The service was phenomenal and the food was beyond anything we have had in North County, honestly. While the food is very obviously elegant, the atmosphere is a nice mix of upscale and local Escondido comfort. The dishes are different each week and each course is very rich and appeals to many unique appetites! The only downside for us is it is very expensive (worth it, though, for sure!), so we cannot go as often!
Elicka Clark
Long story short— The Flying Toad is actually Hunsaker’s. This page, and their Instagram, is inaccurate.I don’t love being harsh, but my expectations definitely weren’t met— especially because of this Google Page + Instagram page. So here I go.I know that owning and maintaining resturaunts is tough. I don’t want to hurt the feelings of the owners, chef, and employees. But I think guests should know what they’re signing up for.I’m sure this is a great resturaunt to some, but not for me. I heard some guests at the resturaunt raving about it when they walked in, so clearly some people reaaaally like it. But they like Hunsaker’s. NOT the flying toad.This Google page should probably be taken down. It says it is within Hunsaker’s but it actually *is* Husaker’s. The pictures are deceiving as to what the aesthetics and menu of the resturaunt will actually be. The photos are very bright. Makes it seem like there’s a nice, bustling patio. It’s a dark resturaunt, that looks like the resturaunt of an outdated hotel that’s trying to seem fancy. (This isn’t necessarily bad, but I planned my birthday dinner here with a completely different environment in mind)When I called to make a reservation and asked “is this the flying toad?” they should have said “no, we’re Hunsaker’s.” I would’ve looked up their resturaunt info online and picked a different resturaunt.The food was okay. Nothing really to brag about, other than their onion bread roll. There was no entree with fish which really limited what one of my guests could eat. The photos online really made it seem like there would be fish.I’d list what we ordered, but their menu seems to change every week (they gave 3 of us this week’s menu, and 1 of us last week’s menu… that also was a little disappointing because I grew an appetite for something that wasn’t actually on the menu anymore)It definitely felt like a resturaunt trying to pretend to have very elevated cuisine. There was a range of cuisines— Korean, Italian, Indian, etc. on the menu. I loved the burrata pasta. The paneer curry tasted verrrry amateur. I think they’d be better off mastering one or two business. Especially since it’s advertised as French cuisine. Hmm…Their OpenTable profile says $30 and under. The entrees were $30-60.An added grievance, that doesn’t reaaaaally matter but did impact our night a little— They asked if we’re celebrating anything, and said “we’ll make your birthday special” (yay, dessert??!) and never got anything for it. I wasn’t expecting dessert walking in there, but when I got asked the celebration question I guess I got my hopes up… turns out it was small talk, not a typical dessert situation.
Atmosphere: 2
Food: 3
Service: 4
Heather W.
Incredible food. Fantastic drinks. Great ambiance. Super convenient location. We will be back and then back again.
Danielle W.
This is not the Flying Toad for which you are seeing the menu items listed in these reviews. We were told "This is Flying Toad at Hunsaker's". Apparently, the two restaurants are merging. There are 5-6 entrees, all averaging around $45-$65.
Deanna S.
Outstanding food and ambiance! We ordered the bone marrow, prosciutto salad, duck breast, jidori chicken, and steak picahna. The salad had a great blend of flavors. The dinner entrees were all tender and flavorful. Topped off our meals with the chocolate bomb cake with spumoni ice cream. Chocolate lovers' heaven! And not too sweet. Live music and ambiance is refined but comfortable. Service was very good.
Selene Sundahl
Such a nice place in Escondido for a delicious meal! Has great live music too! This time there was a great pianist and made for a lovely atmosphere. We all enjoyed our meal and drinks. We ordered a porchetta pizza, an octopus salad, filet mignon Mac and cheese, the oxtail ravioli, and skirt steak chimichurri and a cobbler for dessert. All were delicious and good portion sizes! We had excellent cocktails to accompany our meal as well! Definitely recommend!
Alan Marques
If you are having any kind of health issues, Chief Dr Lucky is a herbal doctor with many health experience and has many herbal medicine for most of the diseases you believed that had no cures. With his herbs and roots you will get the cure you have been looking for. Contact him on his Email > [email protected] also visit his website> Fb page>
Nancy
Excellent food and great drinks… as well as very nice staff, but a bit too noisy for me.. of course it was a Saturday night!
ALIVE Solar & Roofing
Always amazing! Try the fish! :-)
Nancy Kuhn
Excellent food and great drinks… as well as very nice staff, but a bit too noisy for me.. of course it was a Saturday night!
The reviews on Google are great and was excited to try it-- I'm visiting So Cal and turns out it's not open on Sunday, the only reason I gave a "no" for a referral is so that I could note that when I called the restaurant it has been rebranded to "Humsaker's". I believe the Chef may be the same However, I believe they said it is a new menu. Unfortunately reading the reviews-- ever single review referred to the amazing beef stroganoff which is my favorite but I never have it so these reviews got my mouth so geared up for this yummy-ness. Needless to say I was soooo disappointed
Sof
Definitely the best food I’ve ever had in Escondido!! Everything was so high quality and delicioussss and the server was wonderful!
pentupfury
We have been long time Vincent’s customers over the years. After Vincent’s passed, we were pleased that the new owners decided to honor his past dishes. During COVID as they morphed into the Flying Toad, we picked-up food to go almost every week. We are so happy that they made it through the past 18 months and are now able to continue as a fine dining restaurant. This past weekend we visited the reconfigured restaurant, now named Hunsaker’s. We were told that the current chef Brandon Hunsaker worked with Vincent for many years and the restaurant now bears his name. Please note that Hunsaker’s pricing has increased from the old Vincent days. For those that are more price conscious, this may not be for you. The new menu is more in-line with the top-tier steak restaurant, which is apparently the new focus. However, the new menu higher also brings a much more imagination and creativity than you might expect. We decided to jump in with both feet to give the new menu will try and were not disappointed. For our first course we selected the dill pickle soup and the heirloom tomato salad. The soup was fantastic, and it actually came with a fried dill pickle! The tomato salad was a good size and was seasoned with apparently some Indian spices. It wasn't “spicy hot” at all, but the flavors were out of this world. We have never had anything like this before. For our main course my wife picked the filet mignon which was excellent. It was one of those times you could cut your filet with a fork and she said it was the best steak she had ever eaten. It was also a good-sized dish and we were actually relieved we didn’t order any sides as it would have been too much food. I like to try more creative things on the menu and went for the corn ravioli. I can't tell you what was all in this dish, but it was unbelievable. It must have had gruyere cheese and some other things mixed in, but it is definitely a must try. It’s important to note that some entree prices like this dish, were much less expensive than the top-tiered steak-based items, so not to worry. All of the desserts on the new menu are now intended to be shared by two people. Now I must tell you, that we were never huge fans of the more recent desserts at Vincent's. However, we decided to try the Valrhona Chocolate Tart and were simply blown away. So, while the price point is higher, the quality and creativity of the menu is worth the trip. We would recommend Hunsaker’s to any foodies that really appreciate a little imagination and would like to see more for their money than just meat, potatoes and a typical crème brulee. We will be back and next time with friends.
Jackie Paran
Never have I ever had such excellent food!!! We had a salad, appetizer (pictured) and a main dish. I was impressed each time.
The service was phenomenal and the food was beyond anything we have had in North County, honestly. While the food is very obviously elegant, the atmosphere is a nice mix of upscale and local Escondido comfort. The dishes are different each week and each course is very rich and appeals to many unique appetites! The only downside for us is it is very expensive (worth it, though, for sure!), so we cannot go as often!
Long story short— The Flying Toad is actually Hunsaker’s. This page, and their Instagram, is inaccurate.I don’t love being harsh, but my expectations definitely weren’t met— especially because of this Google Page + Instagram page. So here I go.I know that owning and maintaining resturaunts is tough. I don’t want to hurt the feelings of the owners, chef, and employees. But I think guests should know what they’re signing up for.I’m sure this is a great resturaunt to some, but not for me. I heard some guests at the resturaunt raving about it when they walked in, so clearly some people reaaaally like it. But they like Hunsaker’s. NOT the flying toad.This Google page should probably be taken down. It says it is within Hunsaker’s but it actually *is* Husaker’s. The pictures are deceiving as to what the aesthetics and menu of the resturaunt will actually be. The photos are very bright. Makes it seem like there’s a nice, bustling patio. It’s a dark resturaunt, that looks like the resturaunt of an outdated hotel that’s trying to seem fancy. (This isn’t necessarily bad, but I planned my birthday dinner here with a completely different environment in mind)When I called to make a reservation and asked “is this the flying toad?” they should have said “no, we’re Hunsaker’s.” I would’ve looked up their resturaunt info online and picked a different resturaunt.The food was okay. Nothing really to brag about, other than their onion bread roll. There was no entree with fish which really limited what one of my guests could eat. The photos online really made it seem like there would be fish.I’d list what we ordered, but their menu seems to change every week (they gave 3 of us this week’s menu, and 1 of us last week’s menu… that also was a little disappointing because I grew an appetite for something that wasn’t actually on the menu anymore)It definitely felt like a resturaunt trying to pretend to have very elevated cuisine. There was a range of cuisines— Korean, Italian, Indian, etc. on the menu. I loved the burrata pasta. The paneer curry tasted verrrry amateur. I think they’d be better off mastering one or two business. Especially since it’s advertised as French cuisine. Hmm…Their OpenTable profile says $30 and under. The entrees were $30-60.An added grievance, that doesn’t reaaaaally matter but did impact our night a little— They asked if we’re celebrating anything, and said “we’ll make your birthday special” (yay, dessert??!) and never got anything for it. I wasn’t expecting dessert walking in there, but when I got asked the celebration question I guess I got my hopes up… turns out it was small talk, not a typical dessert situation.
Atmosphere: 2
Food: 3
Service: 4
Incredible food. Fantastic drinks. Great ambiance. Super convenient location. We will be back and then back again.
This is not the Flying Toad for which you are seeing the menu items listed in these reviews. We were told "This is Flying Toad at Hunsaker's". Apparently, the two restaurants are merging. There are 5-6 entrees, all averaging around $45-$65.
Outstanding food and ambiance! We ordered the bone marrow, prosciutto salad, duck breast, jidori chicken, and steak picahna. The salad had a great blend of flavors. The dinner entrees were all tender and flavorful. Topped off our meals with the chocolate bomb cake with spumoni ice cream. Chocolate lovers' heaven! And not too sweet. Live music and ambiance is refined but comfortable. Service was very good.
Such a nice place in Escondido for a delicious meal! Has great live music too! This time there was a great pianist and made for a lovely atmosphere. We all enjoyed our meal and drinks. We ordered a porchetta pizza, an octopus salad, filet mignon Mac and cheese, the oxtail ravioli, and skirt steak chimichurri and a cobbler for dessert. All were delicious and good portion sizes! We had excellent cocktails to accompany our meal as well! Definitely recommend!
If you are having any kind of health issues, Chief Dr Lucky is a herbal doctor with many health experience and has many herbal medicine for most of the diseases you believed that had no cures. With his herbs and roots you will get the cure you have been looking for. Contact him on his Email > [email protected] also visit his website> Fb page>
Excellent food and great drinks… as well as very nice staff, but a bit too noisy for me.. of course it was a Saturday night!
Always amazing! Try the fish! :-)
Excellent food and great drinks… as well as very nice staff, but a bit too noisy for me.. of course it was a Saturday night!
Restaurantji Recommends
The reviews on Google are great and was excited to try it-- I'm visiting So Cal and turns out it's not open on Sunday, the only reason I gave a "no" for a referral is so that I could note that when I called the restaurant it has been rebranded to "Humsaker's". I believe the Chef may be the same However, I believe they said it is a new menu. Unfortunately reading the reviews-- ever single review referred to the amazing beef stroganoff which is my favorite but I never have it so these reviews got my mouth so geared up for this yummy-ness. Needless to say I was soooo disappointed
Definitely the best food I’ve ever had in Escondido!! Everything was so high quality and delicioussss and the server was wonderful!
We have been long time Vincent’s customers over the years. After Vincent’s passed, we were pleased that the new owners decided to honor his past dishes. During COVID as they morphed into the Flying Toad, we picked-up food to go almost every week. We are so happy that they made it through the past 18 months and are now able to continue as a fine dining restaurant. This past weekend we visited the reconfigured restaurant, now named Hunsaker’s. We were told that the current chef Brandon Hunsaker worked with Vincent for many years and the restaurant now bears his name. Please note that Hunsaker’s pricing has increased from the old Vincent days. For those that are more price conscious, this may not be for you. The new menu is more in-line with the top-tier steak restaurant, which is apparently the new focus. However, the new menu higher also brings a much more imagination and creativity than you might expect. We decided to jump in with both feet to give the new menu will try and were not disappointed. For our first course we selected the dill pickle soup and the heirloom tomato salad. The soup was fantastic, and it actually came with a fried dill pickle! The tomato salad was a good size and was seasoned with apparently some Indian spices. It wasn't “spicy hot” at all, but the flavors were out of this world. We have never had anything like this before. For our main course my wife picked the filet mignon which was excellent. It was one of those times you could cut your filet with a fork and she said it was the best steak she had ever eaten. It was also a good-sized dish and we were actually relieved we didn’t order any sides as it would have been too much food. I like to try more creative things on the menu and went for the corn ravioli. I can't tell you what was all in this dish, but it was unbelievable. It must have had gruyere cheese and some other things mixed in, but it is definitely a must try. It’s important to note that some entree prices like this dish, were much less expensive than the top-tiered steak-based items, so not to worry. All of the desserts on the new menu are now intended to be shared by two people. Now I must tell you, that we were never huge fans of the more recent desserts at Vincent's. However, we decided to try the Valrhona Chocolate Tart and were simply blown away. So, while the price point is higher, the quality and creativity of the menu is worth the trip. We would recommend Hunsaker’s to any foodies that really appreciate a little imagination and would like to see more for their money than just meat, potatoes and a typical crème brulee. We will be back and next time with friends.
Never have I ever had such excellent food!!! We had a salad, appetizer (pictured) and a main dish. I was impressed each time.
New favorite! Great food and service!