Cafe Escadrille is well-known for being a famous Burlington, MA restaurant. What some folks are not aware of, is that it is a great spot for a Business Meeting. Cafe Escadrille is the perfect place for your corporate event or business meeting. read more

My wife and I have lived in Burlington for many years and for whatever reason, had not visited Escadrille in quite some time. So, this past Saturday night we decided to go for a belated Valentine's day visit. We got there for a 6:30 reservation and we were surprised - and happy - to see how packed the place was, always a good sign. For drinks, we both got prosecco and for appetizers, I got a very good - if not great - French onion soup. My wife got a bowl of clam chowder that was very good. Our server was good but the problem we ran into was not him but the kitchen. I didn't time it exactly, but it had to be a good 8 or 9 minutes before we got our meals after we finished our appetizers. You know that feeling you get when you start saying "Where are the entrees?" My wife finished her prosecco and didn't feel like having another one so just wound up having water with her meal. I eventually had to prod the otherwise attentive server to go chase our meals down. Fortunately, it was worth the wait. My wife had roast duckling (excellent) and I had a terrific filet mignon. (I usually get ribeye steak and they didn't have one. I don't eat strip and sirloin which were the other choices. I'm a steak guy and IMHO those just don't measure up.) But the filet was tender and cooked just right. We also both had good garden salads and I had a side dish of unspectacular but good garlic mashed. We skipped dessert and I had an excellent cappuccino. Back on the service side of things, our server was good and didn't come around every three seconds to ask us "how's it tastin?" Nor did anybody from management come by to ask us if everything was ok. That's good in my book. Leave me alone when I'm dining. You'll know if I'm dissatisfied. The tab? $110 before tip. So, would we go again? Yeah, sure, excellent restaurant. But next time I hope the kitchen doesn't take as long. Duck perhaps taking longer to cook is no excuse. Or if that was the reason, we should be warned in advance. Oh, and hey, bring us water and give us small plates to eat our bread on please. It's the little things that matter. read more

Great place always good food and drinks! The outside patio is a great spot and the sushi is the best I've had!

I brought my family here for a mother's day brunch, and pretty much as soon as I arrived I was embarrassed. The buffet was in the function hall section of the restaurant, and we were seated at numbered tables. It felt like a cheap wedding hall, not like the restaurant I had been to before and expected. The buffet had a few seafood options but everything was bland. Somehow despite $50 per head for this buffet, soft drinks were not included! I spent over $300 on one of the lousiest meals I've ever had. Perhaps the restaurant itself is better, but I would not go here for any of their special buffet menus- not classy, not worth the price read more

I have two experiences here - one personal and one business. Turns out that dining on my company's dime was much more fruitful than leaving the house. The first time I dined here was for dinner with the bf. Our server was accommodating but not superb (he didn't get the hint when we wanted our bill) and the food was overpriced for the quality that we expected from a "fine dining" restaurant. We ordered the baked scallops as an appetizer, and lamb chops and filet mignon stuffed with lobster as our entrees. It took nearly 20 minutes for the scallops to arrive at our table, and immediately after those arrived, our entrees arrived, thus giving us no time to partake in our appetizer. The food itself seemed to have sat on the grill for a tad too long; my lamb chops ended up medium well and my bf's filet ended up nearly well done. My suggestion? Servers need to be educated on meal timing and the kitchen needs to work on distribution. The second time I dined here was for a corporate lunch. Our team was having a year-end meeting so this was the venue of choice by our group leader. The 1:1 service was much better than the dining room experience; this time, our server was efficient at delivering each course with the right timing, and made sure that each guest was satisfied with their meal. She even accommodated our request to wait 30 minutes after our entrees before serving dessert. The salad wasn't doused with dressing, the steak was cooked perfectly, and the dessert wasn't melting when it arrived. I guess you get what you pay for, especially when it's a corporate partnership you want to maintain. Maybe I'll be back, maybe I won't. read more

To be fair I came here on St. Patrick's day, maybe that impacted my experience. I did enjoy the music and atmosphere in the bar area, so that I give it 3 stars, but the food was just not what I was expecting. Maybe I had my mind set in a different type of meal, but I always thought this was a higher end nice place to go. I think I found out that the owner has changed hands a few times and that may also be the culprit. Started with some Rhode Island style calamari and baby lamb chops. The calamari had a good crisp to them, however I think it was too heavy and I've had much better. The Rhode Island part of just throwing in some peppers wasn't nicely presented. The lamb was ok nothing crazy and the presentation wasn't there. There was an orange slice and a green liquid, I assume some sort of mint sauce that wasn't over every piece. I had the Entrecôte a'La Escadrille, a pan roasted 14oz piece of beef. There just wasn't any flavor, even though it came in a bourbon sauce. It was cooked nicely and came with 2 portobello mushrooms. What got me even more confused is the menu had a large selection of sushi. Again not sure if this is a new thing, I never thought this place had sushi. Maybe I had a bad experience on an off night, but the Cafe Escadrille is not was it used to be. read more

Cafe Escadrille - Entrecôte a'La Escadrille - New American Near Me - Burlington, Massachusetts

The Cafe Escadrille has been our "Go To" restaurant in the Burlington area for decades. We went there for dinner recently and were sadly disappointed. The linen tablecloth was missing. The waitstaff seemed to simply be going through the motions. We ordered the escargot appetizer and it came overcooked. We all had salads and the main course was brought before we were even done with them. Consequently, we were rushed and our table became quite crowded. This never would have happened at the Cafe in the past. Timing was always prefect in the past. The Cafe was the "Go To" place for fine dining but with the abundance of other great alternatives in the area, it probably won't be ours read more

Had the Chateaubriand for 4 tonight. Was superb. The beef was very tender and delicious. The vegetables, potatoes and bernaise sauce took it over the top. Drink delicious and service outstanding. Highly recommend for special occasion. read more

I wish I had better to say. I know it's a tough environment right now. I've been in the industry for 30 years. Food okay. Service disgruntled. I think there was a master bartender and a newbie and the master was just not happy. I'll come again when things get back to normal. With a $300 tab. I should be floating with happiness. It is a Wednesday night. Lots of unhappy staff here read more

I usually enjoy this restaurant. However, the in about the past month the fettucine served with various meals has been over cooked.

I thought this place served a very good lunch. I had escargot and a chicken caesar. The dressing was very good and they didn't drown it. The bar area is pretty nice, and there are some good tables as well. The parking situation was excellent-plenty of spaces. I'd go again. read more

Let me preface this with, I'm not the one paying the bill. My new director of our department decided to do things a little differently this year for our holiday party, and instead of doing a lunch off campus like we usually do, we ended up doing dinner after work instead. Which led us to Cafe Escadrille! My, oh, my, oh my! I would definitely return here for another evening of fine dining if Santa brings me a new boyfriend this year for Christmas. Service was spectacular. Iggy was funny, charming, and did his job! For Appetizers, we had shared several plates of lobster ravioli, crab cakes, and baked brie. Fan-friggin'-tastic! I tell ya! The lobster ravioli was served with a de-shelled lobster claw that one of my co-workers go to before me, but definitely thought was a nice touch. My favorite was probably the crab cake. My main entree with the Prime Rib, which was uber thick. I felt like I was a Flintstone ready to start on the T-Rex. Took me 3 days to eat this! Yes, I took it home for a left over. While massively large, the prime lacked lots of flavor, which luckily I can fix as a leftover! The mashed potatoes that accompanied the prime also was mediocre at best. However, they have a great wine selection and was suggested the Cab to go with my steak, Iggy didn't disappoint when suggesting this. Later on, I also had one of their Chianti's - not sure which one as Iggy decided which would go best with my meal. Further, down the line was dessert.... oh yes dessert! I had their signature Ice Cream Puff doused in Chocolate Syrup! Ohhh heaven it was! Cafe Mocha was the perfect match to go with this. If you have nothing else here, definitely get the Ice Cream Puff! It was also really nice that the restaurant didn't mind that we were doing our Yankee Swap on location as I'm sure we probably left some gift wrapping paper behind. We tried out best to keep it as neat as possible. The facility is pretty big. I can't imagine too long of a wait here when making reservations. But you can also visit the bar while waiting for your table. Plenty of parking in their lot. I also heard they have a banquet facility available for bigger parties. read more

Cafe Escadrille - New American Near Me - Burlington, Massachusetts

I was expecting perfection at Cafe escadrille after hearing so much about it. It was good, just not great (to me). I had a sirloin steak with mashed potatoes. I did not enjoy the mashed potatoes, I thought they had a funny taste. My steak was decent, though! My parents ordered salads that were supposed to be mixed greens with and orange vinaigrette (among other toppings) the toppings were there but with iceberg lettuce and balsamic dressing, so they were a bit disappointed. We tried the apple crisp for dessert. This normally comes with ginger ice cream but I substituted vanilla for dislike of ginger. I was a bit disappointed there was a strong ginger flavor to the apple crisp itself! Oh well. I am definitely coming back. They have a good variety of entrees, sides, apps, an desserts. I think I just need to try more items! read more

Cafe Escadrille - Sirloin with mashed potatoes - New American Near Me - Burlington, Massachusetts

See all

Very disappointed in them. Why are they no longer offering live music, especially on St. Patrick's Day weekend. They had always offered it in the past. If it's the lame Covid excuse, that one is getting old. read more

I hosted a small Christmas party for my employees here. 7 of us total. Very pleased with the overall service and food. I got the filet and it was superb. The deviled eggs app was also a hit. Wine list was extensive but the sommelier was there and made the choice easier for me. We will return. read more

Are you kidding me?! The decor was so old. Everything about it was old, not like antique, but just needs renovation, desperately. The servers were sloppy. We saw one of them take a potato from one plate and with her bare hands, move it to another plate. Gross! The food was mediocre. All of it. Even the bread. And the prices are high. So you do the math. We would never ever return to this place and it is amazing to us that it still exists. read more

For many years, the best thing about Cafe Escadrille was that you could be guaranteed a good meal - always consistent. Ordered takeout here twice this week. The first time, not sure if it was the person putting the order in (her English was ok - just a little difficulty in understanding her but she had a very difficult time understanding / taking the order), or if it was the kitchen that messed up. Burger overdone, sweet potato fries instead of steak fries, no butter with the baked potato. The second time, a special request for chicken Marsala was ordered but there was no Marsala flavor at all. Now that we are getting to a point of heard immunity during Covid, expectations are high (to receive what is ordered) for those of us who frequent restaurants and we will have many other restaurants to choose from. read more

My family and I went to Cafe Escadrille on 1/19/2020. Walked in asked for a table for four. Hostess asked if we had a reservation we said no but we won't mind waiting a bit. She was very rude and said good. So after a few min we sat down at a table. I will say our waitress was very nice. We ordered crab cake app. We got two for four people really? and they were cold. I ordered baked scrod and fries. The fish and fries were hot but they had zero flavor. The only thing that had flavor was the ketchup for the fries. I know most of there customers are golden oldies but you need to add some flavor. read more

I will start off saying that the outer appearance almost gave me the impression that it was closed when I first saw it. That being said when you walk into the front entrance you can immediately tell that it is a nice taken care of restaurant that has the embodiment of Burlington through the years. Although it is a more expensive restaurant the food always has me coming back for more. For starters we have the simple that I have tried for the fried Calamari. The fry on it is so soft and rich that you can't stop eating more and more of them. For and entrée I will always go with a protein option and so far I have tried the prime rib, swordfish, and salmon. Each dish has been a great cut and cooked to a perfect temperature and softness that makes it even easier to eat. My girlfriend loves their sushi. I think it is something that is new to their menu but each time she has tried one it has been beautifully assembled almost as if it was done by a machine itself and the fish has tasted unbelievably fresh. If you have ever lived or pass by Burlington it most definitely a place you need to stop by and visit. read more

This elegant place has impeccable service. Our food tasted good. My friend has the butternut squash ravioli which she absolutely loved the flavor. She couldn't stop raving about it. My salmon with squash was also delicious. I'm happy I switched out the artichoke for mixed vegetables (mostly green beans with a tiny bit of yellow and red peppers with a tiny bit of mushroom in a butter sauce). Even their coke was very smooth. So I left disenchanted because the food was messy on my plate. My salad was drowned in blue cheese dressing. The (dry) bread bowl looked half empty. My salmon plate looked as if it was just thrown on there. Our desserts of angel food cake with berries was very delicious but looked tilted. As I peered at the food coming out of the kitchen, all the food looked messy, tilted, and just thrown on the plate. Hoping they remember that one eats with their eyes first!! People will wait for a good looking professionally chef made plate of delicious food. read more

Came here for the first time for a wedding reception. It was on a Saturday afternoon from 1 to 5. Overall the experience was great! There so plenty of parking and the bathrooms were super clean. If you have anyone with you in a wheelchair there is an elevator to get down to the bathroom...yay for being accessible! The cocktail hour was a little claustrophobic...hence the three stars. The lack of tables also contributed to this rating. The staff was all very friendly. The bar had the essentials and drinks were priced normally. The food was good...we had a buffet (which I prefer) and everything was pretty basic. The tenderloin was my favorite. Everything else seemed to have cheese on it (which I can't have ). Very pretty inside and a great spot for a wedding! read more

Great food. Appetizers especially. I had the ravioli for the main course and it was good. Service was poor though, even more so it was a Tuesday night. read more

EH, Take it or leave it. Don't get me wrong, the food here is okay, the service decent enough, fun martini list, good looking sushi menu... but really Café Escadrille needs to step it up a notch. With all the other excellent steak restaurants within a few miles in the same price point, I would rather go elsewhere. The service was, as other reviews said, a bit slow on a Saturday night, we had to explicitly as for bread which appeared after the appetizer.... But the server seriously worked his butt off. I don't know if they were short staffed or what but, I wanted to get up and help him. I have never seen a server work so hard! I had the Entrecote A'la Escadrille angus beef, pan blackened with portobello mushroom, served with a bourbon whiskey sauce. It came with a salad and a side (I had mashed potatoes). It was all good/decent enough, but not knock-your-socks-off $37 good. Hubby had the filet with béarnaise, again, decent enough steak meal but just missing something. I can overlook the décor and the loud loud atmosphere- I really wanted to like this place more but it came up short. I'll be heading to one of the many newer area steak houses for my next date night. read more

Place is the bomb the bartenders of the best the food is dynamite you want to impress a woman take it out of this place thank you I schedulestrong read more

Cafe Escadrille - New American Near Me - Burlington, Massachusetts

Amazing times are always shared at Cafe Escadrille, especially on Monday with our favorite bartender Craig! He crafts cocktails, tailored to guests needs and desires, and always knows the best sushi to recommend. Speaking of sushi, thank you, Joe for making my dreams come true! Nowhere in this area have I found even descent sushi! But the Escadrille never fails to impress. AMAZING!!! Also, this is the ONLY place I know about that offers escargot. My one complaint is that I can't give them 10 stars instead of 5! read more

Cafe Escadrille - Amazing sushi, by Joe at Cafe Escadrille. Believe it or not it was even better tasting that this amazing presentation!!!! #myhappyplace. - New American Near Me - Burlington, Massachusetts

See all

My first time there was amazing, cold beer, amazing waitress, food was so goooooood, thank u for having us

long waits for food although place half empty, small, okay, portions, poor service no your welcomes and seemingly annoyed?

I would honestly rather eat at McDonalds. Burger was an inedible hockey puck on an ice cold, stale bun, fish was burnt, all the steaks at the table were flavorless, as were the mashed potatoes. The only redeeming features to the meal was the ice cream puff, which was amazing, and the waiter, who was excellent. However, due to the absolutely wacky prices considering the quality of the food, can't even give an extra star for the dessert or service. And this is my fourth meal at this retaurant. The best meal of those four would get a solid "meh." read more

Used to go here quite frequently. Ordered a gift certificate that I never received. Was told there was nothing they can do. I know nothing about gift cards but if they can scan it to tell you how much money is on it how can they not cancel it, refund, or send out another card. I consider what they did was steal money from me. I will never go back to this place. I wish I could give zero stars. read more

Had Thanksgiving dinner. The table, the service, the atmosphere and especially the food was absolutely amazing. Couldn't have enjoyed it more. Had a great holiday with family, made better by dining here read more

Went there tonight. Still the greatest. Remember it from 20 plus years ago. Great food and atmosphere and a call out to our waiter Chris who was wonderful. rack of lamb the best read more

I've been here many times with my husband , family, friend, ect.. Their drinks are wonderful. Their sushi is surprisingly awesome. We somehow can always get a table without calling ahead, maybe it's luck! But hey! I have nothing but good things to say about this place! It's always fun to go to! read more

We've been going to Café Escadrille for a few years now. They have a large varied menu, a large wine list and good servers; we don't expect it to be like a four or five star restaurant, but it's consistent. A couple of weeks ago it was a lovely day so we took a drive down for lunch. We enjoy wine so before we left I checked and my wife's favorite was still on the list at (roughly) the same price. When we arrived I ordered a bottle. During the meal everything was fine. When we got the check I was shocked, the wine was almost twice what it was listed for online. The server was very surprised too. We checked the printed menu and the price was the much higher amount. Our server went to the manager who apparently said there was nothing they could do. I paid the bill and hope to never return. I have ethical standards and will not support a place that does something so blatant. First, if the item is listed on line, and priced with no caveat that the prices are not reflective or that in house menu prices are only to be used (we frequent a place that clearly states at their restaurant that the only prices that are valid are the ones online). The menu does not say that those prices are the only valid prices, or that online is only a guide. Many places don't provide online pricing. For me, providing an online menu with pricing is an advertisement and has to be honored, otherwise it's the old 'bait and switch'. Another note, if this was an honest mistake (yes, they would have admitted it and corrected the situation), they would have corrected it after, but no, the online menu is still the same, they have made no change. I will hopefully never go back and suggest others decide if this is the type of place you want to support. read more

Return visit on 9/6/19, my wife & I hadn't been here since Valentine's Day so we were pleased to find that EVERYTHING we loved about Cafe Escadrille was the same again , excellent service, great atmosphere & great food!! We were given a nice table by the window in the cafe side and had the pleasure of having Grace as our server who was excellent! For our appetizer we chose the fried clams special which were lightly breaded and delicious and for our entrees I chose Veal Marsala and my wife chose Seas Scallops, we both thoroughly enjoyed our meals and decided we had made great choices!! For desert we had the special Pumpkin Pecan Cobbler which was to die for!!! We liked it so much my wife wished she had the recipe because I told her I would like to have this on Thanksgiving so she is going to do her best to duplicate the desert. I also ordered the mini Maple Pecan Blondie desert too which was a nice small blond brownie with maple & pecans & vanilla ice cream. So we truly had a very satisfying dinner and wish to acknowledge Brittany the manager and Grace our server for taking such good care of us! We will definitely be back again soon because Cafe Escadrille consistently does EVERYTHING RIGHT! read more

I start this review stating that I have been a customer, of the Escadrille, since it opened. Today we were a party of six. I do understand that occasionally a restaurant can have an issue but today there were too many issues. First, the escargot were tasty but some were small while other shells contained tiny pieces of escargot. Second, the lobster appetizer was over cooked and dried out. Third, apple slices on the Brie appetizer were not only dried out but tinted brown. Four, the onion soup wasn't hot, barely warm and had a very small amount of cheese and bread on it. Your onion soup was always a favorite of ours. Five, the salads were literally tiny pieces of greens that looked like scraps, including a dried out and brown piece of something. The dressing was watery! Six, and the most annoying, was the time the food was brought to the table. We purposely did not order appetizers and entrees at the same time. The waitress wanted to take out entree orders as she served the appetizers. She assured us that the meal would not come out too early. Well, while eating our appetizers out come the salads and eating the salads out come the entrees. We didn't enjoy having two plates in front of us while our food was cooling off. Very disappointing! I really have to think about returning to the Escadrille. Please do not think or make the excuse that is was Thanksgivings Day and its acceptable. You took reservations and knew the number of customers you would be serving, the amount of food to order and how to prepare each dish. read more

A bit too pricy and yuppie for me! Too many D*mn Hummers and SUV's in the parkingl lots! Go there if you're super rich and want to hob knob wit the clients! Food is ok, but its too pricy if you're upper middle class or lower. read more

If you liked the 50's and/or early 60's for ambiance, are over 50 years of age (and preferably over 60), eat dinner at 5:30, like butter (a lot), sodium, darkness, potatoes, meat, valet parking in the suburbs, and also maybe like fried food - you'll love this place. Or if you're looking to score a cougar. If you like creativity, change, new ideas, light, energy, health, and youth turn around and drive East to Somerville or Cambridge. French onion soup is worth its own star however. read more

I knew as we arrived that the restaurant catered to a much older crowd, an upon entry, I was spot on. The dress code says business casual, but a few patrons were in jeans. The appetizers: crabcakes, escargot and lobster ravioli were all very good. I think they were better than my entree, the veal Katharine. It lacked both visual appeal and flavor. I took a bite of my friend's duck a l'orange and it tasted like duck from Chinatown! which I love, but I wanted this duck to be more on the medium side. The prime rib was something to talk about. We had a vegetarian with us and the look on her face when she saw that entree was quite memorable. It was a massive piece, that looked quite pink. It was the biggest prime rib entree I've ever seen! It was like something Fred Flintstone would be satisfied with. The meat was very tender and juicy. Anyway, one big peeve was they let you bring a cake, blow out the candles...but you can't eat it there! I've heard of cake cutting fees, but this is ridiculous!!!!!! Of course, if you really want cake, you can purchase theirs for $25. Um, no thank you. The kicker to this is, we told the hostess to NOT bring out the cake after finding out the little tidbit above. And shortly after, the waitress brought it out...and immediately boxed it up afterwards. That kind of put a damper on the mood but it made it memorable. read more

What a terrible experience! We had dinner in the Gourmet Room last night for my boyfriend's mom's birthday. We were shown right in and told we would have 2 waitresses. The first filled our water glasses and then I never saw her again. The second - Kimberly - was our main waitress and had a terrible 'tude. Maybe it was because some of our party was wearing jeans, but when you are willing to pay the ridiculous prices they have in the Gourmet Room you should have fantastic service all night (even if you want to wear a bathrobe!) We were told we could ONLY order off of the Gourmet Room menu, while the table next to us was offered whatever they wanted from the entire restaurant. We ordered several appetizers for the table. The waitress never told us about the specials or took our entree orders. She had to be reminded several times about drink orders and left FOUR times in the middle of making our table-side-served Ceasar Salad. When the stuffy French-accented Maitre-d tried to clear our menues and we told him we hadn't even ordered yet. (We were the 1st group in the room, but several other tables had their entrees before we had even ordered). He should have apologized, but when he just walked away we decided we had had enough. We got the check (They didn't even offer to comp anything when they found out we were un-happy) and went next door to Papa Razzi - where we had an attentive waitress and a great meal! DO NOT go to Cafe Escadrille. read more

What an interesting place. I don't want to totally pan it because people seem to like it, but I have to reflect what other people have said. For a place this expensive, you would expect a special night and great, I mean absolutely outstanding food. This place was average if you compared it to the less expensive places around Boston, and just seemed overpriced for what we got. Here is how the night went: Our server was a sweetheart, but she was new. She was slow to bring us our meal and water (and the check at the end). The atmosphere was old fashioned - the chairs looked like they were from the restaurant that my grandparents loved back in the 80s and the ambiance was DARK. Our waitress was very good about switching out our used flatware though and she even brought by a crumber to clean off the linens. The food was worse than average. We started with lobster ravioli that was cold. The bisque had formed a layer at the top and the claw was totally overcooked (gross tasting, even). The raviolis themselves were gritty and definitely not homemade tasting. The bread that accompanied the meal was laughable. Definitely not fine food so far. The main course was quite the surprise. We were going to order the prime rib, but they were out of it. We went with the New York Strip instead, and they brought out a beautiful cut of meat. It had no flavor at all. I mean no speck of salt had touched it and the char was such a strong flavor that the meat was drowned in charcoal. The brussels sprouts (which we both normally love) were overcooked and the accompanying tomato/sweet potato side was unripe and the flavors didn't come out right at all. Ok so at least there is no way to screw up dessert, right? The pumpkin cheesecake was gritty, but otherwise very good. I don't want to make it sound like you are getting the worst meal you will ever have. If you compare the food to Applebees, then you are getting a feast worthy of a last meal. However, the lack of flavor and the insanely high prices would keep us from ever coming back. read more