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The cook at Esca rides Batali's coat tails. He is completely inflexible to change his dishes in any way to please his paying customer - and in this economy! Clearly, given the other reviews, allowing some change might improve his food. Great outdoor space and restaurant concept, not such a great cook.

My Mom was visiting from out of town, so I brought her here on a Saturday afternoon for lunch. We both enjoy seafood, and were excited to try this restaurant. We ordered a salad, calamari appetizer, spaghetti with crab, and halibut. We enjoyed the halibut, but everything else was really bland and boring. It was definitely not worth over $100!

After a Broadway show we (a party of 5) wanted to eat Italian and to spend a little extra at this high rated Zagat restaurant, but we beyond disappointed. The gnocci's were dry, heavy and tasteless, the tomato sauce would have come better out of a can. 2 of us had the crispy seafood platter, which was good looking, but all the delicacies were deep-fried dead and tasted the same. The salmon was fair and the fish soup was acceptable. A side dish of five Italian vegetable were mistreated and uninteresting. The only upside was a great somalier who gave good advice on wine, and some kind but somewhat slow waiters. The ambiance is lovely - but forget about coming for the food.

Went to Esca for the first time with a party of four and thought that some food was good, but not worth the price tag. My dish in particular was fettucine with clams..the waiter warned me that the dish was particularly salty, but I decided to risk it. The pasta was good, although too salty, and the clams were flat-out inedible. I just have to wonder why Mario Batali's restaurant would serve a dish that they know is too salty? On the other hand, others orderd gnocchi and a seafood spaghetti which were delicious. Overall, I would say that there are better options in the 'hood, particularly for that price.

We ate at Esca this past Sun after the theater. We are foodies who watch cooking shows, who love to cook and eat, and we dine out often. We will not return to Esca. The meal started off great with an outstanding appetizer with sardines, a favorite of ours. We each had a different pasta. Mine had mussels and artichokes. My husband's had crab. The write up on the menu sounded delicious, the problem was finding the miniscule amounts of mussels, artichokes or crab in the dishes. The pasta, a type neither of us had had before was so chewy and bland it was not pleasurable to eat. We eat our pasta al dente (my husband is Italian and a great cook) but this was ridiculous. The dessert was delicious. The best part of the experience was our waiter. He was friendly, courteous and helpful. Needless to say we were overall disappointed particularly because we are fans of the owners and had been told by our waiter that the restaurant had just been awarded 3 stars by the NY Times.

Arrived at 7PM and informed the hostess of a 9PM show we had to be at and she seated us right away in the garden. Apprtizers was a crudo (too much rock salt and very small) and the lobster pasta which was great. We had the baked snapper for 2 (AMAZING) and 3 veggies that they offered (mushrooms, beets and a kale mix). Everything was very fresh and flavorful and we had an amazing flawless waiter. A great place to feel like you are not in NYC.

I dined at Esca prior to the theater on April 24, 2008. We ordered the cavatelli pasta and it was delicious although for the price, 2 oz of pasta was outrageous. We also ordered the Pompano which was either overmarinated or not fresh. It was mealy and tastless. the wine list is good the service at best was fair. I would not recommend nor return to this restaurant. I have been in the culinary side of hospitality for over 25 years. I am qualified to critique restaurants and overall left feeling dissatisfied. Basically, a ripoff taking advantage of New Yorkers!