Dominics Italian Gourmet

They changed their ingredients to a lesser quality making the pizza nasty greasy. Won’t be back…

Our favorite local eatery! Delicious food, great service, and the prices are reasonable. Location is convenient and it’s never crowded. They bring out fresh made bread sticks and marinara which are super yummy! My favorite is the Chicken Limone & my husband always gets the seafood linguine. Highly recommended if you’re looking for a new place to dine Esco. You won’t be disappointed!

My first experience was great. The food was very fresh! I had Sausage & Peppers that came with a bowl of linguini and marinara. This dish was delicious! The staff were very friendly l! I would definitely come back !

It’s been only a year since I’ve been here, and my five star rating still stands. It seems they’ve changed things around, including the menu to be only Italian dishes. If you’ve been craving Italian food for a while, these dishes will give your taste buds the maximum satisfaction you deserve. Seriously, I took one bite of my lasagna, and my eyes just rolled back in my head. SOOO GOOD. The ravioli was equally as good. I only just wish the portion was a little bigger. The waitress recommended Canyon Road White Zinfandel, and it was the best bottle of wine I’ve had in a minute.
The service was a little slow, but not painfully. We did come the day before Christmas Eve, so pretty much every restaurant in town was busy. But the staff made sure we were attended to and gave us a glass of wine on the house for all the waiting.
Love this place!

Best Italian/​seafood restaurant around with a welcoming warm atmosphere! You HAVE to try to salmon Caesar salad & the clam sauce pasta (trust me)!! My family eats here about twice a month! We love it so much we had them cater our wedding! Everyone loves it !! Double thumbs up!

The linguini and shrimp was really good. The shrimp was XL and the taste was superb!!! They have kids menu and my kids loved this place. Definitely will come back if i am craving for Pasta and pizza. Oh and the service was top notch.

12÷4÷2015
A great little Italian Joint Located in a strip mall in between Smart & Final and The .99 Cent Store.
The place is a bit dated but clean.
With a small bar for a beer and a bite there is plenty of seating with both booths and tables.
The Service was very good always with a smile.
The prices are fair for the dishes they serve.
The food all had very good flavor.
We would consider dining here again when we’re back in the Escondido area and in the mood for Italian.
The Italian red gravy is very tasty and makes for great pasta dishes.
The real hit when you first sit down and they bring you their home made cheese bread strips and red gravy. Super tasty. But watch out, you’ll get filled up on these tasty treats to fast.
The sausage was a little bit of a let down with not much ltalian flavor and a bit tough to the bite. The calamari in the garlic wine sauce was tasty and a little tough and not the best I’ve ever had. We will try the fried calamari next time.
The lasagna was not too bad but not the best of the best.
The chicken Marcella with some of the best flavored that we’ve ever had. Will have it again sometime.
All in All Not A Bad Little Place For A Bite In Escondido.
Enjoy.

My family goes here anytime we want true homey Italian food! A great family run restaurant. Amazing dishes that are to die for. They are so flexible with any changes I request for pasta dishes. My favorite was a chicken and pineapple dish that they had as a special and they are always willing to try to recreate it for me.

Service — bad the waitress forgot bout us, dropped our food and ran off
Food — needs more flavor and more meat and ricotta (lasagna)
I gave it a 2 star because it was affordable prices for the quality of food.
Received a coupon in he mail and I am new to Escondido and wanted to try something good. Came in and the place needs an update but I thought well maybe they have great food, but I have to say the food was not that great, lasagna was just a lot of pasta not enough flavor, service was really bad.

What a wonderful find for us. My husband had the chicken parm. and was excellent. I had the vegetarian cannoli and it was out of the world. We have been to Italy recently and this food was as good or even better! One thing that might throw you off when you are looking for this restaurant is it has a small green sign with Dominics written on it so you might miss it. But don’t. We really enjoyed it. We went on a Saturday night and we were seated right away. I thought the customer service was awesome. I would definitely recommend this to people in the Escondido area. Also, it is near the Regal Cinemas so don’t miss it when going to the movies!

MINUS 5 STARS!!! I chose this place after seeing the stars ranked on Unilocal (HUGE mistake!!!) to take my Mom out for her birthday. When we arrived we were greeted (if you can call it that) and told to go sit at the table the girl pointed to. After sitting there for 5 – 10 minutes waiting for a waitress to offer us something to drink we noticed the elderly couple sitting next to us repeatedly asking for a box for their leftover pizza. The waitress finally arrived to take our drink order and we placed our appetizer at that time as well. The couple asked for the 4^th time for a take home box (yes I kept track!) After my children had finished 2 capri sun drinks and bags of fruit snack our appetizer arrived… (We ordered pepperoni bread and received sausage bread INSTEAD). My Mom placed her order first and afterwards the waitress asked her if she would like to ADD a salad, my Mom pointed out on the menu it was part of her meal. At that, the waitress in disgust said, «yep it is, what do you want creamed Italian or red vinegar?» My Mom asked for Caesar salad but the waitress said no, that was extra and that she couldn’t have it. When I placed my order for PESTO Mostaccioli I asked if I could add chicken or shrimp to the dish. The waitress said shrimp and took off so fast we didn’t have time to stop her and yes the couple asked for the take out box again (#5). My children were so hungry that my Mom started feeding them. When the waitress finally came back our way the elderly gentleman stopped her and said quite plainly, Please may we have our to go box, we just want a box (#6 and 7). At that point we asked them if they had ever been there before and they replied no and they would not be returning. Finally our drinks came… 20 minutes, for 2 root beers, for real? I pointed out that she brought us the WRONG appetizer and she responded by saying, «Oh I did?, that was my mistake» and again took off but not before our neighbor stopped her AGAIN and asked how they could pay. She said, «You pay right here with me!» As he started to get out his wallet he said just bring the bill and PLEASE DON’T FORGET THE PIZZA BOX, and we’ll be out of your hair!!! (# 8 and 9 but I may have missed a few). With that, our waitress grabbed our appetizer off our table and ran to the back. Ummm… DID YA ASK IF WE WERE DONE??? NOPE! There was still food on the plate! Our dear couple said their goodbyes and finished with «We hope you get out of here before tomorrow!»
Our food arrived finally arrived… Ok let me say it was not pesto in any form or fashion, the Mostaccioli were actually Rigatoni noodles (it’s Italian but they don’t know the difference?), the sauce was bland and tasteless. No seasoning of any kind was used in preparing the dish, no salt in the pasta water, no fresh basil, no delicious olive oil… it was just horrible. The Chicken Parmesean was worse! Covered in the thick layer of cheese the poor chicken who died for this dish is somewhere crying! There was no flavor at all! Again NO seasonings were used in the making of this gross dish. No salt, pepper, oregano, parsley, Thyme, basil, no nothing, it was a slice of chicken with flavorless bread coating covered in cheese. It’s called Parmesean not Mozzarella chicken. The flavorless tomato sauce was from a can, the bread was burnt and the salad was over dressed.
Chef Boyardee has more flavor!
We would have told our waitress but she never returned! When she finally showed up she asked me if I didn’t like it because our plates were still full of food, I said no that we had not enjoyed any of it, It just was not good at all. She grabbed our plates and away she went. After another eternity of waiting I had to leave to take the kids to the car, they could not sit there any longer. Finally after sitting there for 30 minutes she came back with our bill. My Mom took one look at it and asked her if she was really going to charge my card for the wrong appetizer that she had taken away. She snatched the card and bill and walked away. When she came back to the table she told my Mom she had taken it off and walked away. What a wonderful birthday celebration that was, NOT!!! There’s more to this story but I’m trying to keep it short! We will NEVER return to this place. This is not Italian AT ALL! PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE DO NOT WASTE YOUR MONEY OR TIME!

This has to be by far the BEST Italian restaurant we have ever been to (and we’ve gone thru a lot!). This was our second time here and OMG… quality of the food is on point. Every piece of ingredient perfectly balanced and so perfect. Highly recommend this place, it’s not even about the prices the quality and freshness is there and you can actually taste the difference from other Italian places. I’ve never had anything so perfectly delicious and so satisfying. This is definitely a hidden gem must go try it for yourself!

Stop in and try there food .
Everything on the menu is fabulous, friendly service, fair prices, clean. I’ll be back again soon
Thanks Johnny and Jeanna

The food is great especially my favorite, linguini with clams in a white wine sauce… YUM!
Great breadsticks.
If you like more of a neighborhood Italian restaurant and not a chain I along with several of my neighbors highly recommend. John the owner is so nice and all the wait staff are the best!

Ordered takeout last week while renting a house overlooking lake hodges. Excellent lasagna with very good salads, spaghetti and bread sticks. The food was devoured but not before really enjoying the flavor.

Let me start this off by conveying my complete astonishment over the fact that this place continues to operate. The prices are completely ridiculous when you consider the fact that the cooks are unable to serve anything that isn’t burned to a crisp.
The Eggplant Parmesan I ordered had its top layer of cheese blackened and hardened. And the grossness didn’t stop there. After cutting through the top layer of blackened cheese with a knife, because my fork couldn’t break through, I was greeted by a thick layer of maybe eggplant, maybe something else, that was entirely too mushy. It was as if I was eating some sort of gloop used as a prop in a zombie film.
The horror doesn’t stop there, however, because the plate was cold. A baked dish, they do bake their Eggplant Parmesan, that is served cold. Terrible.
The service was also out of a horror film. It was so slow that it made the zombies from Night of the Living Dead seem as though they were running a marathon. I wasn’t able to order a drink until about 20 minutes after being seated, and the kicker is that my friends and I were the only people in the place. And when we were being served, the woman helping us was indignant to the point that it was plainly obvious that she is related to the owner in one way or another.
The cherry on top of this monstrosity is that the décor is so bland. This place makes Olive Garden look like it has an authentic Italian atmosphere.
If you enjoy badly cooked Italian food served by indignant workers in a generic Italian setting, go on over to Dominic’s. Otherwise, stay home and make use of the Ragu you have in your cupboards.

Came here a few weeks ago because my cousin was in town and she was craving Italian food. This was in town and we knew the vicinity of its location so we are here with other family members.
My boyfriend and I shared a plate of pasta (linguini) alla pesto, fried calamari, and ate some of their breadsticks. I don’t remember what everyone else ordered but they didn’t think what they ordered would be as memorable, although we all concluded that their breadsticks and calamari were excellent.
The linguini alla pesto was one of my favorite pasta dishes when compared to other restaurant pesto pasta dishes (I won’t name the restaurants but they’re franchised names). It was fresh and seemed more homemade/​local.
Prices were pretty reasonable and the plates were loaded. Restaurant décor was quaint and there were a lot of European paintings. There were 2 exits, or entrances (?), and made us confused where we should walk towards. A bit small inside but environment was homey. I don’t see myself going there as often but food that the boyfriend and I ordered was pretty good.

Have always had a good experience here, can’t believe this place is not packed all the time!
I have never had bad food or service, the, love the sausage and peppers!
If you want a good meal, friendly service, stop on by!

Impressed overall! We were having a family dinner and I wanted to find a place that has seafood and was Italian. This place was excellent. Doesn’t look like much on the outside, but it’s cute when you get it.
Amber, our server, was very polite, attentive, and overall enjoyable. If you get a choice, I would recommend sitting in her section.
The food was excellent. I had a Seafood pasta special and the seafood was cooked perfectly! At our table we also had fried Calamari, minestrone soup, antipasto salad, Spinach manicotti, and a giant pizza (one with all the toppings).
Everything was excellent. The portions are great.

I’ve had a couple good experiences here. Very good lasagna meatballs and sausages are homemade.
Ambiance is quaint but nice. Service and cooking are usually on point.
If you’re craving a better than usual Italian, you may have found your place =)
Happy eating!