The Escobar Kitchen Latin Asian Fusion — Restaurant in Saint Cloud

The Escobar Kitchen was highly recommended by my daughter & son-in-law, they invited us, so we visited The Escobar Kitchen on Friday night. I wanted to love it, I thought the concept (rice, steak and maduros sushi) was great and if the flavor was right, it would be a hit. It is located inside the new Bravo Market in Lake Nona. It is a plaza that has other businesses, such as First Watch. There is a great big parking lot. We entered to the left of the main entrance, which leads directly to the eating area. The Escobar Kitchen is a small kitchen kiosk, two chefs & someone taking orders. It is well lit, lots of lighting. There are three options for the small seating area, 4 tables, not socially distanced at all and a high counter top facing the outside, and there are a couple of tables outside. We ordered, were given a receipt with a number and we wait. And wait, and wait some more. Then the person who took my order walked over to tell me that they had run out of salmon for my salmon roll. I informed I was not eating meat so it could be replaced with any other seafood. Tuna? Yes, tuna is fine. And we wait and wait. Finally our food arrives. Looks very pretty. Colorful and bright in their orange containers. Our order: The Mar y Tierra Roll---White rice, churrasco, shrimp, crab and cream cheese, wrapped in sweet plantains and topped with chimichurri, spicy Mayo and General Tso sauce. Tropical Sexy Salmon Roll--Fried onions, Avocado, Pineapple, Cucumber, Scallions, topped with Marinated Salmon and our special Escobar Sauce. I really wanted to love it, but I cannot say we did. My husband did enjoy his roll, but I found my roll lacked flavor. I think some people think that by adding heat the food will be fine but no, heat with out flavor is just not my thing. I can take heat if there is flavor. The ingredients were fresh and plenty but just lacked something. I will give this place one more try, maybe it was late in the evening, they close at 8pm and it was 6ish and they were done. So I will try again earlier. Because I do believe the concept is great. They have to work on the wait time, it is toooo long. Also, the rolls, the steak ones, should...

If there’s one thing I truly respect about any food establishment it is the authenticity they bring to the table, creating something That isn’t commonly found anywhere else and dominating it, and this is what Escobar kitchen has done with their Latin Asian fusion cuisine. They offer sushi rolls with a Latin twist first for example, one of them has skirt steak with shrimp tempura avocado yellow Spanish rice with a whole bunch of sauces, complementing it like the eel spicy mayo chimichurri, amazing! The chef and owner was nice enough to share his story when I asked him How did he come up with such a concept that he pulled off so well as you see from the pictures I took, check out the menu and see for yourself. He is a Mad scientist in a chef coat offering Asian Latin chemistry and has achieved a wonderful formula, make sure to stop by! There is two locations I know of, one in Lake Nona and the one I went to (new one, congrats) was in downtown on Church Street, I can see him opening up a third location in a couple years or less. Me being a talented food business owner myself (Cheesecake Chino’s), I can quickly pick up on passion and talent that others have, I am very critical on others and more critical on myself, so the fact that I’ll take the time to leave a five star review says enough, keep up the good...

I’ve been a loyal customer at Escobar for quite some time, and the sushi has always been consistently excellent. However, the recent experiences with service and wait times have been extremely frustrating. I completely understand that things can get busy, which is exactly why we always call ahead to place our order before making the drive.

On our most recent visit, we were told the order would be ready in 25 minutes. We arrived well after that timeframe, only to be told the actual wait was 45 minutes — and then asked to wait yet another 25 minutes beyond that. In total, we waited 1 hour and 24 minutes for an order we were initially told would take just 25 minutes.

Delays happen, but what’s really upsetting is the lack of honesty and communication. What made this experience even worse was that I’m currently pregnant — and standing around waiting that long caused me to feel lightheaded and unwell. Had I known the real wait time, I would’ve made a different decision entirely maybe to eat somewhere else with a shorter wait time or at the very least, prepare myself with eating a snack or something prior.

This was incredibly disappointing and disheartening, especially from a place we’ve supported and recommended so many times. I truly hope this is taken seriously, because this kind of experience...