Essa Restaurant

Essa Restaurant reviews from people who’ve dined at this restaurant. Based on recent rating.

Review summary

1. J

   Jane

   Brisbane2 reviews

   5.0

   Dined 2 days ago

   1. Overall 5
   2. Food 5
   3. Service 5
   4. Ambience 5

   Excellent all round. Such good food. Interesting, delicious and superbly cooked food. Well presented.
   

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2. D

   Dan

   London7 reviews

   5.0

   Dined 7 days ago

   1. Overall 5
   2. Food 5
   3. Service 5
   4. Ambience 5

   Essa remains to be our favourite restaurant Food was excellent, the service is top notch and great value for the quality of food and drink
   

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3. C

   Carly

   Melbourne1 review

   3.0

   Dined on April 16, 2025

   1. Overall 3
   2. Food 5
   3. Service 2
   4. Ambience 2

   A good reminder that dining is about so much more than just the food. Every plate was delicious and so carefully prepared by a talented team of chefs but unfortunately the quality of the food was let down by overall experience. The 5 plates menu is promoted online and even has the weekly menu listed on socials for $66 per person, but when we arrived it was $76pp, with no explanation as to the change. This immediately left me feeling like I’d be lured in at one price and it was too late to change when we got there. If there was an explanation I’d have been ok with it but it just felt wrong. Service was fine but it didn’t feel like anyone was excited to share the food with us. We asked questions about the menu, out of interest in the food the work of the chefs they were profiling on the night and were given yes or no answers. I had to get someone’s attention to order a drink after waiting quite some time, despite it being a quiet night and literally sitting at the bar. It all just felt a bit mis matched. An attempt online to sell a menu for a fixed price and celebrate new and upcoming chefs but when we got there it didn’t align with that we were sold. That said, food was great and it’s a nice setting but the experience left me feeling like they really didn’t care about how we felt.
   

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4. B

   Bob

   Brisbane1 review

   5.0

   Dined on April 15, 2025

   1. Overall 5
   2. Food 5
   3. Service 5
   4. Ambience 5

   Our waiter Chris was excellent in that he suggested we read through the menu and then he would share what are the most popular choices. He steered us through a number of starters and then paired it back for the mains. Every dish was excellent and with an ever changing menu and by the time this is posted, some of the items we had would have changed. There was also a great deal of thoughtfulness in the order that dishes were brought out and these took you on a journey. We all shared the mains and they were well spaced so as to allow you to try each one before receiving and moving onto the next one. Many dished were cooked over coals and this added to the overall flavour without any overloading of smoke. Finally the wine list was well curated and leaning towards French with not many wines we were familiar with. Again Chris matched the wines to the food very well.
   

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5. J

   Jemma

   Brisbane2 reviews

   5.0

   Dined on April 13, 2025

   1. Overall 5
   2. Food 5
   3. Service 5
   4. Ambience 5

   The Sunday school set menu lunch was definitely a winner. The food and wine was superb. The background music choice was perfect. The service couldn't be faulted. Highly recommend!
   

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6. J

   John

   London1 review

   5.0

   Dined on April 11, 2025

   1. Overall 5
   2. Food 5
   3. Service 5
   4. Ambience 5

   Classy good value ($68 Prix fixe three course) lunch way to try out before going back for dinner one day. Which will be soon.
   

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7. J

   John

   Brisbane49 reviews

   4.0

   Dined on April 6, 2025

   1. Overall 4
   2. Food 4
   3. Service 5
   4. Ambience 4

   We very much enjoyed our Sunday School lunch, incredibly generous servings. Also enjoyed the wine by the glass (rose sparkling and rose). Definitely coming back....
   

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8. R

   Rowena

   Vancouver2 reviews

   3.0

   Dined on April 5, 2025

   1. Overall 3
   2. Food 3
   3. Service 4
   4. Ambience 4

   We chose this restaurant for our anniversary dinner based on many great reviews and recommendations. Unfortunately our dining experience was disappointing. The food was quite average, not bad but also not great. Usually there’s at least one stand out dish but everything was a bit lack luster. Service was good and ambiance was nice but probably won’t come back again.
   

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9. M

   Michaella

   Sydney5 reviews

   4.0

   Dined on April 5, 2025

   1. Overall 4
   2. Food 5
   3. Service 3
   4. Ambience 3

   We reserved a table for 4 people over a month ago for the Chicken and Wine event, only to arrive and get told “just find a table and sit down”. We reminded the waiter that we had a booking and he said that they don’t have actual table reservations and the only table free at the time was for 2, so we had to squish together. What’s the point of taking reservations if you don’t actually get a reserved table?? From this moment on, the waiter was really rude. No water, no napkins, no cutlery. Every other table got them.
   

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10. K

    Katie

    Brisbane1 review

    3.0

    Dined on April 4, 2025

    1. Overall 3
    2. Food 5
    3. Service 2
    4. Ambience 4

    The service was great in the first 5 mins but after we had ordered the food and bottle of wine, it was like they forgot about us or didn’t care. For what we paid for the service was very underwhelming but the food was great. There were moments we had to wave down a waiter after waiting 15mins to get another glass of wine from the bottle we had ordered.
    

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