use some work as well because they didn't know that we had already ordered our drinks and/or entrees. Anyways, I got the Braised oxtail which came over coconut rice with plantains and a "tomato salad". I put that in quotes because it was pretty much grape tomatoes sliced in half with some pickled onions strewn randomly over the rice. There were only 2 oxtails (which were pretty small and got lost in the piles of plantains and veggies) and about a cup and a half of coconut rice (which tasted pretty much like jasmine rice cooked with coconut milk or water). The dish was tasty but nothing spectacular and not enough to get much of a reaction. It came with a small side of guacamole that alone was great but I wasn't quite sure why it was there. It didn't add to the dish and seemed more like an afterthought. This cost me $17. The ambience was nice with old school hip hop playing but half the walls were big open windows and you could hear all the traffic going by, since this place is on the corner of a busy intersection, with some startling honking in the middle of your meal. All in all, it was good and definitely creative to fuse Korean and Columbian cuisine but not worth the $77+ we spent for 2...

Big disappointment!!

I normally order online from this place. Their Chicken Sancocho is one of the best I’ve had in LA.

I decided to go to the location in K-Town and dine in.

As soon as you walk in you notice they have a DJ on site that’s playing pretty loud music. I think they want to create this Frat House type of atmosphere.

After looking at the menu I decided to go with the Sticky Chicken Kimchi Fried Rice. In hindsight not the best choice for a Colombian restaurant. In the end, it wasn’t terribly bad, yet it fell short in the flavor and texture department.

I ordered the yucca fries, which turned out to be pretty good except they served them with basic ketchup instead of some delicious cilantro sauce.

All their nonalcoholic drinks are basically store bought instead of freshly made in house. They do have smoothies but those are also made from the frozen isle in the supermarket.

When it came to ask for the check, this is when things got so awkward and pretentious on their end. They decided to add a 18% gratuity to a party of ONE on a pretty slow afternoon.

The waiter “explained” that it was costumary to add 18% gratuity because it was “Brunch” on a slow Saturday early afternoon. This is where the pretentious part comes in. Here is a business that decided that is good business practice to auto charge customers for the tip, for a party of ONE no less. I find this so tacky!

I’m crushed that the place with a really star dish like their sancocho had to get so desperate to make some extra money instead of creating other dishes that could be winners in a market where Colombian food is not readily...