Upon walking into Escoba's eclectic and well designed space, your expectations are high. Upon perusing the menu, you'll notice a wine list that has premium prices with food that is very reasonable.
I choose a Spanish red I was familiar with and the waitress insisted we try the "sampler" starter. I didn't like half the choices on the starter which sounded like a chain with meatballs, calamari, etc, She kept insisting it was excellent and pushing it. Ignoring her pseudo hipster academic tone, I inquired about the pakoras and she said they were excellent. In fact they ended up with a the best thing we had.
We ordered a pizza and pasta and both were average. Honestly they tasted like the typical Sysco supplied prefab menu items. I'd take clients here in the future as the noise level was low and I could hear all conversation, which has become a luxury as of late.
My only other complaint was about the training of the waitstaff;
1. Don't ask your customer what they're doing the rest of the night, it's none of your f---ing business when I'm paying close to $100 plate.
2. Don't serve pasta with a spoon unless the customer asks for one. It's tacky and uncouth. The spoon was under the pasta and I had to eat around it to prevent making a huge mess... Awkward!
In summary, Escoba is an average eclectic resto in an every growing field of competitors. I found it very unoriginal for the prices paid.