Text - One of the worst restaurant experiences I had in a while. The service was incredibly slow. Our first dish was the chicken lettuce wraps. The white noodle crisps that come with the chicken lettuce wraps were so hard and burnt, and when my mom ate some of them in her wrap, she chipped her tooth! We politely told our waitress about it, and she just LAUGHED and walked away. No apology, no \""I'll talk to the cook about that.\"" It's like that was her plan all along , and she was so happy that customers were receiving bodily harm from the food. The rest of the food took forever to arrive, to the point where we eventually had to find SOMEONE that passed by to ask what was going on. The sea bass that arrived was the worst cooked fish we've ever tasted. It tasted old, rough, and the spinach it came with was the worst spinach ever (the sauce tasted like a cigarette,  the spinach was raw, and parts of it had giant amounts of salt piled on!). I mean, how do you screw up spinach? I've tasted this same dish at the P.F. Chang's at King of Prussia in Pennsylvania, and it tastes so much better and so completely different. Our mongolian beef dish here was very rough and again had an overwhelming amount of burnt white noodle crisps. The only dish that was semi-edible was the beef lo mein, and even that had a lot of salt. Our waitress eventually came over to ask how we were liking the food, and we hesitated. We could kind of predict that she would just laugh and walk away. But she kept standing there, so we eventually told her the spinach was too salty and under cooked. And guess what - she laughed and walked away. Again.\n\nAwful service, awful food.
Group - Malacodermatidae


Text - Overpriced mediocre food with unfriendly staff who has superiority complex. I have gone in 4 times and have promised myself not to waste my money on any of their food items except for their pastries. Even those are over priced. Cake the size of a small muffin for $7.95! I am sure no one has that kind of money, but I just talked myself out of going back to Essence since I can always go to LGO!
Group - Malacodermatidae


Text - I should have left this review back in November when I stayed here with my parents - every time I look through our vacation photos I think about how much fun I had showing them Madison... and how we enjoyed where we stayed just as much.  Pat and Bob and Happy (their dog) were wonderful and their food was amazing.  They make many of the ingredients on their property (fresh maple syrup anyone?).  Would go back in a heartbeat.
Group - polemician


Text - I don't get here very often but I always love their carne asada. Flavorful, tender, and tasting of the flame. The outdoor patio round back is great with water fountains, trees, and that old world feel.  A great place to bring the wife or meet a client for lunch.
Group - polemician
Considreing the above, classify the following: Very disappointed in this place especially after reading all the rave reviews. Asked the server what she recommends and she said the skillets were popular. I ordered the chicken, mushroom and spinach skillet and I felt that it had been fried in an oven. I couldn't even eat the potatoes underneath the eggs and toppings. My friend and I also shared an order Of pancakes which were large an tasted pretty good but the syrup tasted fake and commercial. My bill was $15 after splitting and it was a waste of my money... Wish I knew what people were raving about on here but unfortunately I won't be back to find out..