Dominics Italian Gourmet

Great hidden gem in Escondido.JR gave us fantastic customer service.We all loved our dishes.I got the lemon chicken and it was so delicious.My vegetarian girlfriend got the eggplant parmigiana, she loved it.Our 3rd friend got the sausage and peppers and she love it too.We had wine with our dinner, JR brought us a great wine.Too notch service, all the way around.Family friendly place, not too noisy.We will be back for sure.The free garlic bread with marinara was addictive.

Service was good. Food was terrible. They apparently think dumping a bunch of cheese on everything will cover up the bland overcooked food.Menu is extremely dated. It's not authentic Italian and it's not good Americanized-Italian. They need a Kitchen Nightmares style redo. Until that happens, look elsewhere.

So a group of us went here on Thurs. I looked up the restaurant beforehand. They promote themselves as Gourmet Italian food. Menu online had veal Parmesan. Should be straightforward. We apparently were the only diner's in the place. Keep that in mind. So the waitress informed me that they had no veal...I ordered two sausage with what was supposed to be meat red sauce and linguini, that was "better than mom made"(their claim, not mine). It appeared to be a can sauce. Not any meat or veggies. Very much bait n switch. Our group arrived before us. They ate the bread that was served them. waitress said it's 5 bucks more for bread. Their bread wasn't gourmet. Looked like something you'd get from chain pizza delivery. It was flavorless and covered in way to much butter and fake parmesan made with cellulose.If you don't know what that is, is what they insulate your attic with. Sausage and linguini plate arrives. Not piping hot. Sausage is overly cooked and dry texture. But, I try and choke it down. Ate a few bites of pasta, I didn't know why they had no fresh grated Parm for these gourmet pasta dishes? So remember "Gourmet" and how this should have been an epic dining experience? Well, it wasn't. I took about my 3rd bite into the dry sausage and Crunch! Have no idea what the object was, but spit it out in my napkin immediately. Last thing I want is glass or a broken piece of plate going down into my gut. I told the waitress who, tried to convince me that the owner had said the week prior, that it was a large chunk of peppercorn(was flavorless object, so definitely not peppercorn). No sign, no warning, just this wishy washy story that leaves you guessing.So I was assured that it would be brought to the chefs attention and stricken from the bill. So I sipped my Chianti and while the rest of our group was slowly finishing up, the waitress finally made her way back over. I ordered what I thought was a success with our friend who's in his 90s, yep.........another sausage dish(just want in the mood for chicken). But, not pasta this time. Baked into some fresh bread dough and served with the(what appeared to be their mono-sauce red sauce) everyone in my party was hitting the restrooms before leaving and my food finally came. At last, two more bites at this point and I'll be starving. I find it piping hot from the kitchen. Flavors are ok. Served to me in a cardboard pizza Togo box, I'm trying to enjoy a small portion before bugging out of this place. Inside is very beautiful decor. And WHAMO! SOME FOREIGN OBJECT IN MY FOOD AGAIN. At this point I was so disgusted with the waitress, who now was trying to con me into eating this garbage, the story about the week before began to drone out of her mouth like she'd rehearsed this for week's to get the part. I gladly left that mystery box on their table and after having to spit my chewed food into the box, told my friend not to touch it. That I had to do that behind the open cardboard lid to be polite. So the decor scores pretty high for this place(though a good portion of the restaurant could be brought into the 21st Century). Availability of what is on their menu and the ability of the cook to actually make it are polar opposites. Veal is seemingly Miles from this location. The mystery objects in the food may damage your dental work. The second loud crunch was actually heard by my buddy across from me with visible disturbance in his face. Maybe it's time for GR to do a episode of kitchen nightmares here. The red spaghetti sauce was light years from my mother's old world sauce or mine. One star is not my rating, I won't ever send anybody to this place. I was less than impressed. Warning! Don't Eat Here!

If you are looking for fine dining this is not your place. That being said we liked it, especially for a carb overload. My boyfriend and I workout a lot and eat really healthy at home so its nice to go full carb. We ate two of the basket of little breadsticks, they were so good I would have eaten more if I had room. No idea why people are complaining about them! We ordered fried calamari, it was really good too! We order fried calamari everywhere we go, upscale places and well anywhere. This was just as good as a more upscale option. I remove a star because his food was not my thing, it was the peppers and sausage I found it kinda watery and greasy it just wasn't for me (he liked it though). I just got regular pasta and marinara which was good but I honestly could barely eat it at that point after the calamari and the two bread baskets. Anyhow if you want a lot of carbs I say go for it! Wait staff were extremely nice as well.

Went with family from out of town for an early dinner. Wasn't real busy and they were short staffed with only one server. She did a good job for being the only one there. We all ordered something different and each felt that food was adequate but unspectacular. Restaurant is comfortable but a tad oldish. Good location on Grand Ave. we had calzone, spaghetti with meatballs, pizza, garlic bread. Nothing was bad but again just ok.

Dominic's is our new favorite Italian restaurant. The food was amazing, please see the photos. We came here for Father's Day, the staff were great! Not only did we get a "Happy Father's Day" greeting, our waiter was on point to answer any questions about the menu. They kept our drinks topped off and were very good at removing empty plates as we cleared them...and not in that bothersome awkward way. We had a very good waiter. We really enjoyed our meals. The cheesy bread and marinara sauce starter was nice. We got an appetizer of calamari. I really appreciated that the calamari was lightly breaded, the lemon really set it off. The fish with our entrees were full of flavor, the pasta was perfection, and any sauces made you want to lick your plate... we want to come back, so we refrained.We sat inside, the ambiance is very classy. The moldings and paneling are beautiful. The ceiling is like 20' high. Booths line the walls and four tops are situated through the middle. This is definitely a place to bring someone if you're trying to impress. Five stars for great Decore, great food and a great staff.

I heard a lot of good things about Dominic's and decided to give them a try. I haven't had good Italian food for years and I was hoping to find what I was missing. Sadly, I was disappointed with Dominics.When we arrived, they were not very busy and there were few people indoors, most were out on the patio watching the car show going on. Once we were seated, we waited around for a while. The service was terrible, we didn't really have one server, just multiple random people taking our order then dropping off a plate or drink at our table. Then they would disappear for long periods of time without checking on us, we had to flag down someone walking by just to ask for straws.The food was okay, I ordered the chicken limone and my husband ordered the large calzone. The chicken limone sauce was watery, and didn't have much of a lemon flavor. My husbands calzone was bland and the breadsticks were just ok. Kinda pricey for only okay food.

Some of the best lasagna I've ever ever had. The surf and turf combo is the best my wife has ever had. I would've taken a picture, but we ate it all.

I ordered the chicken Alfredo today. It was very rich and you can tell that the sauce is made from real cheese. It lacks salt so you need to add it on your own. Minestrone soup can come with your meal for $3.50 and it is worth it. I would come back just for the minestrone soup. It is the best! A perk of eating in the restaurant vs take out is you get the delicious garlic bread with their outstanding marinara sauce. One star was taken off because I like the Alfredo at BJs better. But I will still come back. The one item I will steer clear of due to bad experience was the white wine reduction wasn't done correctly, so you are left with no sauce.

Watched the classic car show while enjoying a great meal. Service was excellent and the prices are very reasonable. If there is room on the patio I highly recommend sitting there if the weather is good. Will be back if I'm in that area again.