Esca Restaurant & Wine Bar — Restaurant in Middletown

Simply terrible! First thing we notice is our bread plates and forks had old crusted food stuck on them. We asked for new ones and figured it was a simple mistake… We should have left at that point, it only got worse. We shared the Sundried Tomato Ravioli. There was so much oil in the dish that I could have put in a separate bowl and dipped my bread in it! The Ravioli was under cooked and doughy on top of it. Again should have left… I ordered the Murray‘s Free Range Chicken. I wanted to substitute Fennel for Asparagus. Was told I could but would have to pay extra. I never understood this… Do I get a credit for the Fennel? I was annoyed; I can’t stand when I spend $22 on dinner to get nickeled and dimed for substituting vegetables that are on the menu. When I received my dinner, I was surprised to see the chicken had the bone in it. There was no mention of this on the menu. My two little legs of chicken barely had enough meat to feed a cat. The entire dish tasted like they put a pound of salt on it. It was awful! My girlfriend ordered the Seared Diver Scallops. Which came out with more oil than risotto.. If you like oil and salt this is your place! Why is there oil in Risotto? Looked like cereal in milk. It got worse she cut into the scallops and found they were RAW. We then waited about 15 minutes for our waiter to come over and tell them the scallops were raw. At that point we just wanted to pay the bill and get the hell out of this dump. The manager came over and proceeded to tell us that is how they cock scallops at the restaurant raw to medium and the server should have told us that! She then said they could put them back in the oven? You never re-cook scallops, I know that and I am not a chef. She was rude and didn’t apologize. She also ran the waiter under the bus. As we left she gave us “I hope you enjoy your evening”, her tone was unbelievable! How about..” I am sorry you had a crappy meal and are leaving my restaurant hungry and disappointed” She was so unprofessional and didn’t care at all about us as customers. I will never go back to that place again because of how we were treated and spoke too. I would rather eat at Olive Garden then this restaurant! If I could I would not even give...

I order a burger and my 'girlfriend' ordered from the menu, Capellini Pomodoro . She order a glass of wine and the server recommended a Chardonnay and when we asked how much, he said $8.

The Capellini Pomodoro that was served looked like spaghetti with red tomato sauce. Any one knows that Capellini Pomodoro is made with sliced tomatoes, with Parmesan cheese served on a bed of Capellini. We asked the manager to come over and she insisted that the red sauce was 'puree' fresh tomatoes. Not wishing to make a fuss, we took her word. Half way thru the meal, my girlfriend decided that she could not eat a dish of spaghetti with red sauce. For dessert we ordered a chocolate cheese cake and cappuccino. After we almost finish the dessert, i had to remind the server he forgotten my cappuccino.

When we got the bill we saw that not only were we charged for a 'Spaghetti Pomodoro', the 2 glass of wine was $10 each.

When we complained, the Manager, a sour faced middle age woman. refused to acknowledge that this was not Capellini Pomodoro and because we did not 'ex[licitly return' the food, she had to charge us. As for the wine, the server , noticeably afraid of his manager, lied and he said that he said 'about $8-$9'. I angrily pointed out that $8-$9 is not $10 and he is lying. To add insult, the manager flatly said i heard wrong and the server was correct. I am very detail oriented and I did not 'hear it wrong'. Maybe she assumed Asians do not understand English?

The lunch menu was $60 not cheap, all fuss would have been avoided, if the $14 that was in question was handled properly. It goes without saying that the server did not get a tip. Poor service deserves no tip.

I would never give this restaurant another chance. The food was mediocre at best, the service extremely poor and the sour faced manager should have considered another career. As a minority, I am very attune to certain type of behavior, her manner was border...

Professional FOH staff, but semi complacent and wish their demeanor was a bit more formal. Table bread tasted like a Stop and Shop loaf with Sysco olive oil smeared over the top with one leaf of burnt rosemary adorning the surface. Ordered Mussels and Grilled Octopus. Mussels weren't of the best quality and cooked in such hot oil that the entire dish tasted like burnt carbon simmered in plastic, the sauce was lackluster if prepared perfectly and with this extra bit of carelessness the plasticy taste actually gave me something of a headache. Horribly charred was the crostini, which tasted like it had seran wrap biologically heat-grafted to the internals of it's spiderwebby glutenous structure. The octopus was served with a lemony cous cous that tasted like a urinal cake. It was somewhat chewy, which wasn't bad, but one could see how unevenly reheated it was and some of the grains teetered on burnt while others were barely warm. The octopus, which was presumably blanched, maybe cooked in an water bath then grilled, barely had a finish on it and much less had any heat pass through it's center. The delightlyfully sluffy skin of the octopus was oversaturated in whatever marinade or sauce it was tossed in after cooking, and if there was no sauce of which to be tossed in, it was even more horrendous because it was extremely wet for a piece of seafood that was supposed to be somewhat charred. Albeit it was tender, but barely grilled. I was enticed by the promise of pasta and seafood, but I halted my dining experience there as I found myself far too skeptical of the cooks ability to properly execute a dish worthy of a $25-$35 entree ticket. For these two plates I paid $40 with gratuity included and I was shocked at the level of carelessness in their execution. Decour was nice, admittedly, and waitstaff was fairly attentive, although mechanical. Food was bleh and...