Escala — Restaurant Review | Condé Nast Traveler

"What were your first impressions when you arrived? The Korean and Colombian flags, as well as various T shirts, hang from a wire across the ceiling. There's weathered wooden furniture, a DJ booth, graffitied walls, a disco ball, a garden fountain and various music posters hanging from the walls. The place is loud and fun, and you get the feeling everyone is having a good time as soon as you walk in. What’s the crowd like? The crowd is mixed, with lots of neighborhood couples with kids in tow, as well as groups of friends, and the occasional solo diner grabbing a quick bite perhaps on their way to work. What should we be drinking? The drinks menu offers a nice selection of draft beers, as well as a few Colombian and Korean bottles. Cocktails are tasty and the zero-proof batidos (Colombian smoothies) are delicious. Main event: the food. Give us the lowdown—especially what not to miss. You don't go to Escala for fancy food plated in a delicate manner. You go here because you're hankering for good food—the kind your abuelita might make—full of flavors and almost falling out of the plates. You wouldn't necessarily think Korean and Colombian flavors could work well together, but somehow they do. Case in point, the K-Town Rice con Pollo, which features kimchi and coconut fried rice with peas, shredded chicken, a spicy tomato sauce and topped with a friend egg. The perfect hangover cure. And how did the front-of-house folks treat you? Friendly and chatty, you get the sense that the staff is having just as good a time as the diners. What’s the real-real on why we’re coming here? The place is pretty rambunctious, so no one will bat an eye if your six-year-old decides to have a tantrum in the middle of dinner. This is a place to get the gang together, be they a group of friends or the entire family out for brunch." - Celeste Moure